What was the holocaust? Hitler's explanation for the superiority of the aryan race. Germany's campaign to enslave european jews and slavs. The nazi's strategy for making the aryan race the master race. The Nazi's carefully planned campaign of mass murder.

History · Middle School · Thu Feb 04 2021

Answered on

The Holocaust was the Nazi's carefully planned campaign of mass murder, primarily targeting Jews but also including Roma (Gypsies), Slavs, disabled individuals, political opponents, homosexuals, and other groups who were deemed "undesirable" by the Nazis. The Holocaust took place during World War II, between 1941 and 1945, under the dictatorship of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party in Germany.

The Nazis believed in the pseudoscientific idea of racial hierarchy, where the "Aryan race" was considered superior, and they aimed to create a “pure” society by eliminating those who did not fit their racial ideal. The Holocaust involved systematic and industrial methods to exterminate millions of people. This included the operation of concentration and extermination camps such as Auschwitz, where victims were mass-murdered through overwork, starvation, disease, gas chambers, and mass-shootings.

Extra: The term "Holocaust" comes from the Greek words "holos" (whole) and "kaustos" (burned), historically used to describe a sacrificial offering burned on an altar. In the context of World War II, the Holocaust is the genocide of six million Jews and millions of others, resulting in the deaths of about two-thirds of the Jews living in Europe.

The Nazi’s aim for racial purity also drove their aggressive expansionist policies, which resulted in the attempted conquest and subsequent occupation of various territories in Europe. The Holocaust is a grave reminder of the horrors that can arise from unchecked racism, totalitarianism, and the abuse of power. It is also a powerful reminder of the importance of remembering and learning from history to prevent such atrocities from happening again. The Holocaust has been extensively studied and is a core subject of human rights education in many nations around the world, illustrating the dangers of prejudice, hate, and discrimination.