The Holocaust

The Holocaust is the name applied to the systematic state-sponsored persecution and genocide of various ethnic, religious and political groups during World War II by Nazi Germany and its collaborators. Early elements of the Holocaust include the Kristallnacht pogrom and the T-4 Euthanasia Program, progressing to the later use of killing squads and extermination camps in a massive and centrally-organized effort to murder every possible member of the populations targeted by the Nazis.

Death toll

The exact number of people killed by the Nazi regime is still subject to further research. Recently declassified British and Soviet documents have indicated the total may be somewhat higher than previously believed {{ref|JP}}. However, the following estimates are considered to be highly reliable. The estimates:

Related Topics:
British - Soviet

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

• 5.1–6.0 million Jews, including 3.0–3.5 million Polish Jews{{ref|howmany}}
• 2.5–3.5 million Gentile Poles
• 200,000–800,000 Roma & Sinti
• 200,000–300,000 people with disabilities
• 10,000–25,000 gay men
• 2,000 Jehovah's Witnesses

Raul Hilberg, in the third edition of his ground-breaking three-volume work, The Destruction of the European Jews, estimates that 5.1 million Jews died during the Holocaust. This figure includes "over 800,000" who died from "Ghettoization and general privation;" 1,400,000 who were killed in "Open-air shootings;" and "up to 2,900,000" who perished in camps. It is difficult to determine whether Hilberg's numbers are conservative or liberal because he does not provide point estimates; rather, he rounds his figures. Hilberg estimates the death toll in Poland at "up to 3,000,000."

Related Topics:
Raul Hilberg - The Destruction of the European Jews

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Lucy Davidowicz used prewar census figures to estimate that 5.85 million Jews died. Using official census counts may cause an underestimate since many births and deaths were not recorded in small towns and villages. Another reason some consider her estimate too low is that many records were destroyed during the war. (Her book, The War Against the Jews, has detailed listings by country of the number of Jews killed.)

Related Topics:
Lucy Davidowicz - The War Against the Jews

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The following groups of people were also killed by the Nazi regime, but there is little evidence that the Nazis planned to systematically target them for genocide as was the case for the groups above.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

• 3.5–6 million other Slavic civilians
• 2.5–4 million Soviet POWs
• 1–1.5 million political dissidents

Additionally, the Nazi's allies, the Usta?a regime in Croatia conducted its own campaign of mass murder against the Serbs in the areas in which in controlled, resulting the deaths of at least 330,000–390,000 Serbs. 150,000 died in camps others ware civilian, and war Serbian casulties. Serbs fought in Partisans, Chetniks, even as member of Domobrani - Croatian regular military.

Related Topics:
Usta?a - Croatia - Serbs

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The summary of various sources' estimates on the number of Nazi regime victims is given in Matthew White's online atlas of 20th century history

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Searching for records of victims

Initially after World War II, there were millions of members of families broken up by the war or the Holocaust searching for some record of the fate and/or whereabouts of their missing friends and relatives. These efforts became much less intense as the years went by. More recently, however, there has a been a resurgence of interest by descendants of Holocaust survivors in researching the fates of their lost relatives. Yad Vashem provides a searchable database of three million names, about half of the known direct Jewish victims. Yad Vashem's Central Database of Shoah Victims Names is searchable over the Internet at yadvashem.org or in person at the Yad Vashem complex in Israel.

Related Topics:
World War II - Yad Vashem - Israel

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Other databases and lists of victims' names, some searchable over the Web, are listed in Holocaust (resources).

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~