Holocaust

Holocaust, term applied to the systematic execution of 6 million European Jews by the German Nazi regime, 1933–45. Adolf Hitler had exploited anti-Semitic feelings in his rise to power and later called for a “final solution to the Jewish question.” Most Jews in countries overrun by the Nazis who did not emigrate in time were victims of the Holocaust, which effectively obliterated the Jewish secular and religious life that had flourished in Europe for centuries.

See also: Nazism; World War II.