“Holocaust” is a word of Greek origin meaning “sacrifice by fire.” The Nazis, who came to power in Germany in January 1933, believed that Aryan Germans were superior and that the Jews, deemed inferior, were a “racial threat” to the German people. The Holocaust was the systematic, bureaucratic, state-sponsored persecution and murder of approximately six million Jews by the Nazi regime and its collaborators. Trace the major milestones of this tragic watershed event in human history through our interactive timeline.
