The '''Holocaust''' is a word based on the [[Yiddish]] and [[Hebrew]] word ''hurban'' (destruction), and the [[Greek]] word ''holokaustos'' (''holos'': complete, and ''kaustos'': a sacrificial or burnt offering to a god), and has been used specifically to describe the period of 1933-1945 in [[Nazi]] [[Germany]] when [[Jews]] were barred from social life and work, imprisoned en masse, and ultimately targeted for extermination under the policy of ''die Endlösung'' (the Final Solution). The word ''holocaust'' was chosen by survivors in reference to the large number of bodies fed to the crematoria of the [[concentration camps|extermination camps]] built for that purpose. In Hebrew, the Holocaust is known by the word "''Shoah''." | The '''Holocaust''' is a word based on the [[Yiddish]] and [[Hebrew]] word ''hurban'' (destruction), and the [[Greek]] word ''holokaustos'' (''holos'': complete, and ''kaustos'': a sacrificial or burnt offering to a god), and has been used specifically to describe the period of 1933-1945 in [[Nazi]] [[Germany]] when [[Jews]] were barred from social life and work, imprisoned en masse, and ultimately targeted for extermination under the policy of ''die Endlösung'' (the Final Solution). The word ''holocaust'' was chosen by survivors in reference to the large number of bodies fed to the crematoria of the [[concentration camps|extermination camps]] built for that purpose. In Hebrew, the Holocaust is known by the word "''Shoah''." |