Facts about Holocaust
The biblical word Shoa (????), also spelled Shoah and Sho'ah, meaning "destruction" in Hebrew language, became the standard Hebrew term for the Holocaust as early as the early 1940s.
Shoa is preferred by many Jews and a growing number of others for a number of reasons, including the potentially theologically offensive nature of the original meaning of the word holocaust.
Few doubt, except for Holocaust deniers, that pure evil stalked the killing camps.
Many ministries, including those of armaments, interior, justice, railroads, and foreign affairs, had substantial roles in orchestrating the Holocaust; similarly, German physicians participated in medical experiments and the T-4 euthanasia program.
The six million killed in the Holocaust thus represent 60 to 75 percent of these Jews.
Another example of someone who assisted Jews during the Holocaust is Portuguese diplomat Aristides de Sousa Mendes.
The term holocaust originally derived from the Greek word holokauston, meaning a "completely (holos) burnt (kaustos)" sacrificial offering to a god.
Functionalists like hold that the Holocaust was started in 1941-1942 as a result of the failure of the Nazi deportation policy and the impending military losses in Russia.
By the end of 1942, however, the evidence of the Holocaust had become clear and on December 17, 1942, the Allies issued a statement that the Jews were being transported to Poland and killed.
The Jews of Europe were the main victims of the Holocaust in what the Nazis called the "Final Solution of the Jewish Question" (die "Endlцsung der Judenfrage").
Alleged corporate involvement in the Holocaust has created significant controversy in recent years.
Until recently, Germany refused to allow access to massive Holocaust-related archives located in Bad Arolsen due to, among other factors, privacy concerns.
The terms were coined in a 1981 article by the British Marxist historian Timothy Mason to describe two schools of thought about the origins of the Holocaust.
A major issue with the use of paper is related to the need to preserve valuable documents, books, and photographs.
The Holocaust also galvanized the international community to take action against future genocide, including the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide in 1948.
The Holocaust and the historical phenomenon of Nazism, which has since became the dark symbol of the twentieth century's crimes, has became the subject of numerous historical, psychological, sociological, literary and philosophical studies.
Holocaust denial has also become popular in recent years among radical Muslims: In late 2005, Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad denounced the Holocaust of European Jewry as a "myth.
The juridical notion of crimes against humanity was invented following the Holocaust.
German police units also directly participated in the Holocaust, for example Reserve Police Battalion 101 in just over a year shot 38,000 Jews and deported 45,000 more to the extermination camps.
The Holocaust was carried out without any reprieve even for children or babies, and victims were often tortured before being killed.
Rubenstein suggested that post-Holocaust belief in God, in a divine plan or in meaning is intellectually dishonest.
Hannah Arendt and some authors, such as Sven Lindqvist or Olivier LeCour Grandmaison, also point to a relative continuity between the crimes committed against "primitive" people during colonialism and the Holocaust.
Israel observes Yom HaShoah, the "Day of Remembrance of the Holocaust," on the 27th day of the Hebrew month of Nisan, which generally falls in April.
The world is still trying to make sense of the Holocaust and the lessons that can be drawn from it.
Holocaust deniers almost always prefer to be called Holocaust revisionists.
From the SS came the Totenkopfverbдnde concentration camp guards, the Einsatzgruppen killing squads, and many of the administrative offices behind the Holocaust.
Many people who participated in the Holocaust were normal people, according to Arendt.
Nobel Prize winner and Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel suggests that most people pose the wrong question, which should be "where was humanity during the Holocaust, not where was God?"
The Holocaust has also been the subject of many films, including Oscar winners Schindler's List and Life Is Beautiful.
Intentionalist historians such as the American Arno J. Mayer claim Hitler only ordered the Holocaust in December 1941.
Some scholars limit the Holocaust to the genocide of the Jews; some to genocide of the Jews, Roma, and disabled; and some to all groups targeted by Nazi racism.
Intentionalists hold that the Holocaust was the result of a long-term masterplan on the part of Hitler and that he was the driving force behind the Holocaust.
Functionalists stress that the Nazi anti-Semitic policy was constantly evolving in ever more radical directions and the end product was the Holocaust.
On account of the magnitude of the Holocaust, Christian and Jewish thinkers have re-examined the classical theological views on God's goodness and actions in the world.
The Holocaust and its aftermath left millions of refugees, including many Jews who had lost most or all of their family members and possessions, and often faced persistent anti-Semitism in their home countries.
Controversially, sociologist Daniel Goldhagen argues that ordinary Germans were knowing and willing participants in the Holocaust, which he claims had its roots in a deep eliminationist German anti-Semitism.
German philosopher Theodor Adorno famously commented that "writing poetry after Auschwitz is barbaric," and the Holocaust has indeed had a profound impact on art and literature, for both Jews and non-Jews.
Some towns and churches also helped hide Jews and protect others from the Holocaust, such as the French town of Le Chambon-sur-Lignon which sheltered several thousand Jews.
Functionalists see the Holocaust as coming from below in the ranks of the German bureaucracy with little or no involvement on the part of Hitler.
An ongoing effort to pursue Nazis and collaborators resulted, famously, in the capture of Holocaust organizer Adolf Eichmann in Argentina (an operation led by Rafi Eitan) and to his subsequent trial in Israel in 1961.
Intentionalists like Lucy Dawidowicz argue that the Holocaust was planned by Hitler from the very beginning of his political career, at very least from 1919 on, if not earlier.
Stanley Milgram was one of a number of post-war psychologists and sociologists who tried to address why people obeyed immoral orders in the Holocaust.
Emil Fackenheim (1916-2003) (who escaped to Britain) suggests that God must be revealing something paradigmatic or epoch-making through the Holocaust, which we must discern.
Witold Pilecki, member of Armia Krajowa (the Polish Home Army), organized a resistance movement in Auschwitz from 1940, and Jan Karski tried to spread word of the Holocaust.
Many people who participated in the Holocaust were normal people, according to Arendt.
Eliezer Berkovits (1908-1992) revived the Kabbalistic notion that sometimes God inexplicably withdraws from the world to argue that during the Holocaust God was "hidden.
Considerable research by H. F. Nijhout and others have been done on developmental biology that have provided insights into the development of color patterns in butterfly wings.
A wide range of German soldiers, officials, and civilians were involved in the Holocaust, from clerks and officials in the government to units of the army, the police, and the SS.
Public Opinion Quarterly summarized that: "No reputable historian questions the reality of the Holocaust, and those promoting Holocaust denial are overwhelmingly anti-Semites and/or neo-Nazis."
Some refer to the Holocaust as "Auschwitz," transforming the most well known death camp into a symbol for the whole genocide.