Between 1941 and 1945 Nazi Germany and its collaborators murdered six million European Jews in a systematic campaign of genocide. The Holocaust also targeted Roma, disabled people, political opponents, and others, yet the destruction of the Jews was central and ideologically driven.

Ghettos, mass shootings, and purpose-built extermination camps formed the machinery of killing. Bureaucratic records, perpetrator testimony, survivor accounts, and physical evidence document the process in extensive detail. The genocide occurred within the wider context of the Second World War but followed its own radical logic of racial annihilation.

Postwar trials, memorials, and educational programs have sought to establish responsibility and memory. Historians continue to research local participation, the timing of decisions, and the experiences of victims and survivors. The Holocaust stands as a defining reference point for subsequent discussions of genocide and human rights.

• Nazi genocide of six million Jews
• Also targeted other groups
• Carried out through camps and mass shootings
• Extensively documented and commemorated