Shoah

The systematic killing of mainly Jews by Nazi Germany and its collaborators during World War II is called the Holocaust (in Hebrew, the Shoah).

Around six million Jews were killed. Around five million others were also killed. This included Roma and Sinti people, gay people, and others the Nazis considered inferior.

These people were rounded up, put in ghettos, and forced to work in extermination camps. Many were poisoned in gas chambers; others were shot or beaten to death or died of starvation or disease in the camps.

There had been hatred and persecution of Jews (antisemitism) in Europe for hundreds of years. The Nazi party leader, Adolf Hilter, said that Jews caused Germany’s economic problems as well as its loss in World War I.

The Jewish population still remains below pre-Holocaust levels.

This photograph is from the Holocaust Memorial Garden in London, UK. The stone bears a quote from the Ketuvim in Hebrew and in English.