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Shoah



Shoah (Hebrew word Ha-Shoah), also known as the Holocaust (from the Greek holokauston from holos "completely" and kaustos "burnt"), is the term generally used to describe the killing of approximately six million European Jews during World War II, as part of a program of deliberate extermination planned and executed by the National Socialist regime in Germany led by Adolf Hitler. Taking into account all the victims of Nazi persecution, the death toll rises considerably: estimates generally place the total number of victims at nine to 11 million.

The persecution and genocide were accomplished in stages. Legislation to remove the Jews from civil society was enacted years before the outbreak of World War II. Concentration camps were established in which inmates were used as slave labour until they died of exhaustion or disease.

The biblical word Shoah (also spelled Sho'ah "what will you do on the day of punishment, in the calamity [sho'ah] that will come from far away?" Isaiah 10:3 NRSV), meaning "calamity", became the standard Hebrew term for the Holocaust as early as the 1940s. Shoah is preferred by many Jews for a number of reasons, including the theologically offensive nature of the original meaning of "holocaust".

Yom HaShoah, translated into English as "Holocaust Remembrance Day", is a day set aside for remembering the six million Jews who perished in the Holocaust. In Israel, it is a national memorial day.