The Why Project
← Genocide

The Holocaust

Nazi-occupied Europe · 1941–1945

HistoricalJudicial finding

The systematic, state-sponsored persecution and murder of six million Jews by Nazi Germany and its collaborators between 1941 and 1945.

Perpetrator
Nazi Germany and collaborators
Target group
Jews (also Roma, and others)
Deaths (estimate)
6,000,000
Protected category
Ethnical, Racial, Religious

Process stage (Stanton)

1 Classification
2 Symbolization
3 Discrimination
4 Dehumanization
5 Organization
6 Polarization
7 Preparation
8 Persecution
9 Extermination
10 Denial

Recognition status

Judicial finding. The archetypal genocide; the term was coined (Lemkin) and the Convention drafted in its aftermath. Nuremberg trials.

HistoricalJudicial finding