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The Holocaust
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The gravest genocide in history was characterized by the murder of 5.6 million jews

The Holocaust began when the Nazis started passing laws that discriminated against Jews, and encouraged them to flee.  The next step to a full on genocide was when the Nazis created death camps like Auschwitz and labor camps.

For many centuries Christians in Europe discriminated against Jews. Many harbored a prejudice against Jews that is known as anti-Semitism. Some scholars view anti-Semitism as a religious prejudice. Others regard it as an anti-Jewish variety of a general hatred directed against ethnic minorities.

Jews often refer to the Holocaust as Shoah (from the Hebrew word for “catastrophe” or “total destruction”). The word holocaust derives from the Greek holo (whole) and caustos (burned) and originally referred to a burnt offering, or a religious sacrifice that is totally consumed by fire.