Definitions

Is the Holocaust a purely Jewish experience or should other victim groups be included?

Whilst retaining the central element of the Jewish experience, in its present definition of the Holocaust the USHMM incorporates other victim groups, using the term ‘Final Solution’ as a specific reference to the murder of the Jews (USHMM 2011).

The Imperial War Museum, in its Holocaust Exhibit, offers the following description:

“Under the cover of the Second World War, for the first time in history, industrial methods were used for the mass extermination of a whole people. The Holocaust Exhibition uses historical material to tell the story of the Nazis' persecution of the Jews and other groups before and during the Second World War (IWM 2011)”. 

At Yad Vashem it is defined as:

“The murder by Nazi Germany of six million Jews. While the Nazi persecution of the Jews began in 1933, the mass murder was committed during World War II. It took the Germans and their accomplices four and a half years to murder six million Jews (Vashem 2011).“

(I completed a short essay on the subject of Holocaust definitions for an Institute of Education course in July 2012 - CLICK HERE to download - PDF format.)