Shoah

Shoah (Hebrew: שואה) is the Hebrew term for the Holocaust, the systematic extermination of the Jewish population by Nazi Germany during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, approximately six million Jews were murdered in concentration camps, extermination camps, ghettos and mass shootings.

The term Shoah means "catastrophe" or "destruction". It emphasises the unique scale of the crime, which included not only physical extermination but also the cultural and social destruction of an entire community.

The term "Holocaust" originally comes from the Greek and means "sacrifice by fire", but has become particularly popular in the English-speaking world. The term Shoah is preferred because in Judaism it is considered a more specific and respectful term for the Jewish suffering during the Second World War.