Nazi Germany's deliberate annihilaton of six million European Jews during World War II, Hitler's "FINAL SOLUTION" to the "Jewish Problem". The systemic and technical proficiency of the mass murders in the gas chambers of concentration camps irrevocably altered our consciousness of the potential for human brutality and depravity. Although the Nazis also destroyed members of the other groups (gypsies, Slavs, homosexuals, political opponents), "The Holocaust" refers specifically to the destruction of the Jews and their culture.
Now used to indicate mass murder of any people.
~Facts on File Dictionary of Historical and Cultural Allusions.
