During World War II, as the Nazi empire began to expand first into Poland, and then into the Soviet Union, official policy initially called for the extermination of many people, primarily men, who were likely to form a core of resistance. In 1941, this evolved rapidly into the shooting of Jewish men, women and children, and other “undesirable” people in the path of the invading army. By the end of the year, a program for the total extermination of all European Jews was launched. Camps were erected specifically for massive killing operations, primarily by gassing and exhaustion through slave labor and malnutrition. Jews from the west and from countries allied with the Nazis were brought by train to the death camps. Jews of the occupied eastern countries were concentrated in ghettos and…
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Citation: Browder, George C.. "The Holocaust and Shoah". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 06 November 2006 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/stopics.php?rec=true&UID=1547, accessed 22 November 2024.]
