English

Proper noun

Holocaust

1. (historical, narrowly) The systematic mass murder (genocide) of 6 million Jews perpetrated by Nazi Germany shortly before and during World War II.
2. (historical, broadly) The systematic mass murder (democide) of 11 million people, namely 6 million Jews and 5 million others (including Romanis, Slavs, homosexuals, gender-nonconforming people, and people with physical and mental disabilities), perpetrated by Nazi Germany shortly before and during World War II.
   • For usage examples of this term, see Citations:Holocaust.

Usage notes

• Whether the term "Holocaust" is a designation for the mass murder of 11 million people or only for the genocide of 6 million Jews is contested.^[1]
• The genocide of the European Jews may be unambiguously referred to as the Shoah. The genocide of the Romani people has the specific designation Porajmos.
• For more information on the origin and early uses of the lowercase term holocaust, see the entry holocaust.

Synonyms

• (mass murder of 6 million Jews): Shoah
• the Nazi genocide

Hypernyms

• (mass murder of 6 million Jews): holocaust, genocide, mass murder
• (mass murder of 11 million people): holocaust, democide, mass murder

Hyponyms

• (mass murder of 11 million people): Shoah (mass murder of Jews)
• (mass murder of 11 million people): Homocaust
• (mass murder of 11 million people): Porajmos (the genocide of the Roma)

Derived terms

• Hoaxocaust
• Holohoax
• Holocaustianity
• post-Holocaust

Translations

See also

• The Holocaust on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• at Wikipedia: Nazi persecution of Romanis (Porajmos), Catholics, Jehovah's Witnesses, blacks, Poles, Soviet prisoners-of-war, and homosexuals
• concentration camp
• ethnic cleansing
• final solution
• Meds Yeghern
• Nakba

References

1. ↑ see e.g. Edward T. Linenthal, Preserving Memory: The Struggle to Create America's Holocaust Museum (Columbia University Press; 15 October 2001; ISBN 0231124074)

German

Alternative forms

• Holokaust (rare)

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈhoːloˌkaʊ̯st/^[1], IPA^(key): /ˌholoˈkaʊ̯st/^[1]
• (anglicised pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈhɔləˌkɔːst/^[2][3]

Proper noun

Holocaust m ‎(genitive Holocausts)

1. (historical) the Holocaust

Noun

Holocaust m ‎(genitive Holocausts, plural Holocausts)

1. a holocaust
   • 1999, Barbara S. Brucker, Das Ganze, dessen Teile wir sind. Zu Tradition und Erfahrung des inneren Raumes bei Doris Lessing, Königshausen & Neumann, page 110:

     Denn, was im vorliegenden Fall als Science-Fiction und nuklearer Holocaust dargestellt wird, kann als Metapher für das moralisch durchseuchte Leben unserer Zivilisation verstanden werden.

   • 2005, Maria Rührnschopf (geb. Friedrich), Glaubst du das? Ein Konfirmand fragt seine Großmutter, Books on Demand GmbH, Norderstedt, page 23:

     Warum ließ er [= Gott] die Holocausts unseres Jahrhunderts zu?

   • 2006, Holger Freiherr von Dobeneck, Das Sloterdijk-Alphabet. Kritisch-lexikalische Einführung in seinen Ideenkosmos. Zweite stark erweiterte Auflage., Königshausen & Neumann, page 16:

     In diesem Prozeß des post histoire gegen die eigene Vergangenheit macht Amerika mit seiner Sklaverei, seinem Indianerholocaust und seinem Ausbeutungskolonialismus wahrlich keine gute Figur.

   • 2007, Erhard Roy Wiehn, Bleibende Warnungen III - Gesammelte Vorworte, Vorträge und Artikel 2004-2007, Hartung-Gorre Verlag Konstanz, page 192:

     Wohl zurecht fragt Mykola Rjabtschuk, warum "eine nationale Katastrophe wie der Holodomor (1932/33) - der Hungerholocaust - in der Ukraine für die Ukrainer nicht zu dem wurde, was für die Juden die Shoah oder für die Armenier das Massaker von 1915 geworden ist."

   • 2011, Sylvia Tschörner, Das virtuelle Barock des Herrn P.C.: Der seidende Schuh von Paul Claudel, in: Göttliche, menschliche und teuflische Komödien. Europäische Welttheater-Entwürfe im 19. und 20. Jahrhundert, Albert Gier (ed.), University of Bamberg Press, page 171:

     Der amerikanische Holocaust, dem im 16. und 17. Jahrhundert Millionen von Indios zum Opfer fielen, wird ästhetisiert:

Derived terms

• atomarer Holocaust, nuklearer Holocaust
• Babycaust
• Bombenholocaust
• Holocaustforschung / Holocaust-Forschung
• Holocaust-Geschichte
• Holocaust-Industrie
• Holocaustleugnung
• Holocaustleugner / Holocaust-Leugner
• Holocaustlüge / Holocaust-Lüge
• Holocaust-Schwindel
• Holocaustüberlebender / Holocaust-Überlebender
• Hungerholocaust
• Roter Holocaust

References

1. 1 2 Max Mangold, Duden-Aussprachewörterbuch (Duden Band 6), sixth revised and updated edition (Dudenverlag, Mannheim, 2005; ISBN 9783411040667), page 408
2. ↑ Duden: Universalwörterbuch, sixth edition, page 844
3. ↑ Duden: Großes Fremdwörterbuch, fourth edition, page 565

English

Noun

holocaust ‎(plural holocausts)

1. A sacrifice that is completely burned to ashes. [from the 13th c]
   • 1526, William Tyndale, trans. Bible, Mark XII:

     And to love a mans nehbour as hymsilfe, ys a greater thynge then all holocaustes and sacrifises.

   • 1646, Sir Thomas Browne, Pseudodoxia Epidemica, III.3:

     in the holocaust or burnt-offering of Moses, the gall was cast away: for, as Ben Maimon instructeth, the inwards, whereto the gall adhereth, were taken out with the crop (according unto the law,) which the priest did not burn, but cast unto the east [...].

2. The annihilation or near-annihilation of a group of animals or people, whether by natural or deliberate agency. [from the 19th c]
   • Palestine Post 6 February 1938 p. 4, col. 4.

     the French press is worried lest there be some connection between the bloodless holocaust of German Generals and Ambassadors and the persistent reports that Mussolini is about to intervene in Spain

   • 1954 January 15, Mel Ferrer as King Arthur Pendragon in Knights of the Round Table:

     None will emerge the victor from this holocaust.

   a nuclear holocaust

3. The state-sponsored mass murder of an ethnic group. In particular, the Holocaust (which see). [from the 20th c]
4. An inferno or fire disaster.

Usage notes

• Use of the word holocaust to depict Jewish suffering under the Nazis dates back to 1942, according to the OED. By the 1970s, The Holocaust was often synonymous with the Jewish exterminations. This use of the term as a synonym for the Jewish exterminations has been criticised because it appears to imply that there was a voluntary religious purpose behind the Nazi actions, which was not the case from either the Nazis' perspective or the victims'. Hence, some people prefer the term Shoah, which means destruction.
• The word continues to be used in its other senses. For example, part of the action of a BBC radio drama by James Follett in 1981 takes place in “Holocaust City”, which by inference was named because the inhabitants were the only survivors of a global nuclear war.
• For more information on the use of the term Holocaust, see the entry Holocaust.

Related terms

• caustic
• holo-

Hyponyms

• homocaust
• nuclear holocaust

Translations

See also

• burnt offering
• ethnic cleansing
• pogrom

References

• Lewis M. Paternoster and Ruth Frager-Stone, Three Dimensions of Vocabulary Growth, second edition (Amsco School Publications, 1998)
• Oxford Dictionary: holocaust
• “holocaust” in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Merriam-Webster Online.
• “holocaust” in Dictionary.com Unabridged, v1.0.1, Lexico Publishing Group, 2006.

Czech

Alternative forms

• holokaust m

Noun

holocaust m

1. holocaust (the state-sponsored mass murder of an ethnic group)