Holocaust Memorial Day - 27 January 2011

What was the Holocaust?

Six million Jews and millions of other people were killed during World War II in what is called the Holocaust. Their suffering was remembered on Holocaust Memorial Day on 27 January.

The killings took place in Europe between 1933 and 1945 and were organised by the German Nazi party, led by Adolf Hitler. It happened in the run-up to, and during, World War II.

Nearly seven out of ten Jews living in Europe were murdered. The Nazis wanted to wipe out people who belonged to particular religious or racial groups. Mass killing like this is called genocide.

The Nazis also murdered Polish Catholics, disabled people, homosexuals and other groups. Anyone who spoke out against Hitler was killed too, including journalists and politicians.

Adolf Hitler became leader of the Nazi party in 1921. The Nazis were racist Aryans and believed that they were better than anybody else. To them, an Aryan was anyone who was European and not Jewish, Romany or Slavic.

They also thought Germany was the most important country in Europe.

In 1934 Hitler became Germany’s head of state. He thought Jews were a problem and wanted to get rid of them all. So the mass killings of the Holocaust began.

Hitler also wanted to make Germany bigger, so he invaded other countries and took them over.

How did so many people die?

The Nazis set up concentration camps, like Auschwitz, where people were sent to be killed. In 1942 alone, around 2.7 million Jews were murdered. Victims were taken from their homes and sent to camps in trains. Here they were starved, tortured, shot, hanged or gassed to death in specially-built chambers.

British troops found 60,000 starving prisoners and 27,000 unburied bodies when they were able to enter the concentration camp at Belsen to free the prisoners.

In Britain, Holocaust Memorial Day takes place on 27 January to remember the victims. The day marks the anniversary of the end of the Auschwitz concentration camp after Hitler was defeated. It is the day when everyone remembers the terrible events of the Holocaust in the hope that it will help stop anything like it happening again.