The Holocaust is one of the greatest atrocities in history, and today it's hard to look at it and understand just what could lead so many German people to participate in such blind hatred of their fellow man. During the Holocaust, a huge percentage of the German population – 8.5 million – were members of the Nazi party.

The Jewish holiday Yom HaShoah is more commonly known as Holocaust Remembrance Day. For millions of Jews around the world, it reminds us that we must never forget the Holocaust nor can we ever allow it to happen again. For those of you who are not familiar with this day, it commemorates the genocide of 6 million Jews by the Nazis during World War II.

There are few periods of time in history that are darker or more shocking than the Holocaust. And while the majority of people today understand at least vaguely what the Holocaust was, there are actually a growing number of younger people that don't fully understand or even know what it involved. Taking the time to understand the basics of the Holocaust is important, and should serve as a good jumping off point for understanding more about what happened during it.

There are many names we now associate with evil due to the horrors their bearers committed during the Second World War. While their names inspire an almost instinctive revulsion, many don't know what roles they actually played in the hierarchy of the Third Reich, or how they ultimately met their fate, the end of the Holocaust.

While the basics of the Holocaust are fairly well-known, a surprising and alarming number of people don't fully understand the magnitude of this tragic time period or the history leading up to it and what happened during it. Essentially the systematic and state sponsored murder of more than 6 million Jews in Europe over the course of WWII, the Holocaust is something that everyone should spend some time understanding in order to ensure that history doesn't repeat itself.