The Holocaust was the mass killing of approximately six million Jews in Nazi occupied Europe. Adolf Hitler was the leader of the Holocaust and the Nazi party. His widely spread anti-Semitic sentiments resulted in the state-sanctioned genocide of the Jewish people. The Holocaust is generally considered to have begun in 1933 when Hitler became chancellor of Germany. He instituted anti-Semitic laws that put restrictions on the lives of German Jews almost immediately.

Auschwitz is one of the best-known concentration camps of the Holocaust. It was the largest of its kind and was actually composed of three separate camps – Auschwitz I, Auschwitz II, also known as Auschwitz-Birkenau, and Auschwitz III or Buna-Monowitz. Most people who think of Auschwitz immediately think of the gas chambers and mass murders that were carried out here.

The question of when the Holocaust started is a difficult one to answer. Depending on the source, you may find this question addressed in many different ways. Some contend that the Holocaust began in 1933 when Hitler gained power in Germany.

The Holocaust is well known in generalities, but many people have no idea of how these atrocities truly came to pass or how severe the damage of the Holocaust was. When you understand what the Holocaust was, you can better understand the struggles that so many people face today in trying to move past the terrible legacy that so many Germans carry.

Though only a few concentration camps are well-known and recognized by name, there were approximately 200,000 different camps that were used during the Holocaust. There were three main types of camps. Labor camps were the most common. These were established to facilitate forced labor from the prisoners. Death camps were not as common.