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The Holocaust (from the Greek ὁλόκαυστον (holókauston): holos, "whole" and kaustos, "burnt"), also known as Shoah (Hebrew: השואה, latinized ha'shoah; Yiddish: חורבן, latinized churben) is the term generally used to describe the genocide of approximately six million European Jews during World War II, as part of a program of deliberate and systematic state-sponsored extermination planned and executed by Nazi Germany under Adolf Hitler. Some scholars have maintained that the Holocaust should also include the Nazis' systematic murder of other groups including ethnic Poles, the Romani, Soviet civilians, Soviet prisoners of war, disabled people, homosexual men and political and religious opponents. bringing the total number of Holocaust victims to between 11 million and 17 million people.
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