The Holocaust was the systematic, state-sponsored persecution and murder of approximately six million Jews, along with millions of other ethnic and minority groups, by Nazi Germany during World War II. Adolf Hitler's Nazi regime implemented a range of discriminatory policies targeting Jewish people, including exclusion from public life, forced labor, and deportation to ghettos and concentration camps. The extermination of Jews and other targeted groups ramped up with the implementation of the "Final Solution" in 1942, resulting in the mass murder of millions in gas chambers or through other forms of genocidal practices. The Holocaust stands as one of the most horrific and deeply disturbing events in human history, symbolizing the ultimate depths of human cruelty and the consequences of unchecked bigotry and racism.
