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JewishHistoryעברית

The Holocaust

Date
30 January 1933 – 8 May 1945Hebrew date: 3rd of Sh’vat, 5693 – 25th of Iyyar, 5705
Location
Germany and German-occupied and allied EuropeGermany, Austria, Poland, Ukraine, Belarus, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Russia, Czechia, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, Moldova, Netherlands, Belgium, France, Italy, Greece, Serbia, Croatia, Bulgaria, Norway, Luxembourg, Denmark, Finland
Perpetrators
  • Nazi Germany (State)
  • SS (State)
  • Wehrmacht (Military)
  • Axis-allied governments and local collaborators (State)
Killed (estimate)
5,700,000 – 6,000,000[1]Most scholarly estimates cluster around six million Jews murdered.
Worldwide

37% – 39% of the worldwide Jewish population (c. 1933)[5]

Category
Genocide
Confidence
High

Summary

The systematic, state-sponsored persecution and murder of European Jews by Nazi Germany, its allies and collaborators. It began with legal exclusion after the Nazi rise to power in January 1933, escalated to ghettoization and mass shootings after the 1941 invasion of the Soviet Union, and culminated in deportations to killing centers such as Auschwitz-Birkenau, Treblinka, Sobibor and Belzec.

Sub-events

  1. Anschluss anti-Jewish violence

    11 March 1938 – March 1938 · Vienna and Austria

  2. Expulsion of the Jews of Burgenland

    11 March 1938 – October 1938 · Burgenland

  3. Italian racial laws

    1 September 1938 – 10 November 1938 · Kingdom of Italy

  4. Expulsion of Polish Jews from Germany

    28 October 1938 – 29 October 1938 · German Reich and the Polish border, including Zbąszyń

  5. Kristallnacht

    9 November 1938 – 10 November 1938 · Germany, Austria and the Sudetenland

  6. Deportation of Austrian Jews

    1939 – 1944 · Vienna

  7. Auschwitz-Birkenau

    1940 – 1945 · Oświęcim (Auschwitz), German-occupied Poland

  8. Deportation of Jews from Stettin and Pomerania to the Lublin district

    12 February 1940 – 16 February 1940 · Stettin (Szczecin) and other towns in Pomerania

  9. Dorohoi pogrom

    1 July 1940 · Dorohoi, Romania

  10. Expulsion of the Jews of Alsace

    13 July 1940 – 30 July 1940 · Alsace

  11. Deportation of the Jews of Baden, the Palatinate and the Saarland to Gurs

    22 October 1940 – 23 October 1940 · Baden, the Palatinate and the Saarland

  12. Operation Reinhard

    1941 – November 1943 · General Government, German-occupied Poland

  13. Bucharest pogrom

    21 January 1941 – 23 January 1941 · Bucharest, Romania

  14. Antwerp pogrom

    14 April 1941 · Antwerp

  15. Kaunas pogroms

    23 June 1941 – 7 July 1941 · Kaunas (Kovno)

  16. Iași pogrom

    28 June 1941 – 30 June 1941 · Iași, Romania

  17. Lviv pogrom of 1941

    30 June 1941 – 2 July 1941 · Lviv (Lwów, Lemberg)

  18. Minsk ghetto

    July 1941 – 1943 · Minsk

  19. Murder of the Jews of Estonia

    July 1941 – December 1941 · Estonia

  20. Ponary massacre

    July 1941 – July 1944 · Ponary (Paneriai), near Vilnius (Vilna)

  21. Berdychiv massacre

    7 July 1941 – 3 November 1941 · Berdychiv

  22. Zhytomyr massacre

    9 July 1941 – October 1941 · Zhytomyr

  23. Jedwabne massacre

    10 July 1941 · Jedwabne

  24. Drancy internment camp

    August 1941 – August 1944 · Drancy internment camp, northeastern suburb of Paris

  25. Jasenovac camp complex

    August 1941 – April 1945 · Jasenovac, Independent State of Croatia

  26. Destruction of the Jews of Pinsk

    6 August 1941 – 23 December 1942 · Pinsk

  27. Kamianets-Podilskyi massacre

    26 August 1941 – 29 August 1941 · Kamianets-Podilskyi

  28. Deportation of Jews from Bessarabia, Bukovina and Dorohoi to Transnistria

    September 1941 – October 1942 · Bessarabia, Bukovina, the Dorohoi district, and Transnistria

  29. Babi Yar massacre

    29 September 1941 – 30 September 1941 · Babi Yar ravine, Kyiv

  30. Stanislaviv Bloody Sunday massacre

    12 October 1941 · Jewish cemetery, Stanisławów (Ivano-Frankivsk)

  31. Odessa massacre

    22 October 1941 – 26 October 1941 · Odessa (Odesa) and Dalnyk

  32. Ninth Fort massacre

    28 October 1941 – 29 October 1941 · Ninth Fort, Kaunas (Kovno)

  33. Rivne Sosenki Forest massacre

    7 November 1941 – 9 November 1941 · Sosenki Forest, near Rivne

  34. Theresienstadt ghetto

    24 November 1941 – 9 May 1945 · Terezín (Theresienstadt)

  35. Rumbula massacre

    30 November 1941 – 9 December 1941 · Rumbula Forest, near Riga

  36. Drobitsky Yar massacre

    26 December 1941 – 8 January 1942 · Drobitsky Yar, near Kharkiv

  37. Extradition of Jewish refugees from Finland

    1942 · Finland

  38. Novi Sad raid

    21 January 1942 – 23 January 1942 · Novi Sad (Újvidék) and the Bačka region

  39. Deportation of Slovak Jews

    March 1942 – October 1942 · Slovakia

  40. Sajmište (Semlin) camp killings

    March 1942 – May 1942 · Sajmište (Semlin) camp, Belgrade

  41. Japanese measures against Singapore Jews

    16 March 1942 – September 1945 · Singapore

  42. Vél' d'Hiv roundup

    16 July 1942 – 17 July 1942 · Vélodrome d'Hiver, 15th arrondissement, Paris

  43. Deportation of Jews from Mechelen

    July 1942 – September 1944 · Mechelen (Malines) to Auschwitz-Birkenau

  44. Zmievskaya Balka massacre

    11 August 1942 – 14 August 1942 · Zmievskaya Balka (Zmievka Ravine), Rostov-on-Don

  45. Deportation of Jews from Norway

    October 1942 – February 1943 · Norway

  46. German occupation of Tunisia

    November 1942 – May 1943 · Tunisia

  47. Shanghai ghetto

    18 February 1943 – 1945 · Hongkew (Hongkou) designated area, Shanghai

  48. Westerbork–Sobibor deportations

    2 March 1943 – 20 July 1943 · Westerbork (Netherlands) to Sobibor (German-occupied Poland)

  49. Deportation of Jews from Bulgarian-occupied Thrace and Macedonia

    4 March 1943 – 29 March 1943 · Bulgarian-occupied Thrace, Macedonia and Pirot

  50. Deportation of the Jews of Salonika

    15 March 1943 – August 1943 · Thessaloniki (Salonika), German-occupied Greece

  51. Expulsion of the Jews of Sofia

    24 May 1943 · Sofia

  52. Deportation of Jews from Denmark

    1 October 1943 – 15 April 1945 · Denmark to Theresienstadt

  53. Rome roundup of 16 October 1943

    16 October 1943 – 18 October 1943 · Rome

  54. Deportation of the Jews of Ioannina

    25 March 1944 · Ioannina, German-occupied Greece

  55. Deportation of Hungarian Jews

    15 May 1944 – 9 July 1944 · Hungary (provinces of Greater Hungary)

  56. Deportation of the Jews of Corfu

    10 June 1944 · Corfu, German-occupied Greece

  57. Deportation of the Jews of Rhodes

    20 July 1944 · Rhodes, German-occupied Dodecanese

  58. Klooga massacre

    19 September 1944 · Klooga

  59. Arrow Cross killings in Budapest

    15 October 1944 – 13 February 1945 · Budapest, Hungary

Sources

  1. Introduction to the Holocaust. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Holocaust Encyclopedia
  2. Raul Hilberg, The Destruction of the European Jews. Yale University Press (2003)

Jewish population (estimates)

  • Worldwide: 15,300,000[5]c. 1933USHMM, citing the American Jewish Year Book, estimates 15.3 million Jews worldwide in 1933 (about 9.5 million of them in Europe).

Sources for population estimates

  1. Sergio DellaPergola, World Jewish Population, 2024. American Jewish Year Book 2024, via Berman Jewish DataBank (2025)
  2. Sergio DellaPergola, Notes toward a Demographic History of the Jews. Genealogy 8(1) (2024)
  3. Jewish Population of Europe in 1933. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Holocaust Encyclopedia
  4. Jewish Population of the World. American Jewish Year Book 1948–1949, via Berman Jewish Policy Archive (1949)
  5. Maristella Botticini and Zvi Eckstein, Voluntary Conversions and Diaspora: A Human Capital Interpretation of Jewish History. American Economic Association annual meeting paper (2007)
  6. Jews in the USSR (1926–1959). Demographic Changes. JewishGen Belarus SIG (table compiled from the 1939 All-Union census)
  7. Mandate for Palestine. Report of the Mandatory to the League of Nations (Palestine Administration, 1922). United Nations UNISPAL (British mandatory report) (1922)
  8. José Hinojosa Montalvo, La sociedad y la economía de los judíos en Castilla y la Corona de Aragón durante la Baja Edad Media. Espacio, Tiempo y Forma, Serie III, Historia Medieval (1993)
  9. The Contagion of Violence. 1391 and the Jews of the Spanish Kingdoms. Palgrave / Springer chapter (preview) (2021)
  10. Maristella Botticini and Zvi Eckstein, Religious Norms, Human Capital, and Money Lending in Jewish European History. Handbook chapter PDF via zvi-eckstein.com
  11. Sergio DellaPergola, Some Fundamentals of Jewish Demographic History. Berman Jewish Policy Archive (PDF) (2001)
  12. Maristella Botticini and Zvi Eckstein, THE CHOSEN FEW: HOW EDUCATION SHAPED JEWISH HISTORY, 70–1492 (book summary). Bar-Ilan University Economics seminar PDF (Princeton University Press forthcoming summary)
  13. Joseph Jacobs, Statistics. Jewish Encyclopedia (1906)
  14. Statistics of Jews. American Jewish Year Book 1917–1918, via Berman Jewish DataBank (1918)
  15. Statistics of Jews. American Jewish Year Book 1928–1929, via Berman Jewish Policy Archive (1929)
  16. Israel Bartal and Kenneth B. Moss, The Jews of the Russian Empire in the Late 19th Century. The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization
  17. Russia (Census Statistics). Jewish Encyclopedia (1901–1906)
  18. Yannay Spitzer, A New Map of Jewish Communities in the Russian Empire (2012)
  19. Игорь Виленский, Оценка сокращения численности еврейского населения Российской Империи и СССР (1897–1926). Еврейская Старина (2024)
  20. Sergio DellaPergola, World Jewish Population, 2024. American Jewish Year Book 2024, via Berman Jewish DataBank / Israel CBS host (2025)
  21. Sergio DellaPergola, Demographic Trends in Israel and Palestine: Prospects and Policy Implications. American Jewish Year Book 2003, via Berman Jewish DataBank (2003)
  22. Population of Israel/Palestine by Religion (1553–Present). Jewish Virtual Library (citing CBS, British Mandate publications, Bachi and others)
  23. US Jewish Population Pocket Demographics 2.0. Berman Jewish DataBank / Jewish Federations of North America (2018)
  24. H. S. Linfield, The Jews of the United States: Preliminary Figures for 1937 (Linfield) / Statistics of Jews. American Jewish Year Book 1939–40, via Berman Jewish DataBank (1939)
  25. Changes in the Jewish Population of the United States, 1949–1950. American Jewish Year Book 1951, via Berman Jewish DataBank (1951)
  26. American Jewry, 1970 (NJPS 1971 article). American Jewish Year Book, via Berman Jewish DataBank
  27. Germany: Jewish Population in 1933. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Holocaust Encyclopedia
  28. German Jewish Refugees, 1933–1939. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Holocaust Encyclopedia
  29. Robin R. Mundill, The Jews under Edward I (PhD thesis). University of St Andrews
  30. Stéphane Mechoulan, The Expulsion of the Jews from France in 1306: a modern fiscal analysis. University of Toronto Department of Economics working paper (2004)
  31. Maristella Botticini and Zvi Eckstein, Appendix A: Sources and Methodology for Section 2 (Jewish and total population in Germany-Austria and Poland-Lithuania). Authors' appendix PDF (citing Weinryb, Stampfer, Kupovetsky, Guggenheim, Toch, Battenberg, Israel) (2018)
  32. Kirsten E. Schulze, The Jews of Lebanon between Coexistence and Conflict. Internet Archive full text
  33. Jews in Arab Countries. American Jewish Year Book excerpt, Berman Jewish Policy Archive (1978)
  34. Esther Meir-Glitzenstein, The Farhud. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Holocaust Encyclopedia
  35. Joseph Rothschild (tabulated), Interwar East European Census Data. Lawrence University course materials
  36. Mark Tolts, Population since World War I. YIVO Encyclopedia of Jews in Eastern Europe
  37. Davis Trietsch, Die Juden der Türkei. Länder und Völker der Türkei, Heft 8 (Leipzig) (1915)
  38. Statistics of Jews (World Jewish Population). American Jewish Year Book 1940–1941, via Berman Jewish DataBank (1940)
  39. Jewish Losses during the Holocaust: By Country. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Holocaust Encyclopedia
  40. Andrzej Żbikowski, Extermination of Polish Jews. The genesis and course of Operation Reinhard. Żydowski Instytut Historyczny (Jewish Historical Institute)
  41. Yitzhak Arad, “Operation Reinhard” | Death Camps of Belzec, Sobibor & Treblinka. Yad Vashem
  42. The Holocaust in Hungary. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Holocaust Encyclopedia
  43. Bulgaria. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Holocaust Encyclopedia
  44. The Holocaust in Bohemia and Moravia. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Holocaust Encyclopedia
  45. The Holocaust in Slovakia. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Holocaust Encyclopedia
  46. France. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Holocaust Encyclopedia
  47. Belgium. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Holocaust Encyclopedia
  48. Norway. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Holocaust Encyclopedia
  49. Denmark. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Holocaust Encyclopedia
  50. Greece. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Holocaust Encyclopedia
  51. Lithuania. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Holocaust Encyclopedia
  52. German Jews during the Holocaust, 1939–1945. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Holocaust Encyclopedia
  53. Statistics of Jews (World and US Jewish Population). American Jewish Year Book 1946–1947, via Berman Jewish DataBank (1947)
  54. Jacqueline Shields, Jewish Refugees from Arab Countries. Jewish Virtual Library
  55. Lebanon Virtual Jewish History Tour. Jewish Virtual Library
  56. Jewish Populations in the Arab World. Jewish Virtual Library (citing Sergio DellaPergola, World Jewish Population, 2021 / AJYB 2023)
  57. Algeria (Vital Statistics). Jewish Encyclopedia (1906)
  58. Archives juives n°45/2 — Les Juifs d'Algérie. Archives Juives / Les Belles Lettres (2012)
  59. EHRI Country Report — Tunisia. European Holocaust Research Infrastructure
  60. Leon Shapiro, World Jewish Population. American Jewish Year Book 1981 (estimates for 1979), via Berman Jewish DataBank (1981)
  61. Sergio DellaPergola, World Jewish Population, 2020. American Jewish Year Book 2020, via Berman Jewish DataBank (2022)
  62. Sara Koplik, The Demise of the Jewish Community in Afghanistan, 1933–1952. SOAS University of London (PhD thesis abstract / deposit page) (2001)
  63. Argentina Virtual Jewish History Tour. Jewish Virtual Library
  64. All-Union 1959 census — ethnic composition of the USSR. Demoscope Weekly (РГАЭ РФ fond 1562)
  65. All-Union 1959 census — ethnic composition of the Uzbek SSR. Demoscope Weekly (РГАЭ РФ fond 1562)