How Many People Died in the Holocaust?
Estimates suggest around 11 million people were killed in the Holocaust. The Holocaust is one of the most well known and well documented events in history. It was during this time that Adolf Hitler came to power in Germany and empowered the Nazi party.
With his beliefs and the party he commandeered, Hitler led people through false propaganda to join his cause. His cause was to eradicate the races and people he did not think deserved to be on this Earth. Because of his activities, the number of people who were killed in the Holocaust is in the millions. To be more accurate, approximately 11 million people were put to death during the Holocaust, with over half of that number being Jews.
Groups Targeted
When asking how many people died in the Holocaust, it is important to consider which groups were specifically targeted.
Hitlers' targets included groups of people such as:
- Jews
- Gypsies
- Jehovah’s Witnesses
All of these people, as well as many other groups, were among the number of people who were killed during the Holocaust.
Holocaust and the Jews
The Jewish were the primary target for eradication during the Holocaust. The Nazi party and Hitler did not like this group and when he came to power they were treated unfairly in a number of ways.
At the beginning of Hitler’s reign of power in Germany, the Jews were not allowed to go to theaters, attend schools, and they were forced to carry papers to identify themselves. They were also required to wear the Star of David on the outside of their clothing where it was in sight so that everyone could identify them as a Jew.
As the situation in Germany escalated, the Jews were forced into concentration camps. In the concentration camps, the Jews were treated inhumanely and were even put to death in many different ways. Concentration camps quickly became known as death camps. During the Holocaust, the estimated number of Jews that died is 6 million. Over half of the 6 million Jews that were put to death during this time came from Poland.
Gypsies
When people talk about the Holocaust the first thing that comes to mind is the sheer number of Jews that were put to death. However, the Jews were not the only individuals with whom Hitler and his Nazi party targeted. Other non-Jews were put to death due to Hitler’s dislike for them, and they are counted among the number of people who were killed during the Holocaust.
One of these groups were known as Gypsies. The Gypsies were a group of individuals who moved around a lot and were thought to have originated from northwest India. Hitler did not like this group of people because he believed they practiced witchcraft. He convinced his Nazi followers of this too. Although not as many Gypsies were killed during this period, the number is said to be in the hundreds of thousands.
Jehovah’s Witnesses
We all are familiar with this group of religious believers who knock on our doors and deliver their message. However, in Hitler’s time during his rule in Germany, these individuals were persecuted as well for their beliefs.
In 1933, this religious group had approximately 20,000 people living in the country of Germany. When the Nazi party rose to power, the Jehovah’s Witnesses were forbidden to practice their form of religion. However, many of them continued to meet in private. The ones that were caught, or the ones who had chosen to ignore the rules of Hitler and the Nazi party, were caught and placed in concentration camps like the Jews and the Gypsies.
It is estimated that nearly half of the population of Jehovah’s Witnesses were sent to concentration camps during this time period. It is uncertain how many of those 10,000 believers were killed for wanting to practice their beliefs.