Names of the Holocaust vary based on context . " The Holocaust " is the name commonly applied in English since the mid-1940s to the systematic extermination of 6 million Jews by Nazi Germany during World War II . The term is also used more broadly to include the Nazis ' systematic murder of millions of people in other groups they determined were " untermensch " or " subhuman , " which included primarily the Jews and the Slavs , the former having allegedly infected the latter , including ethnic Poles , the Serbs , Russians , the Czechs and others . While mythological narratives seek to ascribe metaphysical narratives , it is today believed that the impetus for the genocide was simply to create space for the expansion of the German Empire , the " '' Generalplan Ost '' , " calling for extermination of an additional 31 of 45 million of Slavs
The Holocaust
The Holocaust
Names of the Holocaust