Holocaust (disambiguation)

The term holocaust means a great loss of life, or sacrifice, from Greek holokaustos, which literally means "burnt completely by fire" [1] (http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=holocaust).

Accordingly, before World War II, it was common to refer to any great fire as a holocaust.
In recent decades, however, the term has become synonymous with genocide.

Used alone, as in "The Holocaust", it has largely come to refer to the experience of mainly Jews, but also Gypsies, Poles, and other groups in Europe during World War II (the terms Jewish Holocaust and Gypsy Holocaust can also be used more specifically, though both "holocausts" occurred at the same time and place). Because the term "Holocaust" is so closely tied in contemporary times to the Jewish experience at the hands of the Nazis, use of it in other contexts may be seen by some as controversial or even offensive. Others find focus on the genocide against Jews during World War II offensive considering the millions of non-Jews that were targeted. In any case, the term is of Greek origin, and arose long before World War II. The word "holocaustus" is used to refer to a killing of Jews in an early mediaeval English document in the Latin language.

The term has recently come to be used quite generally, describing all manner of lesser horrors. The expression "Silicone Holocaust" is an example of what some consider to be the natural (although often inappropriate) tendency for the meaning of an emotive word to evolve towards trivialization.

Certain events described in this article are controversial, held as fact by one side and rejected absolutely as fabrication by the other. The information here has been drawn from a number of sources. Various racial or cultural groups have used the term to describe events which have occurred in their own history.

Contents

1 List of World War II related holocausts 2 List of other holocausts 3 Other usages 4 External links

List of World War II related holocausts

• The extermination of Jews, Gypsies, Poles, and other groups during World War II is covered in the article Holocaust.

• The term Gay Holocaust has been used to describe the imprisonment and extermination of gay men by the Nazis, beginning in the late 1930s. More than 100 000 were arrested and 15 000 sent to concentration camps, where at least 10 000 died as a result of slave labor, castration, or surgical experimentation.

• The term Chinese Holocaust is used to describe the deaths of over 10 million Chinese POWs and civilians during the Japanese occupation of China in World War 2, including the Nanjing Massacre.

• The Asian Holocaust can be used to describe the mass murder of over 15 million civilians and POWs (including deaths due to Unit 731) in China, Korea, Indochina, Philippines, Dutch East Indies and the rest of the Pacific islands by the Imperialist Japanese during the Second Sino-Japanese War and World War 2.

• The term Hiroshima Holocaust is used to describe death of at least 140,000 civilians as the direct effect of nuclear bomb dropped on the city of Hiroshima and 130,000 who died due to damages from radiation. There are still 270,000 hibakusha who are suffering from radiation related causes.

List of other holocausts

This following list is chronological, though some events are not marked by clear beginnings or endings. Please note that it is far from complete; there are individuals and groups who would have listed other events here; others would have removed events which are listed here.

• The term Sudra Holocaust has been used in a version of the Aryan invasion theory, according to which the invaders (c. 1500 BC) exterminated virtually the entire population of the Indus Valley Civilization, including the Sudras.

• The term Hindu Holocaust (~600 CE - present) is used by some to describe the almost continuous periods during which foreign armies have occupied India, beginning with the conquering of Sindh by Muhammad-bin-Qasim in 711 CE and continuing to this day with ongoing hostilities between India and Pakistan, primarily over Kashmir. The cost in over 1400 years of intermittent conflict has been in the many millions of lives.

• The term Black Holocaust is sometimes used to describe the deaths of numerous Africans on slave ships bound for the New World (mid 17th century - mid 20th century). Also known as the Maafa (Swahili for "immense deaths"), it is estimated that the death toll was in excess of ten million. Some users of this term see it as extending into the latter part of the 20th century.

• The term Aboriginal Holocaust has been used to describe the treatment of indigenous people in Australia by the European colonists and their descendants. Between the arrival of the first white settlers in 1788 and the 1920s, the Aboriginal population was in absolute decline, as a result of disease, malnutrition and/or murder; several hundred thousand people died. In addition, until the 1970s, many Aboriginal children were removed from their families and placed either in residential schools, or with foster families and were denied contact with family members. Physical and sexual abuse, as well as the denial of basic human rights, was also common. Since the late 1990s, many of these matters have been disputed by historians such as Keith Windschuttle, in books such as The Fabrication of Aboriginal History (2002). Windschuttles's work has inspired a host of rebuttals.

• The term Native American Holocaust is sometimes used to describe the treatment by European settlers and soldiers of Native Americans, particularly in the form of massacres. Between the arrival of the first Europeans in the late 1400s and the most recent violent standoffs of the 20th century, some 112 million Native Americans are said to have perished. Very many of these deaths were as a result of epidemic diseases brought in by Europeans.

• The term Canadian Holocaust has been coined by Kevin Annett in his book Hidden from History: The Canadian Holocaust to describe the comparable treatment of indigenous people in Canada, and has no independent currency. While there were many fewer violent encounters between natives and whites north of the Canadian border than south, there remained a concerted effort by the government and the church to separate children from their culture by placing them in residential schools. These schools are now being recognised as places of physical, sexual, and emotional brutality. More than 10,000 children died, primarily from disease.

• The term Irish Holocaust is sometimes used to describe the deaths of at least a million Irish during the Great Irish Famine (1845 - 1850) when, over four successive growing seasons, the potato crop failed because of potato blight, and Irish farmers had neither food to eat nor money to buy any; and the suffering was made worse by the policies of the British administration of Ireland. The drought drove the great Irish exodus to North America that same decade.

• The term Armenian Holocaust is sometimes used to describe the Armenian Genocide in the early 20th century, in which some one and a half million Armenians were killed by forces of the Young Turk Party. There is evidence that the motivation was primarily religious; Sultan Abdul Hamid, a Muslim, decreed that all Christians in the Ottoman Empire, who were primarily Armenian, should be put to death. Hence this event is also sometimes known as the Christian Holocaust, and local populations of Greek, Syrian, and Nestorian Christians were also killed.

• The term Ukrainian Holocaust is sometimes used to describe the Holodomor, the deaths of over seven million Ukrainians by starvation during the period of Soviet collectivization (1932–1933). Josef Stalin, in his desire to see collectivization succeed, ordered the middle-class landowners liquidated. These "kulaks" soon came to include anyone who opposed the Soviet policies in Ukraine. He also prohibited the importation of food into Ukraine, though relented briefly at the behest of the Red Cross.

• The term Palestinian Holocaust is sometimes used, mainly by extremist Arab and Islamist groups, to describe the treatment of Palestinians during the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict The Palestinian Red Crescent reports 2780 deaths since the beginning of the al-Aqsa Intifada; 1000 Israeli Jews have killed in this same conflict. The use of this term regarding the Palestinian conflict is highly controversial and considered by some to be a form of antisemitism and disrespect of the Holocaust: see this link (http://www.holocaust-trc.org/samuels.htm). However, in Arab society some equate Zionists with Nazis and claim that the Jewish Holocaust was a Zionist fraud. [2] (http://www.jewishpost.com/jp0911/jpn0911i3.htm), [3] (http://www.adl.org/Anti_semitism/arab/saudi_nazism.asp)

• The term AIDS Holocaust is used by some to describe the situation in Africa, where the United Nations predicts up to 80 million deaths by 2025 [4] (http://www.unaids.org/en/AIDS+in+Africa_Three+scenarios+to+2025.asp) if no effective intervention occurs.

The term is also used to denote non-historic events such as a possible nuclear holocaust - the deaths in a global nuclear war and the ensuing nuclear winter.

Furthermore, activist groups sometimes compare their causes to holocausts -- an environmentalist, for example, may speak of a "holocaust of old-growth forests" and an anti-abortion activist may speak of a "holocaust of babies".

Though the movement is not currently as active as it was, the silicone holocaust was an issue of grave concern for many women who suffered extreme reactions to silicone breast implants. Though there are no confirmed cases of death resulting directly from implant complications, thousands of women have suffered grievous and lifelong disfigurement and impairment. Many would say that this usage is a example of inappropriate trivialization.

Other usages

• Holocaust was a television miniseries about the WWII Holocaust, which was broadcast in the United States in 1978.
• Holocaust is the name of a Scottish heavy metal band.
• Holocaust is a Marvel Comics super villain.

External links

WARNING: Many of these sites contain disturbing images. Please use your discretion.

• Alcohol (or Soma) In the Brahmanic Dark Ages (http://sarvadharma.org/Museum/HinduHolocaustWelcomePage.htm)
• North Park University - The Armenian Massacre (http://www.northpark.edu/history/WebChron/MiddleEast/ArmenMassacre.html)
• The Black Holocaust (http://www.geocities.com/CollegePark/Classroom/9912/theblackwar.html)
• Cambodian Auto-Genocide Page (http://www.cybercambodia.com/dachs/index.html)
• The Chinese Holocaust (http://www.chinese-memorial.org/)
• The Dith Pran Holocaust Awareness Project (http://www.dithpran.org/)
• An Essay on Aboriginal Australia (http://www.ausivisa.com/ausiv/page.asp?page=Anlia_705)
• Firestorms (http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/2WWfirestorm.htm)
• Gay Holocaust Survivors Speak (http://www.sodomylaws.org/world/germany/genews08.htm)
• Indigenous Citizenship, Between Local and Global (http://www.ausivisa.com/ausiv/page.asp?page=Anlia_705)
• The Irish Famine 1845-50 (http://www.people.virginia.edu/~eas5e/Irish/Famine.html)
• The Ma'afa (http://www.swagga.com/maafa.htm)
• Native American Links (http://www.worldfuturefund.org/wffmaster/Links/nativeamerican.htm)
• Online Hindu Holocaust Memorial (http://sarvadharma.org/Museum/HinduHolocaustWelcomePage.htm)
• Silicone Holocaust (http://www.siliconeholocaust.org)
• Stalin's Starvation of Ukraine (http://www.ukemonde.com/news/rferl.html)
• Ukrainian Holocaust Museum (http://www.skrobach.com/ukrhol.htm)

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