The Holocaust was the state-sponsored, systematic persecution and annihilation of European Jewry by Nazi Germany and its collaborators, between 1933 and 1945. Jews were the primary victims - six million were murdered. Roma (Gypsies), physically and mentally disabled people and Poles were also targeted for destruction or decimation for racial, ethnic, or national reasons. Millions more, including homosexuals, Jehovah's Witnesses, Soviet prisoners of war, and political dissidents also suffered grievous oppression and death under Nazi tyranny.
Item ViewAs Allied troops moved across Europe in a series of offensives against Nazi Germany, they began to encounter tens of thousands of concentration camp prisoners suffering from starvation and disease. Only after the liberation of the Nazi camps was the full scope of their horrors exposed to the world.
Item View![Defeat of Nazi Germany, 1942-1945 [LCID: eur86820]](https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/images/large/7c8cff7c-d62c-4799-9d74-e383ea5ac1d6.gif "Defeat of Nazi Germany, 1942-1945 [LCID: eur86820]")
Beginning in 1938, the Nazis increased their territorial control outside of Germany. By 1942, three years into World War II, Nazi Germany reached the peak of its expansion. At the height of its power, Germany had incorporated, seized, or occupied most of the continent. However, also in 1942, the Allied Powers started to systematically bomb Germany. They would continue to do so until Germany's surrender in 1945, weakening the war effort and demolishing cities.
Slowly, the Allied Powers began pushing Germany back towards prewar boundaries. From 1942 to 1943, Nazi Germany suffered battle and territory losses in the Soviet Union and North Africa. With the Soviets on the offensive, German troops were pushed westward, gradually losing control of the Eastern Front. In July 1943, the Allied Powers landed in Italy, pushing German troops north. Rome was liberated in June, 1944. That same month, other Allied divisions landed on the beaches of Normandy, France, pushing German troops east. By the end of 1944, the Allies had liberated a majority of Axis territories occupied during the war.
In early 1945, Allied troops entered Germany. By mid-April, the Soviets had encircled the German capital of Berlin. On April 30, 1945, Adolf Hitler killed himself. The German armed forces surrendered unconditionally in the west on May 7 and in the east on May 9, 1945, bringing an end World War II in Europe.
Item View![Major death marches and evacuations, 1944-1945 [LCID: gge72100]](https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/images/large/8f63a32e-543e-40fe-b690-44b030bfc971.gif "Major death marches and evacuations, 1944-1945 [LCID: gge72100]")
In January 1945, the Third Reich stood on the verge of military defeat. As Allied forces approached Nazi camps, the SS organized death marches of concentration camp inmates, in part to keep large numbers of concentration camp prisoners from falling into Allied hands. The term "death march" was probably coined by concentration camp prisoners. It referred to forced marches of concentration camp prisoners over long distances under heavy guard and extremely harsh conditions. During death marches, SS guards brutally mistreated the prisoners and killed many. The largest death marches were launched from Auschwitz and Stutthof.
Item View![Liberation of major Nazi camps, 1944-1945 [LCID: gge72080]](https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/images/large/94577c5a-b5f6-4cd7-bc1b-d4fcd2476241.gif "Liberation of major Nazi camps, 1944-1945 [LCID: gge72080]")
As Allied troops moved across Europe in a series of offensives on Germany, they began to encounter and liberate concentration camp prisoners, many of whom had survived death marches into the interior of Germany. Soviet forces were the first to approach a major Nazi camp, reaching the Majdanek camp near Lublin, Poland, in July 1944. Surprised by the rapid Soviet advance, the Germans attempted to demolish the camp in an effort to hide the evidence of mass murder. The Soviets also liberated major Nazi camps at Auschwitz, Stutthof, Sachsenhausen, and Ravensbrück. US forces liberated the Buchenwald, Dora-Mittelbau, Flossenbürg, Dachau, and Mauthausen camps. British forces liberated camps in northern Germany, including Neuengamme and Bergen-Belsen.
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