Etymology of the term "The Holocaust"

The etymology of the term the Holocaust is controversial with argued less politically correct aspects.

History

In the aftermath of the war, within their own circles, Jews used the biblical Hebrew term Shoah, meaning "calamity or destruction", to refer to their experiences during the war. This is generally the word which Jews continue to use amongst themselves, especially in Israel. The term Holocaust is often disliked, due to referring to a Greek religious custom.

The term Holocaust (Greek: Holókauston) is an ancient term referring to an animal sacrifice offered to a god, in which the whole (olos) animal is completely burnt (kaustos). It has been used in Western history to describe large-scale killings, in particular those associated with burning.

In the 1960s, the word holocaust has been argued to most often refer to the during the Cold War greatly feared nuclear war, and consequent destruction by "fire" from nuclear weapons. Jewish writers in the United States have been argued to have gradually switched from other words to holocaust, in order to associate with this widespread fear. Later, other usages were gradually forgotten and the word became capitalized ("The Holocaust").

The revisionist Robert Faurisson has argued that another reason for the early use of the word was that in the early postwar period, when propaganda and claimed witnesses did not yet agree on how Germans killed Jews, it was sometimes argued that a method used consisted of killing Jews by throwing them alive into flaming ditches. See the article on Elie Wiesel. The revisionist Hadding Scott has argued that

"The religious connotation of the word helps in associating the event specifically with Jews, given that the Jews are, at least in some degree, a religious group, and in a greater degree are perceived that way. With the promulgation of the proper noun Holocaust, Jews in effect claimed a special status as victims during the Second World War. For the general public in the United States it was NBC's five-part miniseries Holocaust in April 1978 that established Holocaust as a proper noun. The show's intro featured the symbol of the Jewish religion, a six-pointed star, engulfed in flames."

See also

• Holocaust uniqueness - As claimed by the term "the Holocaust".
• Meanings and translations of German words and Holocaust revisionism
• Bomben-Holocaust: German Term for the bombing of Germany during World War II