[Vaquero]

Growing up we learned a word in school hol·o·caust /ˈhäləˌkôst/ noun 1. destruction or slaughter on a mass scale, especially caused by fire or nuclear war: Later there was THE Holocaust. Yes 6 million Jews, gypsies and homosexuals died under Nazi rule. Also in the 20th century Stalin killed 10s of millions of his own people as did Mao tse Tung. Then there was Pol Pot and the Armenian Genocide. Now I have Jewish friends and had Jewish girlfriends back in The day But why is the 6 million the Nazis murdered THE Holocaust?

[Skooz]

Yes 6 million Jews, gypsies and homosexuals died under Nazi rule.

Not to be nit picky, but 6 million Jews were murdered in the Holocaust, plus 5 million others (Roma, political prisoners, etc).

So, the death count is actually 11 million.

[Phil DiBasquette]

I asked the same question of my dad as a kid after we
saw a Holocaust exhibit, what about all the others
rounded up and killed?

He said because Jews were singled out above all
others; it is easy to see in proportion to their population it was
more than a decimation (literally, 1 in 10) but an attempted
extermination

[Lisbon1940]

It is actually The Shoah.

[MrEdd]

No.

Twelve million died in the German Socialist Holocaust.
Six million of those were Jews.

[BroJoeK]

Vaquero: "why is the 6 million the Nazis murdered THE Holocaust?"

The ancient Greek word "holocaust" is used in some translations of the Bible to refer to a burnt offering.
It has been used in English since the 14th century, but only since WWII to refer to mass destruction and first specifically to the Nazis' destruction of Jews.

Since WWII "holocaust" has come to be used for any number of similar events and so, to eliminate the possibility of confusion, "the Holocaust" now means the original WWII events to which that word was applied.

In short, "the Holocaust" came first, followed later by other events now also called "holocausts"?

Makes sense?