The Holocaust was the state-sponsored persecution and murder of six million Jews by the Nazi and its collaborators. "Holocaust" is a word of Greek origin meaning "sacrifice by fire." Some scholars maintain that the definition of the Holocaust should also include the Nazis' systematic murder of millions of people in other groups, including ethnic Poles, Romani, Soviet civilians, Soviet prisoners of war, people with disabilities, homosexuals, Jehovah's Witnesses, and other political and religious opponents. By this definition, the total number of Holocaust victims would be between 11 million and 17 million people.
