Where did the term Holocaust originate?
Holocaust is a word originally derived from the Greek language, literary meaning ‘burning.’ The term is also found in the Old Testament as a reference to burnt sacrifices. In 1956, Elie Wiesel, a survivor of the Nazi death camps, wrote a book entitled “And the World was Silent” which applied the term Holocaust to the Nazi murder of six million Jews during World War II. Over time, Wiesel’s special usage of the term became part of the English language and today is understood worldwide as a reference to the systematic destruction of Europe’s Jews by the Nazis and their collaborators. In Israel, among those who speak the Hebrew language, the term Shoah is commonly used instead of Holocaust. Shoah is a Hebrew term from the Old Testament meaning desolation or total destruction.
