The Encyclopedia of World Religions

Holocaust, the S 205

tatorial powers under emergency rule, as permitted by the German constitution. Government action against Jews began almost immediately. During the period from 1933 to the outbreak of World War II, the German government system atically deprived Jews of their property and of all civil rights. For example, in 1933 Jews lost civic equality and were prevented from practicing many professions. The Nürnberg laws of 1935 outlawed sexual relations between “Aryans” (persons who were supposedly of pure German ancestry) and Jews. During this same period, there were out breaks of violence against Jews. The most notori ous was Kristallnacht (German for “the night of broken glass,” November 9–10, 1938), when the Nazi paramilitary severely vandalized German Jewish businesses and synagogues. Despite the violence, many Jews were reluctant to leave Ger man territories. They had lived in Germany for generations and had survived successive waves of sporadic persecution. Many others wanted to leave but were unable. The outbreak of war in 1939 brought a drastic change. As Germany conquered territories, espe cially to the east, the number of Jews living under German rule swelled. Jews were required to wear yellow badges in the shape of the star of David; others whom the Nazis considered undesirable had to wear different badges. The Nazis contem plated an “ethnic cleansing” of Europe by export ing Jewish residents to a colony in, for example, Madagascar. Eventually, however, they deter mined on a “final solution” to the “Jewish prob lem”: They deported Jews to concentration camps where they were exploited for labor and then killed when no longer useful. In addition, Nazis conducted hideous medical experiments on those incarcerated. By January 1942 the “final solution” was in full operation. Auschwitz, Buchenwald, Belsen, Dachau, and Treblinka may be the best known camps, but there were, in all, more than 300 death camps. Resistance to the deportations did occur. One example is the Warsaw ghetto uprising of April 1943. But knowledge of the camps was extremely limited, and in many Jewish communities it seemed

are the Church of the N AZARENE and the C HURCH OF G OD (Anderson, Indiana): In the 20th century Holiness churches tended to align themselves with the fundamentalist move ment ( see FUNDAMENTALISM , C HRISTIAN ); that is, they tended to emphasize the entire B IBLE as the ver bally inspired word of God. At the beginning of the century, some Holiness churches called them selves Pentecostal. They meant by this the second gift of the Spirit that brought about sanctification. But they rejected speaking in tongues and became sharply critical of P ENTECOSTALISM . Some Holiness churches did, however, allow faith healing prac ticed together with scientific medicine. The social activism of the earliest Holiness believers waned in the 20th century. Holiness churches became widely known instead for stress ing a Puritanical lifestyle: no tobacco, liquor, gam bling, or attendance at theatrical performances. The old National Campmeeting Association served as an umbrella group for many of these churches under various names: the National Holiness Asso ciation, the Christian Holiness Association, and then the Christian Holiness Partnership. Already in the 19th century members of the Holiness movement took foreign missions seri ously. Today, many members of the movement, perhaps the majority, live outside the United States. Holocaust, the (Hebrew, Shoah) The impris onment and systematic killing of millions of peo ple, especially Jews, by the Nazis in Germany and German-occupied Europe from 1933 to 1945. The word holocaust is derived from Greek for a sac rifice wholly consumed by fire. Sometimes the equivalent Hebrew word, Shoah, is used. HISTORY Anti-Semitic violence has occurred in Europe from the Middle Ages on ( see ANTI -S EMITISM ), but in the Holocaust it grew to monstrous proportions. The Nazis came to power in Germany as part of a coali tion government in January 1933. Their virulently anti-Semitic chancellor, Adolf Hitler, assumed dic