Which genocide occurred during World War II targeting Jews and other groups?

• A. The Holocaust
• B. Armenian Genocide
• C. Rwandan Genocide
• D. Cambodian Genocide

Answer: (A)

The genocide described is the Holocaust, the mass murder carried out by Nazi Germany during World War II, aimed primarily at Jews but also targeting Roma, disabled individuals, Poles and other Slavic peoples, political dissidents, LGBTQ+ people, and others. This was a state-sponsored program that used ghettos, mass shootings, and industrial extermination in camps, reaching its peak as the war expanded across Europe. The event is distinct from other genocides by both its timing within World War II and its systematic, bureaucratic nature, organized by the Nazi regime.

For context, the Armenian Genocide occurred during World War I, carried out by the Ottoman Empire; the Rwandan Genocide happened in 1994 in Rwanda; and the Cambodian Genocide occurred under the Khmer Rouge in the late 1970s in Cambodia.