Definition: The Final Solution (scroll down for answer)       Definition: The Final Solution As the war progressed, the elimination of Jews became a priority for the Nazis. The Final Solution was genocide, or the methodical killing of an entire group of people. Those seen as undesirable or inferior to the master race of Aryans were targeted. Jews, Roma (referred to by the Nazis as Gypsies), members of the gay community, the mentally ill, and others, were murdered. The killing was done in concentration camps, and extermination camps. Many died in concentration camps through slave labor. Later in the war, extermination camps, such as Auschwitz in Poland, were used for the purpose of killing. A chemical named Zyklon B was used to murder Jews in showers. The bodies were then sent to crematoriums. An estimated 6 million Jews were killed in the Holocaust, and 11 million people overall. Most of the victims were from Poland and the Soviet Union. The camps were liberated by the Allies in 1945. The reason why so many of the horrors of the Holocaust are known today is because of primary sources, or firsthand accounts.  Survivors such as Elie Wiesel, who wrote Night, have made sure that the atrocities are still remembered in the twenty-first century.    Click here for next flash card.      Back to eFlashcard headquarters