The Holocaust (from the Greek ': hólos, "whole" and kaustós, "burnt") also known as the Shoah ( Hebrew : , HaShoah, "catastrophe"; Yiddish : , Churben or Hurban, from the Hebrew for "destruction"), was the mass murder or genocide of approximately six million Jews during World War II , a programme of systematic state-sponsored murder by Nazi Germany , led by Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party , throughout German-occupied territory.