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Was the Holocaust really directed by the Nazi government?

The Holocaust, the mass extermination of European Jews, was directed by the Nazi government during World War II (1939–45). When the National Socialist German Workers' (Nazi) Party rose to power in 1933, Germany became a dictatorship (a government under the rule of an absolute leader) known as the Third Reich (reich is the German word for "empire"). Nazi party leader Adolf Hitler (1889–1945) was declared the führer (supreme leader), and the government quickly established a reign of terror based on Hitler's philosophy of the superiority of the German (Aryan) race. According to Hitler, the Jews were not only an inferior race but they were also responsible for problems confronting Germany at the time. Widespread unemployment, economic insecurity, and a chaotic political situation created a climate in which many Germans felt they were...

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1. Ancient Empires
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