Final answer:
Approximately 6 million Jews were killed by the Nazis during the Holocaust, as part of the 'Final Solution'. This genocide also claimed the lives of around 11 million people in total, including victims from various other groups persecuted based on Nazi ideology.
Step-by-step explanation:
Extent of the Holocaust
Under Nazi rule, a staggering number of Jews were killed as part of the orchestrated genocide known as the Holocaust. By 1945, the Jewish population of Europe, which was over nine million in 1933, had been decimated with close to two out of three European Jews murdered. The Final Solution, a Nazi policy, explicitly called for the extermination of Jews through means such as gassing, shooting, and other brutal methods. The most noted extermination camps were in Poland, including Auschwitz, which, at the height of its operations, could kill up to 12,000 people a day. In total, historians estimate that 6 million Jews lost their lives during the Holocaust.
Beyond Jewish victims, the Nazis also targeted other groups based on their racist ideology. Around 11 million people were killed in the Holocaust, including Roma (Gypsies), mentally or physically disabled individuals, homosexual men, political dissidents, religious minorities like Jehovah's Witnesses, and numerous Slavic civilians. In Poland alone, the site of the majority of extermination camps, German soldiers and collaborator factions carried out the mass execution of Jews, as witnessed in the mass killing during the Warsaw Ghetto roundup.
The legacy of this mass genocide is a somber chapter in human history, which altered the world profoundly and whose repercussions are still felt today, as society continues to grapple with the magnitude and horror of these crimes against humanity.