1 Jan 1939 Jahr - In 1939, Germany invaded Poland, and World War II began. Nazi persecution of Jews during the war turned into the Holocaust. The Holocaust is the killing of six million European Jews during World WarII by Nazi Germany. The Nazis sent Jewish people to work in camps where they often died of illness and starvation and harsh conditions. Later they used mass shootings and poison gas to kill Jewish people in huge numbers. (Band der Zeit)