What were the main groups of non-Jewish people targeted during the Holocaust?
Executive summary
The primary victims of Nazi genocide were six million European Jews; however, Nazi policy also persecuted and killed multiple non‑Jewish groups including Roma/Sinti, people with disabilities (including victims of the T4 “euthanasia” program), homosexuals, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Poles and other Slavic peoples, political opponents and Soviet POWs — with estimated non‑Jewish victims ranging in scholarship from hundreds of thousands to several millions depending on which groups and deaths are counted (Yad Vashem lists Sinti and Roma, homosexuals, Jehovah’s Witnesses and the disabled among non‑Jewish victims and cites about 200,000 murdered under euthanasia) [1][2]. Available sources do not provide a single unified total for all non‑Jewish victims in this set of documents; historians and institutions distinguish between the specific genocide of Jews and the broader catalogue of Nazi persecution [3][2].
1. Who were the main non‑Jewish groups the Nazis targeted — a short list
Histories and memorial organizations repeatedly identify these principal non‑Jewish target groups: Roma and Sinti (often called “Gypsies” in older sources), people with disabilities (subject to sterilization and the involuntary “euthanasia” program), homosexual men, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Poles and other Slavic populations, political opponents and dissidents, and many prisoners of war — in particular Soviet POWs; multiple educational and museum sources group these together as victims of Nazi persecution and murder [1][4][5].
2. How historians and institutions treat counting and definitions
There is a methodological and definitional divide in the sources. Institutions such as Yad Vashem and many historians narrowly use “the Holocaust” to denote the specific, state‑directed genocide of European Jews; they catalog other victims of Nazi persecution separately [3][1]. Other educators and museums present a broader frame that includes non‑Jewish victims in discussions of Nazi mass violence, so totals and labels differ by organization and by pedagogical purpose [4][5].
3. Numbers and contested tallies — what the sources say
Some postwar figures and popular accounts once suggested “eleven million” victims (six million Jews plus five million non‑Jews), but historians have criticized and complicated that tally: the five‑million figure was popularized for rhetorical effect and is not a scholarly consensus [2]. Yad Vashem cites roughly 200,000 murdered as part of the Nazi “euthanasia” program targeting people with disabilities, while other sources document mass deaths of Roma/Sinti, millions of Poles and other Slavs in occupation policies, and millions of Soviet POWs killed in captivity — different categories that complicate any single aggregate [1][5][6].
4. Differences in experience and intent — why grouping matters
Sources emphasize that although many non‑Jewish groups suffered murder, imprisonment and sterilization, the Nazis’ intent toward Jews was uniquely aimed at total extermination of an entire people; that specific genocidal intent is why some organizations treat the Jewish genocide as distinct from other persecutions, even while documenting atrocities against non‑Jewish groups [3][1]. Educational materials warn against collapsing diverse crimes together without noting political, racial and legal differences in Nazi policy [5].
5. Educational and memorial implications
Holocaust educators and memorials caution that inclusion of non‑Jewish victims is necessary to understand the breadth of Nazi crimes but must be handled precisely so the specific targeting and scale of the Jewish genocide are not obscured. Several teaching guides and museum resources present both the overlaps and the important distinctions among victim groups to give students a more complete but nuanced picture [5][4].
6. What these sources don’t settle — remaining gaps
Available sources in this collection do not provide a single authoritative total number for all non‑Jewish victims combined, nor do they present a consensus on whether to fold those victims under the term “Holocaust” or to treat them as related but distinct crimes; different institutions adopt different definitions for scholarship and education [2][3]. For precise, up‑to‑date casualty estimates by category you would need to consult the detailed research of each specialized institution (e.g., Yad Vashem, national archives, and scholarly monographs) which are not fully reproduced here [1].
If you want, I can produce a single‑page comparison table that lists each non‑Jewish victim group, the types of persecution they faced, and which of the provided sources document each claim.