Final answer:
The killers in the Holocaust included the Nazi Party, SS, Einsatzgruppen, the regular German army, and local collaborators, responsible for the genocide of around 6 million Jews and millions from other targeted groups.
Step-by-step explanation:
Who Were the Killers During the Holocaust?
The Holocaust was a devastating genocide during World War II, where the killers included various groups and individuals. The primary perpetrators were the Nazi Party members, particularly the SS (Schutzstaffel), as well as the Gestapo (secret police) and the regular German army (Wehrmacht). Special units known as Einsatzgruppen, mobile killing squads, carried out mass shootings, especially early in the Soviet Union's invasion. These groups, sometimes with the aid of local collaborators, were responsible for the murder of approximately 1 million individuals, targeting Jews, Romani, disabled people, and others deemed undesirable by the Nazi regime.
Regular army units, battalions of the Order Police, and even ordinary citizens also partook in these atrocities. The Holocaust's brutality further extended to
killing centers where victims were asphyxiated with poison gas or shot. Across various occupied territories, millions of people from different minority groups were victimized by the Nazis' genocidal ideology.
Understanding the complexity of the Holocaust and recognizing that the perpetrators ranged from high-ranking Nazi officials to regular soldiers and bystander citizens sheds light on how such atrocities could occur. The complicity of many in this dark period of history reminds us of the importance of vigilance to prevent such events from happening again.