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Naming the unnameable

In the film, Bruno mistakes Schmuel’s concentration camp clothes for “striped pyjamas” and thinks that the camp itself is a “farm”.

We have used the word Holocaust as a description of the Nazis attempt to exterminate the Jews, the 'Final Solution', because it is the term most often used in History books. However, some people are now adopting different terms.

Look at the definitions below of the three terms that are currently used to describe the events of 1939-1945:

Holocaust - sacrifice
Shoah - great catastrophe
Churban Europa - European destruction

Why do you think that the last two terms are now being used to describe the Final Solution? How does their meaning give a different interpretation to the events from the "Holocaust"? How important is it to use the 'right word'?