The Holocaust was the systematic persecution and murder of approximately six million Jews by the Nazi regime and its collaborators between 1933-1945. The Nazis believed Jews were racially inferior and a threat to Germany. Jews were killed through mass shootings, gassing in extermination camps like Auschwitz where over 1 million Jews were killed, starvation, disease, and medical experiments. Elie Wiesel, who wrote the memoir Night about his experiences in Auschwitz, was one of the few survivors from his hometown in Transylvania.