The Holocaust, also referred to as the Shoah, was the genocide of around two-thirds of the Jewish population of Europe, between 1941 and 1945. Jews were targeted for extermination as part of other groups, including the Roma and "incurably sick", as well as ethnic Poles and other Slavs, Soviet citizens, Soviet prisoners of war, gay men, Black people, and Jehovah's Witnesses. In total, 17 million were killed during the Holocaust.In a history of the Holocaust, Jean Senat Fleury reviews the history of Anti-Semitism. Under German Laws, Jews became routine targets for stigmatization and persecution. The History of the Holocaust is directly linked to the history of the Second World War. The war began with the German invasion of Poland on September 1, 1939 and ended with Germany's surrender on May 8, 1945.