According to Malbim, “Shoah” refers to a sudden darkness for which one cannot prepare, i.e. we never saw it coming.

As for “Holocaust” (wholly burnt sacrifice), I don’t know if the Warsaw Ghetto exhibit at Yad V’Shem has changed much since I visited many years ago, but, for me, it had one powerful message at the end. Unfortunately, many places (Holocaust themed and otherwise) have seen fit to place Torah scrolls on display in recent years, perhaps not realizing the lack of Kavod this really entails (dan l’kaf z’chus).

This exhibit had an open Sefer Torah with a section burnt out during the Churban, just a hole in its place. I was drawn to this sight, and reconstructed the missing section in my mind. I do not believe the curators were aware of what I saw - they certainly would have put a blurb underneath if they did.

If memory serves, the section was at the beginning of Vayikra, second paragraph - the “sheep to the slaughter” of the Korban Olah, the wholly burnt offering.

May Hashem require no further Korbanos…

The evil Nazi intentions existed from the start but their implementation could only come about as the necessary conditions arose (e.g., craven reaction of Western Europe in the mid-to-late 1930’s, development of new military and death camp organizations and technologies, military victories).

If the West had pursued the proper policies from the start, in its own interest, implementation would have been impossible. As late as 1938 before Munich, the West, even without cooperation from Russia, still had the military and economic power (sadly, not the will) to stop German expansion in its tracks.

The Jews’ options for flight from danger before and during the war were greatly limited by the West’s immigration policies. A large part of the problem was the anti-semitism infecting the nations facing Germany. Some nations were much too civilized to murder Jews themselves but not too unhappy when others did it. The Germans realized this very quickly, which encouraged them to push ahead with their extermination program.