If he is German I got bad news for you. Pretty much every German company that is relevant now used forced labour during the Holocaust and Shoa and that includes working people to death. So if your husband is German, then I wouldn't so clear cut say "his family owned no slaves", as while that is true millions of the 80 million people did enforce the forced labour and were complicit actively.
The Holocaust and the Shoa refer to the same thing. There isn't really a name for the other genocide that went on afaik besides obviously Generalplan Ost.
CW holocaust
I understand how you got to that thought, but in usage it isn't quite true. Shoa is pretty much always the preferred nomenclature for Jewish groups (as cynical as it is to find a "right" word to describe what happened).
However the term Holocaust was also used for genocides with aim of (at least partial) extermination i.e. Armenian, however it is absolutely right that the Holocaust as "modern" origin did mean the Shoa, which was aimed at Jews. Which is a reason why the term isn't really to be used for other genocides.
However during its usage sometimes discrimination and extermination of others are included, when it means the actions of Nazis with the goal of extermination, some do subsume parts of the Porajmos under the holocaust umbrella, as much as it did use the same structures, processes and had the same goal, while the specific terms Shoa and Porajmos are used to the specific situations.
In regards to the action T4 that name itself is common. You are right that colloquial the term Generalplan Ost is often used, which itself brings a few problems with it. It does bring the mass executions in Poland and areas of the Soviet Union and alike under a common umbrella and does itself not differentiate between executions of civilians and Soviet Soldiers for example. Of course there is also the problem that it is - much like Action T4 - a German phrase.
While there were plenty of - also political prisoners or LGTBQA+ - people in forced labour I wanted to highlight both the Roma and Sinti and Jewish people who were worked to death. You are right that working to death was also aimed at "asocials" (punks, politicals, gays, unhoused, neudivergent, partially young/single mothers):
In einem Aktenvermerk vom 14. September 1942 notierte Otto Thierack über ein Gespräch mit Joseph Goebbels:
„Hinsichtlich der Vernichtung asozialen Lebens steht Dr. Goebbels auf dem Standpunkt, dass Juden und Zigeuner schlechthin, Polen, die etwa 3 bis 4 Jahre Zuchthaus zu verbüßen hätten, Tschechen und Deutsche, die zum Tode, lebenslangen Zuchthaus oder Sicherheitsverwahrung verurteilt wären, vernichtet werden sollten. Der Gedanke der Vernichtung durch Arbeit sei der beste.“[2]
Goebbels schrieb zu diesem Gespräch in seinem Tagebuch:
„Wer an dieser Arbeit zugrunde geht, um den ist es nicht schade.[3]“
Or to sum up "extermination through work is best", writes Goebbels, it is to be aimed at "Jews, Gpss, Polish people (convicted to 3 years of prison), Tschez & Germans (sentenced to death, life, security detention [which was also used against political enemies])"
That is why I used the doubling as short hand. Could've directly done a fuller list or used alternative phrasing.
However there is also the argument which is recurring that writing from a German perspective - that doesn't belong to the victims -, in the country of the perpetrators a term used and defined by the victims is not right.
You are right that colloquial the term Generalplan Ost is often used, which itself brings a few problems with it. It does bring the mass executions in Poland and areas of the Soviet Union and alike under a common umbrella and does itself not differentiate between executions of civilians and Soviet Soldiers for example
I'd consider Jewish soldiers who were executed for being Jewish to be victims of the Shoa, so I don't think the execution of Soviet soldiers for being various types of what was designated as "life unworthy of life" needs to be excluded. Combat deaths are something else, but executions seem to me to be appropriate to include.
If he is German I got bad news for you. Pretty much every German company that is relevant now used forced labour during the Holocaust and Shoa and that includes working people to death. So if your husband is German, then I wouldn't so clear cut say "his family owned no slaves", as while that is true millions of the 80 million people did enforce the forced labour and were complicit actively.
The Holocaust and the Shoa refer to the same thing. There isn't really a name for the other genocide that went on afaik besides obviously Generalplan Ost.
CW holocaust
I understand how you got to that thought, but in usage it isn't quite true. Shoa is pretty much always the preferred nomenclature for Jewish groups (as cynical as it is to find a "right" word to describe what happened).
However the term Holocaust was also used for genocides with aim of (at least partial) extermination i.e. Armenian, however it is absolutely right that the Holocaust as "modern" origin did mean the Shoa, which was aimed at Jews. Which is a reason why the term isn't really to be used for other genocides.
However during its usage sometimes discrimination and extermination of others are included, when it means the actions of Nazis with the goal of extermination, some do subsume parts of the Porajmos under the holocaust umbrella, as much as it did use the same structures, processes and had the same goal, while the specific terms Shoa and Porajmos are used to the specific situations.
In regards to the action T4 that name itself is common. You are right that colloquial the term Generalplan Ost is often used, which itself brings a few problems with it. It does bring the mass executions in Poland and areas of the Soviet Union and alike under a common umbrella and does itself not differentiate between executions of civilians and Soviet Soldiers for example. Of course there is also the problem that it is - much like Action T4 - a German phrase.
While there were plenty of - also political prisoners or LGTBQA+ - people in forced labour I wanted to highlight both the Roma and Sinti and Jewish people who were worked to death. You are right that working to death was also aimed at "asocials" (punks, politicals, gays, unhoused, neudivergent, partially young/single mothers):
Goebbels schrieb zu diesem Gespräch in seinem Tagebuch:
Or to sum up "extermination through work is best", writes Goebbels, it is to be aimed at "Jews, Gpss, Polish people (convicted to 3 years of prison), Tschez & Germans (sentenced to death, life, security detention [which was also used against political enemies])"
That is why I used the doubling as short hand. Could've directly done a fuller list or used alternative phrasing.
However there is also the argument which is recurring that writing from a German perspective - that doesn't belong to the victims -, in the country of the perpetrators a term used and defined by the victims is not right.
Thank you for the explanation, just one thing:
I'd consider Jewish soldiers who were executed for being Jewish to be victims of the Shoa, so I don't think the execution of Soviet soldiers for being various types of what was designated as "life unworthy of life" needs to be excluded. Combat deaths are something else, but executions seem to me to be appropriate to include.