In ancient times, the term "holocaust" was used in a religious context to refer to a type of sacrificial offering in which an animal or object was completely burned on an altar as an offering to a deity. The idea behind this practice was that the offering was entirely devoted and sacrificed to the god, and the smoke rising from the burning was seen as a way to communicate with the divine.
Over time, the word "holocaust" began to be used in a broader sense to refer to any event or situation involving widespread destruction and loss of life. However, it was the systematic genocide of six million Jews by the Nazi regime during World War II that gave the term its most significant and devastating meaning.
In the context of the Holocaust, the Nazis used the term "final solution" (Endlösung) to refer to their plan to exterminate the Jewish population. This term was euphemistically employed to mask the true nature of their intentions and the industrial-scale murder that they were carrying out.
Therefore, while the word "holocaust" has its roots in the Greek language and originally meant "entirely burned" in a sacrificial context, it has come to be associated with the systematic genocide of the Jewish people by the Nazis during World War II. In this context, it does not carry any connotation of a sacred cause but rather symbolizes one of the darkest chapters in human history.