The term "the Holocaust" (from the Greek hólos, "whole" and kaustós, "burnt") is often used to describe the killing of approximately six million European Jews, as part of a program of deliberate extermination planned and executed by the National Socialist German Workers Party in Germany led by Adolf Hitler.[277][278] Many scholars do not include other groups in the definition of the Holocaust, reserving the term to refer only to the genocide of the Jews.[279]