"Holocaust" was common in Sci-Fi of the early 1970s and meant apocalyptic destruction by fire typically from nuclear war. A very common plot theme.
The first use of the word in the context of Jews and world war II that I remember hearing was the miniseries "Holocaust: Story of the Family Weiss" with James Woods in 1979. And then really no further mention of it much until the late '80s. As if a seed was planted and it went underground to germinate until it was far enough back in the collective conscious to be a plausible topic of History.
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