Why does the number of Jews supposedly killed during the Holocaust keep going up?

Question

I'm not denying that the Holocaust happened. But why was it that when I was a kid, we were told that Hitler killed 2 million Jews? Then it was 4 million, then 5, then 6, now 8 or even 10?

Answer 1

The latest number they are claiming is 11 million.
I notice that it always takes a sharp jump just before any American or Israeli acts in the Middle East need to be justified by invoking the memory of the Holocaust.

I am not sure, but I suspect you will see a campaign to exterminate the Palestinian Ghetto called the Gaza Strip.
-------------
Sorry people, but she is right about the numbers shifting.
During the early seventies it was 6 million including everybody, by the mid seventies it was still 6 million but it was claimed to be Jews only.
Notice the shifting from 3 million total in the camps to the number camp deaths becoming 6 million jewish, the estimated total of Jews who died..

The propagandists this time are taking the German (Wannsee Conference) estimates of how many Jewish existed in Europe and presenting that as the number killed in the camps.
So now the new number from the Israeli and US Governments is being presented as 11 million Jews, and only Jews.

You can thumb it down all you like, that does not make it any less the truth that the numbers of the dead have become the victims of the propaganda machinery.

Answer 2

You're not listening closely. Since Jews were the largest group killed sometimes the murders now are quoted as all those killed with them or at that time. Example there were 10 million Jews & other groups murdered..., etc.
Just like Katrina or even in Iraq exact figures weren't known at the time it was originally discovered or how many others were targets or presumed alive when they weren't. Also other variables as some just disappeared & no knowledge of whether dead or alive. Some died on the way to camps, some died days, weeks, even months & yrs. after leaving the camps as a direct result of what they suffered while in them.
Kinda like now they're discovering the impact on the first responders to 9/11 who survived & further down the road there's still more. But all this current tech & medicine wasn't available then. Even today it takes time to find out all the ramifications. Thus the info then came in bits & pieces. So there was a lot of guess work. Time also leaves fewer traces so there's no way to say an exact number.
But any life taken w/o reason is wrong. To demean it by worrying about the exact numbers is wrong as well. They & many others that shouldn't have died did & it's important we remember so we have the strength of character to fight it once reconized.

Answer 3

I agree with you. I'm not denying the validity of the Holocaust or the "6 million killed," but I'd like to see these records. I'm told that the Nazis kept meticulous records of deaths in the concentration camps...but I'd like to see them myself. Maybe the number came about the same way the Rwandan genocide number did: estimates from organizations in immediate collaboration with the country itself. Some authorities still don't agree on the exact amount killed though. I don't know if there is a list of Tutsi killed, but it seems like many people tend to believe that number. But I'm in the same boat with you: I question it, and I'm labeled antisemitic as well. I think it's because people want to believe what they've been taught...and even straying away a little bit from their teachings scare them, so they label you as the "anti" person as a defense mechanism. It's almost like being called unchristian if you didn't vote Republican (personal experience!) or racist if you start talking about equal rights. People like their worlds all neatly wrapped up, and if someone is questioning the wrapping or trying to venture outside of that box...well, that won't do at all.

Answer 4

When you were a kid? Well, how old are you now? It's always been 6,000,000 Jews and about 5,000,000 gypsys, homosexuals, Catholic priests and nuns, etc. In 1939, there were 16,728,000 million Jews in the world; in 1948, there were 11,000,000 (approximately). So, even if one accepts the 2,000,000 figure or the 4,000,000 figure, it doesn't explain what happened to the other 4,000,000 or 2,000,000. Where did they go? And why does this matter? Are you saying that if it was less than 6,000,000, then that's okay?

Answer 5

It was never 2, 4 or 5, except during the Holocaust, and numbers weren't being put out then. And nobody has ever said 8 or 10. It sounds like you're making claims to try to deny that it ever happened.

Answer 6

*blinks* its 6 million. Its always been 6 million. But the jews weren't the only ones killed in the Holocaust so if you add the other murders Hitler perpetrated, the number is more.

Answer 7

Hottie,

You've been asking questions like this about the holocaust for a while, haven't you?

Are you SURE you aren't "downgrading" the holocaust?


And to answer your question... Well, just think about it.

THEY KEEP FINDING MORE BODIES.

Just in June,

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19053913/

Almost thirty thousand Jew bodies right there. Even 65 years later, people are still discovering mass graves of butchered Jews...

...Sounds like it could be WELL OVER 6 million. Oh, and its six million JEWS, 10 million in total (Polish catholics, gays, blacks etc.)

Answer 8

It was 6 million Jews. That number has always been the one quoted.

How do we know it was 6 million? Because the Nazis were impeccable record keepers.

Answer 9

It has always been 6 million. At least that is the number always used. Whoever told you 2 or 4, is way wrong.

Answer 10

I was born in 1945. It was 6 million then and is still 6 million. It will always be 6 million despite attempts by Iranian muslims and Nazi's to try to change history.

We will not forget.

Answer 11

Are an anti-Semitic? No, 6 million Jews and 2 million non-Jews.