How can the number of jews killed in the Holocaust be accepted as "FACT" if the numbers keep changing?

Question

First it was 4 million, then it was 1.1 million. Now it's 6 million, and some Jewish historians are suggesting that it was 9 million.

If you agree that more studies lead to the change in numbers, then why do historians in Europe go to jail for questioning the number killed?

Are you aware that concentration camps have been used by many countries in times of war? In WWII the USA had Japanese American concentration camps, however this doesn't mean that they were death camps.

Answer 1

If only one Jew was killed it was one too many. Does it really matter what the number was? It was an unthinkable atrocity that never should have been allowed to occur.

Answer 2

Holocaust is the term generally used to describe the killing of approximately six million European Jews during World War II, as part of a program of deliberate extermination planned and executed by the National Socialist German Workers Party in Germany led by Adolf Hitler.

While there were other groups of people killed by the Nazi regime, scholars typically do not include them in the definition of the Holocaust, defining it as the genocide of the Jews, or what the Nazis called the "Final Solution of the Jewish Question." Taking into account all the victims of Nazi persecution, the death toll is estimated at between 9 and 11 million.

Please see the link below for further reading.

Answer 3

Well, its hard to determine the EXACT number of jews, because there wasn't really an official tally (or maybe it was destroyed, etc). Besides, they killed jews all over the place, whether its out in the open or hidden, so it is outright impossible to get the exact amount of victims. However, I think its definitely a fact taht more than 3 Millions jews were killed, alhough 9 million might be a bit stretched, to say the least.

Answer 4

The numbers that I've always heard since junior high was 4 million jews and approximately 2 million others (gypies, homosexuals, and handicapped). Some have also included the estimated 1 to 2 million Russian civilians killed by the Nazis. Perhaps that is why you've seen conflicting numbers.

Answer 5

I do not think it keeps changing. It's always been estimated as 6 million souls lost in the Holocaust. How can they know for sure the exact number of deaths with the total destruction of humanity there?!! I suggest you don't get hung up on the exact number.....if you are .....you are missing the point of what happened during this era!

Answer 6

It's a fact that millions of Jews were killed, just like the genocides in Rwanda, Darfur and Bosnia killed millions. The numbers aren't settled, but the idea is as solid as ever.

Answer 7

During the time, Jewish people in the area were killed and no record was kept of who. Others slipped away into countries that were not having "Nazi" problems. Then there was the fact that property was taken and family documents burned...records no longer existed. If everyone in a family was killed and there were no records, how could they be reported as dead or missing?

Answer 8

There are people still alive that witnessed that carnage,all the bodies piled so high of skeletons because they were starved before they were killed.So many bodies,millions of bones,and prisons just full of people who looked like death as they had hardly any life left in them,most welcomed death.Maybe you should have been there to count them all so you could be sure how many there were.As for the rest of us who have compassion for them poor souls I believe what they say about that evil part of history.

Answer 9

I doubt the Nazi's kept track of every single Jew they killed, so there isn't an approximate number, but historians are still finding records of more people, so it makes sense that the numbers would change.

Answer 10

it is a fact that jews were killed in ww2...millions of them...as far as an exact number....that will probably never be known...entire generations of families were wiped out...suspected jews were killed..records destroyed and burned by the nazis...its kind of like guessing how many cars are in a junkyard on a given day for the entire planet....it can be guesstimated...but you wont get an exact number....but the FACT remains...millions of jews were exterminated

Answer 11

Because the birth records that are necessary for an "exact" number were destroyed by the Nazis for this very reason - so nobody would be able to document it.

As result, historians have to guess based on limited, available evidence.

Why does this make you so angry?