How are estimates of death in the Holocaust calculated, and why do some people believe the figures are lower?

Question

How are death tolls in the Holocaust estimated? How acurate are these estimates? Why do some people doubt the validity of the figures? I read somewhere that the actual number of deaths was much lower than six million. Do the esitmates include only victims of the gas chamber? Experiments? Executions? etc.

Maybe I should be more clear, I didn't want broad generalizations. What I am asking for is the nuts and bolts of reconstructing population estimates, how is that done, what are the control methods so that they know that there estimates are accurate. How do they insure accuracy in accumilating the data? Is it just a matter of adding up numbers or are the taking a small amount and extrapollating what the numbers should be, did they use census info, etc. etc. To clarify I am not denying the 6 mil figure, I just want to know what the statistical methods and source info that was used to arrive at it.

Answer 1

Careful, by asking this question many would put you as scum and on the same level as the President of Iran.
In Canada you could be fined by the government for questioning the Holocaust, you definitely would for saying it didn't happen.

I'm not sure how exactly the estimates were made, but I know that people have to agree with some of them or else.

Why do people question it? As said above, the numbers don't seem to meet up with the population numbers of the time.

My personal reason for questioning it? Any time something is stated and people get angry or attack anyone that questions it, I think there must be something wrong. If something is correct and sure, then it should stand up to any scrutiny, so having people question it is great, they can do the research and see its right. The Holocaust is a subject where you are attacked for just asking questions about it, that makes me curious as to why people are attacked for looking into it.

EDIT

To make it clear, the part of it that I am wondering about is not the number of people killed by the number of them that were Jews. That's the big issue that people attack you for asking about.

Answer 2

First of all, do not get into those revisionist history propaganda crap if you want credibility. Next up, the Nazis (around the camps and such, since most were just soldiers that had little to nothing to do with the Holocaust) kept impressive records of who they had, whether by number or by name. Also, taking into account that Jews from other countries besides Germany were killed (kind of blows many of those revionist theories out of the water), many mass graves, death camps, concentration camps, and others such things were found throughout Central and Eastern Europe. Also, the estimates tend to be around 6-7 million people that were killed, many were Jews, yes, but others included Gypsies, mentally handicapped people, sick people (even temporarily), Catholics, etc.

Answer 3

The victim count is based partially on Nazi records (they kept fairly decent records of their activities), partially on personal accounts and some guesstimation. There is some confusion in the numbers because not only did the Nazis eventually have a genocidal policy towards those perceived to be of Jewish descent, they also went after Gypsies and "mentally ill" people. The Nazi's didn't just go after Jews living in Germany, they largely went after all Jews living in mainland Europe. The Warsaw Ghetto was one of the more notorious ones, where they actually crammed nearly a half-million people into an area of about one square mile. Over 100,000 died from starvation or disease and another 250,000 were shipped off to Treblinka to be executed. It is estimated that another 50,000 were killed or sent to a camp to die after the final uprising that led to the closing and burning of the Ghetto. The six-million is generally considered a low number for the total number the Nazi's killed during their reign of terror. Strangely, Stalin is estimated to have killed more than four times as many during his tenure but little is spoken about that.

Answer 4

The estimates have plenty of holes in them,lots of people that got killed werent killed in the camps so werent initially counted,also a lot of the ones killed by nazi splinter sects in russian captured territories werent accounted for for a long time, and some that the red russians killed,are added to the ones killed by the nazi..also some camp oficers exaggerated the count to make the ever increasing quota's from hitler,while others did it to hide the fact that they were siphoning off a few here and there to save them from extermination..and still others to make it seem their slave labour was producing more than it was at less cost. revizionists aside,the count is probably a quite lowball estimate for the number really killed or that died as a direct result of Nazi policysregarding jews and other undersirable races/groups (communists,homosexuals,mentally or physically handicapped,etc)..the numbers really arent that important what matteres is the systematic slaughter of people as a goverment policy did happen,and still does in some parts of the world.

Answer 5

The SIX Million refers to ONLY the number of Jews killed during the WAR itself. There were another six million or more NON Jewish civilians killed by the Nazis during the wr.

There were 1.5 million Jewish children under the age of 13 alone. These numbers do not ONLY include those killed in camps because many did not make it to the camps.

For example..in Telechany, Russia, my grandfather's hometown..in August of 1941 the Nazis aided by the local villagers made the remaining 2000 Jewish men women and children dig their own mass graves ( 3 of them) on the old Glass Factory street in the middle of town and then lined them up and shot them. A small plaque on the side of the building is their gravestone that doesn't even mention they were Jews. At one time in this town, more than 10,000 Jews lived..but they had been FLEEING since before the Nazis due to Jewish persecution that had been growing like a cancer in Europe. I would not be alive if my grandfather had not left a little more than 20 years earlier. Almost all his relatives were killed.
There were many towns across Europe that gave up their Jewish inhabitants in that way. And the records for the number of dead come from many sources, most of them from Nazi records themselves.

The estimates are considered LOW by many others, too.

There was perhaps 12-13 million dead ( including Jehovah's Witnesses, the handicapped, political prisoners, Gypsies, Communists (the "godless' Commies" were the NAZIS' biggest rivals) not just the 6 million Jews that were specifically targeted for elimination.

Half the world's Jewish population was killed.

The Jewish population of the world has only just now begun to reach the pre-World War 2 level.

EDIT to Yun..I hope you will use the internet to research this because actually the populations of many of these towns actually STILL have people who are unaccounted for who were not listed as the dead/victims of the Holocaust..that is also why the numbers continue to RISE. And with the new records being released, it is believed they may rise significantly.

For a number of years after the war as families continued to be reuinted with members believed to be lost, there was hesitancy to raise the estimated number of dead for that reason. However, with computer matching and sites such as Yad Vashem, census records and Nazi records, there is a much greater sense of achieving a realistic estimate. The number of Jewish children killed may rise to upward of 3 million and the number of Jewish dead total could reach 8 million once all the records are opened..it is not likely they would reverse since the estimates were based on lower and less reliable statstical accounting ..at a time when Europe was still reeling and many were not even willing to admit this had happened in their midst. Since the United States could have also saved many more if they had lifted the special quota limts on JEWS that had been enacted in the 20's related to the massive fleeing from Eurpe of Jew hate ..there is also a sense of guilt on the part of many Americans of that era.

My own grandmother witnessed her father, a rabbi..beaten to death by an angry mob after being drug from his home on an Easter Sunday..before the Nazis ever came to that part of Europe..they fled the Jew hate the Nazis used to their advantage. The Nazis did not invent the tidal wave of antisemitism..they fueled it from a smouldering pile of crap to a raging inferno of hell on earth.

And they fed that inferno with the blood of millions..and numbed their consciences with the cloak of denial that still lives today.

Answer 6

The Germans were customarily efficient and made records galore. Those lists of names are used, along with accounts of people gone missing, and differences in population estimates. It is widely accepted that around 6 million people (Jews and all) were killed.

Answer 7

They take a guess. There were not that many Jews in Germany.