Holocaust Questions II: The Six Million
Did the National Socialists murder six million Jews during The Second World War?
Most normal people would struggle to answer even the most basic questions about The Second World War, except one: How many Jews were killed in the ‘Holocaust’? The number six million would flash into their minds instantaneously.
Now if asked to recall from whence they learned that information they would in all likelihood have absolutely no idea — they were born knowing it.
Plato argued that learning is not the acquisition of new knowledge but rather the recollection of knowledge that the soul already possesses from its existence prior to birth [1]. In his theory of recollection, Plato posits that the soul is immortal and exists before it is united with the body, during which time it has access to the realm of forms — eternal, unchanging truths or ideals. When we learn, we are not discovering something entirely new but recollecting truths that the soul already knows. This process is triggered by sense perception and questioning, which act as reminders of the knowledge stored in the soul.
Thus, the six million is not knowledge of an evil per se but a refraction of the Platonic form of evil.
In the contemporary dialectic regarding The Second World War, that Hitler’s National Socialists killed six million Jews is central to the ‘Holocaust’. The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum defines the ‘Holocaust’ as:
“…the systematic, state-sponsored persecution and murder of six million Jews by the Nazi regime and its allies and collaborators.”
In affirming the six million figure, some authors [2] imply that the Jewish victims of The Second World War are to be afforded special status:
“There is no way fully to comprehend the genocidal murder of 6 million Jews, hundreds of thousands of Roma, and from 200,000 to 250,000 handicapped victims. And although these figures pale in comparison to the total World War II losses of 50 to 60 million, the genocidal victims of World War II in Europe stand uniquely alone in the course of modern history as symbols of supposedly civilized societies gone mad.” (Crowe, [2] p. 386)
The same author [2] does provides a more detailed breakdown of Jewish deaths by country which estimates the figure to be between 4,707,056 and 7,442,390.
Other sources adopt a slightly hedged position. Yad Vashem — The World Holocaust Remembrance Centre — defines the ‘Holocaust’ as an:
“…unprecedented genocide, total and systematic, perpetrated by Nazi Germany and its collaborators, with the aim of annihilating the Jewish people. […] By 1945 nearly six million Jews had been murdered.” [emphasis added]
Shermer and Grobman [3] state that the ‘Holocaust’ denotes the killing of:
“…about six million Jews…in an intentional and systematic fashion by the Nazis using a number of different means, including gas chambers.” (p. xv) [emphasis added]
Sources which prevaricate over the six million tend to fall back on the eminent Jewish ‘Holocaust’ historian Raul Hilberg [4] who in his extensive work The Destruction of the European Jews estimates the death toll to be 5.1 million.
Other academics have similarly concluded that the total number of Jews killed in the ‘Holocaust’ is lower than six million. In her book The War Against the Jews, Lucy Dawidowicz [5] argues that Jewish deaths total 5.9 million. In his 1953 work The Final Solution, Gerald Reitlinger [6] estimates the Jewish death toll to be between 4.2 and 4.58 million Jews — one of the lowest academic figures offered. Reitlinger “is not often cited by traditionalists today” (Dalton [7], p. 33)
Despite the divergent academic figures, the six million number is one of the core facts around which the modern conception of the ‘Holocaust’ orbits. On Holocaust Memorial Day (January 27th) we are encouraged to “remember the 6 million Jews murdered…”.
Thus, it is justified to state that this death toll is one essential element in a triptych of components which define the ‘Holocaust’. These are:
“(1) the killing of roughly six million Jews; (2) homicidal gas chambers; and (3) intentionality on the part of the Nazi leadership” (Dalton [7], p. 22).
Logically, if any of these components are false then the ‘Holocaust’ is false.
The six million number is now a fixture in ‘Holocaust’ education for children across the West. However, this was not always the case.
The world used to be told of the 11 million victims of the ‘Holocaust’ — six million Jews and five million non-Jews (or Poles). The source of this figure was the Jewish historian and so-called Nazi-hunter Simon Wiesenthal who claims to have tracked down Adolf Eichmann and Dr. Josef Mengele.
As a Jew, Wiesenthal was concerned that Gentiles have a buy-in to the ‘Holocaust’ story — a reason to be interested in what is, at its core, a Jewish concern. Wiesenthal popularised the 11-million death toll in the 1970s, a number which is said by Jewish academics to have “no basis in historical reality”. This 11 million figure was cited by US President Jimmy Carter in a 1978 speech celebrating the establishment of the US Holocaust Museum.
Eventually, things came to a head. Two Israeli historians Yisrael Gutman and Yehuda Bauer faced down Wiesenthal over his calculations at which point he admitted he had completely made up the five million Gentile deaths in order to, according to Jewish academic Deborah Lipstadt, “stimulate interest in the Holocaust among non-Jews”. She writes:
“He chose five million because it was almost, but not quite, as large as six million.”
Mainstream historiography has since reestablished the primacy of the six million which is now canon in ‘Holocaust’ literature and educational materials. The issue did briefly resurface in 2017 when President Donald Trump’s White House issued a statement on Holocaust Memorial Day which spoke of five million non-Jewish ‘Holocaust’ deaths — a likely dog whistle to White nationalists among his supporter base.
As it turned out, the ‘five million’ wasn’t the only thing Wiesenthal had fabricated. According to a recent biography [8], he had also made up much of his experience as a prisoner under the National Socialists during the war. Lipstadt writes:
“Immediately after liberation he said he had spent time in four camps. During the 1950s, the number grew to nine and then to eleven. By the early 1980s, it had reached twelve, including Auschwitz.”
He also told of a story about how he had been among a group of prisoners about to face a firing squad only to be pardoned at the last minute so he could return to camp and draw a birthday poster for Hitler.
Regardless, it is argued that “the round figure of 6 million admits of no serious doubt” (Laqueur [9], p. 139).
A detailed breakdown of the six million deaths — cause and location — are hard to come by in mainstream ‘Holocaust’ literature [7], which is surprising given it is described as the most well documented event in history. Hilberg [4] does provide such figures in arriving at his 5.1-million estimate:
Ghettoisation and General Privation: 800,000
Open-Air Shootings: 1,400,000
Camps: 2,900,000
———————
Total: 5,100,000
As evidence for the six million figure, mainstream ‘Holocaust’ literature usually relies on statistics, extrapolating death figures from pre- and post-war European census data on Jewish populations.
Revisionist argue that population data is not a reliable source on which to base the six million death toll with many Jews not being citizens of the countries in which they resided, changing their names or clandestinely emigrating en masse. It is believed that many Jews were deported from Germany to the Soviet Union [7].
Taking data on Jewish population numbers before and after The Second World War, Dalton [7] aims to undermine the six million losses. Published figures from the late 1800s to 1910 and from 1948 to 2018 show a steady growth in the global Jewish population. This data does not support the interpolation of a six million loss. A more realistic interpretation is that the Jewish population grew steadily over that period, as it continues to do.
In The Dissolution of Eastern European Jewry — a detailed examination of Jewish demographics before and after The Second World War — Walter Sanning [10] estimates that 14.7 Jews survived out of a pre-war population of 16 million. The largest populations postwar were in the United States (5.2 million), the Soviet Union (4.3 million) and Palestine (0.6 million).
Other documents tend to suggest lower death tolls than the official narrative. The “Death Books of Auschwitz” refer to a collection of Nazi records documenting registered prisoner deaths at the Auschwitz concentration camp complex. These records were discovered in Soviet archives after the war and record the deaths of approximately 69,000 registered prisoners at Auschwitz between July 1941 and December 1943. The mainstream narrative on Auschwitz claims 1.1 million deaths.
The main reason for the reliance on population statistics is the lack of physical evidence. Here we see the intersection of two important strands of the ‘Holocaust’ story: the six million deaths and the destruction of Jewish corpses. According to the official narrative, the Germans buried, then exhumed, and then destroyed the majority of the bodies of the six million Jewish victims.
One such operation was “Action 1005” in which the National Socialists allegedly opened up the mass graves in occupied Soviet territory into which over one million Jewish corpses had been dumped after being shot. As Longerich [11] explains:
“The mass graves were opened up, the corpses were burned on piles of wood or steel grilles, then the ashes were examined for valuable objects, gold teeth above all, before the bones were ground and the ashes scattered or buried. Then all other traces that could have indicated the places of execution were removed, and the murder scene dug over and planted.” (p. 410).
Similar actions are said to have occurred at the alleged death camps of Auschwitz, Treblinka, Belzec and Sobibor.
The six million figure has a fascinating history in respect to the plight of European Jews. The earliest known mention of six million Jews dates back to 1850 in an article published in the Christian Spectator (January 16th) in which the global population is listed as one billion of which “6,000,000 are Jews” [Dalton [12], p 21). Another article published in the New York Times in 1869 (September 12th) reports that “there are now living about 6,000,000 Israelites, nearly one half of whom live in Europe” [Dalton [12], p 21].
The six million figure was also cited in respect to Jews during The First World War. On October 13, 1919, The American Hebrew magazine carried an article titled The Crucifixion of Jews Must Stop! in which the author Martin H. Glynn lamented that the “six million Jewish men and women are starving across the seas.” The article states that six million Jews in Europe faced dire conditions, including disease and starvation. Numerous other references to six million Jews were published during The First World War alongside allusions to “a holocaust” decades before the term was popularised [7].
As to the etymology of the six million figure, clues can be sought in Jewish numerology — or gematria. While the specific figure of six million does not hold particular significance in traditional Jewish numerology or mythology, the number six does. Its most significant association is found in the Biblical story of Genesis in which God created the universe in six days followed by rest on the seventh, or Sabbath.
Additionally, six is linked to the concept of connection. The Hebrew letter vav (ו) — which has a numerical value of six — serves as a conjunction in Hebrew grammar, often translated as and. This function highlights its role in linking words and ideas, emphasising unity and continuity. In the mystical visions of the prophet Isaiah, seraphim (angels) are described as having six wings, which some interpretations suggest represent their ability to connect and unite with the Divine.
Judaic teachings also posit that from the existential framework that God established in the world, it naturally follows that the number six represents a stage of preparation. This concept is anchored in the six directions, each serving as a precursor to the ultimate revelation of the true existential core. The essence of an entity remains concealed, revealed only through its various manifestations, each one a step toward unveiling its fundamental reality. These directions collectively strive toward a singular purpose: the revelation of the existential point, the seventh, the sacred and central Holy Palace.
The number six is also associated with Jews through the Star of David. The midrash — a Jewish method for interpreting the Bible — highlights how six righteous figures from the tribe of Judah including David, Hezekiah, Daniel and the future Messiah, were each associated with six distinct virtues. This parallels the six points of the Star of David, which symbolise divine attributes, preparation and completeness in reaching the seventh, central point — representing divine unity and ultimate revelation.
From an examination of the six million figure one can observe that the ‘Holocaust’ has two different instantiations: the mythic and the academic. The ‘Holocaust’ is both a story with characters and lore, and a subject of historical and empirical enquiry. While academics who have spent years poring over documentation conclude that less than six million Jews were killed, the story of the six million remains intact.
The mythic and academic aspects of the ‘Holocaust’ are akin to Stephen Jay Gould’s Non-Overlapping Magisteria [13], whereby science and religion represent separate realms of inquiry, each addressing distinct types of questions. In this conceptualisation, science and religion — operating in discrete epistemological realms — need not come into conflict with each other.
No matter how many empirical and rhetorical salvoes are fired in its direction, the six million remains. It is bulletproof.
For the open-minded academic reader, the question of plausibility should be central:
“The Second World War in Europe ran from September 1939 to May 1945—a period of 5 years and 8 months, or slightly more than 2,000 days. If the Germans killed 6 million Jews in the course of those 2,000 days, they must have averaged 3,000 Jews per day, every single day, for the full extent of the war. This is a truly astounding statistic: 3,000 Jews murdered every day, by some combination of gassing, shooting, and deprivation—for nearly six straight years. Is this plausible?” (Dalton [12], pp. 14-15)
Some will make up their own minds, many will have their minds made up for them.
[1] Cooper, J.M., & Hutchinson, D.S. (1997). Plato: complete works. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company.
[2] Crowe, D.M. (2022). The holocaust: roots, history, and aftermath. Abingdon: Routledge.
[3] Shermer, M., & Grobman, A. (2000). Denying history. Oakland: University of California Press.
[4] Hilberg, R. (2003). The destruction of the European jews (3rd edition). New Haven: Yale University Press.
[5] Dawidowicz, L. (1975). The war against the Jews. New York: Holt, Reinhart, and Winston.
[6] Reitlinger, G. (1953). The final solution (1st edition). New York: Beechhurst.
[7] Dalton, T. (2020). Debating the holocaust: a new look at both sides (4th edition). Uckfield: Castle Hill Publishers.
[8] Segev, T. (2010). Simon Wiesenthal: the life and legends. New York: Doubleday.
[9] Laqueur, W. (2001). The holocaust encyclopedia. Yale: Yale University Press.
[10] Sanning, W. (2015). The dissolution of European Jewry. Uckfield: Castle Hill Publishers.
[11] Longerich, P. (2010). Holocaust. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
[12] Dalton, T. (2024). The holocaust: an introduction. London: ARMREG.
[13] Gould, S.J. (1999). Rocks of ages: science and religion in the fullness of life. New York: Ballantine Books.
Work camps existed, death camps did not.
The Holohoax is a load of BS. There weren’t even 6 million Jews in Europe. The Holohoax gives them legitimacy. Without it they’re just a bunch of international pirates, thieves & squatters.