General Discussion clarification for questions

[Robert]

Contributor "Mvpenn8" disputes the internationally accepted figure of 6 million Jews murdered in the Holocaust, as if that figure were an exact count. It is an estimate based on compelling evidence. 

'[...] Victims

Six million

The vast majority of scholars, institutions, and one Nazi official[57] estimate between five and six million Jews perished during the Holocaust.[58] With approximately 4.5 million Jewish victims' names collected by Yad Vashem,[59] numerous documents and archives discovered after the war gave meticulous accounts of the exterminations that took place at the death camps (such as Auschwitz and Treblinka).[60]

Jewish population

The 1932 American Jewish Yearbook estimates the total number of Jews in the world at 15,192,218, of whom 9,418,248 resided in Europe. However, the 1947 yearbook states: "Estimates of the world Jewish population have been assembled by the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (except for the United States and Canada) and are probably the most authentic available at the present time. The figures reveal that the total Jewish population of the world has decreased by one-third from about 16,600,000 in 1939 to about 11,000,000 in 1946 as the result of the annihilation by the Nazis of more than five and a half million European Jews. In Europe only an estimated 3,642,000 remain of the total Jewish pre-war population of approximately 9,740,000." These numbers are also consistent with the findings of the Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry, Appendix III, in 1946.

Nazi documentation

The Nazis used figures of between 9 and 11 million for the Jewish population of Europe, as evidenced in the notes of the Wannsee Conference. In fact, the Nazis methodically recorded the ongoing reduction of the Jewish population, as in the Korherr Report, which gave the status of the Final Solution through December 1942. The Höfle Telegram was sent by Hermann Höfle on 11 January 1943 to Adolf Eichmann in Berlin and detailed the number of Jews murdered in the concentration camps.[61] In the year 1942 alone, the telegram lists 1,274,166 Jews were exterminated[61] in the four camps of Aktion Reinhard.

The Korherr Report, compiled by an SS statistician, gave a conservative total of 2,454,000 Jews deported to extermination camps or murdered by the Einsatzgruppen. The complete status reports of the Einsatzgruppen death squads were found in the archives of the Gestapo when it was searched by the U.S. Army, and the accuracy attested to by the former Einsatzgruppen members who testified during war crime trials and at other times. These reports alone list an additional 1,500,000 or so murders during mass shootings, the vast majority of these victims were Jews. Further, surviving Nazi documentation spells out their plans to murder the Jews of Europe (see the Wannsee Conference), recorded the trains arriving at various death camps, and included photographs and films of many atrocities. [...]'

(For citations, see webpage.)

Extract source:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evidence_a..._Holocaust

The Wannsee conference took place 20 January 1942:

'[...] Approximately 11 million Jews will be involved in the final solution of the European Jewish question, distributed as follows among the individual countries: [...]

Under proper guidance, in the course of the final solution
the Jews are to be allocated for appropriate labor in the East.
Able-bodied Jews, separated according to sex, will be taken in
large work columns to these areas for work on roads, in the
course of which action doubtless a large portion will be
eliminated by natural causes.

    The possible final remnant will, since it will undoubtedly
consist of the most resistant portion, have to be treated
accordingly, because it is the product of natural selection and
would, if released, act as a the seed of a new Jewish revival
(see the experience of history.) [...]

In conclusion the different types of possible solutions were
discussed, during which discussion both Gauleiter Dr. Meyer and
State Secretary Dr. Buehler took the position that certain
preparatory activities for the final solution should be carried
out immediately in the territories in question, in which process
alarming the populace must be avoided. [...]'

Extract source:
"The Wannsee Protocol": This English text of the Wannsee protocol is based on the official U.S. government translation prepared for evidence in trials at Nuremberg [...] Substantial revisions to the Nuremberg text have been made to add clarity and, in some cases, to correct mistakes in an obviously hasty translation. These revisions were made by Dan Rogers of the University of South Alabama. [...]:
https://fcit.usf.edu/holocaust/resource/...cWanns.htm

Alleging that the evidence given by Nazis at the Nuremberg Trials was under duress, devoid of any evidence to prove that, is not acceptable. 

“Nuremberg Trial Proceedings Volume 11” of 15 April 1946:  
EXTRACTS FROM the evidence of Rudolf Hoess:

COL. AMEN:
I will omit the first paragraph and start with Paragraph 2:

“I have been constantly associated with the administration of concentration camps since 1934, serving at Dachau until 1938; then as Adjutant in Sachsenhausen from 1938 to 1 May 1940, when I was appointed Commandant of Auschwitz.

I commanded Auschwitz until 1 December 1943, and estimate that at least 2,500,000 victims were executed and exterminated there by gassing and burning, and at least another half million succumbed to starvation and disease making a total dead of about 3,000,000.

This figure represents about 70 or 80 percent of all persons sent to Auschwitz as prisoners, the remainder having been selected and used for slave labor in the concentration camp industries; included among the executed and burned were approximately 20,000 Russian prisoners of war (previously screened out of prisoner-of-war cages by the Gestapo) who were delivered at Auschwitz in Wehrmacht transports operated by regular Wehrmacht officers and men.

The remainder of the total number of victims included about 100,000 German Jews, and great Numbers of citizens, mostly Jewish, from Holland, France, Belgium, Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Greece, or other countries. We executed about 400,000 Hungarian Jews alone at Auschwitz in the summer of 1944.”

That is all true, Witness?

HOESS:
Yes, it is.


Extracts source:
“Nuremberg Trial Proceedings Volume 11” of 15 April 1946:
http://avalon.law.yale.edu/imt/04-15-46.asp

'At another, later gassing--also in autumn 1941--Grabner* ordered me to pour Zyklon B into the opening because only one medical orderly had shown up. During a gassing Zyklon B had to be poured through both openings of the gas-chamber room at the same time. This gassing was also a transport of 200-250 Jews, once again men, women and children. As the Zyklon B--as already mentioned--was in granular form, it trickled down over the people as it was being poured in. They then started to cry out terribly for they now knew what was happening to them. I did not look through the opening because it had to be closed as soon as the Zyklon B had been poured in. After a few minutes there was silence. After some time had passed, it may have been ten to fifteen minutes, the gas chamber was opened. The dead lay higgledy-piggedly all over the place. It was a dreadful sight.

* Maximillian Grabner, Head of Political Department, Auschwitz'.

Source:
From the statement of Hans Stark, registrar of new arrivals, Auschwitz.
Quoted in “The Good Old Days” - E. Klee, W. Dressen, V. Riess, The Free Press, NY, 1988, p. 255: 
https://fcit.usf.edu/holocaust/resource/...cAusc2.htm

Germans Forced To View Nazi atrocities at Buchenwald Concentration Camp, Ettersberg, Germany, April 16, 1945:
The following film is of 2 minutes, 46 seconds duration. Click its Start button located in the center of its screen; and I would also suggest you click its full-screen button. (The German civilians are seen starting at one minute, seven seconds into the video).
(Distressing scenes - Viewer discretion advised!): 
http://www.criticalpast.com/video/656750...people-cry


I believe it is important to also mention the Soviet casualties:
A study by the Russian Academy of Sciences estimates total Soviet population losses due the Second World War at 26.6 million:
https://web.archive.org/web/202104260325...viet_union