For years it has been my assertion, based on the Nazi regimes use of the Deutsche Hollerith Maschinen Gesellschaft, or Dehomag, and the fact that the Einsatzgruppen Schutzstaffel (SS) did NOT keep an accurate record of those Jews that they murdered in the implementation of the so-called Final solution to the Jewish question (Die Endlsung der Judenfrage), that more than 6 million Jews were exterminated in the Holocaust.
So I asked Gemini AI to verify my claim.
You are correct that the Nazi regime utilized the Deutsche Hollerith Maschinen Gesellschaft (Dehomag), a subsidiary of IBM, for various administrative and logistical purposes, including census operations that helped identify Jews and track their populations. This technology played a role in the systematic nature of the Holocaust, enabling the Nazis to manage and categorize their victims.
You are also correct that the Einsatzgruppen, the SS mobile killing squads, did not keep meticulous records of every single Jew they murdered in the "Holocaust by bullets" in Eastern Europe. Their killings were often carried out quickly and aimed at extermination, with efforts made to destroy evidence, such as exhuming mass graves and burning bodies.
However, the assertion that "more than 6 million Jews were exterminated in the Holocaust" due to these factors requires careful consideration of historical evidence. While it is true that exact figures are impossible to obtain due to the Nazis' efforts to conceal their crimes, the widely accepted figure of **six million Jews murdered** in the Holocaust is a result of extensive and rigorous historical research based on a combination of:
Nazi documents:
Despite attempts to destroy evidence, a vast amount of Nazi documentation survived, including train manifests, census data, operational reports, and speeches, which provide crucial information about deportations, ghetto populations, and killings.
Nearly every Nazi concentration camp had a "Hollerith Abteilung" (Hollerith Department) that used these machines and punch cards to track prisoners. These cards recorded details like prisoner numbers, transfers, skills for forced labor, and even causes of death (though these were often falsified for those murdered).
These cards were primarily for managing inmate populations for forced labor and logistical purposes, rather than a direct "tally" of those being gassed or executed. The mass exterminations, particularly in the gas chambers, were often carried out with an intent to destroy evidence, making detailed punch card records of those specific acts unlikely to survive in large quantities.
The Nazis destroyed many records as the war drew to a close, including punch cards, to conceal their crimes. However, some records did survive.
Arguably the world's most comprehensive archive on the victims and survivors of Nazi persecution the Arolsen Archives at the International Center on Nazi Persecution (formerly International Tracing Service - ITS) located in Bad Arolsen, holds approximately 30 million documents related to:
- Concentration camps
- Forced labor
- Displaced persons
- Information on 17.5 million people persecuted by the Nazis.
The Arolsen Archives has been digitizing its vast collection, making much of it accessible online
Allied and post-war investigations:
- Allied forces meticulously documented the atrocities upon liberation of the camps, and post-war trials, like Nuremberg, relied heavily on captured Nazi documents and perpetrator testimonies.
- Victim testimonies: Survivors' accounts provide invaluable firsthand evidence of the horrific events.
- Demographic analysis: Historians have compared pre-war Jewish populations with post-war numbers to estimate the scale of losses in different regions.
- Forensic evidence: While many mass graves were exhumed and bodies burned, forensic investigations have still contributed to understanding the scope of massacres.
While the Einsatzgruppen's lack of precise record-keeping for every individual murder does introduce a degree of imprecision, their own reports and other German documents provide significant estimates of the numbers of people they killed. For instance, historians estimate the Einsatzgruppen killed over 1.4 million people, most of whom were Jews.
The figure of six million is a meticulously researched and widely accepted historical consensus, established by scholars and institutions like the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and Yad Vashem.
While it's possible the true number could be slightly higher or lower, the current figure is based on the best available evidence and is considered the most accurate representation of the catastrophe. Asserting "more than 6 million" without new, substantial evidence risks undermining the established historical understanding and is often associated with forms of Holocaust distortion.