Is it normal that i don't believe details of the holocaust?

I was always taught in school that 6 million Jews were killed during the Holocaust. That was the number. THE NUMBER.

As I grew older and understood more about wartime propaganda, I started to doubt that this was really true. It would be too easy to inflate this number in the media - especially with the primitive technology of the time. And the numbers are impossible to verify. It's not like there is a checklist of names that we can go back and count every single one.

And the sheer number of that many people would surely cause many logistical problems. We'll say that the average human body weighs about 150 lbs. That would mean that there would be 450,000 tons of human waste to dispose of.

I recently heard an interview on the radio with someone who brought up these points and many others. The interviewer, instead of addressing the points directly, suggested that his guest had mental problems and asked if he was seeing a psychiatrist. Then he tried to change the topic.

I don't doubt that Jews were taken from their homes and held in prisons where some inevitably died. That is documented historical fact. But I have my doubts about the details of what was actually happening at the concentration camps. And I also wonder why it is so taboo, or offensive even, to have those doubts.

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Based on 46 votes (16 yes)
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Comments ( 32 )
  • Murun

    Also many millions of others they considered 'undesirable'.. Homosexuals, artists, left-wingers, disabled people.

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  • _Mehhhh_

    I think it's frowned upon because many "Holocaust deniers" claim that the extermination of Jews is a partially/completely fabricated narrative in order for Jewish people to gain sympathy and advance agendas.

    When you think of it like that, it's quite an offensive accusation.

    And there is more than enough evidence that it happened. Auschwitz and all the other concentration/death camps weren't just built (complete with gas chambers that are still there today) just for show, or secretly built by Jews to push a very big lie.

    On top of this, you have the testimonials from survivors, documents from the prison camps, and probably very accurate censuses of how many Jews were in Germany (and surrounding countries) Pre-WW2 and how many were there after. It has also been found that descendants of Holocaust survivors are much more susceptible to trauma-based mental illness, as they can inherit a traumatized mindset being raised by (no other word for it really) completely broken parents and grandparents...

    And I think that last point is why it's considered so offensive to some. You're a Jewish person, and you've grown up seeing your grandparents mentally destroyed by PTSD; having panic attacks, sudden eratic changes in mood, hypervigilence, extreme fears about the future... and then you go out or online and you hear people say this about The Holocaust being a lie/exaggeration? it's so wrong and fucked up.

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  • VirgilManly

    I don't understand why it's hard to believe. Consider in the previous WW there was a total of over 17 million deaths. Suddenly 6 million holocaust victims doesn't seem that many. Also consider that the Germans are efficient. They also burned many of the bodies to dispose of them as well as using mass graves. It really isn't hard to belive such an atrocity could happen. Also consider that you are basically calling any survivors liars.

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  • bobobob

    Fuck you you shit head

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  • you_go_glen_coco

    Jew never know

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  • MR.mr

    It was 6 million jews but there were more than just jews sent to the death camps, the total number of holocaust victims was significantly higher.

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    • Ah, then that begs the question: why is it that we generally only hear about the iconic "6 MILLION JEWS"? Is their pain really worth so much more than that of the gentiles?

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      • MR.mr

        The jews death are more known because if I'm not mistaken they were the largest single group executed.
        but others sent to the death camps included,
        people of Slavic origin
        gypsies
        Jehovah witnesses
        and several other groups I can't remember off hand.

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        • My point is that is extremely distasteful to harp on about "the deaths of 6,000,000 innocent Jews" when a great deal of others suffered as well.

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    • Okay, if you say so. While we're at it, let's say fluffy kittens and doughy eyed puppy dogs too.

      Millions of them. No! Billions!

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      • RoseIsabella

        Doughy eyed puppies? Oh my Lord, that sounds horrific! I think you mean doey eyed puppies.

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  • pizzabrowniesushi

    have known too many people who went through the holocaust.the shit that happened to them is too fucked up to be fiction. there is no way all of them made it up.

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  • Scorch

    i think Occam's razor is a legitimate way to narrow down your dilemma.

    was the holocaust a elaborate ruse by "the jews" to gain sympathy,
    cause to be honest pulling off a accusation that big would have been quite the challenge.

    or was a nation that factually subjugated other nations, annexed other nations, rained missiles down on other nations, invaded other nations, and was set in a goal to make a pure race, really that unbelievable that they would round up and murder 6 million "undesirables"?

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    • No, I don't think it was an "elaborate ruse", as in it is a big lie and the Holocaust never happened.

      But I do think they are gaining sympathy by exaggerating certain elements of it. And these exaggerations continue to go unchallenged because it is impossible to look at them with an objective eye for historical accuracy.

      So to answer your question - somewhere between those two.

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  • Hyakume

    150 pounds is too much. Concentration camps had children and all Jews were extremely underfed. I am currently a 21 years old male and weight 120 and am currently well fed. Most Jews couldn't even be given solid food after being rescued because of the size change the stomach receiced during those times. You also need to account for Jews killed before they even got to the concentration camps.

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  • foods-dangerous-to-dogs

    I dont know. I used to have doubts about that too. But I think I tricked myself into having doubts about it because the holocaust is so awful and I wish I didnt believe it happened tbh

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  • factcheck

    What other documented historical facts do you refuse to believe?

    Do you deny that Native Americans once lived all across North America, before Europeans invaded and eventually stole almost all of their land, forcing them to live on small reservations? Do you deny that there was ever a time when white people weren't the majority? Do you deny that there was Revolutionary War, to gain independence from England?

    Do you deny that millions of black people were slaves in the United States before the Civil War? Do you deny that the Civil War happened? Do you deny that segregation was common in many parts of the country for a century after the Civil War?

    What else do you deny about World War II? Do you deny that the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor? Do you deny that the US dropped two nuclear bombs in Japan? Do you deny that the US sent hundred of thousands of Japanese-American citizens to internment camps during the war?

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  • McBean

    450,000 tons of dead bodies? No problem. Dig a ditch with a backhoe. Push the pile of bodies into the ditch with a bulldozer. Cover up with dirt. Fast, efficient, and easy.

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  • riffraffy

    Now ain't that just quacking crazy?

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  • mysistersshadow

    I thought the number was 3 million. But whatever the germans kept meticulous records so it may be possible to count alot of names. Is the problem with the number? Becos the Soviets say they had 10 million die in the war... do you doubt that number? In Cambodia Pol Pot is said to have killed 2 million how about that number? Also there were many jews that were killed outside of concentration camps during various pograms do they count? To me considering the efficency of the germans its not hard to believe but your entitled to your opinion.

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    • bobobob

      The 6 million number is common knowledge. Maybe get your GED.

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      • mysistersshadow

        Sorry my degree isn't in geopolitics and I really don't care.

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        • bobobob

          Of course you don't care. You only care about you and don't know common knowledge because you're uneducated. Get the GED.

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          • mysistersshadow

            I get that your infatuated with me and frustrated but honestly there are alot of ppl here you could follow around that might enjoy the attention. Me I think your just a dick and remain unflattered.

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            • bobobob

              I don't get infatuated with women. I'm gay. I'm just calling out all the assholes on here and you're one of them. It's about time someone put you internet bullies in their places. I will call you out every time you act ignorant you treat someone like dirt as I've been doing with others.

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    • It's one thing to count all of the casualties in a war that lasted for years. Many bloody battles can account for that.

      It's another thing to say that these people are forcibly taken from homes and then held captive where they were systematically murdered.

      The former is former is just a natural consequence of war, and the latter requires a vast conspiracy of tens of thousands (maybe even hundreds of thousands) of people carrying out unspeakable deeds.

      And my point to this post isn't so much about questioning the accepted details of the Holocaust, but more about how it is not allowed to be questioned. And how if you start to say these things, you are called names and shamed and shut down.

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      • factcheck

        ...there WAS a "vast conspiracy" of people carrying out unspeakable deeds. It wasn't tens of thousands, or hundreds of thousands, but millions of people. They called themselves Nazis. Adolf Hitler was their leader. None of this is in doubt.

        People who say those things are called names and shamed and shut down because anti-Semitism is frowned upon in civilized society. Yes, it's only anti-Semites who say things like that. No, there aren't people who aren't anti-Semites saying those things. People who are anti-Semites aren't nearly as good at hiding it as they think they are, just like racist and sexist people aren't nearly as good at hiding it as they think they are.

        Evidence of the Holocaust is overwhelming. Only a deeply anti-Semitic person would question something so clearly established. And anybody who is capable of denying something so well known, isn't going to be easily persuaded in a radio interview or an online post or in a conversation. That's why people don't waste their times trying to convince Holocaust deniers. They already know the truth, they just refuse to believe it, and you can't change the minds of people like that. They're going to continue denying it no matter what you say, and they're going to reveal that they hold even more anti-Semitic views. That's always the case. So it's not that it's not allowed to be questioned, it's that people don't want to waste their time with anti-Semitic Holocaust deniers who aren't going to change their minds no matter what you say.

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      • mysistersshadow

        Many ppl even the german public didn't know what was going on. And in a war soldiers follow orders theres a long history of atrocities being carried out becos the soldiers were following orders.

        Why can't it be discussed? I don't know. I haven't given you any shit for bringing it up.

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        • I didn't mean you - I meant in general, in public.

          I feel like I could never say these things outside of anonymity because people would call me an "anti-Semite" and a "Holocaust denier".

          That was my point in mentioning the radio interview. I thought it was odd that he host didn't say, "well you're wrong and here's why." And instead he talked down to, belittled and dismissed the guest.

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          • factcheck

            Believe it or not, anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial are not new. People have been saying these things since the end of World War II.

            That's why during the radio interview you claim to have heard, the host didn't waste time arguing with the anti-Semetic Holocaust denier.

            Any adult, anybody who's old enough to call into a radio show or post on a website, has had plenty of time to learn about World War II and the Holocaust. The evidence is freely available and it is overwhelming. Anybody who still denies it despite all of the information that's freely available, isn't going to respond well to somebody who tells them they're wrong and explains why. They're going to keep arguing and keep denying. That's how it. works. That's how it always works. The radio host knows this, and that's why, if this interview happened as you claim, he shut it down so quickly.

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