Six Million Jews

“Six million Jews” is the frequent number that is given for number of Jews who died in World War II (The Holocaust). Some people have disputed that number, while others—such as this website, this blog and this YouTube video—have stated that the “six million Jews” figure had been printed in newspapers dated much earlier than 1940.

Surveys of the ProQuest Historical Newspapers database (as well as other ProQuest digitized periodical articles) and The Pittsburgh Jewish Newspaper Archive—both cited below—show that there are more results from before 1940 for “five million Jews” than there are for “six million Jews.”

“There are, it is said, six million five hundred and ninety eight thousand Jews in the world” was published in newspapers in 1822. “6,000,000 are Jews”—describing world population by religion—was published in newspapers in 1849. “There are 6,000,000 Jews in the world” was published in newspapers in 1869.

The “five/six/seven million” figure was used for the number of Jews in Russia (or Europe) from the 1890s to the 1920s. “Europe has 6,000,000 Jews, America 350,000, Africa 500,000, Asia 250,000 and Australasia 20,000” was published in the Los Angeles (CA) Times on June 8, 1899.

“They say there’s safety in numbers. Tell that to six million Jews” is a related expression.

There might be some comparison to New York City. Symphony of Six Million (1932) was the title of a film, based on a story by American novelist Fannie Hurst (1885-1968). The plot concerned a Jewish doctor in New York City—a city of six million people.

PROQUEST HISTORICAL NEWSPAPERS SURVEY
UNTIL 1940
Four million Jews—117 results
4,000,000 Jews—159 results
Five million Jews—189 results
5,000,000 Jews—246 results
Six million Jews—169 results
6,000,000 Jews—154 results
Seven million Jews—66 results
7,000,000 Jews—99 results
Eight million Jews—34 results
8,000,000 Jews—78 results

PITTSBURGH JEWISH NEWSPAPER PROJECT SURVEY
UNTIL 1940
Four million Jews—19 results
4,000,000 Jews—12 results
Five million Jews—22 results
5,000,000 Jews—12 results
Six million Jews—21 results
6,000,000 Jews—10 results
Seven million Jews—11 results
7,000,000 Jews—2 results
Eight million Jews—4 results
8,000,000 Jews—3 results

Wikipedia: The Holocaust
The Holocaust, also referred to as the Shoah, was a genocide in which Adolf Hitler’s Nazi Germany and its World War II collaborators killed some six million European Jews. The victims included 1.5 million children, and constituted about two-thirds of the nine million Jews in Continental Europe. A broader definition of the Holocaust includes non-Jewish victims such as the Romani, ethnic Poles, members of other Slavic ethnic groups and Aktion T4 patients who were mentally and physically disabled. An even broader definition includes Soviet citizens and prisoners of war, homosexuals, Jehovah’s Witnesses, black people, political opponents of the Nazis, and members of other smaller groups.

From 1941 to 1945, Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered Jews in a genocide, which was part of a larger event that included the persecution of other peoples in Europe. Under the coordination of the SS, with directions from the highest leadership of the Nazi Party, every arm of Germany’s bureaucracy was involved in both the logistics and the carrying out of the mass murder. Killings were committed throughout German-occupied Europe, as well as within Nazi Germany itself, and across all territories controlled by the Axis powers.

Holocaust Encyclopedia
DOCUMENTING NUMBERS OF VICTIMS OF THE HOLOCAUST AND NAZI PERSECUTION
Calculating the numbers of individuals who were killed as the result of Nazi policies is a difficult task. There is no single wartime document created by Nazi officials that spells out how many people were killed in the Holocaust or World War II.
(...)
These estimates are calculated from wartime reports generated by those who implemented Nazi population policy, and postwar demographic studies on population loss during World War II.

Number of Deaths
Jews: up to 6 million

23 January 1822, Poughkeepsie (NY) Journal, pg. 1, col. 6:
THE JEWS.—There are, it is said, six million five hundred and ninety eight thousand Jews in the world; 3000 of whom live in the United States’ one million in Poland; half a million in Germany, and fifty thousand in England; the remainder are scattered over the whole civilized world. In the days of Solomon, the number of Jews did not exceed seven million.

22 February 1822, Christian Register (Boston, MA), pg. 111, col. 3:
The Jews.—There are, it is said, six million five hundred and ninety eight thousand Jews in the world; 3000 of whom live in the United States’ one million in Poland; half a million in Germany, and fifty thousand in England; the remainder are scattered over the whole civilized world. In the days of Solomon, the number of Jews did not exceed seven million.

21 April 1845, New-York (NY) Daily Tribune, “The Modern Jews,” pg. 1, col. 1:
The last number of the North American Review gives a very interesting sketch of the present situation of the ‘chosen people,’ still a host, though but a remnant. From various causes it is difficult to ascertain their numbers, but they cannot be estimated below six or seven millions. “of the two and a half tribes, Judah and Benjamin, and half Manasseh,” quotes the north American from Judge Noah, “the number in every part of the world may be computed as exceeding six millions.”

17 January 1849, Christian Contributor & Free Missionary (Utica, NY), pg. 186, col. 2:
There are now one thousand millions on the Earth, of whom,

630,000,000 are Idolaters,
100,000,00 are Mohammedans,
6,000,000 are Jews,
264,000,000 are Nominal Christians.

January 1859, The Knickerbocker, or New York Monthly Magazine (New York, NY), “The Jews,” pg. 41:
SOME philosopher has remarked that the world could not exist without the Jews. However that may be, no part of the civilized or partly civilized world, is without them. They number in all less than six million souls, yet they are so widely scattered that you can visit no seaport, or places where men ‘do congregate’ for traffic in money, in slaves, or in merchandise of any kind, without finding there representatives of this race, whose refuge is the wide earth, whose home is the narrow grave.

31 October 1869, New York (NY) Times, “Religious Intelligence,” pg. 8, col. 1:
The Hebrew National, a new Jewish Journal published in London, gives the statistics of the Jews in the world. There are 6,000,000 Jews in the world, one-half of whom live in Europe. America contains 260,000.

4 November 1869, The Times and Conservative (Leavenworth, KS), pg. 2, col. 2:
There are six million Jews in the world.

13 November 1869, Christian Repertory (Montpelier, VT), pg. 2, col. 7:
The Hebrew National, a new Jewish Journal published in London, gives the statistics of the Jews in the world. There are 6,000,000 Jews in the world, one-half of whom live in Europe. America contains 260,000.

14 April 1876, Cincinnati (OH) Daily Times, pg. 1, col. 3:
The Jewish Population of the United States.
[From Yesterday’s New York Sun.]
A Jewish newspaper published in London says that of the six million Jews in the world, a quarter of a million are to be found in the United States.

30 October 1891, Elmira (NY) Gazette and Free Press, “Horrors in Russia: Frightful Condition of the Jews in the Land of the Czar,” pg. 1, col. 5:
SIX MILLION JEWS WITHOUT A COUNTRY.
There are about six million Jews who come under the provisions of the Russian interdict, and they will be obliged to leave the land.

25 March 1898, The American Hebrew, “Zionism” by Claude G. Montefiore, pg. 615:
But in Russia alone there are probably over six million Jews.

8 June 1899, Los Angeles (CA) Times, “Over Seven Million Jews,” Illustrated Magazine Section, pg. 11, col. 3:
Europe has 6,000,000 Jews, America 350,000, Africa 500,000, Asia 250,000 and Australasia 20,000.

So, altogether, there are 7,120,000 of this nation, which is pretty fair, considering that 3000 years ago they numbered only about three million, and the whole civilized world has been massacring and bullying them ever since.

7 May 1911, The Sunday Oregonian (Portland, OR), sec. 5, pg. 2, col. 1:
HEBREWS IN RUSSIA LEAD LIVES OF DIRE AND WRETCHED POVERTY
Oppressed by Prince, Priest and Peasant, Six Million Jews in Land of Czar Struggle Desperately to Eke Out Bare and Pitiful Existence—Ghetto Inhabitants’ Condition Terrible.

2 December 1914, Charlotte (NC) Daily Observer, pg. 1, col. 1:
Six Million Jews in War Zone.
New York, Dec. 1.—The greatest crisis the Jewish people have faced in modern times now confronts that race, in the opinion of the American Jewish Relief Committee for sufferers of the war. This committee today issued an appeal for funds to aid impoverished Jews in the European Nations at war.

It is state that more than 9,000,000 Jews live within the area of conflict and that 6,000,000 of them are in the actual war zone of Poland, Galicia, and along the whole Russian frontier.

OCLC WorldCat record
Out of a city of six million people : why did you pick on me?
Author: Nat Vincent; Chas R McCarron; André C De Takacs
Publisher: 145 West 45th St., New York : Broadway Music Corporation, [1915] ©1915
Edition/Format: Musical score : English

22 January 1916, Oakland (CA) Tribune, pg. 1, col. 2:
OAKLAND JOINS NATIONAL MOVEMENT TO SAVE 6,000,000 JEWS FROM STARVING IN POLAND

28 February 1916, Norwich (CT) Bulletin, pg. 1, col. 4:
NEARLY 6,000,000 JEWS RUINED BY THE WAR.
Many of Them Are Dependent on the Good Will of Their Brethren.
New York, Feb. 27.—General immigration to the United States after the war is improbable, according to reports made to President Leon Sanders of the Hebrew Immigrant and Sheltering society of America, and made public by him at its annual meeting here today.

“It may be otherwise with the Jews, however, Sanders said, “owing to the especially unfortunate situation which the war has created for them. Nearly 6,000,000 Jews are ruined, in the greatest moral and material misery, many of them are refugees, dependent on the good will of their brethren.”

18 October 1918, New York (NY) Times, pg. 12, col. 6:
1,000,000,000 FUND TO REBUILD JEWRY
Six Million Souls Will Need Help to Resume Normal Life When War Is Ended.
(...)
6,000,000 Jews Need Help.
From reports from representatives abroad it is estimated that of the 9,000,000 to 12,000,000 souls making up the Jewish population of the world, exclusive of the 3,000,000 Jews in the United States, a quarter of the number are destitute, starving, and homeless, and fully half will need assistance to become self-supporting again.

30 October 1918, The Constitution (Atlanta, GA), “Committee Is Named for Relief Campaign,” pg. 4, col. 5:
... a campaign for the Jewish people who have suffered untold agonies as innocent bystanders in the holocaust of war which has swept over the European countries.
(...) (col. 6—ed.)
It is conservatively estimated that six million Jewish men, women and children in Poland, Galicia and other countries, people crushed by a war in which they took no part save an unwilling one, are starving today.

OCLC WorldCat record
Six million cheers - for our sailor boys - the best ever!
Publisher: United Cigar Stores Company États-Unis 1919
Edition/Format: Downloadable visual material : Graphic
Database: WorldCat
Summary:
Affiche probablement publiée après la fin de la guerre. Le personnage de Father Knickerbocker était souvent utilisé comme symbole de la ville de New York

10 October 1919, Denver (CO) Post, pg. 3, col. 2 ad:
Today 6,000,000 Jews Are Facing the Darkest Days Ever Known in the Long History of the Race
(Jewish Relief Campaign.—ed.)

31 October 1919, The American Hebrew (New York, NY), “The Crucifixion of Jews Must Stop” by Martin H. Glynn (Former Governor of the State of N.Y.), pg. 582:
From across the sea six million men and women call to us for help, and eight hundred thousand little children cry for bread.
(...)
In this threatened holocaust of human life, forgotten are the niceties of philosophical distinction, forgotten are the differences of historical interpretation; ...

1 January 1920, Jewish Advocate (Boston, MA), pg. 4, col. 5:
SIX MILLION MEN AND WOMEN ARE DYING—WON’T YOU HELP THEM? EIGHT HUNDRED THOUSAND CHILDREN CRY FOR BREAD—WON’T YOU HEED THEM
By MARTIN H. GLYNN
Ex-Governor, New York State
From across the sea six million men and women call to us for help, and eight hundred thousand little children cry for bread.
(...)
In this threatened holocaust of human life, forgotten are the niceties of philosophical distinction, forgotten are the differences of historical interpretation; ...

5 April 1920, Riverside (CA) Daily Press, pg. 6, col. 5 ad:
Today 6,000,000 Jews Are Facing the Darkest Days Ever Known in the Long History of the Race
(Jewish Relief Campaign.—ed.)

OCLC WorldCat record
Six Million Men killed in the Great War. Messages from the dead to the living.
Author: Francis T A DAVIES
Publisher: F.T.A. Davies: London, [1921]
Edition/Format: Print book : English

29 July 1921, The Jewish Monitor (Fort Worth, TX), “Jews in Russia Flee from Red Rebels” by George Seldes, pg. 13, cols. 1-2:
Berlin, July 19.—Russia’s 6,000,000 Jews are facing extermination by massacre. As the famine is spreading the counter revolutionary movement is gaining, and the soviet’s control is waning.

OCLC WorldCat record
Symphony of six million ; a novelization by John Adams [pseud.] of the Fannie Hurst screen story, an R.K.O. Radio picture.
Author: Fannie Hurst; John Adams, pseud.
Publisher: New York : A. L. Burt [1932]
Edition/Format: Print book : Fiction : English

Wikipedia: Symphony of Six Million
Symphony of Six Million is a 1932 American Pre-Code film directed by Gregory La Cava and starring Ricardo Cortez, Irene Dunne and Gregory Ratoff. Based on the story Night Bell by Fannie Hurst, the movie concerns the rise of a Jewish physician from humble roots to the top of his profession and the social costs of losing his connection with his community, his family and with the craft of healing.
(...)
Production
After David O. Selznick became RKO’s head of production in late 1931, he put the melodrama Symphony of Six Million (originally entitled Night Bell after the Fannie Hurst story it is based on) into production, overseen by Pandro S. Berman. Selznick insisted that the original screenplay be rewritten to reclaim the ethnic touches from Hurst’s story. Selznick likely wanted the film to serve as a mirror on to Jewish life, both of immigrants and their assimilated children. He himself changed the name of the film (a reference to New York City’s population) as it was “more dramatic and dignified” than Night Bell.

OCLC WorldCat record
The pact and the Jews - how it has affected the destiny of 5,000,000 Jews : [speech delivered at ICOR mass meeting on Oct. 24, 1939, at Embassy Auditorium, Los Angeles, Calif.].
Author: Louis G Reynolds
Publisher: Los Angeles : City Committee ICOR, 1939.
Edition/Format: Print book : Multiple languages

28 June 1940, The Twice-a-Week Gazette (Little Rock, AR), pg. 6, col. 4:
Says 6,000,000 Jews Doomed If Germany Wins.
New York, June 24 (AP).—Dr. Nahum Goldmann, Administrative Committee chairman of the World Jewish Congress, said today that if the Nazis should achieve final victory “6,000,000 Jews in Europe are doomed to destruction.”

OCLC WorldCat record
Memorandum submitted to the President of the United States : at the White House on Tuesday, December 8, 1942 at noon by a delegation of representatives of Jewish organizations comprising the American Jewish Committee, the American Jewish Congress, B’nai B’rith, the Jewish Labor Committee, the Synagogue Council of America, and the Union of Orthodox Rabbis of the United States.
Publisher: New York : Institution for Research and Training in the Jewish Social Studies, 1942.
Edition/Format: Print book : English
Notes: “Almost two million Jews of Nazi Europe have been exterminated through mass murder, planned starvations, deportation, slave labor and epidemic in disease-ridden ghettos, penal labor colonies and slave reservations created for their destruction by the German Government and its satellites. The five million Jews who may still be alive inside Nazi-occupied territory are threatened with total extermination under the terms of an official order by Hitler calling for the complete annihilation of the Jews of Europe by December 31, 1942”—Page [1].

OCLC WorldCat record
Six million prisoners of war; life in Axis prison camps, based on selective punishment according to race and creed, is producing future dynamite.
Publisher: [New York], [1943]
Edition/Format: Print book : English

25 April 1943, New York (NY) Herald Tribune, pg. A9, col. 4:
Demands Intervention by U. S.
Katherine Devereux Blake Writes That Five Million Jews Face Slaughter by Nazis
To the New York Herald Tribune:
It is time for all the non-Jews to join in a demand that our government take steps at once to save the five million Jews that face complete mass slaughter and probable torture at the hands of the Nazi government.

4 December 1944, Springfield (MA) Daily Republican, pg. 2, col. 2:
6,000,000 JEWS DEAD,
RESULT OF THE WAR
Boston, Dec. 3—(AP)—The war losses of world Jewish, including those killed in action, now total more than 6,000,000, Dr.Nahum Goldman told members of the executive committee of the New England division of the American Jewish congress today.

9 April 1945, The Palestine Post (Jerusalem), pg. 1, col. 2:
Six Million Jews Massacred
SOFIA, Sunday (Palcor)—Six million Jews were slaughtered during the Nazi occupation of Europe, according to Ilya Ehrenburg, Russian writer, in an article in the newspaper “Orchestven Front.”

OCLC WorldCat record
Ashes of six million jews
Author: Blair, Fred
Publisher: People’s Book Shop 1946
Edition/Format: Downloadable visual material : Graphic : English

OCLC WorldCat record
Service of memorial for the six million Jewish martyrs of Nazi tyranny : the tenth of Tebeth
Author: Ahron Opher
Publisher: New York : Synagogue Council of America, [1950?]
Edition/Format: Print book : English

OCLC WorldCat record
Concerto : in memory of “the six million” : for violin & orchestra, op. 24
Author: Benjamin Frankel
Publisher: London : Augener, [©1952]
Edition/Format: Musical score : No Linguistic Content

OCLC WorldCat record
6 million accuse : an actual recording of the Adolf Eichmann trial held in Israel, beginning April 11, 1961.
Author: Adolf Eichmann; Yehuda Lev; Lucien Harris; Josef A Rosenn; Bilha Michaeli
Publisher: New York : United Artists, [1962]
Edition/Format: Audiobook on LP : LP recording : English

OCLC WorldCat record
While 6 million died
Author: Arthur D Morse
Publisher: New York, NY Ace 1968

OCLC WorldCat record
The myth of the six million
Author: E L Anderson
Publisher: Los Angeles : Noontide Press, 1969.
Edition/Format: Print book : English

OCLC WorldCat record
Lest we forget ... the murder of the six million Jews of Europe
Author: Leivy Smolar; B’nai B’rith Youth Organization,
Publisher: Washington, D.C. : B’nai B’rith Youth Organization, [1973]
Series: Judaism pamphlet series.
Edition/Format: Print book : Secondary (senior high) school : English