Kiumars, this is one of several posts you've made on this topic. Rather than jump to any conclusions ... what's your opinion on the Holocaust? HH

It is not illegal to question the holocaust in the UK but I can see why it was made so in other countries that were directly affected by it. It is extremely offensive to people who had their families decimated, and who may have suffered personally, to have to face people who deny this happened either because they are stupid or, more likely, because they have a revisionist political agenda. In Germany and Austria there was also a fear that such misinformation could be used to lessen criticism of extreme right neo-fascist organisations who bubble just below the surface of many countries, and allow a degree of respectibility to those who wish to use race and religion as a tool to gain power. There are no definitive proofs of the exact numbers. The Nazis were meticulous in record keeping, and I think those records that survive would support the estimates that have been made. However, as you may expect, many records were destroyed by the Nazis towards the end of the war. The exact numbers will never be known. But do you think it really matters whether it was 6M, 4M or 8M? As far as throwing out doubt as to authenticity because of the numbers, this is a shameful attempt to obfusticate. If you want the facts on Auschwitz here you are: Auschwitz was a concentration camp and an extermination camp. It is estimated by German authorities that more than 100,000 Jews, 70,000 Poles, 10,000 Gypsies, and 10,000 others died of overwork, disease, experimentation, starvation and summary execution in the concentration camp alone. In the extermination camp there were various gas chamber developments. The early ones, up to 1943, were converted houses and two "bunkers" used plus one gas chamber. Later there were 4 other gas chambers and combined crematoria built with the capability to handle large numbers. No 1 Aug 40 to Jul 43 capacity 340 per day No 2 Mar 43 to Nov 44 capacity 1440 per day No 3 Jun 43 to Nov 44 capacity 1440 per day No 4 Mar 43 to Oct 44 capacity 768 per day No 5 Apr 43 to Jan 45 capacity 768 per day Without the ad hoc killings and the bunkers and smaller gas chambers this gives a capability of over 2.8M. It is actually estimated that between 1.1M and 1.5M people were murdered in this way. Of the people sent to the extermination camps the vast majority were Jewish. Rough figures are 1.1M Jews, 140,000 Poles, 20,000 gypsies, 10,000 Soviet POWs and 10,000 others. Auschwitz was only one extermination centre, if the most notorious.