Why did you ignore the gays, the Gypsies. the mentally and/or physically handicapped, the Catholics, the press etc etc etc in your "accounting", exactly?

When it comes to the memory of a child, who very likely did not understand everything that was happening all over Europe, I suppose it would be comforting to believe that not as many died as the records showed. It would be very easy to convince oneself that it wasn't possible to kill as many of your people as the Nazi records showed. Not say9ng your friend lied, but I suspect you got a version that was rationalized away from the actual facts.

@AnneWimsey Don't forget the nonwhite people of color. After the Berlin Olympics where an American black man won the gold, there was a lot of retribution.

@AnneWimsey IF I had included everyone, i.e. gays, gypsies, etc, etc, then the post would have way too long for people to want to sit and read it.

@snytiger6 The International Red Cross estimates are where most of my info. came from PLUS what Ytzaak has both told and shown me.
The ESTIMATED Death Toll from WWII of Civilians, soldiers and the Death Camps, etc, etc, at present stands somewhere in range of 30 -45 MILLION comprised of 15 MILLION from (estimated) from the Death Camps and an, at present, unknown number killed in the Blitzkrieg Bombing Raids, Military Invasions by the Nazis, executions of Partisans and their supporters, etc, etc.
There ARE still groups of people out there who are actively trying to locate, etc, MASS graves of Nazi Victims both Civilian and Allied Soldiers, etc, etc.

@snytiger6 Having spent many hours with Ytzaak and Miriam, who was fortunate enough to escape the camps by trekking to Switzerland with her parents and older siblings, reading the records written on scraps of paper and bits of cloth that he kept hidden, the lists of names he wrote down and the absolutely horrific and gut wrenching accounts he has memorized I'd say his recollections, etc, are 100% on the mark.
Ytzaak says he ONLY survived because, like his father, he was an excellent Cobbler and Boot-makers Apprentice AND did NOT look Jewish at all, hence he managed to claim that he was from a family who lived and worked in the Alsatia region of Germany but was of German-French origin and of the Lutheran Church.
As far as Ytzaak is aware his parents died on one of the Forced Marches during 1944, his 2 older brothers were caught and executed (MURDERED) for being Partisan Supporters in Eastern France but no-one as yet knows where their bodies, REMAINS, lie buried or even IF they were ever buried.
In my experiences when a child goes through a VERY traumatic experience those memories never ever fade, the details remain exactly the same no matter how time passes in his/her life.

@Triphid A 2nd cousin of mine, in my parents' generation, was, literally liberated by American troops, including his first cousin. The troops took names of the survivors, and my American cousin (first, once removed) asked this sone fellow, whose last name was hugely like his own, if he had relatives in the U.S. The response was the trooper's father.

Facts.