The "six million" has been irrevocably connected with the Holocaust in popular culture since it symbolizes the systematic killing of Jews by Nazi Germany during World War II. The historical roots of the figure, however, go back much earlier than the 1940s to the late nineteenth century (Jewish Chronicle, 1869). Its development from a symbolic number of Jewish persecution to an absolute figure of the Holocaust is a multifaceted process of historical, cultural, and political forces. To be very clear, The Jewish Chronicle used the term "Six Million Jews" and terms like "suffering" way back in 1869 A.D.
The 19th Century: The Origin of the "Six Million" Figure
The late 19th century was a period of abnormally disruptive chaos for Jewish communities in Eastern Europe, i.e., the Russian Empire. The Pale of Settlement (The Pale of Settlement existed from 1791 until 1917, It was a western region of the Russian Empire where permanent residency by Jews was allowed, and outside of which, it was largely forbidden), the region to which the Jews were legally confined, was a hotbed of anti-Semitic violence and economic despair. The 1880s pogroms—state-organized massacres of Jewish villages—were a watershed moment in Jewish history, revealing the weakness of the Jews of the area and inspiring the task of journaling and ameliorating their suffering.
One of the earliest printed applications of the "six million" was found in the Jewish Chronicle in 1869. In an article penned by one who was anonymous, Jews were being persecuted within the Pale of Settlement, and six million were estimated who suffered from anti-Semitic legislation, brutal pogroms, and general starvation (Jewish Chronicle, 1869). Although this figure was certainly symbolic and not a quantifiable demographic figure, it helped to reinforce the scale of Jewish suffering. It struck me, as it did many others because it was a reflection of collective trauma for a community beset by systematic persecution.
By the 1890s, the "six million" figure had entered Jewish activism and fund drives. The Zionist movement and Jewish nationalism necessitated the need to address the degrading status of the Jews in Eastern Europe. The "six million" was employed in an article published in 1891 entitled "The Plight of the Russian Jews" in the New York Times to explain the calamitous situation of the Jews there (New York Times, 1891). This was a turning point for Zionism, and the figure was utilized as an appeal for humanitarian aid. The document was one of a more extensive fundraising campaign for Jewish relief work, highlighting the nature of the suffering to provoke action.
Employing the term "six million" was not simply a communication of numbers but a masterful rhetorical move. It communicated the magnitude of the tragedy and spoke to the Jewish conscience of the West. Framing the issue as six million lives in danger, activists aimed to appeal to a sense of collective responsibility and collective action. This initial deployment established the precedent for the figure's subsequent employability in Jewish discourse.
The Early 20th Century: Fundraising and Advocacy
The "six million" of the early twentieth century was the standard of Jewish activism, even amid World War I. As the war continued, the Jews of Eastern Europe were subjected to unprecedented horrors, displacement, and famine. The American Jewish Committee and others launched gigantic fundraising campaigns on their behalf, standing in for the threatened communities.
It was in 1915 that the American Jewish relief campaign made public the "six million" figure for the first time in its propaganda materials. The New York Times and The Jewish Daily Forward newspapers used the figure repeatedly to highlight the critical plight of the Jews of Eastern Europe. For example, on 4 October 1915, a piece titled "Six Million Jews in Peril" appeared in the New York Times, highlighting the urgency of the situation at hand (New York Times, 1915). At the time, numerous pieces and editorials appeared in The Jewish Daily Forward, which used the "six million" figure to rally relief efforts (The Jewish Daily Forward, 1915).
The drives had promised six million Jews on the brink of being exterminated by the combined efforts of war, starvation, and persecution. This was an extremely effective emotional image to employ in solicitation because it helped to emphasize the urgency of the crisis. The "six million" was not solely used in solicitation during this period. It was also employed as a metaphor for Jewish determination and unity. The growth of Zionism and the call for a Jewish homeland also justified the number since it symbolized both the extent of Jewish suffering and the necessity of a collective response. The number, by the 1920s, had become an orthodoxy in Jewish politics and culture as a symbol of Jewish suffering anywhere Jews could be found.
The Holocaust: A Tragic Convergence
The advent of World War II and the Nazi Final Solution brought on a catastrophic convergence of history and symbolism. During the early years of the Holocaust, the "six million" had already been used for decades to refer to Jewish victimhood. Yet, the organized mass murder of Jews by Nazi Germany provided the figure with an added and terrible significance.
The Nazis murdered around six million Jews in mass killings, gas chambers, and concentration camps from 1941 to 1945. This vast number of fatalities transformed the "six million" into a statistical estimate of the destruction of the Holocaust from its metaphorical use to refer to misery. The number became an integral part of Holocaust discourse, symbolizing the magnitude and viciousness of the genocide.
The Nuremberg Trials of 1945-1946 set the character's association with the Holocaust even more firmly. Prosecutors and witnesses alike called upon the "six million" to prove Nazi cruelties. They ensured the number would be indelibly associated in the public mind with the remembrance of the Holocaust. Even though others have challenged the demographic underpinning of the statistic, its symbolic value as a testament to Jewish loss and survival is inevitable.
The Occult and Cultural Significance of Six Million
Aside from its political and historical significance, the figure "six million" can be of even greater cultural and religious significance. In Jewish mysticism, particularly of the Kabbalah, numbers have been imbued with symbolic significance. The number six, for instance, is found to be associated with the hexagram (Star of David) and is a common phenomenon in Jewish religious literature.
Some writers have speculated that the perpetuation of the "six million" figure can be seen as reflecting such mystical traditions, imbuing the figure with a sense of holiness. Speculative as this argument may be, it goes a long way toward indicating the profundity of the figure and its significance in Jewish tradition.
The Legacy of Six Million
The "six million" is proof of the enduring power of symbols in collective memory. Its origins in 19th-century protest and fundraising appeals are fertile ground for Jewish resistance to oppression. By the time of the Holocaust, the number had already become firmly embedded in Jewish thought, so its association with the Holocaust is more compelling.
Today, the "six million" is that potent symbol of the horrors of the Holocaust and the need for memory. It is also a testament to how numbers and symbols come to have lives distinct from the lives in which they were initially formulated to assume lives of their own as enduring symbols of collective identity and historical trauma. Looking at the record of the "six million," we are reminded of the extent not just of Jewish martyrdom but of the stubbornness and resilience that have defined Jewish life for centuries.
But in the 1920s and the 1930s, "six million" was again summoned in Jewish activism and politics, particularly when Jewish suffering in Eastern Europe became graver with the growing tide of anti-Semitism. The figure then continued to be summoned in invoking the cause of Jewish suffering at the hands of Soviet Russia and Poland, exposed to political suppression, economic famine, and red pogroms.
In 1927, to take one example, The Jewish Daily Forward ran an editorial that employed the "six million" figure in arguing the case for Jewish immigration to Palestine, where the building Zionist movement was establishing itself. The article used the figure at the same time as both a humanitarian appeal and a political call to action for a homeland for the Jews in retaliation against what Jews were suffering at the hands of Europeans (The Jewish Daily Forward, 1927).
Similarly, the New York Times also covered the growing political crisis in Eastern Europe, employing the six million figure to characterize the extent of Jewish exposure (New York Times, 1933). This consistent deployment of the "six million" during the interwar years helped to cement its status as a metaphor for Jewish calamity so that it could legitimize calls for political intervention, i.e., the establishment of a Jewish state.
Europe and the Jewish question. New York Times 1933.
Sources
- Jewish Chronicle. (1869). The suffering of Jews in the Pale of Settlement. Jewish Chronicle.
- New York Times. (1891, September 18). The plight of the Russian Jews. New York Times.
- New York Times. (1915, October 4). Six million Jews are in peril. New York Times.
- The Jewish Daily Forward. (1915). Various articles and editorials on Jewish relief efforts. The Jewish Daily Forward.
- The Jewish Daily Forward. (1927, May 3). The future of Eastern European Jews. The Jewish Daily Forward.
- New York Times. (1933, November 15). Political unrest in Eastern Europe and the Jewish question. New York Times.
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