Source:
https://codoh.com/library/document/jewish-losses-during-world-war-ii/
On
the dispute between Giuseppe Fallisi and Vincent Reynouard
by
Carlo Mattogno
August 27, 2026
Last
updated on
September 2, 2026
On
August 7, 2026, French revisionist Vincent Reynouard posted a video titled “The
Number of Jews Who Disappeared between 1941 and 1945.
A Response
to my Accusers” (“Nombre de juifs disparus entre 1941 et 1945.
Réponse
à mes accusateurs”). In it, Reynouard discusses the Jewish death toll during the
time of the alleged Holocaust, while also addressing accusation made against him
by some critics, foremost among them Italian activist Guiseppe Fallisi. In the
following text, Italian revisionist Carlo Mattogno discusses Reynouard’s
presentation on Jewish wartime population statistics.
I state
that I express my point of view on the issue on the express invitation of the
manager of Andrea Carancini’s Blog.
First of
all, it should be made clear that considering Reynouard a sort of “traitor”
passed to the “enemy,” as Fallisi seems to have done, is frankly ridiculous. On
the contrary, he should be praised and thanked for the enormous revisionist work
he has produced, and in particular for the excellent, well-documented
compendium SHOAH: Une synthèse après trente ans de travaux, published by
him in PDF and also as a documentary, which is essentially dedicated to the
demolition of the history of “extermination camps” and “gas chambers”, drawing
on all the best revisionist literature available and on his own research.
Chart
on Jewish population statistics, taken from V. Reynouard’s ebook SHOAH: Une
synthèse après trente ans de travaux, p. 223.
The
question of the “Jewish Victims of the Shoah”, which is summarized in a graph on
p. 223 of his book, is in my opinion completely marginal, because – in principle
– even if the number of victims were really 6 million, this would not
automatically demonstrate the reality of a planned extermination plan and
implemented in gas chambers. This is also explained clearly by Reynouard:
“’The
missing 6 million in 1945 demonstrate the existence of this plan [of
extermination].’ We answer: ‘No, this estimate has no relationship with
reality. Between one and three million Jews died in the camps, ghettos and the
East because of the Germans. The question is: have they been massacred within
the framework of a systematic extermination plan, or have they been victims of
circumstances related, in one way or another, to war?” (p. 228)
Mr
Reynouard proposed the following ‘General budget (very approximate)’ of Jewish
losses:
“– 8
million pre-war Jews in what was to be the German sphere of influence
– survivors in 1945: between 3.5 and 5 million;
– disappeared: between 3 and 4.5 million” (p. 223)
Much can
be discussed about the distribution of these victims that appears in the above
chart, and I will do so at the end of this article, but that is not the problem.
The important fact is that the chart is based on a statistical study by Germar
Rudolf[1] that comes precisely to the following
conclusion:[2]
“According to our calculations, 3.46 to 5 million of them [Jews]
survived the ‘Holocaust,’ and 3.1 to 4.64 million did not.”
He also
stated:[3]
“Consequently,
the number of possible real Holocaust victims – according to official data
provided by Israel – is probably less than 3 or even 2 million Jews.”
Reynouard distinguishes between the Shoah on the one hand, which for
him is the catastrophe that Jews suffered during World War II, in practice their
persecution, and the Holocaust on the other hand, which is to be
understood as the claimed systematic and planned extermination.
In my
opinion, in a possible statistic, it would be necessary to introduce the
categories of “died” (for whatever cause), “murdered” and “disappeared,” all of
which fall into the general category of “losses.”
For
example, the victims of the concentration camps and ghettos fall into the
category of those who simply “died,” while victims of the Einsatzgruppen
were “murdered,” and deportees who passed through the camps of Action Reinhard
and Chełmno have “disappeared.” In my book “The “Operation Reinhardt” Camps
Treblinka, Sobibór, Bełżec: Black Propaganda, Archeological Research, Expected
Material Evidence” (Castle Hill Publishers, Uckfield, UK, 2021), I explained
and demonstrated in abundance why they cannot be considered “murdered.”
All
assessments of Jewish losses inevitably start from two data: the number of Jews
present in what was to become National Socialist-occupied Europe in the pre-war
(1939) and the post-war period (1945). However, these numbers are not as certain
as is believed. The result of these calculations varies according to the sources
used. This is striking that, for Gerald Reitlinger, Jewish losses range from a
minimum of 4,194,200 to a maximum of 4,581,000,[4] while
Raul Hilberg wrote about 5,100,000.[5]
According to Danuta Dąbrowska, Stanisław Waszak, Henryk Grynberg, 2,642,000 Jews
lived in Poland in 1939; Peter-Heinz Seraphim indicated the figure of 2,719,000;
Eugene Kulisher and Malcolm Proudfoot relied on that of 2,845,000;[6]
Hilberg preferred the figure of 3,351,000.[7] Already
these data involve a maximum difference of 709,000 people, who can be considered
or not “victims” depending on the choice of the sources you adopt.
Regarding the losses related to Poland and the Soviet Union, Wolfgang Benz, who
assumes 2,700,000 deaths for the former and 2,100,000 for the latter, recalls in
the introductory paragraph “Realistic Assessments” of the book he coordinated[8]
that the relative minimum and maximum figures adduced by G. Reitlinger and the
Yad Vashem Institute are 2,350,000-2,600,000 and 1,211,500-1,316,500,
respectively, with a minimum difference of 883,500 and a maximum of 1,238,500,
which, even in this case, may or may not be considered victims. These great
differences depend simply on the numerical data of departure chosen and the
methods adopted.
The
problem of the number of survivors in 1945 is even more complicated. First of
all, the mythical-symbolic character of the 6-million victims should be kept in
mind, as was well-documented by Thomas Dalton, who turned his attention to
multiple articles published by the New York Times from 1869 to
1938, according to which the Jews of Central and Eastern Europe, invariably 6
million, always appeared threatened with extermination by hunger and disease.[9]
On June
25, 1940, the New York Times reported the following statement by Nahum
Goldmann, President of the World Jewish Congress:[10]
“Six
million Jews in Europe are condemned to destruction if the victory of the Nazis
were to be final.”
This
figure was repeated by Jewish propaganda throughout the war. Reynouard refers to
articles of newspapers of November 1944 that informed about the publication of
the Soviet Black Book, in which the figure of 6 million was consecrated
(p. 218). Post-war statistics were compiled to “prove” this propaganda
assumption. No statistician dared to explicitly cite the figure of 6 million
victims – this would have been too brazen! ‒ but everyone approached it with
considerable approximation.
The
statistics relating to surviving Jews in the post-war period, even assuming very
charitably that they were not rigged for the above reason, cannot be trusted.
In the
article “Losses of the Jewish Population in the German Sphere of Influence
during World War II,”[11] Jürgen Graf, commenting on
Germar Rudolf’s above-mentioned study, put forward compelling arguments on this
point:
“Benz’s
basic assumption is that every Jew who no longer lived in 1945 in the place
where s/he had lived until 1939 was murdered by the Germans.”
The
specialists Benz coordinated did not take into account the territorial changes
that occurred after the end of the Second World War. The most important cases,
Graf continues, are those of Poland, Hungary and Romania:
“Poland
lost its eastern provinces, where Jews had been particularly numerous, in favor
of the Soviet Union. In return, it acquired vast German territories in the West,
where few Jews lived before the war.
Hungary
acquired Romanian, Czechoslovak and Yugoslav territories, only to lose them
again in 1945. Romania was forced in 1940 to cede Bessarabia to the Soviet
Union. Now, Jews who lived in these respective areas and who died during the
war, really or presumably, are counted by Benz twice. Thus, 100,000 Jews from
Bessarabia who, according to Benz, were exterminated by the Germans and their
Romanian allies, appear twice in the statistics of the victims.
G.
Rudolf showed that this double count yielded about 533,000 fictitious victims.
But the
problem also concerns the survivors, as is clearly evident from the method used
to determine their numbers.
In
France, those who showed up in 1945 at the Ministry of Former Fighters were
considered survivors.[12] In Poland, the general list of
Jewish survivors was compiled on 15 June 1945 by the Centralny Komitet ͐Żydów
Polskich (Central Committee of Polish Jews).[13] It is
clear that, in order to be registered, they too had to present themselves to
some ministry. And it can be considered well founded that such a practice was
customary throughout Europe. But how many survivors preferred not to return to
their country of origin? And how many preferred not to go and declare that they
were alive?
Among
the approximately 75,700 Jews deported from France, about 26,300 were Polish,
7,000 Germans, 4,500 Russians, 3,300 Romanians, 2,500 Austrians, 1,200
Hungarians:[14] can you imagine that the survivors of
the deportations in 1945 rushed to return to France to be declared alive by the
competent ministry?
And the
surviving Polish Jews of Galicia (where Lwów/Lemberg is located), which was
incorporated into the Soviet Union, went to Warsaw to be registered as being
alive?
The
changes in religion or identity of survivors, which applies in particular to the
Soviet Union, should also be considered. As J. Graf found:
“According to the 1939 census, there were 3.02 million Jews in the Soviet Union.
The first post-war census, which took place in 1959, provided a figure of just
2.26 million Jews, but all Western Zionists agree that this figure was
unrealistically low. According to Soviet practice, every citizen could choose
for himself which nationality to belong to, and a considerable part of Soviet
Jews was already assimilated: they considered themselves as Russians, Ukrainians
etc. Moreover, at that time, the political atmosphere was not particularly
favorable to Jews, so many of them preferred not to be identified as such.”
To this
is added the emigration of the immediate post-war period, especially to
Palestine, the countries of Latin America, the United States and other
English-speaking countries.
In this
regard, J. Graf mentions an emblematic case:
“A short
article that appeared on November 24, 1978 in an American newspaper The
State Time (Baton Rouge, Louisiana), illustrates better than long and
complicated statistics what really happened to the missing Jews:
‘The
Steinbergs once lived in a small village in Poland. This was before the camps of
Hitler’s death. Now more than 200 survivors dispersed to the world and their
descendants are gathered here to share a special four-day celebration that
appropriately began Thanksgiving. Relatives came Thursday from Canada, France,
England, Argentina, Colombia, Israel and at least 13 U.S. cities. ‘It’s
fabulous,’ said Iris Krasnow of Chicago. ‘There are five generations here – from
three months of age to 85. People are celebrating and having a wonderful time.
It’s almost like a World War II refugee meeting.’’”
To
conclude, the statistics relating to Jews in 1939 are somewhat dubious, while
those relating to 1945 are extremely dubious; therefore, any statistics based on
this comparative method are rather unreliable.
Returning to Reynouard, while his absolute numbers were taken from Germar
Rudolf, their breakdown is conjectural and moreover unfounded. Reynouard
proposes a lower estimate of 3 million victims, and an upper one of 4 and a half
million. The victims are divided into 6 identical categories, plus a seventh
(1,500,000 victims), which applies only to the upper estimate and concerns
“Disappeared in the East… in camps and ghettos, in pogroms…” It is unclear where
this figure comes from and why he excluded it from the lower estimate.
The
other 6 categories are:
1) “in
the hands of the Soviets: about 1 million”. Even here it is not known where this
figure comes from and what it means: how and why did these Jews die? In this
regard, consider the following observation of the commander of the
Einsatzgruppe C in the “Ereignismeldung” (event report) No. 81 of
12 September 1941:[15]
“While
in the first weeks there were still Jews in large numbers, in the territories of
central and eastern Ukraine it was possible to see that in many cases 70-90% of
the Jewish population had fled, in some cases 100%. In this we can see an
indirect result of the work of the Security Police, since the gratuitous
expulsion of hundreds of thousands of Jews – for the most part, according to
interrogations, beyond the Urals – represents a considerable contribution to the
solution of the Jewish question in Europe.”
But
Soviet territories were also the destination of the Jews who passed through the
transit camps (see below, Point 4), more than 1,400,000 of them, so the number
of Jews who passed alive “in the hands of the Soviets” should be around 2
million.
2)
“Einsatzgruppen: 400,000.” Reynouard practically rounds up the proposed figure
of Siegfried Verbeke (387,000, p. 439), but also reports my count in my study on
the Einsatzgruppen: 727,871 victims, of which 274,149 are recorded in
the reports without indication of place and date; from this, rounding the
digits, he calculates the number of 750,000 – 270,000 = 480,000 victims, which
would confirm the Verbeke’s figure (p. 443).
In my
study, when discussing the above figure of 727,871, I stated:
“The
unverifiable data are therefore 40.7% of the total figure! To these problems is
added that of the exaggerations, because, even if the executions are reported
with precise date and place, in most cases there is no certainty that the
figures indicated are accurate.”
For this
reason, I concluded, “the only way to assess the reliability of the figures in
the Ereignismeldungen [the Einsatzgruppen‘s event reports]
remains the examination of the findings of corpses and/or their destruction in
the framework of the so-called ‘Aktion 1005,’”[16] a
theme to which I have dedicated a special volume, in which I have examined in
detail the alleged activity of all the “Sonderkommandos” of the alleged “Aktion
1005” (the exhumation of bodies from mass graves and their cremation on open-air
pyres), eyewitness accounts, Soviet reports and photographic evidence, and I
have come to the following conclusion (Point 4):[17]
“Between
the figures of the executions proclaimed in the various German reports and the
number of corpses actually found [and supposedly cremated] there is
such an immense disproportion that it can reasonably be considered that they are
far exaggerated.”
A report
dated September 12, 1941 clearly shows that the Einsatzgruppen did not
have as their main task the killing all the Jews they encountered, so the
numerical exaggerations in these reports cannot be due to their eagerness to
appear before their Berlin superiors as particularly efficient exterminators.
3)
“Miscellaneous reasons (combats casualties, bombings, hostages…): 700,000.” This
figure is disproportionate. According to the Yad Vashem Institute, about 240,000
Jewish soldiers died in battle, about 200,000 of them within the Red Army,[18]
so it is not realistic to hypothesize 460,000 victims for bombing and hostage
killings.
4)
“Transit camps: 300,000.” For Reynouard, the camps of Bełżec, Sobibór, Treblinka
and Chełmno were transit camps. Here the only toehold could be mainstream
Holocaust historian Dieter Pohl, according to whom up to 5% of the deportees
could die of hardship during the journey.[19] Since some
1,420,000 Jews were deported to these camps according to the Korherr Report,
this would amount to approximately 71,000 deaths. How did Reynouard get to
300,000?
5)
“Concentration and labor camps: 300,000.” This is another decidedly exaggerated
figure. German orthodox historian Karin Orth wrote:[20]
“At
least one-third of the more than 700,000 inmates registered in concentration
camps in January 1945 died, perhaps even half, in death marches or mass
mortality of the camps; the percentage of Jewish inmates among the dead was
high.”
The
death toll resulting from this would therefore have been 230,000-350,000
inmates. Even assuming that this estimate is well-founded, how many of these
deaths were Jews? In this regard, there is no complete data, but some
significant examples serve to give an idea of the order of magnitude.
In their
analysis of the Sterbebücher (death records) of Auschwitz, Thomas
Grotus and Jan Parcer found that, out of a total of 68,384 deaths documented
between 1941 and 1943, those of Jews were 29,125, or 42.6%.[21]
On 21 August 1944, 104,891 registered prisoners were in Auschwitz, 45,876 of
them Jewish (43.7%).[22] In addition, there were some
30,000 unregistered Jews in the transit section (Durchgangslager).
However, as a rule, they remained there only for a few days before getting
transferred to other camps. Therefore, the mortality of Jewish prisoners was
reasonably less than 50% of the total deaths toll, which was about 135,500.[23]
As noted
in the Mauthausen Camp’s death records, Jewish inmates who died in this camp
between 1938 and 1945 numbered 14,356 out of a total of 68,874,[24]
hence about 21% of the total. It is therefore highly unlikely that the number of
Jewish deaths in concentration camps reached 50% of the alleged 350,000
mentioned above, i.e. 175,000 deaths. The labor camps cannot have
caused the remaining 125,000 deaths, so the 300,000 figure is also blatantly
unfounded.
6)
“Ghettos: 300,000.” It seems obvious to me that Reynouard refers to the Polish
ghettos, because the Baltic and Soviet ones already fall into what I have
indicated as the seventh category (“Disappeared in the East… in camps and
ghettos, in pogroms…”). But, according to the orthodox Holocaust narrative, many
of the Einsatzgruppen’s victims came from the ghettos, who are
therefore counted twice.
The two
largest ghettos – those of Warsaw and Lodz, which had a maximum number of about
400,000 and 160,000 residents, respectively ‒ recorded 69,355 deaths in Warsaw
in the period January 1941 to June 1942,[25] and 47,372
in Lodz from 1938 to August 1944,[26] hence a total of
116,727. For the remaining ghettos ‒ very numerous but also much smaller ‒ there
no data exists; most of them moreover suffered drastic population reductions in
the second half of 1942 due to deportations to the eastern camps, so it is not
realistic that there were about 183,000 people missing to get to 300,000. This
figure therefore remains conjectural.
In
conclusion, from a revisionist perspective, it is easy to accept (on the basis
of the uncertain assumptions set out above) a death toll of 3 or 4.5 million
Jews. The challenge is to explain how and where they died.
Endnotes
[1]
In: G. Rudolf (Ed.), Dissecting the Holocaust. The Growing Critique of
“Truth“Truth” and “Memory”.” Theses & Dissertations Press,
Chicago, 2003, pp. 181-213 (pp. 171-202 in the current, 4th edition of 2024).
[2]
Idem, p. 210 (2024 edition: p. 199).
[3]
Ibid.
[4]
G. Reitlinger, La Soluzione Finale. Il tentativo di sterminio degli Ebrei
d’Europa 1939-1945. Il Saggiatore, Milan, 1965, p. 612.
[5]
R. Hilberg, La distruzione degli Ebrei d’Europa. Giulio Einaudi editore.
Turin, 1995, p. 1319.
[6]
F. Golczewski, “Polen,” in: Wolfgang Benz (edited by), Dimension des
Völkersmords. Oldenbourg, Munich, 1991, p. 419.
[7]
R. Hilberg, La distruzione degli Ebrei d’Europa, p. 1313.
[8]
The work was written by 17 specialists from individual countries under the
supervision of Benz. To simplify, I refer to Benz as the author.
[9]
T. D. Dalton, Debating the Holocaust. A New Look at the Both Sides.
Theses & Dissertations Press. New York, 2009, pp. 50-56.
[10]
The New York Times, June 25, 1940, p. 4.
[11]
Historia Magistra Vitae / Chapter 10, pp. 109-117.
Can be purchased online at:
https://www.lulu.com/shop/j%C3%BCrgen-graf/historia-magistra-vitae/paperback/product-1z424zk8.html?
page=1&pageSize=4
[12]
S. Klarsfeld, Le mémorial de la déportation des Juifs de France, édité et
publié par Beate et Serge Klarsfeld, Paris, 1978, p. 10 (my numbering).
[13]
‘Statystyka ludności żydowskiej w Polsce’, in: Biuletyn Głównej Komisji
Badania Zbrodni Niemieckich w Polsce, Vol. I, 1946, p. 203.
[14]
S. Klarsfeld, Le mémorial de la déportation des Juifs de France, p. 23.
[15]
Klaus-Michael Mallmann, Andrej Angrick, Jürgen Matthäus, Martin Cüppers (edited
by), “Die Ereignismeldungen UdSSR 1941”. Dokumente der Einsatzgruppen in der
Sowjetunion I. Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, Darmstadt, 2011, p. 452.
[16]
Gli Einsatzgruppen nei territori orientali occupati. Genesi, compiti e
attività. Vol. I. Effepi, Genoa, 2016, pp. 257f.
For the English edition, see
https://holocausthandbooks.com/book/the-einsatzgruppen-in-the-occupied-eastern-territories/
[17]
Gli Einsatzgruppen nei territori orientali occupati. L’“Azione 1005.”
Vol. II. Effepi, Genoa, 2017. vol. II, p. 335.
[18]
Jewish Soldiers in the Allied Armies, online at
https://www.yadvashem.org/holocaust/about/combat-resistance/jewish-soldiers.html
[19]
D. Pohl, “Massentötungen durch Giftgas im Rahmen der ‘Aktion Reinhardt’:
Aufgaben der Forschung” in: Günter Morsch, Betrand Perz (ed.), Neue Studien
zu nationalsozialistischen Massentötungen durch Giftgas: Historische Bedeutung,
technische Entwicklung, revisionistische Leugnung.
Metropol, Berlin, 2011, p. 194.
[20]
K. Orth, “The Genesis and Structure of the National Socialist Concentration
Camps,” in: Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos, 1933–1945. Vol. 1, Part
A. Indiana University Press, Bloomington and Indianapolis, 2009, p. 194.
[21]
T. Grotum, J. Parcer, “EDV-gestützte Auswertung der Sterbeeinträge”, in:
Staatliches Museum Auschwitz-Birkenau (ed.), Sterbebücher von Auschwitz.
G. Saur, Munich/New Providence/London/Paris, 1995, p. 249.
[22]
Archive of the Central Commission of Inquiry on Crimes against the Polish People
– National Memorial. NTN, 155, pp. 96 and 115.
[23]
See my book Auschwitz: Trasporti, Forza, Mortalità. Effepi, Genoa,
2019, p. 276. For the English edition, see
https://holocausthandbooks.com/book/the-real-auschwitz-chronicle/, Vol. 2.
[24]
H. Marsalek, Mauthausen. La Pietra, Milan, 1977, pp. 115 and 204.
[25]
T. Berenstein, A. Eisenbach, B. Mark, A. Rutkowski, Faschismus – Getto –
Massenmord: Dokumentation über Ausrottung und Widerstand der Juden in Polen
während des zweiten Weltkrieges. Röderberg Verlag, Frankfurt am Main, 1960,
pp. 138f.
[26]
J. Baranowski, The Łódź Ghetto 1940-1944. Vademecum. Archiwum Państwowe
w Łodzi & Bilbo, Łódź, 1999, p. 86.
