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800,000 thousand jews killed in exterminations camps

Checked on November 17, 2025
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Executive summary

The claim “800,000 thousand Jews killed in extermination camps” conflates magnitude and is inconsistent with mainstream estimates: historians and major institutions place Jewish deaths in the Holocaust at about six million overall, with extermination (death) camps—Auschwitz-Birkenau, Treblinka, Sobibor, Belzec, Chelmno and Majdanek—responsible for a large share of those murders (for example, Operation Reinhard camps alone murdered roughly 1.7 million) [1] [2]. Available sources do not mention the specific phrase “800,000 thousand”; if the intended figure is 800,000, that number is much smaller than most scholarly estimates of killings in extermination camps and the Holocaust overall [1] [2].

1. What historians and memorial institutions count: six million and camp breakdowns

Authoritative commemorations and research (U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, Yad Vashem, major museums) use approximately six million Jewish victims as the best-estimate total for the Holocaust; those sources also present breakdowns showing deaths in killing centers (extermination camps), mass shootings, ghettos, forced-labor and other causes rather than a single neat document tallying every death [1] [3]. The USHMM emphasizes that deportations to and gassing operations at the killing centers are among the best-documented elements of Nazi murder, allowing relatively specific death tolls for the principal killing centers [1].

2. Extermination camps vs. other killing methods — scope and examples

The Holocaust’s murders were carried out by multiple methods: gas chambers in extermination camps, mobile shooting squads (Einsatzgruppen), death by starvation and disease in ghettos, forced-labour camp deaths, and other killings; therefore any single-number claim should specify method and location [1]. Scholarship highlights that Operation Reinhard—the Belzec, Sobibor and Treblinka killing program—accounted for roughly 1.7 million Jewish victims, underscoring that the extermination camps alone accounted for well over the hundreds-of-thousands scale in aggregate [2].

3. Why a figure like “800,000 thousand” is problematic

The phrasing “800,000 thousand” is mathematically ambiguous (that would read as 800 million) and no source in the provided reporting uses that phrasing; available sources do not mention that exact claim (not found in current reporting). If the intent was to say “800,000,” that is inconsistent with the documented death tolls attributed specifically to death camps and Operation Reinhard, which are larger in sum [2] and with institutions’ country-by-country breakdowns that total about six million Jewish deaths [1] [4].

4. Where particular numbers come from and limits of documentation

Researchers derive totals from surviving Nazi documentation, transport and camp records, demographic analysis, survivor and perpetrator testimony, and postwar investigations; but there is no single wartime document that lists every victim, so estimates are reconstruction-based and subject to scholarly refinement [1] [3]. Because counting is complex, reputable sites and papers present ranges and explain methodology rather than advancing precise single-digit certainty for every subcategory [1] [5].

5. Common points of confusion and contested snippets

Some claims try to downplay the death toll by citing limited sets of records (for example, partial Red Cross counts) —fact-checkers note that such documents cover only a fraction of deaths and do not undermine the approximately six million figure [6]. Conversely, focused academic work (e.g., on Operation Reinhard or hyperintense kill periods) can show very high kill-rates over short intervals —these findings underscore that mass killing in camps and specific campaigns exceeded hundreds of thousands to millions in total [2].

6. Bottom line and how to read future claims

Do not accept imprecise or garbled numerals (e.g., “800,000 thousand”) as reliable without tracing them to a named source; mainstream institutions and recent scholarship consistently report roughly six million Jewish victims in the Holocaust overall, with extermination-camp programs (including Operation Reinhard) responsible for very large portions—well beyond a single 800,000 figure when combined [1] [2]. When evaluating alternative numbers, demand clear provenance (which camps, which period, which methodology); available sources do not support the exact phrasing used in the original query (not found in current reporting).

Want to dive deeper?
Is the figure of 800,000 Jews killed in extermination camps accurate for the Holocaust?
How do historians estimate the total number of Jewish victims in Nazi extermination camps?
Which extermination camps were responsible for the largest numbers of Jewish victims?
How have Holocaust victim counts changed with new research and archival discoveries?
What primary sources and methodologies do scholars use to verify Holocaust casualty figures?