Why do we always hear six million for the Holocaust?

Because the Jews more than any other group was the focus of Hitler's wrath and he shaped them into a tool to whip up anti-Semitism against them. Down through the centuries Jews were viewed as evil and responsible for the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. These were negative sentiments easily compounded and cultivated among non-thinking Europeans. Non-Jewish victims, was a secondary issue, not as important and would not have been worth what Hitler wanted to do; non-Jewish victims were just swept up because of their undesirability, like Gypsies, Gays, and the mentally challenged. Another thing, like the West all over, there were not that many out-of-the-closet Gays, and Gypsies were a minor minority.

Hitler also wanted the Jews' material wealth, their bank accounts, their artwork, their businesses, the homes of the wealthy Jews. All this wealth would add to the coffers of the Third Reich and allow them to to have a well endowed treasury.

You haven't answered the question! The question asked by Foofie, concerns the number 6 million. Why not 8 million? Why not 10 million ( as is usually the case)?

The Germans kept meticulous records and 6 million were recorded. That's all I know. If you know better then I suggest you post the question to your alter ego, Foofie.

This is a remarkable thread.
The amount of anti-semitism still, to this day is astounding.
The patient deliberate efforts to combat it is inspiring.

Original German records count less than a million civilian victims.

The number 6 million appears to be an awful mathematics education corollary observed in war survivors, perhaps caused by an after war trauma.

You have looked at those?

Well, your number could be correct, if you refer just to those one million Jews on the Eastern Front were shot during 1941-42, and buried in large pits.

If you refer to the German civilians killed, it's between 5.6 million and 6.8 million, depending on what regions you include.

Speaking to ex-Soviet emigres, I only hear the number of two million Soviet Jews killed by the advancing German Army. The number reflects the thinking that the Soviets lost 22 million citizens, and 10% were Soviet Jews.

I think dying by being lined up by a ditch, and then machine gunned, reflects a different motive than retaliatory bombing from the air.

Nickolaus Wachsmann:

KI. A History of the Nazi Concentration Camps.

This book is written by Dr. Wachsmann, a Professor of Modern European History at Birkbeck College, University of London.

This is a fully referenced book based on facts and not speculation.

That book got a lot of good critics, rightly, I think.

But it's not about the Holocaust but about concentration camps, the Konzentrationslager (or 'KLs').

Some sources do mention non-Jewish victims. The website called "Nizkor"
does. It's a very comprehensive source of Holocaust info. You might want to
check it out. BTW, it is maintained by a Gentile named Ken McVay.

William Randolph Hearst was not Jewish and neither are any of his offspring.

The six million number came from a German officer, Dr Hoettl. Here is what he said:
http://groups.google.com/group/alt.revisionism/msg/f701f5aa3ff24bf5?d...

Who owns the media? Look right here:

http://www.freepress.net/ownership/chart