Research Methods and Evidence

No single source is enough

A source can be authentic and still be incomplete. German institutions destroyed records, used euphemisms and often documented logistics more fully than murder. Jewish records were created under persecution and frequently survived only in fragments. Many victims were murdered without ever being registered in a camp. Historians therefore compare independent sources instead of expecting one document to contain the entire story.

Testimony is evidence, not a transcript of a camera

Survivor testimony is indispensable because it records experiences, relationships, language, violence and daily life that perpetrator paperwork often omitted. Like all human memory, testimony can contain uncertainty about exact dates, distances or sequence. Good historical practice compares testimony with other testimony, documents, geography and chronology without dismissing what only witnesses could describe.

Numbers are reconstructed

There is no single Nazi document listing all six million Jewish victims. Historians reconstruct totals from deportation records, killing-center records, shooting reports, censuses, local studies and prewar and postwar demographic evidence. Some sites can be estimated with unusual precision; other regions require ranges because records were destroyed or never created.

Uncertainty is part of accuracy

A range is not a weakness when the surviving evidence does not justify a single exact number. The correct question is not “Why can’t historians give one number?” but “What evidence supports this estimate, and what remains uncertain?” Pages on this site should distinguish documented facts, estimates, testimony, interpretation and unresolved questions.