```The ITS told us that the number of death certificates are “anything but comprehensive” as a measure of the total death count during the Holocaust.
These death certificates can only be issued when there is documentation detailing how individual victims died. This is rarely available for a number of reasons.
Firstly, records were not necessarily kept for each prisoner. The ICRC told us: “Those who were sent straight to their deaths at concentration camps were not registered at all.”
Also camps were not the only place of Nazi mass murder during the war. Many were shot by Nazi mobile SS and police units.
Secondly, where camp records were initially kept, much was destroyed in the lead up to liberation at the end of the war, in order to cover up proof of the crimes committed.
Where records still exist, the death certificates issued by the Special Registry Office only relate to a small number of camps. The 1979 document lists 13 camps. The ITS told us there were “well over 1,200” sites of imprisonment and murder throughout Nazi Europe.
For these and other reasons, the number of death certificates issued in no way resembles the total number of people murdered in the Holocaust.
No single data source holds an authoritative estimate for the number of Jews murdered during the Holocaust, but six million is an accepted rough estimate. This does not include non-Jews systematically murdered during the Holocaust such as the Roma and disabled people.
``` @Deleted User
