Holocaust Denial Coded Online Using '271K' Figure

The number 271,000 has emerged as a prominent antisemitic code on social media platforms, used by users to spread the false claim that only approximately 271,000 Jews were murdered during the Holocaust, rather than the historical figure of six million.

Usage of this number has surged by about 1,250% between 2022 and 2024, coinciding with a rise in online antisemitism following the October 7th attacks. The figure appears in comments and memes as a covert method to disseminate Holocaust denial.

According to a report in Israel Hayom, the number originates from genuine data within the Arolsen Archives in Germany. This archive holds around 271,000 death certificates issued over time for prisoners in several concentration camps. However, these documents were never intended to represent the total number of Holocaust victims and do not account for millions murdered in extermination camps, through mass shootings, or other killing methods.

Holocaust deniers have taken a partial statistic from a real database and distorted it to present it as a complete count of those killed.