How “271K” Became a Code for Holocaust Denial Online

Holocaust deniers on social media have recently begun adopting and using the number 271K to support their claim that this is the correct number of Jews who died during World War II, according to a report published Monday in Israel Hayom.

The number has become a code associated with Holocaust denial, used by people spreading the false claim that only about 271,000 Jews were murdered in the Holocaust, not six million.

An examination found that the number comes from data held by the Arolsen Archives in Germany, one of the world’s largest archives documenting Nazi victims and persecution. The archive contains about 271,000 death certificates issued over the years for prisoners in concentration camps.

These certificates were never intended to represent the number of Holocaust victims. Millions of people murdered by the Nazis were never issued death certificates, and the figure does not include all the Jews who were murdered. Holocaust deniers have taken this figure and presented it as though it were a complete count of those killed. The number appears repeatedly in posts, with users using it to spread a message of Holocaust denial.

According to data from the Foundation to Combat Antisemitism, the number of mentions of “271,000” monitored on social media rose by about 1,250% between 2022 and 2024, and the figure continues to climb.