[T.L.Sink]

The figure that most experts give for the Jews, gypsies,
and others who were exterminated in the camps is about
6 million. John Keegan, British historian, whose recent
book on the First World War claims that about 10 million
died in the Great War and about 40 million in the Second.
You speak about those killed "indirectly", and in the
case of both Hitler and Stalin -- you can extrapolate
and guesstimate forever! For example, many historians
say that Stalin's purge of the Soviet military before
the war and his failure to adequately prepare for
invasion (despite many warnings) cost the lives of
millions of Soviet troops. Dmitri Volkogonov, former
Soviet marshall and historian, says in his book (Stalin:
Triumph and Tragedy) that the 1939 pact with Hitler
really put Stalin's guard down. We're ultimately dealing
with vast numbers and how to interpret them. It was
Stalin himself who said, "One death is a tragedy; a
million is a statistic."

[Grzegorz 246]

"The figure that most experts give for the Jews, gypsies,
and others who were exterminated in the camps is about
6 million."

Yes, but those 6 million are only the people, who were killed in death camps. Millions of other were sent to slave camps or had to work as slaves in German factories - 12h a day for a half loaf of bread - many of them died, they were overworked, this was also a kind of extermination. Those people + those executed by SS + 6 million = about 11 million of people, who it can be said that were killed directly by Hitler. Millions of people died in result of "total war" started by Hitler - in the bombed cities, in burnt Russian villages etc. Many people died because of hunger and diseases - in many occupied countries, especially in the Eastern Europe this was result of Nazi policy - limits of food and medicine... It gives together about 20 million people and it doesn't include soldiers, who died in fight or German civilians, who in some way died because Hitler started the war.

"We're ultimately dealing with vast numbers and how to interpret them."

Yes, I agree with you, this is especially hard in a case of Stalin and Soviets in general.