Even though Pythagoras, Leaonard Euler or Abraham De Moivre devoted their lives to mathematics and created great formulas with numbers, I still think that numbers are pharisee. When we look at the world, each and every tiny bit of our lives requires numbers; however this still does not refute how mendacious numbers are.
For example, remember the infamous fuehrer Hitler had a big “Problem” and he called on numbers for a “Solution”. However, even Hitler who worked with massive numbers did not like them. He might have reached 6,000,000 but he would be still complaining about them because the number he wanted to capture was 15,000,000. He planned everything meticulously like the “Solution” steps of an equation. 131,800 in Germany, 165,000 in France, 330,000 in England, 58,000 in Italy and 3,300,000 in Poland. So the list kept going on and on, till the sum – you see, one of the greatest functions of mathematics – would become approximately 15,000,000. The point reveals when we use subtraction – which is actually another useful function of mathematics. The equation showed him that the “Final Solution” should be 15,000,000 but he could only get to 6,000,000 and so he got 9,000,000 more to add. I can imagine how angry he was with numbers and he might have even planned to demolish them as well. Actually he has.
Let’s look at the “Solution” steps from the beginning. He prepared the variables – x, y, z and God knows how many more. In this case, the variables refer to the countries and show the population of Jewish people one by one in Europe. One variable added to another. When Hitler started to solve the “Problem”, his progress wasn’t that good because 1 bullet could only kill 1. However, further theories and calculations and brutal ideas, improved by the great formulas of mathematics helped him. New techniques of killing were able to destroy more than 1. Those 1’s and more than 1’s added up to 100’s, 1,000’s and 1,000,000’s. It is clear that you can not trust numbers because 1 by 1, they can add up to too much. It wasn’t always 1 by 1; maybe the hours always passed one by one but deaths did not. When the gas chambers were built, suddenly the number increased to approximately 22,000 per hour.
At this point, I want to make a quick reminder, just to remember: all these numbers which we add or subtract or use in our equations, they all denote a person. Yes, it might be shocking. First we were just trying to understand how great the number 6.000.000 could be. Additionally, we need to understand not only the number itself but also the human individuals who died when we added another number to the equation. It was just another strike on Hitler’s list and another 1 which was increasing the “Final Solution”. Just imagine that once they were all a different person, 6,000,000 different stories and 6,000,000 different numbers. When Hitler started to play with numbers, they were all destroyed. Numbers can be seriously dangerous. If you get too close, they can engulf you. Even though Hitler used them, he still hated them. They didn’t help Jews, but they didn’t do the best for the Fuehrer either.
I told you, numbers are hypocritical. As they added up to 1,000,000’s, at the same time they were destroying other numbers; but nobody knew about these numbers. They were all hiding in ghettos. 50 small crammed Ghetto, spread all over Europe. In these ghettos only numbers were living. As a matter of fact the ones in the ghettos were once called humans, but Hitler used other numbers as his soldiers to erase the names. He was just destroying numbers. They were no longer humans. One of them was 65874 and the other one was 254875 and another one was 587463. One day the numbers between 356984 and 394586 were erased and another day the ones between 657486 and 712536. They kept being erased between the years 1940 and 1945, but numbers were a lot faster than years because they went from 0 to 6,000,000. They were all numbers. All captured by a couple of other numbers.
6,000,000. It’s easy to write one 6 and 6 zeros. Now try to count. Let’s start. It is so simple. 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19,20,21,22,23,24,25,26,27,28,29,30,31,32,33,34,35,36,37,38,39,40 Just one line is finished and I could only reach 40. Let’s use some functions but be careful. Consider that there are approximately 50 lines in one page. 40 times 50 and we got 2,000. Only 2,000. Let’s try to divide 6.000.000 to 2,000 – Pythagoras help us! – and we will get 3,000 pages. Just imagine how many books can be written with all these numbers or remembering that each number is denoting a person; shall I say people. How many pages can we read? How many stories can we remember? How many different stories can we learn? More importantly, out of 6,000,000 how many numbers can we understand? If it’s too complicated, just think: how long will it take to count? If you let numbers surrender your mind – if you get too close to them as Jews did - you’ll find yourself in a dead-end. Being able to realize the actual consternation of the situation, it can be compared to reaching to infinity on the number plane. 6,000,000 different people, which means 6,000,000 different lives, but now it can only mean just 6,000,000 numbers.
