Six million has a particular meaning for Jewish people. I believe it stems from something in the Torah and the implication is that six million need to die before Israel can be achieved.

I think it has become a general term like we might say "five minutes". It does not mean exactly five minutes it just means a short time. My scripture teacher suggested that "forty days and forty nights" might be a similar phrase meaning a few weeks.

I started to see if I could find a reference to back up my memory and came across a site claiming to have noted 140 references to "six million." Strangely, that site no longer works but loads of people seem to have archived it!

EDIT: I may be wrong about the Torah, above, it may be from the Talmud. This discussion is interesting regarding Judaism and "6".

Six million has a particular meaning for Jewish people. I believe it stems from something in the Torah and the implication is that six million need to die before Israel can be achieved.

I think it has become a general term like we might say "five minutes". It does not mean exactly five minutes it just means a short time. My scripture teacher suggested that "forty days and forty nights" might be a similar phrase meaning a few weeks.

I started to see if I could find a reference to back up my memory and came across a site claiming to have noted 140 references to "six million." Strangely, that site no longer works but loads of people seem to have archived it!