Dozens of psychologists argued in the ’60s that it was unfair to compare the Yale students to the Germans. In many cases, the Germans did know the Jewish victims somehow or came to know them, or at least saw them, in concentration camps. The Holocaust did result in the murders of six million people and there was nothing fake about it. Critics also said that Yale students did not represent Americans overall and that Milgram’s sample of victims, and their background, was far too small and not representative. Milgram always defended his work, though social scientists have since found deep flaws in his methods.
