POPULATION AND EMIGRATION

 

Statistics relating to Jєωιѕн populations are not everywhere known in precise detail, approximations for various countries differing widely, and it is also unknown exactly how many Jєωs were deported and interned at any one time between the years 1939-1945. In general, however, what reliable statistics there are, especially those relating to emigration, are sufficient to show that not a fraction of six million Jєωs could have been exterminated. In the first place, this claim cannot remotely be upheld on examination of the European Jєωιѕн population figures. According to Chambers Encyclopaedia the total number of Jєωs living in pre-war Europe was 6,500,000. Quite clearly, this would mean that almost the entire number were exterminated. But the Baseler Nachrichten, a neutral Swiss publication employing available Jєωιѕн statistical data, establishes that between 1933 and 1945, 1,500,000 Jєωs emigrated to Britain, Sweden, Spain, Portugal, Australia, China, India, Palestine and the United Sutes. This is confirmed by the Jєωιѕн journalist Bruno Blau, who cites the same figure in the New York Jєωιѕн paper Aufbau, August 13th, 1948. Of these emigrants, approximately 400,000 came from Germany before September 1939. This is acknowledged by the World Jєωιѕн Congress in its publication Unity in Dispersion (p. 377), which states that: "The majority of the German Jєωs succeeded in leaving Germany before the war broke out." In addition to the German Jєωs, 220,000 of the total 280,000 Austrian Jєωs had emigrated by September, 1939, while from March 1939 onwards the Institute for Jєωιѕн Emigration in Prague had secured the emigration of 260,000 Jєωs from former Czechoslovakia. In all, only 360,000 Jєωs remained in Germany, Austria and Czechoslovakia after September 1939. From Poland, an estimated 500,000 had emigrated prior to the outbreak of war. These figures mean that the number of Jєωιѕн emigrants from other European countries (France, the Netherlands, Italy, the countries of eastern Europe etc.) was approximately 120,000. This exodus of Jєωs before and during hostilities, therefore, reduces the number of Jєωs in Europe to approximately 5,000,000. In addition to these emigrants, we must also include the number of Jєωs who fled to the Soviet Union after 1939, and who were later evacuated beyond reach of the German invaders. It will be shown below that the majority of these, about 1,250,000, were migrants from Poland. But apart from Poland, Reitlinger admits that 300,000 other European Jєωs slipped into Soviet territory between 1939 and 1941. This brings the total of Jєωιѕн emigrants to the Soviet Union to about 1,550,000. In Colliers magazine, June 9th, 1945, Freiling Foster, writing of the Jєωs in Russia, explained that "2,200,000 have migrated to the Soviet Union since 1939 to escape from the nαzιs," but our lower estimate is probably more accurate. Jєωιѕн migration to the Soviet Union, therefore, reduces the number of Jєωs within the sphere of German occupation to around 3-1/2 million, approximately 3,450,000. From these should be deducted those Jєωs living in neutral European countries who escaped the consequences of the war. According to the 1942 World Almanac (p. 594). the number of Jєωs living in Gibraltar, Britain, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Ireland and Turkey was 413,128.

 
3 MILLION JєωS IN EUROPE

A figure, consequently, of around 3 million Jєωs in German- occupied Europe is as accurate as the available emigration statistics will allow. Approximately the same number, however, can be deduced in another way if we examine statistics for the Jєωιѕн populations remaining in countries occupied by the Reich. More than half of those Jєωs who migrated to the Soviet Union after 1939 came from Poland. It is frequently claimed that the war with Poland added some 3 million Jєωs to the German sphere of influence and that almost the whole of this Polish Jєωιѕн population was "exterminated". This is a major factual error. The 1931 Jєωιѕн population census for Poland put the number of Jєωs at 2,732,600 (Reitlinger, Die Endlösung, p. 36). Reitlinger states that at least 1,170,000 of these were in the Russian zone occupied in the autumn of 1939, about a million of whom were evacuated to the Urals and south Siberia after the German invasion of June 1941 (ibid. p. 50). As described above, an estimated 500,000 Jєωs had emigrated from Poland prior to the war. Moreover, the journalist Raymond Arthur Davis, who spent the war in the Soviet Union, observed that approximately 250,000 had already fled from German-occupied Poland to Russia between 1939 and 1941 and were to be encountered in every Soviet province (Odyssey through Hell, N.Y., 1946). Subtracting these figures from the population of 2,732,600, therefore, and allowing for the normal population increase, no more than 1,100,000 Polish Jєωs could have been under German rule at the end of 1939. (Gutachen des Instituts für Zeitgeschichte, Munich, 1956, p.80). To this number we may add the 360,000 Jєωs remaining in Germany, Austria and former Czechoslovakia (Bohemia-Moravia and Slovakia) after the extensive emigration from those countries prior to the war described above. Of the 320,000 French Jєωs, the Public Prosecutor representing that part of the indictment relating to France at the Nuremberg Trials, stated that 120,000 Jєωs were deported, though. Reitlinger estimates only about 50,000. Thus the total number of Jєωs under nαzι rule remains below two million. Deportations from the Scandinavian countries were few, and from Bulgaria none at all. When the Jєωιѕн populations of Holland (140,000), Belgium (40,000), Italy (50,000), Yugoslavia (55,000), Hungary (380,000) and Roumania (725,000) are included, the figure does not much exceed 3 million. This excess is due to the fact that the latter figures are pre-war estimates unaffected by emigration, which from these countries accounted for about 120,000 (see above). This cross-checking, therefore, confirms the estimate of approximately 3 million European Jєωs under German occupation.

 
RUSSIAN JєωS EVACUATED

The precise figures concerning Russian Jєωs are unknown, and have therefore been the subject of extreme exaggeration. The Jєωιѕн statistician Jacob Leszczynski states that in 1939 there were 2,100,000 Jєωs living in future German-occupied Russia, i.e. western Russia. In addition, some 260,000 lived in the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. According to Louis Levine, President of the American Jєωιѕн Council for Russian Relief, who made a post-war tour of the Soviet Union and submitted a report on the status of Jєωs there, the majority of these numbers were evacuated east after the German armies launched their invasion. In Chicago, on October 30th, 1946, he declared that: "At the outset of the war, Jєωs were amongst the first evacuated from the western regions threatened by the Hitlerite invaders, and shipped to safety east of the Urals. Two million Jєωs were thus saved." This high number is confirmed by the Jєωιѕн journalist David Bergelson, who wrote in the Moscow Yiddish paper Ainikeit, December 5th, 1942, that "Thanks to the evacuation, the majority (80%) of the Jєωs in the Ukraine, White Russia, Lithuania and Latvia before the arrival of the Germans were rescued." Reitlinger agrees with the Jєωιѕн authority Joseph Schechtmann, who admits that huge numbers were evacuated, though he estimates a slightly higher number of Russian and Baltic Jєωs left under German occupation, between 650,000 and 850,000 (Reitlinger, The Final Solution, p. 499). In respect of these Soviet Jєωs remaining in German territory, it will be proved later that in the war in Russia no more than one hundred thousand persons were killed by the German Action Groups as partisans and Bolshevik commissars, not all of whom were Jєωs. By contrast, the partisans themselves claimed to have murdered five times that number of German troops.

 
'SIX MILLION' UNTRUE ACCORDING TO NEUTRAL SWISS

It is clear, therefore, that the Germans could not possibly have gained control over or exterminated anything like six million Jєωs. Excluding the Soviet Union, the number of Jєωs in nαzι-occupied Europe after emigration was scarcely more than 3 million, by no means all of whom were interned. To approach the extermination of even half of six mfilion would have meant the liquidation of every Jєω living in Europe. And yet it is known that large numbers of Jєωs were alive in Europe after 1945. Philip Friedmann in Their Brother's Keepers (N.Y., 1957, p. 13), states that "at least a million Jєωs survived in the very crucible of the nαzι hell," while the official figure of the Jєωιѕн Joint Distribution Committee is 1,559,600. Thus, even if one accepts the latter estimate, the number of possible wartime Jєωιѕн deaths could not have exceeded a limit of one and a half million. Precisely this conclusion was reached by the reputable journal Baseler Nachrichten of neutral Switzerland. In an article entitled "Wie hoch ist die Zahl der jüdischen Opfer?" ("How high is the number of Jєωιѕн victims?", June 13th, 1946), it explained that purely on the basis of the population and emigration figures described above, a maximum of only one and a half million Jєωs could be numbered as casualties. Later on, however, it will be demonstrated conclusively that the number was actually far less, for the Baseler Nachrichten accepted the Joint Distribution Committee's figure of 1,559,600 survivors after the war, but we shall show that the number of claims for compensation by Jєωιѕн survivors is more than double that figure. This information was not available to the Swiss in 1946.

 
IMPOSSIBLE BIRTH RATE

Indisputable evidence is also provided by the post-war world Jєωιѕн population statistics. The World Almanac of 1938 gives the number of Jєωs in the world as 16,588,259. But after the war, the New York Times, February 22nd, 1948 placed the number of Jєωs in the world at a minimum of 15,600,000 and a maximum of 18,700,000. Quite obviously, these figures make it impossible for the number of Jєωιѕн war-time casualties to be measured in anything but thousands. 15-1/2 million in 1938 minus the alleged six million leaves nine million; the New York Times figures would mean, therefore, that the world's Jєωs produced seven million births, almost doubling their numbers, in the space of ten years. This is patently ridiculous. It would appear, therefore, that the great majority of the missing "six million" were in fact emigrants - emigrants to European countries, to the Soviet Union and the United States before, during and after the war. And emigrants also, in vast nunibers to Palestine during and especially at the end of the war. After 1945, boat-loads of these Jєωιѕн survivors entered Palestine illegally from Europe, causing considerable embarrassment to the British Government of the time; indeed, so great were the numbers that the H.M. Stationery Office publication No. 190 (November 5th, 1946) described them as "almost amounting to a second Exodus." It was these emigrants to all parts of the world who had swollen the world Jєωιѕн population to between 15 and 18 millions by 1948, and probably the greatest part of them were emigrants to the United States who entered in violation of the quota laws. On August 16th, 1963 David Ben Gurion, President of Israel, stated that although the official Jєωιѕн population of America was said to be 5,600,000, "the total number would not be estimated too high at 9,000,000" (Deutsche Wochenzeitung, November 23rd, 1963). The reason for this high figure is underlined by Albert Maisal in his article "Our Newest Americans" (Readers Digest, January, 1957), for he reveals that "Soon after World War II, by Presidential decree, 90 per cent of all quota visas for central and eastern Europe were issued to the uprooted." Reprinted on this page is just one extract from hundreds that regularly appear in the obituary columns of Aufbau, the Jєωιѕн American weekly published in New York (June 16th, 1972). It shows how Jєωιѕн emigrants to the United States subsequently changed their names; their former names when in Europe appear in brackets. For example, as below: Arthur Kingsley (formerly Dr. Königsberger of Frankfurt). Could it be that some or all of these people whose names are 'deceased' were included in the missing six million of Europe?