How High is the Number of Jewish Victims? (1946)

Quite independently of the data published in Basler Nachrichten No. 241 by Dr. Perlzweig, head of the political department of the World Jewish Congress, on the number of Jews fallen victim to the Nazi regime in Europe, we have received from a correspondent in the United States the following submission entitled “How High is the Number of Jewish Victims?”:

Almost every nation (with the telling exception of the Soviet Union!) has in the meanwhile made public its official number of war dead – hereby revealing the surprising fact that these losses are consistently much lower than those of the First World War. Even more astonishing, however, is the fact that as of yet no official figure of Jewish losses has been made public, but only private and semi-official estimates. These estimates – possibly deriving from a central propaganda source – gives a figure of between 5 and 6 million dead Jews fallen victim to the persecution of the Hitler regime and the war. If this figure were correct, then the Jewish losses would be greater than the losses of England, the United States, Australia, Canada, New Zeeland, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark, Norway and Luxemburg put together, something which makes it even more incomprehensible that one is satisfied with a simple estimate for this shocking loss of lives.

A summary review makes it clear though, that this number of Jewish victims cannot be correct. Given the mentioned curious lack of official sources one can at this point investigate this problem only on the basis of the following generally available data.

According to those sources the number of Jews living in Europe in 1933 – excluding the Soviet Union – amounted to approximately 5.5 million, a figure given also by the American Jewish Conference (according to a report in the New York Times on January 11, 1945). From this number must be subtracted the approximately 1 million Jews who lived east of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Line. Prior to June 21, 1941, these had been completely out of reach for the Hitler regime's persecutions and after this date the vast majority of them fled to the interior of Russia and Siberia together with the retreating Red Army. Even if we assume that only about half of the Jews living east of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Line could escape the Nazi invasion we reach a fix total figure, sanctioned by highest Jewish authority, of 5 million Jews living in Europe within the possible reach of Hitler's power.

From here must also be subtracted the number of Jews living in the neutral countries of Europe. According to World Calendar 1942, page 594, the number of Jews in the nations not occupied by Hitler were as follows: Gibraltar 865, England 300,000, Portugal 1,200, Spain 4,000, Sweden 6,553, Swiss 17,973, Ireland 3,888, Turkey 78,730 – altogether 413,128.

Thus the number of European Jews within reach of Hitler and Himmler is diminished to approximately 4.5 million. From this number is in turn to be subtracted the large flow of immigrants, who during the years 1933-1945 left for all nations and continents. Due to the large international support which was rightfully given these masses of threatened Jewish refugees, a significant percentage of them managed to reach a safe haven.

Unfortunately there are no official statistics available that document with any exactitude the immigration of Jews to North- and South America, to Australia, Asia and the neutral nations of Europe. If, however, we make the justifiable assumption that after 1933 at least 80%, and since the outbreak of the war as good as all of the immigrants classified as being “German, Austrian or Polish” were in fact members of the Jewish people, then we can derive from various sources (among them the Jewish newspaper Aufbau) the following picture of the Jewish immigration from 1932 to 1945:

To England about 120,000, Sweden about 25,000, Swiss about 60,000, Spain and Portugal about 5,000, Canada about 60,000, the United States about 450,000, Central America about 75,000, South America about 225,000, Australia about 15,000, China (Shanghai) about 35,000, India about 25,000, Africa about 45,000, Palestine about 300,000, altogether approximately 1,440,000 or 1.5 million rounded off.

Nothing concrete can be said on the inflow to the vast domains of the Soviet Union and Siberia, since on this no statistics are available whatsoever. It is in any case worthy of note that, according to a report in the New York Times based on the short lecture of a returned Jewish lady, more than 500,000 Polish Jews managed to escape to Siberia.

The number of Jews actually within the domain controlled by Hitler is thus decreased to 3 million at the most. Unfortunately the lack of exact figures also includes the number of Jewish survivors in Europe, and curiously even the otherwise exhaustive report issued by the British-American Palestine Committee is content with presenting “estimates”. Following these estimates the number of Jews still living in Europe (excluding the Soviet Union) amounts to 1,559,650.

According to the above calculation, which unfortunately does not rest on new official data, but exclusively derives from figures issued by official authorities, all in all less than 1.5 million Jews are to be tentatively categorized as “dead or missing”.

It is to hope that a substantial percentage of this number is found to be alive by the time proper statistics are presented for the first time. Because of the immense importance that now has been given to the “Extermination of the Jews” by world opinion, it is of utmost necessity that an official investigative committee is formed by the United Nations as quickly as possible to determine the real number of Jewish deaths.

Already today at least one thing is sure: the claim that the figure amounts to 5-6 million dead (a figure astonishingly accepted even by the Palestine Committee) is false. The number of Jewish victims is possibly between 1 and 1.5 million, since not more were in the reach of Hitler and Himmler. It is to be expected and hoped, that the final number of Jewish dead will be lower yet. But clarity is called for, and therefore the truth, important as it is to the present and future, should be determined by a special UN committee.

Source: Basler Nachrichten Abendblatt mit Finanz- und Handelsblatt, No. 243, Basel, Switzerland, Thursday June 13, 1946, p. 1.