The Final Solution of the European Jewish Question

Statistical Report

Contents:

I. Introduction

II. Balance Sheet for the Jews in Germany

III. Weakness of the Jewish Volk

IV. The Emigration of the Jews from Germany

V. The Evacuation of the Jews

VI. The Jews in the Ghettos

VII. The Jews in the Concentration Camps

VIII. Jews in Penal Institutions

IX. The Work Deployment of the Jews

X. Balance Sheet for the Jews in Europe

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I. Introduction

Drawing up an account of the accomplishments made along the way toward the solution of the Jewish question requires a numerical recording of Jewry and its development. Contradictions in the numerical figures regarding Jewry, however, necessitate a preliminary remark to the effect that numbers concerning the Jews must always be recorded with special caution and can often lead to erroneous conclusions if there is no information on their source or the manner in which they were derived. The sources of these errors are found above all in the nature of Jewry and its historical development, in its restless wanderings for thousands of years, in the large number of those who joined and left, in the endeavor to assimilate, in the intermingling with host peoples, in the efforts of the Jew to escape statistical counting undetected, and, finally, in erroneous or erroneously interpreted statistics on Jewry.

Moreover, until most recently, statistics—partly out of statistical necessity, partly because of the nearly complete overlap between the Jewish faith and Jewish race, partly out of ignorance about the idea of race, partly of out adherence to the religious thinking of a given time—have almost never recorded the Jews according to their race, but instead according to their religious confession. The statistical recording of race presupposes many years of training [on the part of the researcher] as well as ancestral research. Another reason why it proved difficult, especially in southern and eastern countries, was that in spite of all the consistencies, a uniform Jewish race was difficult to delineate statistically. Profession of the Mosaic or Israelite faith is, once again, not completely valid proof, because as a result of the former Jewish missionary movement, with its admission of masses of pagans and Christians, and through the defection into Judaism through mixed marriages and “conversion” in recent times, there is no small number of religious Jews who are not of the Jewish race, while, conversely, forced Christianization and the number of baptized Jews, which has risen again sharply during the last century, and the number of non-confessional racial Jews, have reduced the number of Jews. For example, in 1893 Leroy-Beaulieu estimated the number of Jews lost to Christianity at about four to ten times the number of Judaism’s present-day adherents; according to Maurice Fishberg and Mathias Mieses, three times the current number of Jews was absorbed into Aryan Europe. Even Hans Günther estimates the number of Jews in Germany at twice the number of Jews of the Mosaic faith who are German citizens. Finally, the Lithuanian Jew Brutzkus goes so far as to describe the Berlin Jews, with respect to the composition of their blood, as purer Europeans than the Germans in Berlin.

In keeping with these views, the number of racial Jews in Europe, including Mischlinge, has often been pegged at three times the number of religious Jews (in Eastern Europe twice as high, in Central Europe four times as high, in the rest of Europe even eight times as high), reckoning that 6% of the European population has some degree of Jewish blood. By contrast, in his estimate, Burgdörfer put the number of Jews in Germany in 1933 at 850,000 full, half, and quarter Jews (with 502,799 religious Jews); for Austria in 1934 at 300–400,000 (with 191,481 religious Jews). The counting of racial Jews in the German census of 1939 yielded—with 307,614 religious Jews—only a somewhat higher number of 330,892 full Jews, 72,738 half Jews, and 42,811 quarter Jews, though these numbers cannot be seen as reliable especially with respect to half and quarter Jews. The numbers can be evaluated only as minimum numbers. They were generated by the question, “Was or is one of your four grandparents fully Jewish?” The question was listed on a “supplemental card” to the household list for the census of 1939 and had to be answered with “yes” or “no” for each grandparent. Since this supplemental card had to be submitted in a sealed envelope and was therefore not subject to review on the spot, it was poorly filled out. Many times, instead of an answer, only marks appeared in the corresponding boxes.

The first official attempt to count the Jews according to their race was immediately sabotaged by the Jews. It happened in the Austrian census of March 7, 1923. Shortly before the census, Vice-Chancellor Dr. Frank (Großdeutsche Volkspartei [Greater German People’s Party]) signed a decree according to which the answer to question 7 of the census form (language) should “also include ethnicity [Volkszugehörigkeit] and race.” Since the census forms had already been printed, this was merely pointed out on a red notice slip without explanation, instruction, or examples. The way the Austrian Jews sabotaged this question is as follows: immediately before the census, the Jewish-Marxist press called upon its readers to answer the question about race with “white.” The result was that the “white race was found throughout Austria about as far as the sphere of influence of the Jewish-Marxist press and parties extended.” Only in Carinthia and the Burgenland was the preparation of the material carried out, albeit with rather questionable results; in the other states, and especially in Vienna, it was abandoned as pointless.

II. Balance Sheet for the Jews in Germany

The following particulars about the number and development of the Jews in Germany are based on official census data and other Reich statistics, and on scientific calculations and estimates, though for the most part they were generated by the Reich Association of the Jews in Germany and by the religious communities in Vienna and Prague, who worked with censuses,

counting-cards for population movement, extrapolation, and calculations and estimates. These Jewish offices work under the supervision of the Reich Security Main Office and for its purposes. Apart from the dubious data on the initial number of Jews, it would appear that the Reich Association of the Jews in Germany does reliable work. Based on the statistics produced by this office and checked by the Reich Security Main Office so far, the following conclusions can be drawn about the development of Jewry in Germany between the Machtergreifung [seizure of power] (January 30, 1933) and January 1, 1943, in the Altreich [Nazi Germany before 1938]; between March 1938 and January 1, 1943, in Austria; and between March 1939 and January 1, 1943, in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia:

1. Balance Sheet for the Jews in the Altreich with Sudeten Gau and Danzig

Number of Jews in the Altreich (excluding Sudeten Gau and Danzig) on January 30, 1933: about 561,000

Attrition between January 30, 1933, to January 1, 1943, from

Increase between January 30, 1933, and January 1, 1943, from

2. Balance Sheet for the Jews in the Ostmark [Austria after 1938]

3. Balance Sheet for the Jews in the Protectorate of Bohemia-Moravia

The balance sheet does not include the newly acquired eastern territories (with the exception of Danzig). Their final numbers cannot be established yet. There are, however, various estimates regarding the Jews in these areas at the time of their incorporation into the Reich, and they are likely to lead to a number of about 630,000, to which we must add about 160,000 Jews in the district of Bialystok and about 1.3 million Jews in the General Government at the time of its establishment.[2] All together, that would produce in the entire German area (excluding the occupied eastern areas) at the end of 1939 a total number of about 2.5 million[3] Jews, the vast majority of whom are found in the new East.

On January 1, 1943, the Reich—excluding the eastern territories, excluding the old-age ghetto Theresienstadt, and excluding work deployment within the framework of Organization Schmelt—was down to only 74,979, of whom 51,327 were in the Altreich, 8,102 in the Ostmark, and 15,550 in the Protectorate. In the Altreich, including the Sudetenland, only 9.2 percent of the Jews who were there for the seizure of power still remain. On January 30, 1943, their number was only 48,242, or 8.6 percent; on February 28, 1943, it was down to 44,589, or 7.9 percent. Berlin, home to one-eighth of the Jews in Germany in 1880, more than one-quarter in 1910, and nearly a third in 1933, had no fewer than 32,999, or 64.3 percent, of the entire Jewish population of the Altreich on January 1, 1943; on January 30, 1943, it still had 30,121; on February 28, 1943, still 27,281. In the Ostmark, only Vienna still has any Jews.

Of the 51,327 Jews of the Altreich, 23,197 are men and 28,130 women. 40,351 are religious Jews; 10,976 are non-religious Jews. 16,760 live in mixed marriages, in the Ostmark 4,803 (of 8,102), in the Protectorate 6,211 (of 15,550).

III. Weakness of the Jewish Volk

The balance sheet for the Jews in Germany shows an extraordinary excess of deaths. This results not only from the very high mortality rate of the Jews, but even more so from the marked scarcity of births. Thus, the natural population trend in the Altreich, including the Sudetenland, developed as follows (according to estimates and documentation from the Reich Association of the Jews in Germany, since the tallying of religious Jews is much more complicated and less reliable):

Births and Deaths of Jews in the Altreich

(calculated and estimated until 1939)

From the day of the seizure of power (January 30, 1933) until January 1, 1943, the excess of Jewish deaths in the Altreich, with the Sudetenland, totals 61,693; it represents the result of 14,921 births [sic: actually 15,221] and 76,114 deaths [sic: 76,914]. Although, on the one hand, migration, and, on the other hand, the absence of recording by the Reich Association of the Jews in the initial years and the insufficiency of recording since then, particularly with respect to concentration camp deaths, leave much room for error, even this rough overview reveals that the level of deaths remained relatively constant despite the decline in the number of Jews. Jewish mortality would thus amount to 80-85 (as compared to 10 to 15 on average in Europe) per 1,000 (in the calendar year 1942).

Additionally striking is the decline in births, which is far ahead of the decline in the number of Jews. Accordingly, the birth rate for the Jews in the Altreich in 1942 would be only about 2.5 per 1,000. Similarly, in the Ostmark from March 1, 1938, to January 1, 1943, there were only 679 Jewish births to 15,188 Jewish deaths. In the Altreich, finally, only 14 Jewish children were born in December 1942, and only 7 and 8 in January and February 1943, respectively. Here, it must be remembered that, for decades, Jewry in the civilized western states has been at the forefront of declining birth rates, as was evident from the confessional birth statistics. As early as 1911, the Jew Felix Theilhaber pointed to the resulting “decline of the German Jews,” which was covered up only by the continuous influx of east-Jewish blood. This was only partly related to the aging of the European Jewry in large cities: the main issue is a matter of genuine weakness of life.

Looking at the extraordinary mortality of the Jews today and their low birth rate, however, one must take into account the extremely unfavorable age structure of the Jews. After the emigration of their best generations, the Jews in Germany are largely comprised of old people, as a result of which their age structure resembles—in a visual depiction in the form of the age pyramid and in the words of the Reich Association of the Jews—the shape of a “club,” which is objectively true. There is a lack of children and those of a similar age capable of reproducing, while the generation of old people is not only too strong comparatively, but is also much stronger than the younger generation in purely numerical terms. This also accounts in part for the highly elevated suicide rate of the Jews, since suicide is predominantly a method of death among old people.

IV. The Emigration of the Jews from Germany

The migration of the Jews from Eastern to Central and Western Europe and from the whole of Europe overseas, primarily to the United States of America, is a phenomenon that has been generally observed for decades. A great many Jews emigrated from Germany primarily between 1840 and 1870, but after 1870 their emigration ceased almost entirely. Instead, the Germans emigrated. Jewish emigration from Germany since 1933, which, in a sense, is making up for the movement that did not happen after 1870, aroused the special attention of the entire civilized world, especially the Jewish-governed democratic states. Different sides used various methods to try and grasp the number and composition of the emigrants. They did not produce any uniform results, however. The numbers from German emigration statistics, those from the Reich Association of the Jews in Germany and from the Israelite religious communities in Vienna and Prague, the numerous foreign statistics, calculations, and estimates, the statistics of international Jewry, and the numbers from scientific studies diverge very strongly. For example, Prof. Zielenziger in Amsterdam calculates 135,000 emigrants from the seizure of power until the end of 1937; the Reich Association of the Jews calculates 203,000 emigrants. Since 1938, emigration has risen sharply, though it came to an almost complete end (except for a few exceptions month by month) with the prohibition against Jewish emigration in the fall of 1941. The Reich Association of the Jews and the Israelite religious communities in Vienna and Prague came up with the following high emigration estimates up to January 1, 1943 (including double counting):

This initially chaotic emigration makes it impossible to give precise figures at all. Likewise, in many cases the target country mentioned by emigrants, especially if it was a European country, must be regarded only as a way-station. Of the emigrants from the Altreich, about 144,000 went to other European countries; about 57,000 to the USA; 54,000 to South America; 10,000 to Central America; 53,000 to Palestine; 15,000 to Africa (mostly South Africa); 16,000 to Asia (China); and 4,000 to Australia. Of the 144,000 Jews who emigrated to European countries, 32,000 went to England alone; 39,000 to Poland or the General Government; 18,000 to France; 8,000 to Italy; 7,500 to the Netherlands; and 6,000 to Belgium. It is likely that the majority of these emigrants continued abroad from these countries. The following targets were indicated for the Jewish emigrants from the Ostmark: 65,500 to European countries; 50,000 to America; 20,000 to Asia; 9,000 to Palestine; 2,600 to Africa; and 2,000 to Australia.

V. The Evacuation of the Jews

The evacuation of the Jews replaced the emigration of the Jews, at least on Reich territory. Following the prohibition of Jewish emigration in the fall of 1941, the evacuation was prepared on a large scale and largely implemented throughout the entire Reich territory in 1942. In the balance sheets on Jewry it appears as Abwanderung [translated above as “departure”].

According to the tabulations of the Reich Security Main Office, the following numbers departed up to January 1, 1943:

These figures also include the Jews evacuated into the old-age ghetto Theresienstadt.

All of the evacuations in the Reich territory, including the eastern territories and further within the German sphere of power and influence in Europe, generated the following numbers from October 1939 or later up to December 31, 1942:

The above numbers do not include the inmates of the ghettos and concentration camps.

The evacuations from Slovakia and Croatia were undertaken by these states themselves.

VI. The Jews in the Ghettos

Here must be mentioned:

The decline occurred chiefly through deaths. Apart from Theresienstadt, the Reich territory includes a number of Jewish old-age and convalescent homes with smaller capacities, though these are regarded as neither ghettos nor evacuation sites.

2. The ghetto Litzmannstadt at the beginning of 1943 counted 87,180 Jews, of which 83,133 had former Polish citizenship.

3. The Jews housed primarily in the residual ghettos of the General Government were recorded or estimated as follows as of December 31, 1942:

VII. The Jews in the Concentration Camps

Here it should be noted that the number of internments of Jews will be greater than the number of Jews placed into the concentration camps, since repeated admissions were counted again each time.

Not included are the Jews that, in the course of the evacuation action, were interned in the concentration camps Auschwitz and Lublin.

We arrive at the following figures for the concentration camps, divided by internments, releases, deaths, and the level on December 31, 1942:

The Jews in the Concentration Camps

VIII. The Jews in Penal Institutions

At the beginning of 1943, the penal institutions of the Reich territory kept as prisoner 458 Jews, which can be broken down among men and women and the kinds of facility as follows:

IX. The Work Deployment of the Jews

At the beginning of 1943, 185,776 Jews were active in war-essential work deployment in the Reich territory. Of those:

1) 21,659 were deployed within the inspectoral districts of the Security Police and the SD (excluding Posen and excluding Soviet Russian Jews); of those, 18,546 had German citizenship, 107 had Protectorate membership, 2,519 were stateless, and 487 were foreigners. This can be broked down according to inspectoral districts (excluding Posen) as follows:

2) In the inspectoral district Königsberg, also 18,435 foreign, that is, almost exclusively Soviet Russian, Jews.

3) In the inspectoral district Posen in ghetto and camp deployment, 95,112 mainly Polish Jews.

4) In the framework of the Organization Schmelt (Breslau), 50,570 Jews, of these 42,382 stateless and 8,188 foreigners.

X. Balance Sheet for The Jews in Europe

The collapse of European Jewry was set in motion decades ago by the völkisch decline of European big-city Jewry, on the one hand, and by Jewish emigration, on the other. In 1927, the Jewish statistician Lestschinsky illustrated the decline of the Jews in Europe as follows: “At the beginning of the nineteenth century, 85% of all Jews lived in Europe, with Russia, Austria-Hungary, and Germany alone accounting for 80% of all Jews; at that time, America only had 2–3,000 Jews. In 1925, 63% of all Jews lived in Europe; only 57% of all Jews still lived within the borders of Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Russia; in America 30%, the other parts of the world 7%.” According to calculations by the Reich Office of Statistics, the Europe’s share of Jews in 1880 was as high as 88.4%, and in 1937 only 60.4%. It is likely that in 1943 the European share will only be 1/3 of world Jewry.

Around 1930 and in the last few years, the number of Jews in some of the more important states in Europe was as follows:

Recent count or estimate

_______________________

(1) New territory.

(2) New territory including East Poland; the number is an estimate.

(3) New territory; the number is calculated.

The total number of Jews in the world was estimated in 1937 in general at around 17 million, of which more than 10 million are found in Europe. They are or were concentrated in Europe especially in the former Polish-Russian territories occupied by Germany between the Baltic Sea and the Gulf of Finland and the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov, as well as in the trading centers and in the Rhine region of central and western Europe and along the coasts of the Mediterranean.

Between 1937 and the beginning of 1943, the number of Jews in Europe is likely to have declined by an estimated 4 million, in part through emigration, in part through excess mortality of the Jews in central and western Europe, in part through the evacuations especially in the eastern territories where the population is stronger, which here are calculated as departure. One must not overlook that only a part of the deaths of Soviet Russian Jews in the occupied eastern territories are recorded here, while those in the rest of European Russia and on the front are not included at all. To this must be added migration streams (unknown to us) of the Jews within Russia into the Asiatic region. The stream of emigration of Jews from European countries outside of German influence is also a largely unknown quantity. All in all, it is likely that since 1933, that is to say, in the first decade of the National Socialist German Machtentfaltung, European Jewry is likely to have lost close to half of its population.