General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsIn just a few short years, two out of every three European Jews would be gone.
In 1933, approximately 9.5 million Jews lived in Europe, comprising 1.7% of the total European population. This number represented more than 60 percent of the world's Jewish population at that time, estimated at 15.3 million.
In eastern Europe:
Poland, with about 3,000,000 Jews (9.5%) (by 1950, 45,000);
the European part of the Soviet Union, with 2,525,000 (3.4%);
Romania, with 756,000 (4.2%) (by 1950, 280,000);
Latvia, 95,600 (4.9%);
Lithuania, 155,000 (7.6%);
Estonia, 4,560 (0.4%).
In central Europe:
Germany, with about 500,000 members (0.75%) (by 1950, 37,000);
Hungary, with 445,000 (5.1%) (by 1950, 190,000) ;
Czechoslovakia, with 357,000 (2.4%) (by 1950, 17,000);
Austria, with 191,000 (2.8%) (by 1950, 18,000).
In western Europe:
Great Britain, with 300,000 Jews (0.65%);
France, with 250,000 (0.6%) (some 75,300 French Jews died in the camps);
the Netherlands, with 156,000 (1.8%) (after the war, 35,000 were left);
Belgium,60,000 Jews (0.7%) (at the end of the war, about 35,770 remained);
Spain, 4,000 (0.02%);
Portugal, 1,200 (0.02%)
In Scandinavia:
Sweden, 6,700 (0.11%);
Denmark, 5,700 (0.15%) (almost 99% of Danish Jews survived because of the actions of the people of Denmark);
Finland, 1,800 (0.05%);
Norway, 1,400 (0.05%) (765 were killed under Nazi occupation).
In southern Europe:
Greece, with about 73,000 (1.2%) (by 1950, 7,000);
Yugoslavia, 68,000 (0.49%) (by 1950, 3,500);
Italy, 48,000 (0.11%) (by 1950, 35,000);
Bulgaria, 48,500 (0.8%) (by 1950, 6,500);
Albania, 200 (0.02%).
(sources: pre-WWII stats, post-WWII stats and other stats from various sites)
It is vital to understand not all Jews were killed in the death camps. In countries like Romania, Ukraine, and Poland, many Jews were killed by their own countrymen. The numbers above are not complete, but give an overall idea of what happened. While today is Yom HaShoah in Israel (Holocaust Remembrance Day) (sundown Sunday, until sundown Monday), there are other days which remember the deaths of all the victims of the Holocaust, such as International Holocaust Remembrance Day on January 27th, as set aside by the UN. Other countries have set aside their own days as listed here: Holocaust Memorial Days.
Never Again!
My family was from Belarus. Those who didn't leave during the Russian Pogroms, are no longer there.
MADem
(135,425 posts)If we do not keep this important and difficult time in world history front and center, it will be to our collective detriment.
Cha
(295,926 posts)were killed so horrifically, BtA.
Jenoch
(7,720 posts)Behind the Aegis
(53,833 posts)There was a reason I added the information at the bottom of my post.
jwirr
(39,215 posts)has been the nightmare of my life. I am of German descent and always wonder which side I would have been on. I sincerely hope it would not have been the Nazi side. Fortunately some ancestor decided to come to the USA way before this happened and my family sent our young men to fight against the Nazi.
LuckyLib
(6,814 posts)shaayecanaan
(6,068 posts)is particularly affecting. They have a haggard expression unbecoming for those so young.
merrily
(45,251 posts)In the first photo, look at the lips of the boy. He's trying to brave, but the lips looks like he wants to sob.
I can barely bare to look, but looking away would be worse, I think.
Violet_Crumble
(35,954 posts)I saw the first one long ago when I was a little kid and it was part of the intro of World At War. It's always gotten to me every time I've seen the photo since then...
Warren DeMontague
(80,708 posts)RainDog
(28,784 posts)JustAnotherGen
(31,683 posts)The arithmetic of evil.
ColesCountyDem
(6,943 posts)At the end of WW2, one cousin remained alive.
Hepburn
(21,054 posts)...my grandmother wanted to go back and the family (grandparents, my mother and her brother) did go back for a short time. But this was at the time when naturalized citizens lost their citizenship if outside the US for over 7 years. So my grandfather brought back to the US himself, his wife and his two American born children right before the 7 years ran. Thank god...if not, my family story would be much like yours. My mother had cousins born in the US...caught in Romania due to their Romanian born parents returning to their homeland.
merrily
(45,251 posts)the reminder of the past, if not more so.
The past has since been well-publicized. The present, not so much.
I guess that's has probably always been true. It's easier for politicians to make comments about the past than to do something while there's still time to save people. For us ordinary souls, too.
http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005267
newfie11
(8,159 posts)We must never forget!!!!
NuclearDem
(16,184 posts)Heidi
(58,237 posts)Hepburn
(21,054 posts)Shalom.
nadinbrzezinski
(154,021 posts)or the reality that this virus still exists
Behind the Aegis
(53,833 posts)What is worse is they are treated as historians.
nadinbrzezinski
(154,021 posts)That said, they have been at this since 1947. I actually have one of the first books in holocaust denial... know thy enemy.
Behind the Aegis
(53,833 posts)It is dishonest, but it happens quite a bit on the Holocaust "historical accuracy" circuit.
When I was writing this OP, I was pulling numbers and there were several links to pages designed to appear as if they were historically accurate. Of course, they were not, but they are set up in such a way as to not look bigoted (there were scads of those sites too), in order to draw in potentials.
Holocaust denial is being marketed, in some cases, in such a way to make it more appealing. It is disgusting and, IMO, shows the lengths some will go to in order to deny what really happened.
nadinbrzezinski
(154,021 posts)and that is my point.
I have been debating what to do with Borrego's piece of crap, "World Defeat."
I know it matters since a lot of the canards come straight from it and it is falling apart. But on the other hand...
Behind the Aegis
(53,833 posts)I don't know if you saw the recent articles about the Klan trying to "rebrand" themselves, it was in that vein which I was discussing these "historians" being made more appealing.
nadinbrzezinski
(154,021 posts)one of my hobbies is following this "literature" since I know they convince idiots, through the process of confirmation bias mostly.
I am familiar with what they are trying to do. In some ways they are dying off, but in others, they are getting new blood. It is weird.
pampango
(24,692 posts)is a bad idea. It was a horrible idea in the 1930's and 1940's in Europe. It is still a horrible idea though the far-right in Europe still is committed to racial, ethnic and linguistic 'purity' in terms of who is a 'real' citizen of a country.
moondust
(19,917 posts)how much pure evil human beings are capable of.
surrealAmerican
(11,340 posts)... do you mean dead? ... or do these numbers include those who survived and fled elsewhere?
(This is one reason I don't like euphemisms - they sacrifice clarity.)
Behind the Aegis
(53,833 posts)The Blue Flower
(5,420 posts)I'm very proud to say I am the niece of Martin Rose, who fought as a 15-year-old in the Warsaw Resistance. He survived a bullet wound and the camps and came to this country after the war.
sheshe2
(83,355 posts)Such horrific crimes against humanity.
DisgustipatedinCA
(12,530 posts)This is one of the several reasons I detest American skinhead Neo Nazi groups. The vast majority of them have no f-ing idea of what they're talking about, what they're advocating. And those that truly do understand what they're advocating for but do it anyway...well, I don't want to get a post locked, but those people should be dealt with.