Statistics and the Jews
[NOTE: This is a repeat of a very early blog post of mine, from 9/10/2005. I think enough people are probably unfamiliar with it that it could bear a repeat.]
A while back, in the course of doing some research on World War II and the Holocaust, I came across a statistic that absolutely stunned me: the percentage of Jews in the population of Germany immediately prior to World War II.
Since then, every so often I will ask people if they can guess what it might have been, and no one’s ever gotten it right, or even come close.
So, what percentage of the population of pre-WWII Germany do you suppose was Jewish? Take a moment and think about it. Then guess.
Here’s another one that no one ever seems to get right: the percentage of Jews in the population of Baghdad around the time of World War I. Take a moment and think about it. Then take a guess.
Now look here for the answer to the first question (hint: it’s in the first sentence of the third paragraph).
Now look here for the answer to the second question (hint: it’s in the second sentence of the second paragraph).
Okay, let’s review. Answer to the first question: just prior to World War II, Jews constituted about 0.75% of the population of Germany. In case you’re bad with figures or think that was a typo, I’ll say it in words: less than one percent of the population of Germany was Jewish around the time Hitler rose to power.
Answer to the second question: around WWI, Jews constituted about one-third of the population of the city of Baghdad.
Most people will guess between 5 and 20 percent for the first question, and a couple of percentage points or even less for the second. You get closer to the truth if you reverse Germany and Baghdad.
What does it all mean? I’m not sure, except that it’s another case of facts sometimes being quite different than what we suppose them to be.
I got a sense of deja vu while reading this, but it’s not because of the 2005 appearance, but because the first few paragraphs repeat themselves.
Language Bully:
Oops! Cut-and-past error. Thanks, will fix.
That number, (I had recalled something like 600 + K out of over 60 million) always shocked me. One wonders just how the Germans, or those that did, got so worked up over the Jews. Though it seems to have been something of a tradition in Germany, and one amplified in the circles of late 19th century German neo-paganism.
Of course the Prussian ideologues hated neo-liberalism as well.
I have to admit, that I don’t really understand the sensibility behind the worship of the folk. It seems vaguely homoerotic, to be blunt about it.
i guessed 1% and 20%. not bad for a SWAG.
That .75% figure for pre-WWII Jewish German pop. mathematically ’rounds off’ to 1%. As we all know, democrats have recently been railing against our 1%… coincidence? I think not. I strongly suspect that to be the trigger point for demonizing a suitable societal scapegoat. Small enough to lack the ability to resist and also small enough to lack widespread connections to the larger society. Think about it, how many millionaires do you know?
“Hand the people a scapegoat to hate. Let them kill a scapegoat occasionally for cathartic release. The mechanism is ages old. Tyrants used it centuries before the word “psychology” was ever invented. It works, too. “ R.A. Heinlein
By “just prior to WWII” many Jews had already left Germany. Likely the percentage of Jews in Germany in 1933 was significantly higher than in 1939. Do you have a number for the pre-Nazi Jewish percentage of the population?
Mat…
It was actually quite difficult for ANYONE to emigrate during the Great Depression.
Every nation on Earth rolled up the welcome mat.
FDR expelled massive numbers of Mexican farm workers at that time. This was why the Joad family had any shot at picking California fruits. John Steinbeck left off the mass exodus of Mexican field hands from his signature opus.
The expulsion was per the original deal which allowed Mexican fruit pickers into California in the first place.
(I have to regard ‘farm workers’ to be something of a distortion. There was only ONE form of labor desired: harvesting fruit. More then than now, fruit ripened like crazy… and all across a belt of weather. This was — and is — the phenomena that drove growers towards mass employment of seasonal pickers.)
(For the remainder of the year, outside labor is not needed — at all. Farming involves insane tempos twice a year: planting and harvesting. For fruit growers, even the planting tempo is moderate.) (orchards, vines, perennials)
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Many Jews fled Germany for — Austria. This was particularly evident for performance artists. Practically every Jew that made it to Hollywood did so by way of Austria. And it was in Austria that the Nazis first went to a fulsome extreme — right out of the gate. Unlike Germany, itself, the SS/ SD jumped all over Austrian Jewry within weeks of Nazi occupation. This scheme was to be repeated straight through to the end of the Nazi tyranny.
The resistance to Jewish flight was well nigh universal.
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The statistic that shocks me the most is the figure from Baghdad.
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Another thing to keep in mind: the Nazis made it impossible to shift assets outside Nazi control. Many a soul perished by hanging around too long, trying to get the family assets out of Germany.
This matched up with American (and other) restrictions against accepting poverty stricken immigrants.
The Nazis made Jewish immigration to America effectively illegal under the FDR system at that time.
FDR’s reputation has never been taken to task over this situation — not then — not later. Like Japanese internment — FDR could do no wrong.
I can not understand the persecution of the jews throughout history. It makes no sense to me, but I am an agnostic, so I have no reason to hate the adherents to any particular religion, except islam.
FDR could do no wrong.
He was their foremost Messiah. Just happened to die while being President for Life after only 4 terms.
He would have served out sixteen, if he could, for the Good of the Nation, of course.
Geoffrey Britain said:
“That .75% figure for pre-WWII Jewish German pop. mathematically ’rounds off’ to 1%. As we all know, democrats have recently been railing against our 1%… coincidence? I think not.”
In my humble opinion this is the best answer yet.
Parker says:
“It makes no sense to me, but I am an agnostic, so I have no reason to hate the adherents to any particular religion, except islam.”
The Nazis hatred was racial not religious. Jews who belonged to Protestant or Catholic congregations targeted along with all the rest of the Jews.
Baghdad/Babylon was a major Jewish center and center of learning since the conquest of Israel by the Persian king Nebuchadnezzar of the Bible in about 500 BC. There are two Talmuds, one of which is the Babylonian Talmud. It should be no surprise that so many Jews lived in Baghdad up until the founding of modern Israel when they were driven out. A friend of mine is an Iraqi Jew whose family first moved to England and later to the US after being expelled.
http://observer.com/2014/09/wealthy-french-jews-are-fleeing-anti-semitism-and-bringing-their-money/
neo…
High time to revisit the issue, no doubt. ^^^^
As for myself, I’ve been consistently amazed that any Jew still resides in France.
Pick a clue — and stand in line.
Throughout the 1920s and very early 1930s (prior to 1933), significant numbers of Jews were immigrating TO Germany, from Eastern Europe….Germany was felt to be a much more benign environment that the pogrom-ridden nations to the East.
A frightening reminder of how quickly things can change.