Liczebność i rozmieszczenie ludności żydowskiej w Europie w XX wieku.
The Numbers and the Distribution of Jewish Population in Europe in the 20th Century

Summary/Abstract: The fundamental scientific task of the research, reported in the paper, was to determine the numbers of the Jewish population, living in the countries of Europe during the entire 20th century. The starting point was constituted by the turn of the 20th century, while in the terminal stage the contemporary situation (as of roughly the year 2000) was considered. The analysis concerned not only the numbers of the Jewish population, but also the geographical distribution of this population. The units of political reference were constituted by the European countries within their political boundaries valid for the particular historical periods. It is noted at the beginning of the article that up until the World War I the Jewish population in Europe featured very high demographic dynamics. This applied, in a particular manner, to the Eastern-European Jews, the citizens of the then Russian and Austrian-Hungarian Empires. It is on the territories of these two empires that the majority of the Jewish population of the entire world concentrated. The areas of these two empires were also the sources of the transcontinental Jewish emigration, flowing primarily towards the United States. In the subsequent part of the article the numbers and the distribution of the Jewish population are presented for the inter-war period (at around the year 1930). This has an important cognitive significance, as concerning the period preceding immediately the Holocaust. The following, shortest part of the text is devoted to the consideration of the course of extermination of the Jewish population, as implemented by the German Nazis. Based on the literature of the subject, a quantification is forwarded of the demographic losses, which have been borne by the Jewish nation, according to the various political-administrative units. The latter issue is insofar important, as it gives still rise to essential controversies among the historians and demographers. The subsequent time instant, considered in the analysis, was the year 1950. The choice of this time point enabled to carry out the demographic balance of the Holocaust. The final part of the article presents the data reflecting the current numbers of the Jewish population (meaning around the year 2000), for individual European countries. The statistical analysis presented has shown that between the years 1900 and 2000 the number of the Jewish population decreased in Europe from roughly 9 million to around 1.5 million. This drop was mainly due to the Holocaust, which led to the death of close to 6 million of Jewish people, but also, partly, to the emigration to the United States and to Israel

• Details
• Contents