# EXACTLY What Percentage of Jews Were Killed in the Holocaust?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/exactly-what-percentage-of-jews-were-killed-in-the-holocaust/521551
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [December 16, 2009, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/exactly-what-percentage-of-jews-were-killed-in-the-holocaust/521551 "2009-12-16T23:29:13Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Jim\_B](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jim_B)
#### Post date: [December 16, 2009, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/exactly-what-percentage-of-jews-were-killed-in-the-holocaust/521551/1 "2009-12-16T23:29:13Z")
I think it is safe to say I’ve probably heard it all of my life: About **6 Million** Jews were systematically killed during the Nazi Holocaust. The only thing that has never been made clear to me at least, is what percentage of the total Jews in the world was 6 million back then?
The question is an interesting one too, because if a majority of Jews were killed, in a way Hitler won that part. On the other hand, if a non-majority was killed, at least Jewish people can be consoled with that fact (which is still little consolation to some, I realize).
Thank you in advance to all who reply:)
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### Author:  [@The\_Hamster\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Hamster_King)
#### Post date: [December 16, 2009, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/exactly-what-percentage-of-jews-were-killed-in-the-holocaust/521551/2 "2009-12-16T23:40:42Z")
Quoting from the U. S. Holocaust Museum website:
“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.”
So the Holocault killed almost 2/3 of the Jews living in Europe.
But if you use the world-wide population as your base, more than half survived.
Hitler, however, wound up 100% dead.
[http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/article.php?ModuleId=10005161#RelatedArticles](http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/article.php?ModuleId=10005161#RelatedArticles)
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### Author:  [@Markxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Markxxx)
#### Post date: [December 16, 2009, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/exactly-what-percentage-of-jews-were-killed-in-the-holocaust/521551/3 "2009-12-16T23:57:09Z")
I like the way the OP puts “EXACTLY,” that just is too funny 🙂
But remember it was common back then to disassociate yourself from being Jewish. Most entertainers changed their name to try to play this down. Especially if you were only on radio, you could easily hide the fact more than if you were in the movies. I am not saying you can always tell a Jew by looking at them, but sometimes you can.
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### Author:  [@Shmendrik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shmendrik)
#### Post date: [December 17, 2009, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/exactly-what-percentage-of-jews-were-killed-in-the-holocaust/521551/4 "2009-12-17T00:03:01Z")
> [@Jim\_B](#):
>
> I think it is safe to say I’ve probably heard it all of my life: About **6 Million** Jews were systematically killed during the Nazi Holocaust. The only thing that has never been made clear to me at least, is what percentage of the total Jews in the world was 6 million back then?
>
> The question is an interesting one too, because if a majority of Jews were killed, in a way Hitler won that part. On the other hand, if a non-majority was killed, at least Jewish people can be consoled with that fact (which is still little consolation to some, I realize).
>
> Thank you in advance to all who reply:)
The Nazis succeeded in wiping out 67% of the Jewish population of Nazi/Axis occupied areas, but less than half of the world Jewish population.
I think you have a very odd way of looking at things. It seems like an arbitrary standard. You could just as easily say that Hitler failed if any significant population survived, or that he would have succeeded by wiping out any significant number. Or maybe he succeeded because he was mostly concerned with Germany, and Germany’s post-war Jewish population was 2% of what it had been in 1933.
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### Author:  [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)
#### Post date: [December 17, 2009, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/exactly-what-percentage-of-jews-were-killed-in-the-holocaust/521551/5 "2009-12-17T00:19:03Z")
> [@Markxxx](#):
>
> But remember it was common back then to disassociate yourself from being Jewish. Most entertainers changed their name to try to play this down. Especially if you were only on radio, you could easily hide the fact more than if you were in the movies. I am not saying you can always tell a Jew by looking at them, but sometimes you can.
What the hell has this to do with the Holocaust?
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### Author:  [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)
#### Post date: [December 17, 2009, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/exactly-what-percentage-of-jews-were-killed-in-the-holocaust/521551/6 "2009-12-17T01:18:32Z")
> [@Markxxx](#):
>
> I like the way the OP puts “EXACTLY,” that just is too funny 🙂
A quote that got thrown around a lot when I was a business student: “That which can be measured, can be measured exactly.”
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### Author:  [@Shmendrik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shmendrik)
#### Post date: [December 17, 2009, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/exactly-what-percentage-of-jews-were-killed-in-the-holocaust/521551/7 "2009-12-17T01:28:43Z")
> [@Krokodil](#):
>
> A quote that got thrown around a lot when I was a business student: “That which can be measured, can be measured exactly.”
That which can be estimated, can’t be measured exactly.
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### Author:  [@KarlGauss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KarlGauss)
#### Post date: [December 17, 2009, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/exactly-what-percentage-of-jews-were-killed-in-the-holocaust/521551/8 "2009-12-17T01:28:49Z")
From [here](http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/killedtable.html), a country by country breakdown:
The first number is the Pre-war Jewish Population
The second number is the number of Jews exterminated
The third number is the percent exterminated
(sorry for the awkward display, but I couldn’t get it straight any other way)
Poland
3,300,000
3,000,000
90
Baltic States
253,000
228,000
90
Germany/Austria
240,000
210,000
88
Protectorate
90,000
80,000
89
Slovakia
90,000
75,000
83
Greece
70,000
54,000
77
The Netherlands
140,000
105,000
75
Hungary
650,000
450,000
70
SSR White Russia
375,000
245,000
65
SSR Ukraine
1,500,000
900,000
60
Belgium
65,000
40,000
60
Yugoslavia
43,000
26,000
60
Romania
600,000
300,000
50
Norway
1,800
900
50
France
350,000
90,000
26
Bulgaria
64,000
14,000
22
Italy
40,000
8,000
20
Luxembourg
5,000
1,000
20
Russia (RSFSR)
975,000
107,000
11
## Denmark 8,000
–
## Finland 2,000
–
Total
8,861,800
5,933,900
67
These are only estimates. Indeed, on different pages of the same site, different estimates are given. Still, they’re roughly the same.
And, God bless the Danes!
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### Author:  [@The\_Hamster\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Hamster_King)
#### Post date: [December 17, 2009, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/exactly-what-percentage-of-jews-were-killed-in-the-holocaust/521551/9 "2009-12-17T01:34:35Z")
> [@Krokodil](#):
>
> A quote that got thrown around a lot when I was a business student: “That which can be measured, can be measured exactly.”
[Physics says otherwise.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncertainty_principle)
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### Author:  [@MPB\_in\_Salt\_Lake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MPB_in_Salt_Lake)
#### Post date: [December 17, 2009, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/exactly-what-percentage-of-jews-were-killed-in-the-holocaust/521551/10 "2009-12-17T01:39:54Z")
> [@KarlGauss](#):
>
> From [here](http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/killedtable.html), a country by country breakdown:
>
> The first number is the Pre-war Jewish Population
> The second number is the number of Jews exterminated
> The third number is the percent exterminated
> (sorry for the awkward display, but I couldn’t get it straight any other way)
> Italy
> 40,000
> 8,000
> 20
Anyone know why Italy, who afterall was willingly allied with Hitler, (and therefore, to my mind at least, supposedly more in agreement with his goals than other countries that were taken over) had such a lower percentage of Jewish victims killed than other places?
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### Author:  [@mnemosyne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mnemosyne)
#### Post date: [December 17, 2009, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/exactly-what-percentage-of-jews-were-killed-in-the-holocaust/521551/11 "2009-12-17T01:42:24Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#):
>
> What the hell has this to do with the Holocaust?
I took it to mean that the numbers may be skewed, because the number of people saying they were Jewish/reported to be Jewish may be lower than the actual number, due to people changing their names and otherwise distancing themselves from the culture/faith in order to save themselves/their families. I think there are some people who “look Jewish”, and certain groups/families in particular, and the Nazis probably considered that to be enough for them, while others could “pass” as non-Jewish. So it may affect the statistics related to the Holocaust, if the number of people distancing themselves was significant.
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### Author:  [@C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C_K_Dexter_Haven)
#### Post date: [December 17, 2009, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/exactly-what-percentage-of-jews-were-killed-in-the-holocaust/521551/12 "2009-12-17T01:50:34Z")
> [@mnemosyne](#):
>
> I took it to mean that the numbers may be skewed, because the number of people saying they were Jewish/reported to be Jewish may be lower than the actual number, due to people changing their names and otherwise distancing themselves from the culture/faith in order to save themselves/their families. I think there are some people who “look Jewish”, and certain groups/families in particular, and the Nazis probably considered that to be enough for them, while others could “pass” as non-Jewish. So it may affect the statistics related to the Holocaust, if the number of people distancing themselves was significant.
I agree. Remember that Hitler defined a person as Jewish if they had at least one Jewish grandparent. A number of people who were born and raised as Christians found themselves murdered for being Jewish. Similarly, a number of Jews thought themselves thoroughly assimiated. So statistics based on counting Jews before and after the Hologcaust are going to be, at best, very rough approximations.
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### Author:  [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)
#### Post date: [December 17, 2009, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/exactly-what-percentage-of-jews-were-killed-in-the-holocaust/521551/13 "2009-12-17T02:00:07Z")
> [@MPB\_in\_Salt\_Lake](#):
>
> Anyone know why Italy, who afterall was willingly allied with Hitler, (and therefore, to my mind at least, supposedly more in agreement with his goals than other countries that were taken over) had such a lower percentage of Jewish victims killed than other places?
The Italians didn’t really have any desire to exterminate the Jewish population, and since they were an ally of Hitler and not an occupied country, the Germans couldn’t round up the Jews without Italian consent. There weren’t large roundups of Jews until the Italian government fell and Germany occupied Northern Italy, so the Germans could do what they wanted.
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### Author:  [@KarlGauss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KarlGauss)
#### Post date: [December 17, 2009, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/exactly-what-percentage-of-jews-were-killed-in-the-holocaust/521551/14 "2009-12-17T02:05:40Z")
> [@C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](#):
>
> So statistics based on counting Jews before and after the Hologcaust are going to be, at best, very rough approximations.
I don’t think they’re “_very_” rough at all. The number of so-called [Mischlings](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mischling) was only significant in countries with high rates of assimilation such as Germany itself. In Poland, for example, the number of people with part Jewish ancestry would surely pale in comparison to the over 3 million “full” Jews. Bottom line is that although Mischlings might not be counted accurately, their relatively small numbers can’t materially affect the estimates we’re using.
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### Author:  [@Koxinga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Koxinga)
#### Post date: [December 17, 2009, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/exactly-what-percentage-of-jews-were-killed-in-the-holocaust/521551/15 "2009-12-17T02:14:27Z")
I remember in Robert Harris’s novel _Fatherland_, set in a Germany that had won WWII, a figure of 11 million was used for a fully implemented Holocaust. Of course that’s not a cite, but I wonder where he got that figure.
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### Author:  [@2ply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/2ply)
#### Post date: [December 17, 2009, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/exactly-what-percentage-of-jews-were-killed-in-the-holocaust/521551/16 "2009-12-17T02:21:20Z")
> [@MPB\_in\_Salt\_Lake](#):
>
> Anyone know why Italy, who afterall was willingly allied with Hitler, (and therefore, to my mind at least, supposedly more in agreement with his goals than other countries that were taken over) had such a lower percentage of Jewish victims killed than other places?
Italian fascism didn’t have as extreme anti-Semitism as German fascism. The Nazi killed Jews in territories they occupied but Italy was an ally who wasn’t beholden to Berlin. It wasn’t until Italy surrendered following the Allied invasion and Germany took direct control of northern Italy that they rounded up Italian Jews for extermination.
Also, Italy didn’t really share the German notion that the Jews were a distint race that needed to be killed off. The tradional Italian soultion to get rid of a Jew was to force him to convert to Catholicism.
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### Author:  [@MPB\_in\_Salt\_Lake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MPB_in_Salt_Lake)
#### Post date: [December 17, 2009, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/exactly-what-percentage-of-jews-were-killed-in-the-holocaust/521551/17 "2009-12-17T02:33:25Z")
Captain Amazing, 2ply—Thank you both for the info; it is NOT what I would have assumed about Mussolini’s Italy, which I thought was in idealogical lockstep with the Nazis.
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### Author:  [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)
#### Post date: [December 17, 2009, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/exactly-what-percentage-of-jews-were-killed-in-the-holocaust/521551/18 "2009-12-17T02:34:50Z")
Something similar happened in Bulgaria. The King, a lot of the members of the government (but not the Prime Minister), and the Bulgarian Orthodox Church, were all opposed to the Holocaust, and most Jews who were Bulgarian citizens survived, even though anti-semitic legislation was passed. Most of the Jews from Bulgaria who died in the Holocaust were Jews from occupied Macedonia and Thessolonica (who the government of Bulgaria didn’t really care about, because they were just damn foreigners anyway, so let them be slaughtered.)
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### Author:  [@SandyHook](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SandyHook)
#### Post date: [December 17, 2009, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/exactly-what-percentage-of-jews-were-killed-in-the-holocaust/521551/19 "2009-12-17T02:41:56Z")
> [@KarlGauss](#):
>
> I don’t think they’re “_very_” rough at all. The number of so-called [Mischlings](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mischling) was only significant in countries with high rates of assimilation such as Germany itself. In Poland, for example, the number of people with part Jewish ancestry would surely pale in comparison to the over 3 million “full” Jews. Bottom line is that although Mischlings might not be counted accurately, their relatively small numbers can’t materially affect the estimates we’re using.
[highjack]
I wrote a book a while back in which one of the characters (I had decided before hand) was to be black. I was taking the names of the characters from those listed on The Wall in DC. When I randomly picked the name I came up with Wolfram Kretschmann. Not a name that would make one immedietly think, “He’s black.” So I made him the son of an American soldier stationed in Germany after the war. As part of his back story I needed a suitable term to have other Germans call him before he came to the US. A lady who works at the restaurant where I usually breakfast is German so I asked her. She said the word I was looking for was mischling and it is used much like nigger would be.
[/highjack]
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### Author:  [@YogSothoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YogSothoth)
#### Post date: [December 17, 2009, 2:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/exactly-what-percentage-of-jews-were-killed-in-the-holocaust/521551/20 "2009-12-17T02:45:16Z")
I’ve always been curious about something regarding the Holocaust. Were any specific Jewish sect or distinct Jewish ethnicity that were wiped out or significantly endangered by Hitler?
The reason I ask is because the Jewish people seems to have made a significant and complete recovery, but were any part of their race/religion pretty much gone after WW2?
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