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AN ISRAELI historian has made a thought-provoking contribution to the Internet discussion on the death-roll fin the Holocaust your Holocaust deathtoll index again your newsletter [ H-Net Humanities & Social Sciences OnLine ] Re: number of survivors?
Reply-To: H-NET List for History of the Holocaust < [email protected] > Sender: H-NET List for History of the Holocaust < [email protected] From: John Lemberger < [email protected] > Friends, Ester Golan’s question has been answered but will continue to resonate until we can be certain of the answer. In 1948 there were 600,000 Jews living in Palestine (pre-State).
Within a short period of time, 10-15 years, two mass migrations tripled Israel’s population: One was approximately 600,000 from North Africa and Arab countries, and the other, with a similar number, 600,000, from the remnants of the Shoa in Europe. At the time, the estimate was that Israel absorbed two-thirds of the survivors. Today according to different estimates, with serious issues of “who is a survivor” the worldwide figures stand at between 600-900,000.
In Israel, there are 360,000 survivors with about two-thirds over 65, and one-third having been children during the war. These Israeli figures are based on a paper of the Brookdale Institute (to be found in our book, ” A Global Perspective on Working With Holocaust Survivors and the Second Generation ,” John Lemberger, ed., published 1995 by JDC-Israel, Brookdale and AMCHA). We hope, shortly, to have updated Israeli figures based on the Israeli census of people 60+ carried out a few years ago.
The Israeli numbers I cited include approximately 60,000 survivors from the Former Soviet Union who have recently emigrated to Israel. John Lemberger AMCHA http://www.amcha.org THIS IS precisely the kind of firm statistical basis needed to extrapolate backwards to 1945 to establish a realistic figure of Holocaust survivors . If two-thirds of those in Israel today, estimated at 360,000, are over sixty-five years old, an actuary could work backwards and arrive at an excellent figure.
Any actuaries out there please? We shall post their input on this Website, if received. 1999