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Post WWII Jewish Population

The population of the Jewish people fluctuated drastically after the end of World War II.
Most of the world knows the reasons why this fluctuation occurred, mainly during the late 1930s
and early 1940s. The concentration and death camps built by Nazi Germanys ruler and dictator,
Adolf Hitler, created a plummeting number in the population of Jews. Some Jews escaped to
other countries that were not of the same mindset as Hitler and his alliances.
Hitler and his followers believed Germany, specifically Nazi Germany was a superior
race to all other races, especially to the Jews. Hitler felt that Poland was a country that was in
the way of world domination, and it so happened to have an abundance of Jews. Hitler wanted to
rid the world of these Jews, so he had his people build concentration camps and death camps to
do just that, rid the world of Jews. The Nazi German army forced as many Jewish people to
board trains that would take them to these camps. The Nazi Germans would use any means
necessary to force them to move: beating, punching, kicking, wounding, stabbing, shooting, and
even killing.
The camps were not built as a resort for the Jews, but more as a prison. The inmates were
Jewish men, women, and children. The prisoners were not fed very well, living on soup and
bread with a daily total of 600 calories. If malnourishment did not kill the Jews, then some of
the prisoners were led to a large room where they were killed by toxic gas in a gas chamber.
Others were burned to ashes in an inferno.
So many people died in these camps, an estimated 6 million Jews were murdered or
killed in these camps. The persecution of the Jews did not stop after World War II ended. The
Jews were still not safe. Some Europeans that still believed the ways of Hitler and the Nazis and
killed Jews and vandalized their homes and businesses. Some Jews escaped to the United States

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and others tried to migrate to Palestine and Israel to get away from the hate. Great Britain built
camps as a way to help and rehabilitate the Jews that survived what we know now as the
Holocaust. Just the idea of being in another camp, even if the intent was to help, was not popular
with the Jewish community.
The chart and the video help explain why the Jewish population declined so rapidly
during World War II and continued after the war had ended.

References
Gabii. (2015, May 17). Life For Jewish People After World War 2. Retrieved from You Tube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hTpuzU-9PVA
Lipka, M. (2015, February 9). The continuing decline of Europes Jewish population. Retrieved
from Pew Research Center: http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2015/02/09/europesjewish-population/