The first official estimate of what happened to Germany’s Jews during the Hitler regime, compiled by the Intergovernmental Committee on Refugees, was released here today.
P. M. Malin, committee representative attached to American headquarters, emphasized in releasing the report that these figures are not final or complete, but he said that it is unlikely that they will change radically.
The report discloses that about two-thirds of the estimated 650,000 full Jews who lived in Germany, and the 75,000 who resided in Austria, before the war escaped extermination through emigration. These figures would seem to indicate that, from the point of view of actual survival, the Jews of Germany fared better than those in any of the countries occupied by the Nazis.
It is estimated, the report says, that 10,000 to 20,000 Jews still live in Germany and Austria. Between 450,000 and 500,000 found asylum elsewhere. All the others died. From 1933 to 1941, when Jewish emigration from the Reich was halted, the Intergovernmental Committee estimates that 175,000 German and Austrian Jews reached the United States, 100,000 went to Palestine, another 100,000 were given havens in the Latin-American republics and the British dominions, 50,000 were admitted to England and others sought refuge in Sweden, Switzerland and France.
ABOUT 200,000 MURDERED IN POLISH CAMPS AND AT THERESIENSTADT
Between 150,000 and 200,000 full Jews were trapped in Germany, the committee reveals. Of these, the majority were deported to Poland and few, if any, are alive. Most of the others were sent to the Theresienstadt camp, where a comparatively few survived. Eight hundred of these survivors are now in hospitals in Regensburg.
The report says that it is impossible to estimate accurately the number of part Jews in Germany in 1933, but it is believed that there were at least 300,000. Most of these part Jews did not attempt to escape from the Reich until it was too late, and as a result their casualties in murder camps were comparatively higher than the others. The committee thinks that the majority of them were killed.
A three-man committee appointed by President Truman is now touring Germany seeking facts concerning the plight of the Jews. The committee is headed by Earl G. Harrison, former United States Commissioner of Immigration and Naturalization, who is now the American representative on the Intergovernmental Committee, and includes Dr. Joseph Schwartz, European director of the Joint Distribution Committee, and Herbert Katsky, a former representative of the War Refugee Board.
This committee will present its report to the Intergovernmental Committee, when the latter group meets in London in October or November.
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