Population Statistics, the Holocaust, and the Nuremberg Trials

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Abstract
Drawing on a variety of sources, the article examines how population statistics were used by the Nazis in planning and implementing the Holocaust and how the data systems that gathered these statistics and other information were also employed to assist in carrying out the Holocaust. This review covers experience in Germany, Poland, France, the Netherlands, and Norway. Attention is also given to the role played in this work by some of those then professionally active in demography and statistics. The use and impact of perpetrator-generated Holocaust mortality data and other estimates of Jewish losses presented at the Nuremberg trials are then described. Finally, present-day implications of the historical experience under review are discussed. These include: the lessons for formulating prudent national statistical policies, approaches to investigating future genocides and prosecuting those believed responsible, and the need for increased attention by statisticians and demographers to the ethical dimensions of their work.

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