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JewishHistoryעברית

Expulsion of Polish Jews from Germany

Date
28 October 1938 – 29 October 1938Hebrew date: 3rd of Cheshvan, 5699 – 4th of Cheshvan, 5699
Location
German Reich and the Polish border, including ZbąszyńGermany, Austria, Poland
Then part of
Nazi Germany, Second Polish Republic
Perpetrators
  • Reich Security Main Office (State)
  • State Police offices (State)
  • German Order Police (State)
Killed (estimate)
No reliable estimate
Expelled (estimate)
16,000 – 18,000[2]16,000–18,000 (source 2). The Jewish Museum Berlin gives around 17,000 (source 1).
Country

6.7% – 8.9% of the Jewish population of Nazi Germany (c. 1939)[30]

Worldwide

0.096% – 0.11% of the worldwide Jewish population (c. 1939)[3]

Category
Expulsion
Confidence
DisputedThe Jewish Museum Berlin gives around 17,000 Jews expelled and more than 8,000 held for months at Zbąszyń. The JDC Archives account gives 16,000–18,000 expelled, about half of them brought to Zbąszyń, and about 6,000 who had to stay there for months. The expelled totals overlap. The camp figures do not.

Summary

On 27 October 1938 the Reich Security Main Office told State Police offices to arrest Jews with Polish citizenship and take them to the Polish border. On 28 and 29 October police seized them from their homes across the Reich — about 17,000 according to the Jewish Museum Berlin, and 16,000–18,000 in a JDC Archives account — and guarded trains carried them to the border, most to Zbąszyń and others to Konitz or Beuthen. German police drove later groups on foot across the frontier, and thousands stayed for months in a reception camp at Zbąszyń; the museum gives more than 8,000 held there, and the JDC account about 6,000. The Grynszpan family of Hanover was among the expelled, and the shooting of a German diplomat in Paris by their son Herschel became the pretext the Nazi leadership used for the November pogroms.

Sources

  1. "Polenaktion" ("Polish Action," 1938). Jewish Museum Berlin
  2. Alina Bothe, Researching the "Polenaktion" at the JDC Archives. JDC Archives

Jewish population (estimates)

  • Worldwide: 16,500,000 – 16,633,675[3]c. 1939DellaPergola's revised core estimate for 1 January 1939 is 16.5 million. The American Jewish Year Book 1948–49 compiled 16,633,675 at the end of 1939.
  • Nazi Germany: 202,000 – 237,723[30]c. 1939End of 1939, about 202,000 Jews remained in Germany (USHMM refugees article); on the eve of war USHMM also cites about 214,000 in Germany proper (1937 borders). The losses-by-country table lists 237,723 as the Jewish population of Germany in 1939. These figures are for Germany proper (Altreich), not Greater Germany. For Altreich + annexed Austria at end-1939, USHMM gives about 202,000 + 57,000 = ~259,000 residual; Austria alone had about 185,000–192,000 at the March 1938 Anschluss (USHMM losses table / Austria article). Also: Eve of / early war, Altreich borders unless noted. USHMM Losses: 237,723 in 1939. USHMM German Jews: approximately 214,000 in Germany proper (1937 borders) on the eve of World War II. AJYB Moskowitz: 202,400 on 31 December 1939 (Reichsvertretung report). Not Greater German Reich (excludes Austria/Protectorate unless a source says so).
  • Second Polish Republic: 3,000,000 – 3,350,000[41]c. 1937USHMM Losses gives 3,350,000 for Poland in 1937. USHMM's 1933 Europe table gives about 3,000,000. AJYB 1940–41 Moskowitz note estimates 3,325,000 at the end of 1938.

Sources for population estimates

  1. Sergio DellaPergola, World Jewish Population, 2024. American Jewish Year Book 2024, via Berman Jewish DataBank (2025)
  2. Sergio DellaPergola, Notes toward a Demographic History of the Jews. Genealogy 8(1) (2024)
  3. Jewish Population of Europe in 1933. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Holocaust Encyclopedia
  4. Jewish Population of the World. American Jewish Year Book 1948–1949, via Berman Jewish Policy Archive (1949)
  5. Maristella Botticini and Zvi Eckstein, Voluntary Conversions and Diaspora: A Human Capital Interpretation of Jewish History. American Economic Association annual meeting paper (2007)
  6. Jews in the USSR (1926–1959). Demographic Changes. JewishGen Belarus SIG (table compiled from the 1939 All-Union census)
  7. Mandate for Palestine. Report of the Mandatory to the League of Nations (Palestine Administration, 1922). United Nations UNISPAL (British mandatory report) (1922)
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  9. The Contagion of Violence. 1391 and the Jews of the Spanish Kingdoms. Palgrave / Springer chapter (preview) (2021)
  10. Maristella Botticini and Zvi Eckstein, Religious Norms, Human Capital, and Money Lending in Jewish European History. Handbook chapter PDF via zvi-eckstein.com
  11. Sergio DellaPergola, Some Fundamentals of Jewish Demographic History. Berman Jewish Policy Archive (PDF) (2001)
  12. Maristella Botticini and Zvi Eckstein, THE CHOSEN FEW: HOW EDUCATION SHAPED JEWISH HISTORY, 70–1492 (book summary). Bar-Ilan University Economics seminar PDF (Princeton University Press forthcoming summary)
  13. Joseph Jacobs, Statistics. Jewish Encyclopedia (1906)
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  16. Israel Bartal and Kenneth B. Moss, The Jews of the Russian Empire in the Late 19th Century. The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization
  17. Russia (Census Statistics). Jewish Encyclopedia (1901–1906)
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  19. Игорь Виленский, Оценка сокращения численности еврейского населения Российской Империи и СССР (1897–1926). Еврейская Старина (2024)
  20. Sergio DellaPergola, World Jewish Population, 2024. American Jewish Year Book 2024, via Berman Jewish DataBank / Israel CBS host (2025)
  21. Sergio DellaPergola, Demographic Trends in Israel and Palestine: Prospects and Policy Implications. American Jewish Year Book 2003, via Berman Jewish DataBank (2003)
  22. Population of Israel/Palestine by Religion (1553–Present). Jewish Virtual Library (citing CBS, British Mandate publications, Bachi and others)
  23. US Jewish Population Pocket Demographics 2.0. Berman Jewish DataBank / Jewish Federations of North America (2018)
  24. H. S. Linfield, The Jews of the United States: Preliminary Figures for 1937 (Linfield) / Statistics of Jews. American Jewish Year Book 1939–40, via Berman Jewish DataBank (1939)
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  27. Germany: Jewish Population in 1933. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Holocaust Encyclopedia
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  29. Robin R. Mundill, The Jews under Edward I (PhD thesis). University of St Andrews
  30. Stéphane Mechoulan, The Expulsion of the Jews from France in 1306: a modern fiscal analysis. University of Toronto Department of Economics working paper (2004)
  31. Maristella Botticini and Zvi Eckstein, Appendix A: Sources and Methodology for Section 2 (Jewish and total population in Germany-Austria and Poland-Lithuania). Authors' appendix PDF (citing Weinryb, Stampfer, Kupovetsky, Guggenheim, Toch, Battenberg, Israel) (2018)
  32. Kirsten E. Schulze, The Jews of Lebanon between Coexistence and Conflict. Internet Archive full text
  33. Jews in Arab Countries. American Jewish Year Book excerpt, Berman Jewish Policy Archive (1978)
  34. Esther Meir-Glitzenstein, The Farhud. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Holocaust Encyclopedia
  35. Joseph Rothschild (tabulated), Interwar East European Census Data. Lawrence University course materials
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  37. Davis Trietsch, Die Juden der Türkei. Länder und Völker der Türkei, Heft 8 (Leipzig) (1915)
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  39. Jewish Losses during the Holocaust: By Country. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Holocaust Encyclopedia
  40. Andrzej Żbikowski, Extermination of Polish Jews. The genesis and course of Operation Reinhard. Żydowski Instytut Historyczny (Jewish Historical Institute)
  41. Yitzhak Arad, “Operation Reinhard” | Death Camps of Belzec, Sobibor & Treblinka. Yad Vashem
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  46. France. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Holocaust Encyclopedia
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  48. Norway. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Holocaust Encyclopedia
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  53. Statistics of Jews (World and US Jewish Population). American Jewish Year Book 1946–1947, via Berman Jewish DataBank (1947)
  54. Jacqueline Shields, Jewish Refugees from Arab Countries. Jewish Virtual Library
  55. Lebanon Virtual Jewish History Tour. Jewish Virtual Library
  56. Jewish Populations in the Arab World. Jewish Virtual Library (citing Sergio DellaPergola, World Jewish Population, 2021 / AJYB 2023)
  57. Algeria (Vital Statistics). Jewish Encyclopedia (1906)
  58. Archives juives n°45/2 — Les Juifs d'Algérie. Archives Juives / Les Belles Lettres (2012)
  59. EHRI Country Report — Tunisia. European Holocaust Research Infrastructure
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  62. Sara Koplik, The Demise of the Jewish Community in Afghanistan, 1933–1952. SOAS University of London (PhD thesis abstract / deposit page) (2001)
  63. Argentina Virtual Jewish History Tour. Jewish Virtual Library
  64. All-Union 1959 census — ethnic composition of the USSR. Demoscope Weekly (РГАЭ РФ fond 1562)
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