Population Statistics, the Holocaust, and the Nuremberg Trials, by William
Seltzer, Population and Development Review, Vol. 24, No. 3. (Sep., 1998),
pp. 511-552.

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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.