Which cities had the largest Jewish communities in 1939 and what were their prewar populations?
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Executive summary
In 1939 the world’s largest concentrations of Jews were in Eastern Europe — Poland (~3,000,000), the European Soviet Union (~2,525,000) and Romania (~980,000) — while major city centers included Warsaw, Łódź and other Polish cities; Germany’s largest urban Jewish communities were led by Berlin (about 160,000) followed by Frankfurt (about 26,000), Breslau (about 20,000), Hamburg (about 17,000), Cologne (about 15,000), Hannover (about 13,000) and Leipzig (about 12,000) [1] [2] [3].
1. Eastern Europe dominated Jewish demography on the eve of war
By 1939 the majority of the world’s Jews lived in eastern Europe: Poland accounted for roughly 3,000,000 Jews, the European part of the Soviet Union about 2,525,000, and Romania about 980,000. These country totals reflect that the largest single-city Jewish populations of the era were in Polish and other eastern cities — notably Warsaw and Łódź — which housed very large urban Jewish communities [1] [4] [5].
2. City-by-city lists are fragmented; national totals are clearer
Sources provided give clear national and some city figures but no single definitive ranked list of every city’s 1939 Jewish population. The Holocaust Encyclopedia and related summaries supply Germany’s major city counts — Berlin ~160,000; Frankfurt am Main ~26,000; Breslau ~20,000; Hamburg ~17,000; Cologne ~15,000; Hannover ~13,000; Leipzig ~12,000 — while other references note Prague and Vienna’s Jewish community (about 178,000 in Austria overall) but do not compile a complete global city ranking in one table [2] [3] [6].
3. Poland’s cities carried enormous Jewish urban populations
Poland’s national Jewish total (about 3,000,000) was concentrated heavily in cities. For example, prewar Łódź had about 233,000 Jews (roughly one-third of the city) and Lwów (now Lviv) had about 110,000 in 1939; Warsaw’s Jewish population was a substantial share of the capital (sources note Jews were about 30% of Warsaw’s population in 1939) [5]. These city figures explain why Polish towns feature prominently in any list of largest Jewish communities before the war [5] [4].
4. Western and Central Europe: big urban pockets but smaller than Poland/Russia
In central and western Europe sizable Jewish urban populations existed but were smaller than the eastern bloc totals. Vienna concentrated most of Austria’s roughly 178,000 Jews; Prague had about 35,000 Jews; Germany’s largest single city Jewish community was Berlin (~160,000), followed by the German cities listed above [6] [3] [2].
5. Sources disagree on city definitions and ‘city proper’ vs. metro area
Be cautious: some modern lists and quizzes compile “cities proper” figures from varied sources (Encyclopaedia Judaica, American Jewish Year Book, national statistics), producing slightly different rankings depending on whether suburbs/metropolitan areas are included. A crowd-sourced quiz referenced here explicitly warns its figures are for cities proper and draws from diverse sources [7]. This methodological variance explains discrepancies across lists.
6. What’s missing from the available reporting
Available sources do not provide a single, comprehensive ranked table of every city’s Jewish population in 1939 worldwide. Detailed, corroborated 1939 city-population figures for many eastern towns and some non-European cities are not provided in the supplied material; for those specifics, primary compilations such as the American Jewish Year Book or Encyclopedia Judaica would normally be consulted [7] [8].
7. Why these numbers matter historically
These population concentrations shaped the scale and targeting of persecution once the Nazi regime and the war reached those countries. The prewar geography — with Europe, and particularly eastern Europe, home to the majority of Jews — explains both why the Holocaust’s human toll was concentrated in Europe and why postwar Jewish demographics shifted sharply toward Israel and the Americas [1] [9].
8. How to read modern summaries and quizzes
Popular quizzes and contemporary articles that list “most populous Jewish cities of 1939” are useful entry points but rely on multiple historical sources and differing definitions; verify whether figures are for city proper, metropolitan area, or national/regional aggregates before treating a single list as definitive [7] [10].
Limitations: this analysis uses only the supplied search results and therefore cites country totals and selected city figures available there; a full ranked city-by-city list for 1939 is not present in the provided reporting [1] [2] [7].