Observations on the Population of Vilnius: The Grim Years and the 1942 Census

Abstract

An American geographer, commenting on the preceding paper in this issue (Weeks, 2006), focuses more deeply on the results of a little-known but significant census organized by the Germans in May 1942. The author seeks to produce a credible estimate of the city's Jewish population (excluded from the census) some 11 months after the German invasion of Vilnius, and explores the factors underlying various claims that the census distorted the size of the Lithuanian and Polish populations. In the process, he sheds light on a deep interlayering of relationships among the city's diverse ethnic groups that contributes to a unique "sense of place" experienced by city residents. Journal of Economic Literature, Classification Numbers: O15, O18, R14. 7 figures, 3 tables, 63 references.

Keywords:

• Vilnius
• Wilno
• Nazi Germany
• Holocaust
• genocide
• ethnic cleansing
• Jews
• Poles
• Lithuanians
• population census
• historical geography