The Kallos Family Book 2022

PART 1: THE KALLOS FAMILY • 53
Epilogue
In 1939, there were 16.6 million Jews in the
world, and it’s estimated that 9.5 million of
them lived in Europe. By the end of World War 2
in 1945, by common estimates, 6 million European
Jews had perished in the Holocaust and
the European Jewish population had been decimated
to 3.8 million. In Eastern Europe, a once
large and vibrant Jewish population has all but
disappeared. In 2021, seventy-six years after the
war ended, the number of Jews worldwide was
approximately 15.2 million (and rising), just one
million short of its 1939 pre-Holocaust level.
Current totals vary widely; they depend upon
the specific definition of ‘Jewish’ in use. Today
50 per cent of all Jews live in Israel. The USA has
the world’s second largest Jewish population,
followed by France, Canada, the UK, Argentina,
Russia, Germany, Australia and Brazil.
Sub Carpathian Ruthenia, which is now in
western Ukraine, is a landscape where, even
after the genocide, traces of European Jewry
remain. They can be found in neglected Jewish
cemeteries, the ruins of synagogues and study
houses, and mass graves, all of which bear
witness to Jewish life and its destruction. Whatever
survived the decimation by Germany and
its allies was erased or misused by the Soviets. It
is only a matter of time until these remnants are
lost forever.
Public interest is low and sometimes overshadowed
by guilt. The future of this unique
cultural heritage is in our hands. That is why
books such as this one are important – they help
to keep the story alive.
The post-Holocaust activities of Jews – in
Israel and throughout the diaspora, wherever
else Jews live – are a glorious chapter,
presently being unfolded before our very
eyes. These stories too will be told, in a
proper manner in the next generation and in
generations to come.
— Máramaros Yizkor Book, 1983