Statistician and Courageous Apostle of Peace
Chris Barker, Statistical Planning and Analysis Services
In the spring of 2024, I took my first trip to Berlin, Germany, to visit my eldest son and his wife. While there, I was visiting the Brandenburg Gate when I decided to visit a nearby history museum named Topographie des Terrors, translated to English as “Topography of Terror.” Statistics and statisticians were furthest from my thoughts as I looked at the chilling history of crimes against humanity that took place during World War II. Yet, I noted one exhibit titled “Chronicler of Political Murder,” which is about a German mathematician at Heidelburg University. The mathematician’s name, Emil Gumbel, seemed familiar to me. I wondered if he was the same Gumbel who kept records of court cases and political assassinations by the fascists in Germany. I later confirmed that Gumbel the mathematician, the Gumbel Distribution, and the book Statistics of Extremes were all related to the statistician of my thoughts: Emil Gumbel.
Gumbel, sometimes called an “apostle of peace,” tracked political assassinations—among other data—in Germany prior to the outbreak of WWII. He was identified as an enemy of the Reich, and he and his family were exiled to France and then New York, where he worked as a professor at Columbia University. A collection of his pamphlets, speeches, and publications from 1914–1966 are preserved at the Center for Jewish History in New York City.
Gumbel created a table with two columns—murders by the right wing (Column 1) and murders by the left wing (Column 2)—with the numbers convicted and imprisoned and length of imprisonment. The table is chilling and self-explanatory. A statistician is not needed for one to determine many more left-wing individuals who were convicted, assassinated, and had longer prison terms.
Gumbel’s work in Germany was so dangerous that a squad of SS (Schutzstaffel) soldiers were sent to assassinate him. Gumbel wasn’t home at the time! After his escape from Germany to France, he was stripped of his German citizenship (1932), his books were burned (1933), and his professorship at Heidelburg was rescinded.
Germany Memorializes Its History
Berlin could be described as the “city of museums and memorials” for atrocities against Jews, military actions, and a fascist dictatorship during World War II. I also visited Nuremburg and Court Room 600, the location of the Nuremburg trials. Near where I was staying was a synagogue damaged during Kristallnacht, November 8–9, 1938. It was home to a memorial for Jews kidnapped in Israel on October 7, 2023.
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