A JEWISH COUPLE IN 1945
Hi. I am going to tell you about Jewish life in Russia. Please stay tuned.
Russia has always been home for a lot of Jews. Some of the most prominent Jews in history are from Poland or Russia. For example, David Gryn (David Ben Gurion) is from Plonsk, Poland, then under tsarist rule (Chesler 37). Gurion joined a Zionist movement, a movement to promote Judaism. Gurion figured the only way to stop Anti-Semitism was to found an independent Jewish state. Therefore, Gurion moved to Palestine in 1906 to work on this (Chesler 37).
Some Russian Jews, such as Victor Alter believed the problems of Russian Jews had to be solved in Russia itself (Chelser 38). These were Jews who were still living in Russia. The Jewish Workers Bund was an organization, founded in 1897, that was made up of Jewish workers who were trying to change the Russian government and protect the interests of the Jews ( Chesler 38). Alster joined the organization during its early years.
A third group called the Social Democrats felt there were better ways to attain freedom for Russian Jews. Julius Martov joined this group because the group called for the overthrow of the tsar; after that they claimed an "internationalized" society would be created ( Chesler 39). The group would join people by economic class and wouldn't care what religion the people practiced. However, the group separated into two other groups, the Bolsheviks and the Mensheviks because they had different opinions on many issues (Chesler 39).
Lazar Kaganovich chose to be a Bolshevik. The Bolsheviks believed that the Tsar's government could only be overthrown by violent means. They also believed that the Party should be led by a group of revolutionaries (Chesler 39) .
Martov followed the Mensheviks. He thought the Party should be a large, popular group which would be led by people as a whole (Chesler 40). More Jews in the Social Democrats belonged to the Mensheviks than to the Bolsheviks.
Lenin, the leader of the Bolsheviks, asked Stalin to write an essay on he Bolsheviks' stand on various minority groups living in Russia. Stalin argued that each national group would have its own cultural and political place in the State. However, Stalin said that this did not apply to the Jews because the Jews were not a nation. Instead, they were spread all over the country and thus would live by the local rules and within the local social institutions, such as schools and newspapers (Chesler 40-41).
In 1939 Russia signed a treaty with Germany. The agreement stated that neither country would attack the other. The treaty also included Eastern Europe. Russia at this time took over Poland, Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, Bessarabia, and several other places. Because of these additions, about two million Jews were added to the three million already living under Soviet control. Therefore, the Soviet Union had the largest Jewish population in the world (Chesler 81).
In 1941, Hitler broke his treaty with Stalin, and the German troops marched into the Soviet Union. The USSR became divided into two parts: Nazi occupied and Soviet-controlled (Chesler 81).
Stalin gave the Soviet secret police the job of changing the attitudes and style of living of the new Jewish population ( Chesler 82). The Eastern Europe Jews were forced to give up their former citizenship and become loyal to Russia ( Chesler 82). A lot of Jews refused to be loyal to Russia and were sent to Siberia. These people were actually the safest, because the Germans went to other areas and to a large degree exterminated the Jews there.
If you want more information check out some Questions and Answers.
Jewish-Khazarian settlement in Kiev can be traced to the 10th century preceding the unification of the region and the crystallization of Ukrainian national identity. The first authentic document from this part of the world is written in Hebrew, the so-called "Kievan letter" (930 CE). Later this Russian-speaking community was absorbed by the Yiddish-speaking immigrants who came to the Ukraine from Central Europe. Large numbers of Jews came from Poland after it colonized much of the area in the 16th and 17th centuries. At that time Jews played an important role in the economic life of the country, especially as managers, agents, and in the export-import trade. Later, in 1648-9, the Jews of the Ukraine bore the brunt of the Khmelnitsky uprising again st the Polish gentry in which tens of thousands of Jews lost their lives (http://ww w.virtual.co.il/communities/wjcbook/ukraine/index.htm).
In the 19th century, the Ukraine, as a part of the Pale of Settlement, was densely populated by Jews. Despite restrictions, Jews played a prominent role in the development of commerce and industry in the region, and especially in the growth of its major cities such as Kiev, Odessa and Kharkov. Many of the most important Jewish thinkers of the modern age were born there (http://www.vir tual.co.il/communities/wjcbook/ukraine/index.htm).
For Soviet Jews, the most famous wartime incident happened at Babi Yar, right outside of Kiev. About 100,000 Jews were killed there at one time (Chesler 83). The exact number of how many were murdered there is unknown.
Here is how Babi Yar looks from the air (note the grid of graves on the right). Here is a map and descriptions of Babi Yar.
Here is a poem about this incident written by Yevgeny Yevtushenko and translated by G. Reavey called
Baby Yar
No monument stands over Babi Yar.
A drop sheer as a crude gravestone.
I am afraid.
Today I am as old in years
as all the Jewish people.
Now I seem to be
a Jew.
Here I plod through ancient Egypt.
Here I perish crucified, on the cross,
and to this day I bear the scars of nails.
I seem to be
Dreyfus.
The Philistine
is both informer and judge.
I am behind bars.
Beset on every side.
Hounded,
spat on,
slandered.
Squealing, dainty ladies in flounced Brussels lace
stick their parasols into my face.
I seem to be then
a young boy in Byelostok.
Blood runs, spilling over the floors.
The bar-room rabble-rousers
give off a stench of vodka and onion.
A boot kicks me aside, helpless.
In vain I plead with these pogrom bullies.
While they jeer and shout,
"Beat the Yids. Save Russia!"
some grain-marketeer beats up my mother.
O my Russian people!
I know
you
are international to the core.
But those with unclean hands
have often made a jingle of your purest name.
I know the goodness of my land.
How vile these anti-Semites-
without a qualm
they pompously called themselves
"The Union of the Russian People"!
I seem to be
Anne Frank
transparent
as a branch in April.
And I love.
and have no need of phrases.
My need is
that we gaze into each other.
How little we can see
or smell!
We are denied the leaves.
we are denied the sky.
Yet we can do so much-
tenderly
embrace each other in a darkened room.
They're coming here?
Be not afraid. Those are the booming
sounds of spring:
spring is coming here.
Come then to me.
Quick, give me your lips.
Are they smashing down the door?
No, it's the ice cracking...
The wild grasses rustle over Babi Yar.
The trees look ominous,
like judges.
Here all things scream silently,
and, baring my head,
I slowly feel myself
turning gray.
And I myself
am one massive, soundless scream
above the thousand thousand buried here.
I am
each old man
here shot dead.
I am every child
here shot dead.
Nothing in me
shall ever forget!
The "Intenationale," let it thunder
when the last anti-Semite on earth
is buried forever.
In my blood there is no Jewish blood.
In their callous rage, all anti-Semites
must hate me now as a Jew.
For that reason
I am a true Russian!
(1961)
Not only is there a poem written about Babi Yar but there is also a Symphony NO.13 by Shostakovich entitled "Babi Yar."
Check out an in depth description of the war in Kiev.
The Germans shot all the Jews in Babi Yar within a few days. After they were gone, Russia's Urkanians and people from other nationalities were, in German eyes, there to be captured. The Germans took hostages at night by closing off some districts and taking the people who happened to live in those particular districts (Anatoli, 120). At one time they took hostages during the day who were just walking down the street (Anatoli, 120).
The Germans took the hostages to the Pavlov Psychiatric Hospital which was located at the top of Babi Yar (Anatoli, 121). At the Hospital there was a twelfth-century chapel which was not being used. One night a bunch of Germans and a doctor drove up to the chapel. They had gas chambers with them (Anatoli, 121). They packed the patients from the hospital into the gas-chambers in groups of sixty or seventy, then ran the engines for about fifteen minutes so the exhaust gases went into the vans. After this happened the suffocated people were taken out and dropped into a pit (Anatoli, 121).
Identity cards became very important. Every Soviet identity card contained an entry giving the person's nationality (Anatoli, 121). The Germans used to check everybody's papers and went through houses rounding up people, or stopped people on the street who looked "suspicious" (Anatoli, 122).
Check this Memorial at Babi Yar.
For more information check out this web site: Images of Kiev,
Gathering at Babi Yar Memorial 1992.
As you can see from the above picture, Babi Yar is still a big site even in today's world. If you are ever in Kiev try to go and check out this Memorial.
Chesler, Evan. The Russian Jewry Reader. New York: Behrman House, 1974.
Anatoli, A. Babi Yar. New York: Pocket Book, 1970.
http://www.virtual.co.il/communities/wjcbook/Ukraine/index.htm
http://www.visualradio.com/photoarts/schickler/exhibits/sovietwar/khaldei/ jewishcouple_27.jpg
http://www.wiesenthal.com/resource/36quest3.htm
http://www.air-photo.com/babiyar
http://www.classicrecs.com/ASD-3911.htm
http://www.tca1.org/vol1/V1KillField.htm
http://www.purchase.edu/vaweb/ebenflow/russiapage/babi_yar_page.html
http://www.well.com/user/vanya/babi_yar.html