Anti-Jewish violence in Central and Eastern Europe, 1944–1946 explained

The anti-Jewish violence in Central and Eastern Europe following the retreat of Nazi German occupational forces and the arrival of the Soviet Red Army – during the latter stages of World War II – was linked in part to postwar anarchy and economic chaos exacerbated by the Stalinist policies imposed across the territories of expanded Soviet republics and new satellite countries. The anti-semitic attacks had become frequent in Soviet towns ravaged by war; at the marketplaces, in depleted stores, in schools, and even at state enterprises.[1] Protest letters were sent to Moscow from numerous Russian, Ukrainian and Belarusian towns by the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee involved in documenting the Holocaust.[1]

History

The Soviet authorities failed to address the years of Hitler's anti-Jewish propaganda, wrote Colonel David Dragunsky; anti-Semitic elements from among the former Nazi collaborators in the Soviet Union were often put in charge of state enterprises.[1] Solomon Mikhailovich Mikhoels, Chairman of the JAFC, who was murdered in Minsk in January 1948, wrote that Jewish homes were not being returned. In Berdichev, Mogilev-Podolsk, Balta, Zhmerinka, Vinnitsa, Khmelnik, Stara Rafalovka and many other towns, Jews were forced to remain in the areas of former Nazi ghettos for their own safety.[1] The Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee (JAFC) was targeted by Soviet authorities directly in the so-called rootless cosmopolitan campaign of the second half of the 1940s and in the Night of the Murdered Poets.[2] [3]

Several months after the Mikhoels assassination, other Jewish figures were arrested. His death signalled the beginning of the country-wide repression of the Jews accused of espionage and economic crimes. A campaign against Zionism was launched in the fall of 1948, but by the end of the decade, Jews had disappeared from the upper echelons of the party in the republics.[4] This was followed by the Jewish doctor-killers case of 1952–53 accompanied by publications of anti-Semitic texts in the media,[5] and hundreds of torture interrogations.[6] Most communities in the Soviet Union never acknowledged the involvement of the local auxiliary police in the Holocaust.[7] [8] [9] The vast majority of the 300,000 Schutzmannschaft members in the German-occupied territories of the USSR[10] [11] quietly returned to their former lives, including members of the Byelorussian Home Defence participating in the pacification actions, in which some 30,000 Jews were murdered,[12] and members of Ukrainische Hilfspolizei battalions responsible for the extermination of 150,000 Jews in the area of Volhynia alone.[13] Khrushchev proclaimed that the Jews were not welcome in the Ukraine.[14]

Satellite countries

Upon the Soviet takeover of Poland, "only a fraction of [the Jewish] deaths could be attributed to anti-semitism" wrote Jan T. Gross.[15] Most were caused by the raging anti-communist insurrection against the new pro-Soviet government.[16] According to David Engel, the anti-Jewish violence in Poland from 1944–46 took the lives of at least 327 Jews.[17]

Hundreds of returning Jews were killed in Romania.[18] [19] Anti-Jewish demonstrations, sometimes based on blood libel accusations, took place in Hungary in dozens of places,[20] [21] [22] including in Kunmadaras (two or four dead victims) and Miskolc.

In Topoľčany, Slovakia, 48 Jews were seriously injured in September 1945. A number of Jews was murdered in Kolbasov in December. 13 anti-Jewish incidents called partisan pogroms reportedly took place on 1–5 August 1946, the biggest one being in Žilina, where 15 people were wounded.[23] Partisan Congress riots took place in Bratislava in August 1946 and in August 1948, including anti-Jewish riots in several other locations.[24] [25]

In Kiev, Ukraine on September 4–7, 1945,[26] around a hundred Jews were beaten, of whom thirty-six were hospitalized and five died of wounds.[27] In Rubtsovsk, Russia, a number of anti-Semitic incidents took place in 1945.[28]

Further reading

Notes and References

  1. Book: War, Holocaust and Stalinism: A Documented Study of the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee in the USSR . Shimon Redlich . Kirill Mikhaĭlovich Anderson . I. Alʹtman . Psychology Press . 1995 . 38–44, 97, 229, 459 . 978-3-7186-5739-1 .
  2. Book: Medvedev, Zhores . Zhores Medvedev . Сталин и еврейская проблема: новый анализ . Stalin and the Jewish Question: New Analysis . Prava Cheloveka . Moscow . 2003 . 5-7712-0251-7 . 148.
  3. Book: Pinkus, Benjamin . The Soviet Government and the Jews 1948-1967: A Documented Study . 1984 . Cambridge University Press . Cambridge . 0-521-24713-6 . 183–184 .
  4. Book: A Century of Ambivalence: The Jews of Russia and the Soviet Union, 1881 to the Present . Zvi Y. Gitelman . Indiana University Press . 2001 . The Black Years and the Gray, 1948-1967. 144–154 . 0-253-21418-1 .
  5. Book: Brent, Jonathan . Vladimir P. Naumov . 2003 . Stalin's Last Crime: The Plot Against the Jewish Doctors, 1948-1953 . HarperCollins . New York . 0-06-019524-X . 4.
  6. Book: Sebag-Montefiore, Simon . Simon Sebag-Montefiore . 2005 . Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar . Vintage Books . New York . 1-4000-7678-1 . 636.
  7. Meredith M. Meehan . 2010 . Auxiliary Police Units in the Occupied Soviet Union, 1941-43: A Case Study of the Holocaust in Gomel, Belarus . BS thesis . United States Naval Academy . PDF; direct download . 44.
  8. Memorial Narratives of WWII Partisans and Genocide in Belarus . Alexandra Goujon . Alexandra Goujon . University of Bourgogne . France . DOC; direct download . 28 August 2008 . 4 . https://web.archive.org/web/20160805231205/http://ww2-historicalmemory.org.ua/docs/eng/Goujon.doc . 5 August 2016 .
  9. Book: Bringing the Dark Past to Light. The Reception of the Holocaust in Postcommunist Europe . John-Paul Himka . Joanna Beata Michlic . July 2013 . 16 . University of Nebraska Press . 978-0-8032-4647-8 . https://web.archive.org/web/20151022072804/http://www.nebraskapress.unl.edu/Supplements/excerpts/Spring%2013/9780803225442_excerpt.pdf . 2015-10-22 .
  10. Book: Dean, Martin . Collaboration in the Holocaust: Crimes of the Local Police in Belorussia and Ukraine, 1941-44 . 2003 . Palgrave Macmillan . 978-1-4039-6371-0 . 60.
  11. Book: Bashert: A Granddaughter's Holocaust Quest . Andrea Simon . Univ. Press of Mississippi . 2002 . 1-57806-481-3 . Atonement . 225.
  12. Web site: Okupacja niemiecka na Białorusi . Związek Białoruski w RP, Katedra Kultury Białoruskiej Uniwersytetu w Białymstoku (Internet Archive) . Historia Białorusi od połowy XVIII do XX w. [History of Belarus, mid 18th century until the 20th century] . 2014 . 12 July 2014 . Eugeniusz Mironowicz . German occupation of Belarus . pl, be . https://web.archive.org/web/20070927221149/http://autary.iig.pl/mironowicz_e/knihi07-26.htm . September 27, 2007.
  13. Book: The Soviet Counterinsurgency in the Western Borderlands . limited . Alexander Statiev . Cambridge University Press . 2010 . 69.
  14. Book: The Jews of the Soviet Union: The History of a National Minority . Benjamin Pinkus . 219 . Anti-Semitism . 26 January 1990 . Cambridge University Press . 0-521-38926-7 .
  15. Book: Gross, Jan T.. Studies in Contemporary Jewry. Jonathan Frankel. Oxford University Press. 2005. After Auschwitz: The Reality and Meaning of Postwar Antisemitism in Poland. 0-19-518224-3.
  16. Web site: Central and Eastern European Online Library (CEEOL); page 11, note 7 of current document . Kwartalnik Historii Żydów, Recenzje (Jewish History Quarterly; Reviews) . Book review of Stefan Grajek, "Po wojnie i co dalej? Żydzi w Polsce, w latach 1945−1949", translated from Hebrew by Aleksander Klugman, Żydowski Instytut Historyczny, Warsaw 2003 (p. 95) . August Grabski . 240 . PDF; direct download . pl . 2016-08-22 . 2012-07-29 . https://web.archive.org/web/20120729232906/http://www.ceeol.com/aspx/getdocument.aspx?logid=5 . dead .
  17. Book: Engel, David . Yad Vashem Studies Vol. XXVI . 1998 . Patterns Of Anti-Jewish Violence In Poland, 1944-1946 . http://www1.yadvashem.org/odot_pdf/Microsoft%20Word%20-%203128.pdf . . 32.
  18. Web site: Minicy Catom Software Engineering Ltd. www.catom.com . Institute for Global Jewish Affairs – Global Antisemitism, Anti-Israelism, Jewish Studies . Jcpa.org . 1946-07-04 . 2010-04-08 . https://web.archive.org/web/20100613080315/http://jcpa.org/JCPA/Templates/ShowPage.asp?DRIT=3&DBID=1&LNGID=1&TMID=111&FID=624&PID=0&IID=2329&TTL=Manfred_Gerstenfeld_on_The_Jews_Are_Coming_Back:_The_Return_of_the_Jews_to_Their_Countries_of_Origin_after_WWII . 2010-06-13 .
  19. [Jean Ancel]
  20. Book: Antisemitism: a historical ... - Google Książki . 1939-01-30 . 978-1-85109-439-4 . 2010-04-08. Levy . Richard S. . Bloomsbury Academic .
  21. Web site: Népbiróság és vérvád az 1945 utáni Budapesten . https://web.archive.org/web/20110721112348/http://www.polhist.hu/multunk/letoltes/petoa.pdf . 2011-07-21 . Petö Andrea . 2010-04-08 .
  22. News: Antisemitism in Post World War II Hungary - violence, riots; Communist Party policy | Judaism | Find Articles at BNET . Findarticles.com . 2010-04-08 . Peter . Kenez . 2001.
  23. Ján Mlynárik . Dějiny Židů na Slovensku (Část 15) . CS Magazin . 2010-04-08 . cs.
  24. Protizidovske vytrznosti v Bratislave v historicksom kontexte. The Jewish demands to return lost property caused and open resistance of a certain part of Slovak community. The frustration was transformed into anti-Jewish riots that took place in Bratislava and several other cities and villages... . 28 (27 / 100) in PDF . Studie Pamat Naroda . Ivica Bumova .
  25. http://www.druhasvetova.sk/2013/06/17/protizidovske-nepokoje-v-bratislave-august-1946-august-1948-v-atmosfere-povojnoveho-antisemitizmu-na-slovensku/ Protizidovske nepokoje v Bratislave - August 1946 - August 1948.
  26. Web site: State-sponsored Anti-Semitism in Postwar USSR. Studies and Research Perspectives; Antonella Salomoni . 2 April 2010 . Quest. Issues in Contemporary Jewish History / Questioni di storia ebraica contemporanea . 2012-07-26.
  27. Amir Weiner. Making Sense of War: The Second World War and the Fate of the Bolshevik Revolution. Princeton University Press. 2008. p. 192.
  28. Book: War, Holocaust and Stalinism: a ... - Google Książki . 978-3-7186-5739-1 . 2010-04-08. Redlich . Shimon . Anderson . Kirill Mikhaĭlovich . Altman . I. . 1995 . Psychology Press .

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