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Was There a Soviet Policy for Evacuating the Jews?: The Case of the Annexed Territories

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 January 2017

Ben-Cion Pinchuk
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Extract

As a result of the Soviet annexation of the Baltic States, eastern Poland, Bessarabia, and Northern Bucovina in 1939-40, the Soviet Union was left with the largest Jewish population in Europe. Given this large population, the fact that the Soviet Union had the greatest number of Jews who survived World War II has aroused the interest of researchers and drawn attention to the role of Soviet policy in the rescue of Jews during the Holocaust. Some of the reasons for the survival of Jews in Soviet-annexed territories seem obvious. In contrast to other European countries, only part of the USSR was occupiéd by German armies. Therefore, Jews could find refuge in the unoccupied regions. This simple and generally sufficient explanation is not the only one which has been offered, however. Some Western scholars have argued that the Soviet government had a specific policy designed to rescue Jews from the danger of annihilation. Soviet propaganda, particularly that aimed at Western audiences, maintained that millions of Jews owed their lives to Soviet rescue operations during the Holocaust.

Type
Articles
Information
Slavic Review , Volume 39 , Issue 1 , March 1980 , pp. 44 - 55
Copyright
Copyright © Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies. 1980

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References

1. In 1943, on a special mission to the United States, Canada, and Britain, Sh. Mikhoels and F. Fefer of the Soviet Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee, claimed that at a time when every railroad car was needed for the war effort, the Soviet government was allotting dozens of trains for the rescue of civilians and Jews (orgen Fraihait [New York], July 3, 1963). See also Evreiskii narod v bor'be protiv fashisma (Moscow, 1945), p. 59, and the numerous reports of the rescue of Jews in the Soviet Jewish newspaper Einikait, August 31, 1944, August 8, 1945, July 19 and 27, 1945, and August 29, 1945, for example.

2. Evgenii Evtushenko's poem, “Babii Iar,” protesting the absence of even a monument to the murdered Jews of Kiev, was a protest against the almost systematic neglect in official Soviet publications of the fate of the Jews during World War II. See also Gilboa, Y., The Black Years of Soviet Jewry 1939-1953 (Boston and Toronto, 1971 Google Scholar), chapters 1 and 2.

3. See the speech delivered by Deputy Foreign Minister Gromyko to the United Nations General Assembly, May 14, 1947, in United Nations, Official Records of the General Assembly, vol. 1: Plenary Meetings of the General Assembly, Verbatim Record, 28 April-15 May 1947 (Lake Success, N.Y., [1947]), pp. 127-35.

4. Kaganovich, M., Der Yiddisher Onteil in Partizaner Bavegung fun Sovet-Rusland (Jewish Participation in the Soviet Partisan Movement) (Rome, 1948), p. 188 Google Scholar.

5. Lamont, Corliss, The Peoples of the Soviet Union (New York, 1946), p. 1946 Google Scholar.

6. Kulischer, E. M., Europe on the Move: War and Population Changes, 1917-1947 (New York, 1948), p. 1948 Google Scholar.

7. The main protagonists conducted their polemics in the Yiddish newspapers, Der Tog, Forverts, M or gen Fraihait, and Einikait. For a survey of the subject as well as the polemics involved, see Schwartz, S. M., The Jews in the Soviet Union (Syracuse, N.Y., 1951), p. 21 Google Scholar. See also Litvak, L, “Hashilton Hasoveti Vehatsalat Yehudim Polaniim Umaaraviim” (Soviet Government and the Rescue of Polish and Western Jews), Behinot, no. 2-3 (1972), pp. 47–50.Google Scholar

8. Many Soviet wartime novels were devoted to the heroic story of the evacuation, for example, Erenburg, I. G., Buria (Moscow, 1944)Google Scholar; Fadeev, A. A., Molodaia gvardiia (Moscow, 1947)Google Scholar; and Kataev, V. P., Zavlasf Sovetov (Moscow, 1949)Google Scholar.

9. I. Grey states: “The evacuation of 1,523 industrial units … was a tremendous undertaking and in human terms a magnificent achievement” ( Grey, I., The First Fifty Years: Soviet Russia 1917-67 [London 1967], p. 337 Google Scholar). He has nothing to say, however, on the evacuation of the civilian population.

10. See Bagramian, I. Kh., Tak nachinalas1 voina (Moscow, 1971)Google Scholar; Biriuzov, S. S., Kogda gremeli pushki (Moscow, 1961)Google Scholar; Iakunovskii, I. I., Zemlia v ogne (Moscow, 1975 Google Scholar); Rokossovskii, K. K., Soldatskii dolg (Moscow, 1968 Google Scholar); and Zhukov, G. K., Vospominaniia i razmyshleniia (Moscow, 1969)Google Scholar.

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12. Poliakov, Iv. A. et al., eds., Eshelony idut na vostok (Moscow, 1966), p. 14 Google Scholar.

13. Ibid

14. See Young, P., World War 1939-45 (London, 1966), pp. 18–19 Google Scholar.

15. Werth, A., Russia at War (New York, 1964), pp. 131—43Google Scholar. The “Draft Field Regulations of 1939” of the Red Army emphasized offensive warfare.

16. Istoriia voiny, p. 143.

17. I. I. Belonosov, “Evakuatsiia naseleniia iz prifrontovoi polosy v 1941-1942 gg.,” in Poliakov et al., Eshelony, p. 16.

18. Istoriia voiny, p. 143.

19. Ibid., p. ISO.

20. Ibid., p. 546; Belonosov, “Evakuatsiia,” p. 18; Bol'shaia Sovetskaia Entsiklopediia, vol. 48 (Moscow, 1957), p. 290. The encyclopedia entry on the evacuation states that: “The executive committee of regions that were threatened by air strikes decided to evacuate the civilian population, first of all children and older people who were not able to work.”

21. Seaton, A., The Russo-German War, 1941-45 (New York, 1970), p. 1970 Google Scholar.

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23. See testimonies in Israeli Institute of National Memory (Yad Vashem) Archives, files Kh-49-3306, T-30-1643, A-131-1937, N-55-2089, 1-6S-890, H-9S02963 (hereafter cited as Y-V, with appropriate file number).

24. Y-V, A-74-1203. The witness from Sarny claimed that only those who were Soviet citizens before 1939 were evacuated.

25. Manor, A. and Ganotsovich, Y., eds., Lida Book (Tel-Aviv, 1970), pp. 280–81 Google Scholar.

26. Y-V, Sh-174-1746. The Soviet official referred to in this testimony was among the very first to collaborate with the Nazis.

27. Schwarz, S., Antisemitizm v Sovetskom Soiuze (New York, 1952), p. 243 Google Scholar.

28. Y-V, Sh-171-2131. Also on Lwow, see T-30-1643, A-131-1937, N-39-1441, B-54-736, R-92-1SS54, M-170-3042.

29. Y-V, K-2-174, N-55-2089, K-l-173, Kh-41-761, B-64-813, A-181-2572, Y-24-8831.

30. Broderzon, Sh., Main Laidns-Veg Mit Moshe Broderzon (My Road of Suffering with Moshe Broderzon) (Buenos Aires, 1960), p. 32 Google Scholar.

31. Zaichik, M., Miyomano She! Partisan-Nitsol Hasho'ah (From the Diary of a Partisan Rescued from the Holocaust) (Tel-Aviv, 1970), p. 13 Google Scholar.

32. Y-V, G-239-32S4, L-142-215-1, K-lll-1292, Sh-178-1979.

33. Schwarz, Y., “Yetsiat Rokitna 1941” (Exodus of Rokitna 1941), in Leon, A., ed., Rokitna Vehasviva (Rokitna and Surroundings) (Tel-Aviv, 1967), p. 251 Google Scholar.

34. Kak, A, “Hizdamnuyot Htsala Shehukhmetsu” (Missed Rescue Opportunities), in Leon, , Rokitna Vehasviva, p. 247.Google Scholar

35. Y-V, B-21-39, B-192-2053, B-320-3332.

36. Y-V, A-228-3118; see also M-170-3042, Kh-169-1942, K-280-3276, K-256-3112; Sh. Tserik, Yudenshtodt Iavorov (The Town Iavorov) (New York, 1950), p. 8; and Y-V, P-182-1907.

37. Y-V, Sh-258-2987; also K-285-3315, A-239-3348.

38. Y-V, Kh-27-2009; also B-192-2053, Y-36-1299.

39. Lebn Un Umkum Fun Olshan (Life and Death of Olshan) (Tel-Aviv, 1965), p. 195; see also Y-V, Sh-297-3318, T-34-1917.

40. Y-V, A-l 19-1793, F-196-2091.

41. Y-V, A-152-2243, Sh-233-2591.

42. Y-V, L-116-1687, B-187-1919.

43. A. Avatikhi, ed., Rovno (Tel-Aviv, 1956), p. 529.

44. Y-V, C-226-3047, Sh-2-107, K-147-1659.

45. Y. Gar, Viderklangen (Reflections) (Tel-Aviv, 1961), pp. 256-57; see also Y-V, K-285-3315, A-239-3348, B-46-2141, N-803243, Sh-306-3445, G-253-3422.

46. Y-V, L-116-1687. The testimony relates to Olshani, Volozhin and other towns. See also Y-V, K-245-2664, R-149-2447, K-151-1685.

47. Y-V, A-152-2243, R-211-3317, K-293-3425, Sh-233-2591.

48. Korchak, R., Lehavot Baefer (Flames in the Dust) (Tel-Aviv, 1965), p. 8 Google Scholar.

49. Geizier, Sh., “Hanekuda Hayehudit” (The Jewish Point), in Shenhod, Sh., ed., Mul Haoyev Hanatsi, vol. 2 (Facing the Nazi Enemy) (Tel-Aviv, 1967), p. 52 Google Scholar.

50. Dworzecki, M., Yerushalaim Delita Bemeri Uvesho'ah (Jerusalem of Lithuania in Resistance and Ruin) (Tel-Aviv, 1951), p. 18 Google Scholar.

51. “The Germans Enter Riga,” from the manuscript “The Black Book,” pp. 744-45. “The Black Book,” dealing with the destruction of Soviet Jewry by the Nazis, was compiled by the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee in the USSR but has never been published in the Soviet Union. A copy of the manuscript is available at the Yad Vashem Library in Jerusalem.

52. Amitan, E., “Estonian Jewry, a Historical Summary,” Amitan, E., ed., The Jews in Latvia ([Tel-Aviv, 1971]), p. 347 Google Scholar. He estimates that about four to five thousand Estonian Jews were evacuated.

53. Y-V, S-79-2169 encountered “thousands of Lithuanian Jews in Briansk. K-199-2339 maintains that among the refugees arriving in Kadom the majority were from Vilnius. B-128-1531 met many thousands of Lithuanian refugees who succeeded in crossing the border of Belorussia.

54. Fuks, T., Vanderungen Iber Okupirte Gebitn (Wandering in Occupied Lands) (Buenos Aires, 1947), p. 1947 Google Scholar.

55. Y-V, M-127-2224, R-112-1863, Sh-3481, V-44-776, K-170-1948.

56. Shaivits, B., “Mibukarest Layam Habalti” (From Bucharest to the Baltic Sea), in Shenhod, Sh., ed., Mul Haoyev Hanatsi, vol. 1 (Tel-Aviv, 1963), p. 230 Google Scholar; Y-V, L-69-91S, K-171-1947, Sh-116-1241. See also Y-V, Y-120-2233, Sh-309-3481, L-68-903.

57. Koren, I., Yehudei Kishinev (The Jews of Kishinev) (Tel-Aviv, 1955), pp. 227–28 Google Scholar; see also Y-V, S-35-741, Ts-16-1034, F-94-910.

58. Testimony of I. Katvi, quoted in Vest, B., ed., Bekhevlei Klaia (The Agonies of Destruction) (Tel-Aviv, 1963), p. 72 Google Scholar.

59. Y-V, S-75-2088.

60. For details, see I. I. Belonosov, “Evakuatsiia,” p. 116.

61. For a detailed analysis of the number of Jews living in the annexed territories, see Sh. Redlich, “Hayehudim Bashtakhim Shesupkhu Librit Hamoatsot, 1939-1940” (The Jews in the Territories Annexed by the Soviet Union, 1939-1940). On page 73, Redlich estimates the number of local deportees at several tens of thousands. See also Behinot, no. 1 (1970), pp. 72-73.