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Journal of Jewish Communal Service

REMEMBERING THE NIGHT OF THE MURDERED POETS

Book Review

STALIN'S SECRET POGROM: The Postwar Inquisition of the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee

Introduction: Joshua Rubenstein

Preface: Vladimir P. Naumov

Published by Yale University Press & U.S. Holocaust Museum 515 pages

Reviewed by Ted Comet, Executive Vice-President, WCJCS

Hon. Assoc. Executive Vice-President, JDC

"Hitler wants to destroy us physically, Stalin wants to do it spiritually" stated the well-known Yiddish poet, Peretz Markish. Then Stalin's anti-Semitism turned to murder and Markish, along with twelve other victims were executed in one night, August 12, 1952 . They were all associated with the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee, falsely accused of espionage, subjected to torture, forced confessions and a secret trial.

In the Movement to free Soviet Jewry, this was commemorated as the "Night of the Murdered Poets" (the new documentation shows that only five were literary figures and the number executed was thirteen, not twenty four, as originally thought).

Why did Stalin turn so savagely against the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee which during the dark days of World War II performed such valuable service? What purpose did he have in mind for the trial? Why did it drag on so long? What methods were used?

Stalin's Secret Pogrom provides the terrifying answers. Reading this book is an act of homage, not only to these martyrs but also to the untold numbers who suffered under Stalin and whose stories are not known.

The core of the book consists of an abridged version of the transcript of the trial. Meticulous records were kept. After Stalin's death the case was reviewed by Soviet officials who found it to be a gross fabrication, with the "confessions" obtained through torture. However, the decision was made to keep this knowledge secret and it remained so until the fall of Communism permitted the publication in 1994 of "An Unjust Trial: Stalin's Last Execution."

These transcriptions are preceded by an excellent Introduction by Joshua Rubenstein of Harvard's Davis Center for Russian Studies who provides background and context plus vital information from newly released documents and interviews with relatives and colleagues of those murdered. This Introduction alone makes it worth acquiring the book.

So what is the story? As Joshua Rubenstein relates it, in March 1942, reeling under the onslaught of the German invasion, Stalin created five Anti-Fascist Committees to win support from the West. Each was designated to appeal to a particular segment of foreign public opinion. The Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee was headed by Solomon Mikhoels, renowned Yiddish actor and Director of Moscow's State Jewish Theater.

The highlight of the Committee's activities was the seven month visit to America and England

of Mikhoels and Itsik Fefer, the Committee's Secretary (and informer). The trip was unprecedented - - even Stalin came to bid them farewell. The welcome in America was extraordinary. Apart fromYiddish Socialist groups who criticized the visit, and the American Jewish Committee which kept its distance, the other Jewish organizations opened their arms. A National Reception Committee was headed by Albert Einstein. In every city visited there were fund raisers and rallies. The most impressive event was a massive rally at the Polo Grounds in New York , attended by 50,000 people and addressed by significant officials. The Soviet press was euphoric.

Back in Moscow , buoyed by this triumphant visit, Mikhoels tried to initiate two projects: a Black Book, dealing with Nazi persecution of Jews in Soviet territory; and the possible resettlement of Jews in the Crimea . While in New York he had discussed this latter project with James Rosenberg, a leader of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, which had supported Jewish colonies through Agro-Joint from the 1920s to 1938. Mikhoels thought big - - he proposed a Soviet Jewish Republic in Crimea , which he thought would garner JDC financial support.

After Germany was defeated, the extent of Nazi destruction came to light. Having no other Jewish organization to appeal to, since Stalin destroyed the Jewish infrastructure, destitute Jews appealed to the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee for help. As a committed Jew, Mikhoels tried to respond. But the more he appealed for assistance for Jews, the more alarmed the Kremlin became about the resurgence of Jewish feelings. They saw this as a dangerous Zionist nationalism elicited by the Holocaust and further enhanced when, after the State of Israel was established, Golda Meir received a tumultuous Jewish reception in Moscow.

The Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee was seen as evolving into the central Jewish organization and therefore, it had to be destroyed. The contacts with American Jews, which had enabled the visit to America to be such a success, was now cause for suspicion and grounds for the accusation of espionage.

So a systematic campaign against the Jews was launched, first expressed in an attack against "cosmopolitanism", a euphemism for Jews, then Jews were dismissed from important positions. The culmination would be a "show trial", which was a means for maintaining power and shaping public opinion. The trial of the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee was the last one directed by Stalin.

Rubenstein surmises that Stalin felt Mikhoels, being so clever and so great an actor, might outmaneuver a Show Trial. His solution: send him on a professional mission to Minsk , have him murdered there, claim it was an automobile accident and give him a state funeral. (The murderer later received a high Soviet award for services to the state). That was January 1948. In November, the Committee was disbanded.

Then the round-up began. Initially a broader-scaled trial had been planned, which even included the Jewish wife of Foreign Minister Molotov. It was eventually narrowed down to 15 defendants, including three women. Although all but one had "confessed", the transcript shows that at the trial they recanted and challenged the court in effective ways. But their fate had been sealed beforehand. A 14 th defendant, Solomon Bregman, collapsed into a coma during the trial and later died in prison hospital. Eleven men and two women defendants were shot. Only Lina Shtern survived.

Worse was intended to follow. In January 1953 a group of doctors, most of them Jewish were arrested for plotting to kill Soviet leaders. They were linked to a Zionist plot by the Joint (JDC) to create an independent Jewish Republic in the Crimea which would then separate from the Soviet Union and become a Zionist entity. The intention was to make this a major show trial, execute the defendants and then deport the Jewish population to Central Asia and Birobidzhan.

Stalin died in March and a month later the Doctor's Plot was disavowed.

Stalin's Secret Pogrom reminds us that while we can rightfully delight in the success of the Soviet Jewry movement and in the extraordinary Jewish Renewal currently taking place in the FSU, in the spirit of Zachor, we must remember the pain of the destruction visited upon one of the greatest Jewish communities. Joshua Rubenstein has performed a valuable service in bringing this dark chapter in Jewish history into bold relief.

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