Polish-Jewish Relations: 1,300 Keyword-Phrase-Indexed Book Reviews (by Jan Peczkis)

The Lithuanian Slaughter of Its Jews: The Testimonies of 121 Jewish Survivors of the Holocaust in Lithuania, by Leyb Koniuchowsky. 2020. Privately Printed.

Holocaust in Lithuania: Jewish-Lithuanian Relations and the German-Made Holocaust

This work consists of hundreds of reports from Lithuanian Jews that had survived the Holocaust, and had been interviewed by the author in DP camps in 1946-1948. In the 1980s and 1990s, these Yiddish-language reports were translated into English, and eventually compiled into this book. In my review, I focus on Lithuanian-Jewish relations, particularly the animosities stirred by Jewish-Soviet collaboration.

A SAMPLING OF JEWISH WEALTH IN LITHUANIA

The “Jews had it bad” exculpation for Jews supporting Communism will not do. Many of the authors (e. g., p. 62, 66, 95, 149, 162, 256, 266, 314, 360) allude to Jewish riches. These included the Jewish ownership of tanneries, sawmills, national banks, wool-combing workshops, sawmills, candy factories, tile factories, soap factories, lumber mills, poultry slaughterhouses, iron works, pharmacies, furniture factories, textile businesses, electric power stations, and river ships.

COMMUNISM ENJOYED BROAD SUPPORT AMONG THE JEWS OF PRE-WWII LITHUANIA

While most Holocaust-survivor testimonies understandably omit mention of the fact and magnitude of the Jewish involvement in Communism, others are surprisingly candid about it. The following are some examples.

In speaking of the Lithuanian towns of Zapyshkis and Krukiai, Shakhne Volk et al. wrote, “The majority of the Jewish youth had leftist tendencies.” (p. 252. Emphasis added).

With reference to the town of Plungyan (Plunge) in the Telzh area, Mashe Rikhman wrote, “Until the Red Army arrived in Lithuania, there was a Jewish national bank in Plunge. A large proportion of the Jewish youth were grouped around the illegal Communist Party during the time of President Antanas Smetonas.” (p. 66. Emphasis added).

Referring to the town of Anykshtsiai, Zalmen and Galya Bregman wrote, “The majority of the young people belonged to leftist movements. During the period of fascist [!] rule in Lithuania, Anykshtsiai produced the highest percentage of revolutionaries.” (p. 240. Emphasis added). [Notice the typical leftspeak that throws around the fascist label.]

For more on the provocative aspects of the 1939 Judeo-Bolshevism, see:

https://www.jewsandpolesdatabase.org/2025/02/15/ruthless-1939-zydokomuna-provoked-lithuanian-hatred/

THE SOVIET OCCUPATION, AND ENSUING JEWISH-SOVIET COLLABORATION, POLARIZED JEWS AND LITHUANIANS

Khane Shuster describes the situation in the town of Rumshiskes, “Much ill feeling was expressed by Lithuanians toward the Jews in town during the period of Soviet rule in 1940-1941. The head of the Red militia in town was a young Jewish man from Kaunas…The Lithuanians in town regarded the Jews as occupiers. But the Jewish youth in town felt fortunate.” (p. 249). This statement alone is revealing: The Jews had regarded the occupational role of the Soviets a mere opinion, and not a fact, and had no concept of the sufferings of the Lithuanian people.

It appears that few Jews, whether Communist or not, identified with Lithuania in the first place. Countless authors bring up the popularity of Zionism among Lithuanian Jews (e. g, p. 62, 95, 213, 246, 253, 341, 370, 387, 393).  For instance, Moyshe Karnowski wrote, “Some of the Jewish youth enthusiastically threw themselves into political life, and occupied important positions during the year of Soviet rule (1940-1941). The great majority of the Jewish youth did not participate in political life, and remained loyal to the Zionist idea.” (p. 256).

Then came the Communist crimes. Avrom Taytz describes the Soviet deportations of Lithuanians to Siberia, “A small number of Jewish youth, all of whom worked for the Soviet security organs, participated in these deportations.” (p. 342). Oh, really? How small is “small”?

LITHUANIAN JEWS SUPPORTED THE SOVIET OCCUPATION–NOTWITHSTANDING JEWISH LOSS OF PROPERTY

Binyomin Taraseysky and Yankl Levin described the consequences of the first Soviet occupation of Lithuania (1940-1941): “All of the major businesses and factories were nationalized. The Jews were no longer the bosses, and they became employees of Soviet institution or in the businesses they had previously owned. They gradually got used to the new situation, and made their peace with the Soviet system. They considered the granting of equal rights to be a fair recompense for the material losses they suffered in the process of nationalization…More than a few young Jews threw themselves into the new setup body and soul, and accepted positions in the party, the Soviet security services and other agencies.” (p. 315).

Is “equal rights” a code word for political power? Does the Jewish willingness to part with their wealth mean that, forced to make a choice, Jews would prefer political power to economic power?

Let us take a closer look at this “lack of equal rights” line. Boris Brumberg, a Jew, had been vice-mayor of Shventzionys (Swieciany) before Poland’s 1939 defeat. (Taraseysky and Levin, p. 314). So much for the myth that Jews could not hold government positions in either prewar Poland or prewar Lithuania, a myth also repeated by Fayve Khayet. (p. 367).

Finally, “rights” to which one’s group is presumably entitled to, are a matter of judgment. If Jews (irrespective of all other considerations) can support Communism just because it gives them “more rights” as they understand them, then why cannot the Lithuanians (irrespective of all other considerations) support Nazism insofar as it gives them “more rights”, such as freedom from Jewish economic competition?

JUNE 1941: NAZI GERMANY INVADES SOVIET-OCCUPIED LITHUANIA

What is now known as the Holocaust By Bullets began right on the heels of the German Army. In studying this book, it is hard to deduce where Nazi German responsibility ends and Lithuanian responsibility begins. Many times, the Germans are almost invisible, as they are in the very title of this book. Is this conspicuous omission by design?

THE MOCKING OF JEWISH-SOVIET COLLABORATION

After the Nazi German invasion, the Jews at Shvekshne (Sveksna) were told, “You’ve had enough good times! You won’t be singing any more Soviet songs now!” (p. 213). In some other towns, Jews were mocked by being forced to sing Soviet songs (included the Internationale). (p. 72, 196, 253, 268).

Near Linkuva, Shavl County, local peasants allegedly threw stones at the Jews. The peasants yelled, “Ha, you wanted to run after the Bolsheviks! Good for you. Hitler’s going to give it to you now!” (p. 174).

At another town, the Jews were forced to march in a procession, wherein they carried a bust of Stalin and the pictures of Stalin, Lenin, Molotov, and others. They then had to place the pictures under the bust of Stalin, to set fire to the pictures, to sing Soviet songs, and to dance to the fire. Finally, the Jews were compelled to throw rocks at the bust of Stalin. (p. 119).

In still another town, Jews were told, “You used to enjoy and kiss the portraits of Soviet leaders.” Now the Jews were forced to display and then to kiss the portraits of Soviet leaders that had earlier been had been dipped in excrement. (p. 466).

SUPPORT FOR REVOLUTIONARY MOVEMENTS BITES BACK

When Jews supported Communism, they were knowingly backing a revolutionary movement that demonized entire identifiable groups of people (e. g, the bourgeoisie), and made them desirable collective targets of property expropriation, profaned religion, individual murder, and organized mass murder. And now the Jews were on the receiving end of another revolutionary movement (German Nazism) that demonized entire identifiable groups of people (e. g, the Jews), and made them into desirable collective targets of property expropriation, profaned religion, individual murder, and organized mass murder.

INNOCENT VICTIMS ON BOTH SIDES

Collective vengeance is never right, but it cuts both ways. The vast majority of Jews that died in the Holocaust were innocent of Communism. Note, however, that the vast majority of non-Jews that had earlier died because of the actions of Communist Jews were innocent of any wrongdoing to Jews–or to anyone else, for that matter.

THE HOLOCAUST HAD BEEN FORECAST

Let us keep the Holocaust in historical perspective. Some leading Jews had warned and predicted, some 20 years before it happened, that the disproportionate Jewish support for Communism would unleash a tidal wave of collective vengeance against Jews–a pogrom of unprecedented proportions. See:

https://www.jewsandpolesdatabase.org/2020/03/30/jews-in-polands-second-republic-1918-on-zydokomuna-brains-behind-communism-holocaust-as-vengeance-prophesied-devereux/

https://www.jewsandpolesdatabase.org/2019/11/04/zydokomuna-influence-far-beyond-percentages-sarolea/

https://www.jewsandpolesdatabase.org/2019/11/04/onr-reasons-for-antisemitism-rolicki/