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

War, Holocaust and Stalinism, by Shimon Redlich. 1995. Harwood Academic Publishers, Australia, Austria

How the Crimea Almost Became a Jewish Republic in the Soviet Union. “Jewish Cemetery” is Why Holocaust Survivors Leave–the Truth

Judeopolonia (a Jewish-ruled Poland) is often dismissed as an anti-Semitic fantasy. It was anything but. This book describes Jewish territorial ambitions of the kind that, under other circumstances, could have become Judeopolonia. For example, had Poland lost the 1920 Bolshevik War, she could have been absorbed into the Soviet Union, and been made into a Soviet and Jewish-ruled Polish Republic of the USSR. And, since there were so many Jews in Poland, and there was a huge Jewish infrastructure already in place, why not?

JEWISH TERRITORIAL AMBITIONS WERE A FACT

Jewish territorial ambitions not only existed, but were not necessarily limited to Palestine (as in Zionism). Shimon Redlich writes, “Jewish settlement there [Crimea] had been supported by the Soviet government in the 1920’s, and a number of Jewish autonomous districts had been established in Crimea in the 1930’s. Some Soviet Jewish leaders regarded the Jewish settlements in the Crimea as a nucleus for a future Jewish republic.” (p. 45). Obviously, any development of a Judeopolonia-style nation was an incremental development. Poland, with her huge pre-existing Jewish presence, was far along in this process.

ANOTHER JEWISH SOVIET REPUBLIC? WHY BIROBIDZHAN DID NOT WORK OUT

In a document reproduced by Redlich, S. M. Mikhoels writes, “‘In its time a Jewish autonomous region was created in Birobidzhan with the prospect of transforming it into a Jewish Soviet republic…It must be acknowledged that the Birobidzhan experiment, for a variety of reasons, primarily due to its insufficient mobilization of its full potential, and also in view of its (Birobidzhan’s) extreme distance from the primary location of the Jewish working masses, did not produced the desired effect.'” (p. 266). It is obvious that the Jews were predisposed to prefer a Jewish-ruled Poland (Judeopolonia), as Poland was already immersed in Jewishness, rather than to create a de novo Jewish republic in remote Siberia.

INTERNATIONAL JEWRY SUPPORTS JUDEOPOLONIA-STYLE EFFORTS

Redlich comments, “The ‘Crimean Proposal’ affirmed that the plan for a Jewish republic enjoyed massive support among Soviet Jews and would result in massive assistance from world Jewry. As we know, Jewish organizations in the US, and particularly the JDC [American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee], had promised such assistance to Mikhoels and Fefer a few months earlier.” (p. 46). The impetus of the German-made Holocaust, with Holocaust survivors leave the sites of murder, made it more morally and politically urgent. More on this below.

It is obvious that the creation of some kind of Jewish republic was a global Jewish project. International Jewry would also have strongly supported the formation of a Judeopolonia had the circumstances so worked out.

A JUDEOPOLONIA-STYLE JEWISH REPUBLIC WOULD BE A STEPPING STONE TO GREATER OVERALL JEWISH POWER

Stalin realized the implications of a concentration of Soviet Jews in Crimea. Redlich states, “He [Stalin] contended that if a Jewish Republic were created in Crimea, then Zionism, which is rampant in America, would gain a foothold in our country.” (p. 49). It went far beyond Holocaust survivors leave.

WHY HOLOCAUST SURVIVORS LEAVE–THE TRUTH: DESTROYED COMMUNITIES

Author Redlich describes a mid-February 1944 letter to Stalin written by the Jews, Mikhoels, Fefer, and Epshteyn, “Many Jewish evacuees, according to the letter, did not consider their places of origin, which had turned into mass cemeteries for their kin, as desirable places for postwar settlement.” (p. 46). This inadvertently clarifies the main reason that most Polish Jews that survived the German-made Holocaust desired to leave Poland as soon as possible. To them, it was a cemetery.

In postwar Poland, it was powerful Zionist influence, and not Polish antisemitism, that caused most Holocaust-surviving Jews to leave Poland. See:

https://www.jewsandpolesdatabase.org/2019/11/04/pogroms-drove-postwwii-polish-jews-away-myth-debunked-redlich/

See also:

https://www.jewsandpolesdatabase.org/2019/11/04/pogroms-drove-postwwii-polish-jews-away-myth-debunked-brant/