Jews in Ukraine: Crimea
Jews in Crimea since Hellenistic times - Khazars - Jewish
settlements - Tatars - Genoese and Ottoman Crimea - Czarist rule and
Pale of Settlement - Soviets and Jewish settlements - Holocaust with
Tatar collaboration - Crimea Republic project of 1944 as an espionage
trial of the "USA" - Soviet rule and Jews in Crimea after 1945
Encyclopaedia Judaica (1971): Crimea, vol. 5, col. 1104, map with
Jewish population in 1970
from: Crimea; In: Encyclopaedia Judaica
1971, vol. 5; Lustiger and Yehuda Bauer
presented by Michael Palomino (2008)
[Jews since Hellenistic times in
Crimea - Bible sources - thesis about converted Khazars]
CRIMEA (Rus. Krym or Krim), peninsula of S. European Russia on the
Black Sea; since 1954 oblast of Ukrainian S.S.R.
Late Antiquity and Early Middle
Ages.
Jews first settled in the southeastern area and a Jewish Hellenistic
community existed there by the end of the first century C.E.
(inscriptions). *Jerome (d. 420; on Zech. 10:11, Obad. 20) heard from
Jews that the Jewish settlers by the Bosporus were descended from
families exiled by the Assyrians and Babylonians, and from deported
warriors of *Bar Kokhba; the Bosporus was called by the Jews
"Sepharad". In ancient and medieval times southeastern Crimea was
linked
to the Taman Peninsula, across the Kerch Strait.
In the seventh to tenth centuries the *Khazar conquerors had there
their regional center from which they ruled much of Crimea and
confronted the Byzantine coastal base of Cherson, near the present
Sevastopol. The Arab geographers Idrisi and Abu al-fida' call the
Khazar city merely Khazariyya (Khazaria); it was located on the site of
the town Sennaya (formerly Phanagoria), adjacent to the Jewish
settlement mentioned by the Byzantine historian Theophanes, and is
probably identical with the port Samkush (Samkerch) "of the Jews",
referred to by the Arabic geographer Ibn al-Faquih.
Tombstones of Jews and Khazar proselytes have Jewish Hellenistic
ornamentation. Similar Jewish tombstones have been found in Kerch and
Partenit (Parthenita), near Yalta.
The Byzantine chronicler Cedrinus relates that in 1016 a Byzantine
Russian-assisted fleet subdued the region of Khazaria ruled by Georgios
Tzoulos. The Russians were henceforth represented by a prince at
Tmutorokan (Taman), while the Byzantines overlooked most of Crimea from
Cherson. The Khazars served as the prince's military (col. 1103)
auxiliaries in an inner Russian conflict in 1023, and in 1079
intervened with Byzantium in the competition for the princely office;
this led to their massacre in 1083.
From the 9th to 15th centuries the terms "Gazaria" (as the territory)
and "Gazari" (as the population) were understood in Western Europe as
the Taman peninsula and the adjacent changeable Crimean area. Gazaria
is, according to Poliak, the "Kazariyya" mentioned by the 12th-century
Jewish travelers *Benjamin of Tuleda (in connection with the sea trade
with Constantinople and Alexandria), and *Pethahiah of Regensburg (the
Kuban delta).
Isaac *Abrabanel commenting on Genesis 10:3 equates the "Qasari" in
"Ashkenaz" with Gazaria, "below" (south of) the Azov Sea.
In the 16th to 17th centuries "Gazaria" and "Crimea" were synonymous.
This late usage led the Russian historian N.M. Karamzin (1816) to
regard the Crimea as the ultimate domain of the Khazar kings, lost in
1016. After C.M.Y. Fraehn (1822) had dated the downfall of the Caspian
Khazars to 969, the period 969-1016 was left for the duration of the
mythical Crimean kingdom, considered henceforth as Jewish. The early
draft of H. *Graetz's "History of the Jews" (1860) included the history
of the kingdom, written according to the manuscript discoveries claimed
by the Karaite collector A. *Firkovich.
After these claims had been attacked, the story was partly, but
mechanically, deleted: in the late version the Crimean kingdom has a
beginning but no end (Eng. ed., 3 (1949), 222ff.). Graetz's original
coherent description continued to influence Jewish historians, notably
S. *Dubnow (History of the Jews in
Russia and Poland, 1 (1916), 28ff.). Firkovich also is the
source of the idea that the Crimea was the cultural center which
influenced the conversion of the Khazar royalty to Judaism, and that
the Crimean Karaites were descended from ancient Israelite settlers and
Khazar converts.
The rival Karaite historian M. Sultanski (d. 1862) regarded the Crimean
Karaites as purely medieval Jewish immigrants from various parts, while
later Karaite authors consider that they were basically Khazars-Turks.
The Rabbanite *Krimchaks (i.e., "Crimeans") were also sometimes
considered basically Khazars. All these views are founded on the late
meaning of "Gazaria". Foreign Karaites (contrary to Rabbanites) in
Khazar times never claimed that the Khazars had converted to Judaism
and sometimes displayed intense hatred toward them (even expecting them
to fight the Messiah in Erez Israel): the sect was then seeking to
uphold the Palestinian descent of the Jews and Judaism.
[The first Jewish settlements]
In late antiquity and the early medieval period, Crimean Jewish
tradition and records indicate that Jewish settlement existed in the
following units:
THE CHERSONESE (CHERSON).
Jews were living there at least in the 9th to 11th centuries.
Excavations have shown that the locality never recuperated from a
devastation in the (col. 1104)
late tenth century by the Russians (988?), and was ultimately destroyed
at the end of the 14th (by Tamerlane's raiders, 1395/6?). The Hebrew
letter attributed to the Khazar Kind Joseph (long version) lists among
his tributaries in the 950s localities from Samkerch to "Gruzin"
(Cherson?), including Kerch and "Bartenit". The Hebrew "Cambridge
Document" claims that under him "Shurshun" was made tributary by a
counteroffensive against Byzantium after the Byzantine-instigated
Russian raid on Samkerch.
"GOTHIA".
This is the medieval name for the rugged mountains north of Cherson, so
-called after a Teutonic tribe which had remained there following the
great migrations. The city of Partenit was the coastal mart of Gothia;
a Jewish tombstone inscription there mentioned "Her(i)f(r)idil [a
Teutonic name] ha-kohen [priest]."
Around 787 the Khazars placed their garrison in Doros, the capital of
Gothia; the Life of Bishop
John tells of the unsuccessful revolt he instigated. Doros is assumed
despite temporary doubts of archaeologists in 1928-38) to be the
"eagle's nest" later called Mangup (first in Joseph's Letter, as his
tributary). In Ottoman-Tatar times (1475-1783) it increasingly became
an all-Jewish (mostly Karaite) town.
CHUFUT-KALE.
More to the north, a similar fortress town, known under the Tatars as
Qirquer (Quirqer), became referred to more frequently as *Chufut-Kale
("the Jews' Fortress", Heb. Sela
ha-Yehudim). Excavations of 1946-61 showed that it existed on
the site from the 10th or 11th century; a Christian cemetery (late
fifth to early ninth centuries) attests the corresponding beginnings of
the enormous Jewish cemetery. Here, also, it was under Tatar rule that
the town definitely became all Jewish (mostly Karaite); it later had a
Hebrew printing press (1734).
Tatar Times. [caravan point,
Judaizers and Jewish revival]
The conquest of Eastern Europe by the Tatars (Mongols) in 1236-40 made
the Crimea the foremost link for the trans-Asian caravans with the
Mediterranean and Western trade. The Crimean Tatar center was Solkhat
or Qyrym (from which the name "the Crimea" derives); now Stary Krym,
inland near the port of Kaffa (now Feodosiya), the city was made by the
Genoese the center of their activities in Gazaria and on the Black Sea.
The contact of the Crimean Jews with the outside world grew. The Jew
"Khoza Kokos" was Muscovy's representative there in 1472-75. According
to a Russian tradition Jews from Crimea were among the instigators of
the movement of *Judaizers in 15th-century Muscovy. There was a Jewish
revival in Taman, by then ethnically Circassian and ruled by the
Genoese Guizolfis (1419-82), who were considered Jews in modern Jewish
historiography and Christians in Russian. In Muscovite documents the
lasts ruler is called a "Jew" and "Hebrew" as well as "Italian" and
"Circassian"; if so-called after the environment, this significantly
(col. 1105)
emphasizes the Jewish resurgence [[revival]]. However the Tatar decline
commenced early. The Karaites of Poland (western Ukraine) and Lithuania
later considered that they had been deported from Solkhat by Lithuanian
raiders under Witold (Votort), 1392-1430.
[Genoese Crimea - Ottoman Crimea -
conversion to Judaism at the home of Genghis Khan]
The Genoese extended their possessions from Kaffa, and their relatively
mild attitude to other communities (including the Jews) maintained
prosperity in the area despite the shrinking geographical extent of
trade. From around 1420 the Tatar realm [[territory]] of inner Crimea
developed into a split kingdom.
After the Ottomans conquered the Genoese possessions in 1475, they made
the inland Tatars Vassals, used them for raiding Muscovy and
Poland-Lithuania, and protected them from reprisals by a vast belt of
scorched earth (depopulated steppe). This led to a sharp economic
decline and massive emigration. The remaining population was basically
Tatar, which was then a Muslim Turkish-speaking blend under leadership
of Mongol descent. The remaining Krimchaks and Karaites shared their
tongue and many customs, though the two communities differed somewhat
in these respects both from each other as well as from the Tatars.
Their divergent existence is certain from Tatar times only. The Mongol
influence, which made the Karaite anthropological type distinct, must
be attributed to conversions, but of the early Tatar conquerors; a
point unknown to former scholars who disputed the matter. Conversions
to Judaism even took place at the home of Genghis Khan. Only this can
explain the transfer of strategic strongholds to Jews (mainly
Karaites), and the establishment by the Crimean Tatar kings of the
unfortified valley suburb of the "Jews' Fortress" as the new capital
Baghche-Saray (Bakhchisarai, 1454). It officially became a distinct
town only in the 17th century. [...]
Tatar raids into the Ukraine and neighboring districts of
Poland-Lithuania in the 16th centuries, in particular during the Tatar
alliance with *Chmielnicki in 1648, brought into Tatar hands many
Jewish captives, who were usually ransomed by Jews. [...]
Czarist Rule (1783-1917). [Jewish
mass flight to Ottoman territory - Pale of Settlement without
Sevastopol and Yalta - split between Karaite and other Jewish
communities - religious life and writers]
During the Russian conquest of Crimea from the Turks the Jewish
communities suffered severely. Many Jews left for Ottoman territory
[[mostly to Istanbul]]. In 1783, when Crimea was annexed by Russia,
there were 469 Jewish families (Rabbanite and Karaite) living in the
peninsula. [...]
After the Russian annexation of Crimea it was included in the *Pale of
Settlement (1791), although the major centers of development were later
excluded, among them the military port of Sevastopol (1829-59, later
admitting wealthier Jews), and the resort Yalta (1893).
![Czarist-Russian Pale of Settlement with Crimea [1]](EncJud_juden-auf-der-Krim-d/Martin-Gilbert_karte-Pale-of-Settlement-ansiedlungsrayon.gif "Czarist-Russian Pale of Settlement with Crimea [1]")
Czarist-Russian Pale of Settlement with Crimea [1]
Jewish settlers from Russia soon outnumbered the small local
communities (Krimchaks, Karaites). There were 2,837 Jews living in
Crimea in 1847. The Karaites' successful struggle for exemption from
the anti-Jewish czarist legislation (1863), and the abandonment of the
common fortress towns (now ruins) because of the economic revival in
the
lowlands, definitely estranged the Karaite society from the rest of
Jewry.
From 1867 to 1900 Hayyim Hezakiah *Medini officiated as chief rabbi of
Crimean Jewry, and did much to raise the level of the spiritual and
cultural life of the community. Among the few scholars of Crimean Jewry
notable were Abraham *Kirimi, author of Sefat Emet, a commentary on the
torah, in the 14th century, and David *Lekhno, author of Mishkan David, in the 18th century.
In the 19th century the archaeological discoveries of the Karaite
scholar A. Firkovich, part of which were found to be forgeries, caused
a sensation among scholars. There were 28,703 Jews living in Crimea in
1897 (5.1% of the total population) and 5,400 Karaites. The Krimchak
Jews numbered 3,300. The large communities were in *Simferopol (8,951
persons); *Kerch (4,774); Sevastopol (3,910); *Karasubazar (Belogorsk;
3,144, nearly all Krimchaks); *Feodosiya (3,109); and Yevpatoriya
(Eupatoria).
[A.N.P.] (col. 1106)
Encyclopaedia Judaica (1971): Crimea, vol. 5, col. 1105, Karaite
cemetery in Crimea
Soviet Rule [1917-1941]
There were 39,921 Jews living in Crimea in 1926 (6.1% of the total
population), of whom 17,364 lived in Simferopol (19.6%); 5,204 in
Sevastopol; 3,248 in Feodosiya (11.3%); 3,067 in Kerch; and 2,409 in
Yevpatoriya (10.6%). IN the early 1920s a movement for Jewish
agricultural settlement in Crimea began, pioneered by members of
*He-Haluz, who established the hakhsharah
groups [[pioneer training groups]] of Tel Hai (1922), mishmar (1924),
and Ma'yan (1925) in the Dzhankoi area. They were followed by numerous
other Jewish groups. In 1924 the Soviet government initiated a
large-scale settlement project to be implemented through *Komzet with
aid from the "American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee. A number of
Soviet Jewish leaders who were concerned with this project, such as M.
(Y.) *Larin and A. Bragin, regarded it as the nucleus for establishing
a Jewish Soviet Socialist Republic in the Crimea. However, by the
beginning of the 1930s, when it became clear that the unoccupied land
available in Crimea was not adequate for large-scale settlement, the
movement concentrated mainly on promoting settlement in *Birobidzhan.
the state allocated 342,000 hectares of land for Jewish settlement in
Crimea, on which 5,150 families had settled by 1931, including a
commune established by a group of the *Gedud ha-Avodah, who had
returned from Palestine, named Yoya Nova. [...] Some of the settlements
were organized in two Jewish national districts: Freidorf (in 1930) and
Larindorf (1935).>
Details:
Since 1921 the "Soviet" regime had plans to install a Jewish republic
in the Crimea (Lustiger, p. 82).
In August 1924 a State's
Committee for Settlement in the Crimea (Komert, Russian: Komset) is
found under Jewish-Soviet leadership of Juri Larin. Communist state
money and land is given for Jewish Krim colonization, all in all
342'000 ha of land. Money is also collected in the Western countries
for this (Lustiger, p.82, 83).
For this projected Jewish
colony in the Crimea the "American"-Jewish organization Joint is making
much propaganda so even West European Jews arrive in the Crimea of the
"Soviet Union", with the support of the "American" Jew James Rosenberg
from the Joint (Lustiger, p.82)
In February 1925 a special company "Geselschaft fur einordnen jid oif
erd in FSSR" (Geserd, Russ. Oset) is found. It's a half official land
settlement organization for Jews in the Crimea (Lustiger p.82) under
leadership of Juri Larin (Russ. Michail Lurje), stepfather of Bucharin
and high Jewish party official (Lustiger, p. 83). The task of Geserd is
to collect money for Jewish settlements in the Crimea in the whole
world. Offices are opened in the whole world (Lustiger, p.82).
The Jews got land which was cut from the neighbors and this was not
a good atmosphere at all and Antisemitism grew until WW II: See:
Yehuda
Bauer: A History of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee
1929-1939, chapter II:
<Under Rosen's direction, 5,646 families were settled between 1924
and
1928, some in the Ukraine, some in the Crimea. [...]
The head of COMZET was a non-Jewish vice-premier of the Russian Soviet
Socialist Republic, Peter Smidovich, a man who was very much interested
in the success of the venture. He was influential in obtaining the
government's agreement to the Jewish settlement of a large tract of
land in the Crimea; as much as one million acres were set aside for use
by Jewish settlers. [...] It is an indubitable fact that the
settlements in the Crimea (Bauer, p.60)
founded by the Agro-Joint included a number of Zionist colonies settled
by people who saw the Crimea as a stepping-stone on the road to
Palestine. There were some 13 of these with Hebrew names, some of them
- like Tel Chai (there were two separate settlements by that name),
Mishmar, Khaklai, Avoda, Kheruth, Maaian, Kadimah - having distinct
Palestine-centered connotations.
In 1928 there were 112 Agro-Joint colonies in the Ukraine and 105 in
the Crimea. In addition to these, Agro-Joint also helped other colonies
with occasional loans or by other means.> (Bauer, p.61)
In 1927/1928 the Soviet Regime used the Jews for tactical reasons:
<At this juncture Russia came forward with the idea of a vast
expansion
of the Jewish colonization scheme and offered the Jews large tracts of
land, especially in the Crimea. In 1927/8 it was obviously interested
in transforming the Jewish population into a productive and loyal
force. It also needed grain, and the establishment and encouragement of
state farms (
sovkhozy), which
were set up on state lands, had so far not been very successful.
Moreover, Soviet Russia needed American dollars very badly, and an
arrangement with JDC meant not only a contribution to the solution of
the pressing Jewish problem, but also an influx of both hard currency
and valuable machinery, of which the Soviets were very short.>
(Bauer, p.62)
<In 1929 79 new groups were settled in the Crimea and three
more in the Ukraine. The total number of families settled was
2,276.> (Bauer, p.69)
There were tactical jail punishments against Jews in Crimea to show to
the non-Jews:
<The situation looked very grim nevertheless. Boris Smolar, the
Jewish
Telegraphic Agency (JTA) journalist who happened to be in Russia at
that time, cabled on November 24, 1929, that "notwithstanding their
loyalty", four of the Jewish colonists in the Crimea
were nevertheless arrested and
sentenced to three years' jail each [and] their property confiscated,
leaving only the property mortgaged by the Agro-Joint which according
to
law cannot be confiscated. ... The local population assured me (that)
even government officials are aware that (the) arrested submitted all
(the surplus grain) they could. However, arrest was made with (the)
purpose of showing neighboring non-Jewish peasants that also Jews are
arrested.> (Bauer, p.71)
German and Tartar settlers had to leave land to the Jews in Crimea:
<Investment for the establishment of colonies was not interrupted.
According to one set of JDC figures,
-- in 1929, 2,276 families were settled;
-- in 1930, 2,250;
-- by the end of 1930, it was said that some 12,100 families had been
settled by the Agro-Joint on its colonies in the Ukraine and in the
Crimea.
It was claimed that 289 colonies had been founded. A Jewish autonomous
region was established near Krivoi Rog around the center of
Kalinindorf.
German and Tartar settlers in the
Crimea had been moved "voluntarily"
to allow for close Jewish settlement.> (Bauer, p.75)
The set up of the Jewish settlements happened by the "American"
Agrojoint. Yiddish became the official language in the Jewish
settlements (Lustiger, p.82). Tatar, Russian and Ukraine parts of the
population began to resist because the Jews were said having the most
fertile land. Add to this Crimea was seen to be too little for a
republic of all Russian Jews and any Jewish republic in the Crimea
would have no future, so (Lustiger, p.83).
<Five autonomous Jewish districts (p. 103) were founded (Freidorf in
February 1931, Stalindorf in June 1930,
Kalinindorf in March 1937, New Zlatopol in 1929, and Larindorf in
January 1935).> (p.104)
With the Biro-Bidjan project since 1928 the Crimea project is
downgraded and no state's money is given any more for the Jewish Crimea
project (Lustiger, p. 83).
Details can be seen again in the
book of Yehuda Bauer and Lustiger. During 1930-1931 many Jews left
Crimean Jewish collectives to work in the new industries:
The 86 common farms were converted into kolkhozes and a big part of the
Jewish kind of living is made impossible by this (Lustiger, p. 83).
<During
collectivization, some Jewish farmers in the Crimea tended to run away
because of the collectivization drive. Rosen himself stated that "400
families had run away from the colonies during the drive."
Zionist colonies had their Hebrew names changed, and the Communists
instituted strict political control. "Great numbers of Jewish settlers
who were brought during last month from shtetlach into colonies to join
collectives are returning home", cabled Smolar from Moscow in April
[1930]. They were saying that recent Soviet decrees opened wider
possibilities for them in shtetlach than in collective colonies. This
resulted in a lack of laborers on the farms and endangered the
existence of many Jewish collectives, which had to go to the expense of
hiring labor. Even when they arrived, new Jewish settlers didn't remain
on the collectives.> (Bauer, p.82)
<In 1931 1,800 families were settled, about 50 % of the number
originally planned; the Jews had become the third largest group in the
Crimea.> (Bauer, p.83)
<
Then in 1932/3 another famine struck the Soviet Union. > (Bauer,
p.83)
In the same year 1932 the boss of Geserd Juri Larin dies and the Jewish
settlement movement in the Crimea stops (Lustiger, p.83).
Encyclopaedia Judaica (1971): Crimea, vol. 5, col. 1107, Jewish
winegrowers in Crimea, 1930 approx.
<In 1932-34, work [[of the Joint]] was concentrated in the Crimea.
Government supervision
in all respects except the purely agroeconomic one was complete. Some
of the assets of the Agro-Joint were not, it s true, handed over:
for example, the Jankoy tractor station and repair shop, buildings in
Simferopol and Moscow, supplies, and commodities.> (Bauer, p.90)
<Rosen
claimed that in 1933 only 1,400 families were settled in the Crimea,
but even this looked rather doubtful.> (Bauer, p.89)
<After 1934 no more claims are made of families settling on
land in the Crimea, the Ukraine, or White Russia. JDC claimed that
altogether 14,036 families had been settled in its (Bauer, p.83)
colonies by 1934.> (Bauer, p.84)
<Jews now did not have to go to the Crimea in order to become
small-scale farmers on the outskirts of villages and towns, but could
do so wherever they lived. The Jewish economic position continued to
improve, and the Agro-Joint and its operations seemed to be more and
more superfluous.> (Bauer, p.89)
<
In about 1934 a consolidation of the tracts settled by the Jewish
settlers in the Crimea took place. Villages were united under a common
administration.> (Bauer, p.103)
<Even after the
termination of its actual settlement work in 1934, the Agro-Joint still
maintained a large staff of experts who, with income from the existing
assets and some very small sums in dollars, continued to advise the
settlements about their agricultural production. The Jankoy station was
one of the prototypes of the MTS tractor stations that were to provide
tractor work for the kolkhozy later on. In other respects too, such as
well-drilling and horticulture, Agro-Joint help was still
significant.> (Bauer, p.90)
In 1935 the "Soviet" government planned more Jewish settlers in Crimea
and Biro-Bijan:
<The Soviet proposal was that 1,000 Jewish families and 500 single
people would be settled, some in Biro-Bidjan, some in the Crimea (100
families) and the Ukraine, in both agriculture and industry. The
Agro-Joint would provide the money to transport them to the Russian
border and then supervise the agricultural settlement in the Crimea and
in Biro-Bidjan.> (Bauer, p. 93)
[[All in all it can be admitted that German and Tartar settlers in
Crimea did not like the Jewish colonies in Crimea very much because
they had to give land to them, because they knew that the Jewish
settlements were only for tactical reasons to the advantage of the
"Soviet" regime and they just waited for a moment to take revenge. So
these Jews there were in a latent danger and nobody worried about this
but the Jewish "organizations" considered the Crimean settlements as a
training for the founding of racist Herzl Israel against the Arabs]].
<By 1938 there were 86 Jewish kolkhozes in Crimea cultivating an
area of 158,850 hectares with 20,000 inhabitants (one-third of the
total number of Jews in Crimea).> (col. 1107)
1939 are living 85,000 Jews in
Crimea, inclusive 7,000 Krimchaks and 5,000 Karaites, a Jewish splinter
group (Lustiger, p.174).
Before NS German occupation [[in 1941]] Stalin let deport the German
friendly elements from Crimea [[in 1940-1941]].
(In: Martin Gilbert: Soviet History Atlas 1972, map 45)
[Holocaust 1941-1942: Destruction
of the Jewish settlements in the Crimea]
With the German occupation in 1941 the Jewish settlement and colonies
in the Crimea were annihilated. The Nazis organized the systematic
liquidation of the Ashkenazi (col. 1107)
Jews and Krimchaks, but did not include the Karaites. According to a
provisional report from the beginning of 1942, 20,149 Jews from western
Crimea alone had already been "liquidated". On April 16, 1942, Crimea
was declared Judenrein.
Map of Holocaust
massacres in the Crimea 1941-1942 [2]
Almost all Jews in Crimea are
murdered in July 1941 by Einsatzgruppe D. The Karaites are declared
non-Jews by the Hitler regime and are not persecuted (Lustiger, p.174).
The Tatars in Crimea were collaborating with the NS regime to
annihilate the Jews in Crimea (Lustiger, p.175).
In July 1942 the NS regime declares the Crimea Tatars as an "allied
people". But the NS regime has further plans to settle Germans from
Romania and South Tyrol there to form a German "Gibraltar" there with
"Goths", to form another "Goths land", a "German spa to reign over the
Black Sea. Hitler dreams of a motorway down to Crimea to reach it
within 2 days (Lustiger, p.174).
In the second half of 1943 Joint officials from Jewish organizations,
James Rosenberg (Joint) and Louis Levine (Jewish Russian War Relief),
suggest the "revival" of the Crimea project (Lustiger, p.176).
At the end of December 1943 the Russian Jewish agents from the Jewish
anti-Fascist Committee (JAFK) Micho'els and Fefer declare officially
that there would be founded another Jewish Republic in the Crimea, and
this fantasy is wandering through the Jewish press in the whole world
until 1946 (p.177-178). This illusion has it's base on the factors
-- that Jewish population is extremely poor at this time
-- that all Jewish colonies are eliminated at this time
-- that Jewish partisans and soldiers give their lives in the Red Army
-- that there could be organized easily massive aid of goods and money
from abroad (p.176).
On 24 February 1944 the Jewish anti-Fascist Committee (JAFK) under
Micho'els, Epstein and Fefer publishes a Crimea memorandum (Lustiger,
p.177-178) with the indication that 1.5 mio. Jews were murdered on the
former German occupied territories (Lustiger, 180). The government for
a Jewish Crimean republic are already distributed:
-- Micho'els should be the
president of the Jewish Republic
-- Epstein should be head of the government
-- Schimeliowitsh should be health minister
-- Kwitko should be education minister
-- Trainin should be justice minister
-- Jusefowitsh should be boss of the labor unions
-- Markish should be head of the writer's union (Lustiger, p.179).
But Stalin estimates the new Jewish Crimea project as a game of
"American" [[racist]] Zionists to give the base for an "American"
invasion of Russia. So, Stalin rejects the project (Lustiger, p.179).
On 7 May 1944 Crimea is occupied by communist Red Army forces when
Sevastopol falls (Lustiger, p.175).
Stalin has other actions: In March 1944 the 180,000 Crimean
Tatars are
collectively deported because of collaboration with the Third Reich
(Lustiger, p.175), resp. from 10 to 30 May 1944 200,000 Crimea Tatar
inhabitants are deported to Kazakhstan, within 40,000 children. The
reason is that 20,000 Tatars had deserted and would fight in the Tatar
legion within the Wehrmacht. Ukrainians and Russian people is not
suffering deportation even if Ukrainians and Russian deserters are
fighting in the Wehrmacht (Lustiger, p.175).
In the middle of 1944 Kaganowitsh from the "Soviet" regime rejects the
Jewish Crimea plan which is an invention of actors and poets (Lustiger,
p.178).
In May 1945 the Jewish anti-Fascist Committee (JAFK) is still waiting
for an agreement with the "Soviet" regime with a future Jewish Crimean
Republic (Lustiger, p.178).
In the beginning of 1949 the "Soviet" regime arrests members of the
Jewish anti-Fascist Committee above all because of the Crimea Project
(Lustiger, p.180).
In 1952 there is the
process against the protagonists of the Jewish Crimea project
(Lustiger, p.193). On 28 June 1952 Fefer avows the espionage activity
for the "USA" and he had misused the confidence of Western
personalities (Lustiger, p.151). The process ends with death sentences
for the protagonists of the Crimea project of 1944 (Lustiger, p.179).
But some Jews from the
central "Soviet Union" seem to have been allowed to settle in the
Crimea after 1945:
<After the war Jewish settlement in Crimea was renewed, and in 1959,
the Jewish population numbered 26,374 (2.2% of the total population),
according to the official census, of whom 11,200 lived in Simferopol
(6%) and 3,100 in Sevastopol.
In 1970 the Jewish population of Crimea was concentrated in Simferopol,
with an estimated Jewish population of 15,000; Sevastopol, where there
was one small synagogue in the Jewish cemetery; Yevpatoria, with an
estimated Jewish population of 8-10,000; and in smaller communities,
e.g., Kerch, Yalta, and Feodosia.
[Y.S.]
Bibliography
-- A. Harkavy: Altjuedische Denkmaeler aus der Krim (1876)
-- O. Lerner: Yevrei v novorossiyskom kraye (1901)
-- A.N. Poliak: Kazariyyah (Heb., 1942)
-- J. Golde: Di Yidishe Erdarbeter in Krim (1932)
-- B. Nevelshtein: Freydorfskiy Yevreyskiy Natsionalny Rayon (1934)
-- B. West (ed.): Be-Hevlei Kelayah (1963), 138-45> (col. 1108)
|
Sources
|
|
Encyclopaedia Judaica (1971): Crimea, vol. 5, col. 1103-1104
|
Encyclopaedia Judaica (1971): Crimea, vol. 5, col. 1105-1106
|
Encyclopaedia Judaica (1971): Crimea, vol. 5, col. 1107-1108
|
