Jews in the Red Army

Key Historical Questions

• Methods of Struggle: What methods of struggle could the Jews of the Soviet Union use?
  
  
• Motivations: What motivated Jews to join the struggle?
  
  
• Challenges: What challenges did the different fighters face?
  
  

Jewish Struggle

Photo: Vladimir Gelfand, Red Army officer

“For the entire Soviet people, and especially for the Jewish people, a difficult hour has come. The Nazis are raising their hand against our people; they want to enslave them and, even worse, wipe them from the face of the earth. But they will not succeed. The Jewish people will yet show Hitler where justice lies and will avenge the suffering of its sons and daughters. With my own hands, as a son of the Jewish people, I am fighting the enemy with determination and courage.”

— Mordechai Altshuler, “Encounters of Jewish Fighters in the Red Army with the Holocaust,” pp. 72–79.

Excerpts from the Diary of Vladimir Gelfand

Dnipropetrovsk — October 23, 1941

“In the streets and in the park, in the bread shop and in the queue for kerosene — whispers can be heard everywhere. Quiet whispers, terrible, cheerful, but hateful. They are talking about Jews. For now they speak timidly, glancing around.

Jews are thieves. One Jewish woman stole this and that. Jews have money. One woman turned out to have 50,000, but she complained about her fate and said she had nothing to wear and no shoes. One Jew has even more money, yet he considers himself unfortunate. Jews do not like to work. Jews do not want to serve in the Red Army. Jews live without residence registration. The Jews have climbed onto their heads. In short, Jews are the cause of every misfortune. I have to hear all this more than once — my appearance and speech do not reveal that I am Jewish.

I love the Russian language. I probably love it more than the Jewish language, since I am almost unfamiliar with the latter. I do not divide people by nationality. A good person of any nation or race is always dear and pleasant to me, while a bad person is hateful. But I notice that here, in the North Caucasus, antisemitism is a mass phenomenon. To some extent the Jews themselves are also to blame, having in most cases aroused the envy of many local residents.”

March 13, 1943

“These stories about mass executions of completely innocent Jews make me think with even greater anxiety about my dear relatives from Essentuki and about their fate. If only I could go there and learn something — after all, from Salsk to Mineralnye Vody is hardly any distance. I will ask the commandant at the transit point for permission to go to Essentuki, but I am unlikely to succeed.

As for the Germans, I have made up my mind forever: there are no enemies more evil or deadly to me than the Germans. Until the grave, until my last breath, in the rear and at the front, I will serve my Motherland and my government, which has guaranteed me equal rights as a Jew. I will never become like those Ukrainians who betrayed the Motherland, crossed over to the enemy camp, and now serve them. They clean their boots and serve them, while the Germans beat them in their Judas-like dog faces.”