Night of the Murdered Poets

On August 12, 1952, fifteen Yiddish artists, writers, and poets were falsely charged with capital offenses. Thirteen of them were murdered by Joseph Stalin and his executioners in the Lubvanka Prison basement in Moscow, Russia. This night of massacre is known as the Night of the Murdered Poets.

Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee

The threat of an attack on Soviet Russia by Nazi Germany catalyzed the start of the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee (JAC), a committee reaching out to Jews worldwide to support the Soviet war effort against Nazi Germany. The head of the Committee was Solomon Mikhoels, who was a Yiddish actor and director. Other members of the committee were prominent Yiddish literary figures, actors, and doctors. They all wanted to help influence Jews, through their writing, to support Russia. The group also used radio broadcasts from Russia t different countries, to promote their cause. In 1943, Mikhoels and the vice chairman of the Anti-Fascist Committee, Itzik Fefer, traveled to the U.S. and England to help raise money. As Nazi Germany secured its stronghold in Soviet Russia, Jewish culture and identity was destroyed. The last influence left in Russia, were the Yiddish figures in the JAC, and soon the initial purpose for the committee was changed. The committee felt it had a duty to change priorities, and focus on the rebuilding of Jewish communities, farms,culture, and identity. Not everyone agreed with the direction things were headed in and many thought the JAC was “intervening in matters in which it should not interfere.” The members of the JAC would later realize that these were valid worries.

Joseph Stalin and the Defendants

Joseph Stalin(1878-1953) was the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union’s Central Committee. Stalin’s Anti-Semitism was unrestrained, and as a result, fifteen Jewish leaders were murdered under false pretenses. The defendants who were arrested in September of 1948 and June 1949 were Peretz Markish , David Hofshtein, Itzik Fefer, Leib Kvitko, David Bergelson, Solomon Lozozsky, Boris Shimeliovich, Lina Shtern, Benjamin Zuskin, Joseph Yuzefovich, Leon Talmy , Llya Vatenberg, Chaika Ostrovskaya, Emilia Teumin, and Solomon Bregman. All were falsely accused of espionage and treason as well as many other crimes. They were tortured, beaten, and isolated for 3 years. after their arrests. There were five Yiddish writers among these defendants, all of whom were a part of the Jewish Anti- Fascist Committee. One of the Yiddish poets was Peretz Markish(1895-1952) who was born in Polnoe, Volhynia. In 1917 Markish’s first Yiddish poems were published. He helped found the School of Writers, a Yiddish literary school in Soviet Russia. His last work was March of Generations. Another Yiddish writer was David Hofshtein (1889-1952) who was born in the Ukraine. In 1917 he wrote his first poem in Yiddish. Itzik Fefer was another Yiddish poet (1900-1952) who was born in Spole. After his arrest, his fellow prisoners found out he was an informer for the Ministry of Internal Affairs. He had betrayed the JAC. This did not secure his freedom; however, and he was killed with the other defendants. Leib Kvitko (1890-1952) was born in the Ukranian Shtetl. He was a Yiddish poet, and children’s writer. The last Yiddish writer was David Bergelson (1884-1952). He was born in the Ukraine, and was a distinguished novelist. Though Solomon Mikhoels wasn’t arrested he was ordered to be murdered by Stalin in 1948. Lina Shtern, who was a biochemist, physiologist, and humanist, was the only one to survive. She was exiled for 5 years, but when Stalin died, she was able to return to her home and continue her studies.

See also

• Stalinism and antisemitism
• Solomon Mikhoels

External links

• 50 Years After The Night of the Murdered Poets By Shai Franklin
• 50th anniversary of the Night of the Murdered Poets National Conference on Soviet Jewry (NCSJ) August 12, 2002, Letter from President Bush, links
• Stalin's Secret Pogrom: The Postwar Inquisition of the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee (introduction) by Joshua Rubenstein
• Seven-fold Betrayal: The Murder of Soviet Yiddish by Joseph Sherman
• Unknown History, Unheroic Martyrs by Jonathan Tobin