Language:
English
Year of publication:
2010
Titel der Quelle:
Jahrbuch für Antisemitismusforschung
Angaben zur Quelle:
19 (2010) 234-268
Keywords:
Stalin, Joseph,
;
Antisemitism
;
Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)
Abstract:
Connects Stalin's anti-Jewish measures to his minority politics and fight against the U.S. in the Cold War. Traces the gradual removal of Jews from leading party positions in the 1930s, the confining of the fight against German antisemitism to the Jews and the Jewish Antifascist Committee (JAC) from 1941 on, the postwar persecution of JAC leaders, the transformation of the campaign against "cosmopolitanism" from anti-Western to anti-Jewish, the conspiracy accusations against Jewish doctors and "Zionists" in the early 1950s, and supposed plans by Stalin to deport the Jews. Contends that Stalin's worldview was based on phobias of enemies and conspiracies, not on antisemitism. He felt threatened by ethnic diversity, including the Jews. Compares the postwar persecution of the Jews with the persecution of other monorities during the Great Purge. Argues that between 1948-53 the Jews were viewed as "fifth columnists" acting on behalf of the U.S., just as the Germans had been viewed as "fifth columnists" between 1937-38. However, the Great Purge was totally different, in scope and in quality, from the postwar persecution of the Jews. The Great Purge claimed 250,000 casualties, the anti-Jewish persecutions less than 100. The pre-war terror against minorities did not include a purge of party cadres and, more importanly, only the anti-Jewish persecutions were accompanied by massive propaganda. The aim was to intimidate, and not necessarily liquidate, the Jewish intelligentsia. The "revealing" of an American-Jewish spy network was also intended as a message to the U.S. For Stalin, "Zionism" denoted foreign meddling in Soviet Affairs, rather than Jewish efforts to create a homeland. Concludes that Stalin's view of the enemy was universal rather than antisemitic, and that the postwar persecutions caused antisemitism rather than being a result of it.
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