Language:
German
Year of publication:
2007
Titel der Quelle:
Jahrbuch des Simon-Dubnow-Instituts
Angaben zur Quelle:
6 (2007) 339-359
Keywords:
Dubnow, Simon,
;
Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)
;
Jews
Abstract:
Discusses a letter written by Dubnow in March 1941, in Riga, where he had escaped to from Germany in 1933, to the librarian Josef Meisl in Palestine. The letter provides a glimpse of the political situation in Latvia under Soviet rule and of Dubnow's state of mind eight months before his murder by the Germans, together with 10,000 other Jews, in the nearby Rumbula forest. In this letter, Dubnow complains about his isolation and expresses fears that there will be no exit for him as a Jew from the Soviet-occupied Baltic state. For fear of censorship and retribution, he denounces Stalin's persecution of the Jews in hidden terms. He also analyzes the unfolding of the war and its consequences for the Jews. Germany's military successes led Dubnow to believe in the possibility of a safe haven for the Jews only outside Europe, in the U.S. and Palestine. He also expresses fear for the safety of his private archive and library, which he had managed to bring to Riga. With the German occupation some months later, his private archive did in fact disappear, probably confiscated by the Nazis.
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