Language:
English
Year of publication:
1999
Titel der Quelle:
Holocaust and Genocide Studies
Angaben zur Quelle:
13,3 (1999) 355-382
Keywords:
Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) Influence
;
Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) Influence
;
Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) Personal narratives
;
Stereotypes (Social psychology)
;
Antisemitism
;
Jews Public opinion
;
Holocaust survivors
;
Russians Attitudes
;
Belarusians
Abstract:
A study based on interviews conducted in 1985-87 with Jewish survivors and non-Jewish (Belorussian or Russian) eyewitnesses of the Holocaust in the areas which belonged to the USSR before 1939 (not those annexed in 1939-40). The accounts of the non-Jewish witnesses reflect many negative stereotypes of Jews which were widespread in the area both before the war and at the time of the interviews, the most characteristic being that of the cowardly and passive Jew. The stereotypes influenced, also, the accounts of some of the Jewish survivors. For the non-Jews, the stereotypes help not only to explain the "baffling" behavior of Jews in extreme situations, but also to justify their own behavior towards the Jews. Many of the Jewish survivors are prejudiced against the non-Jews. The narratives show that despite twenty years of prewar Soviet indoctrination, and the postwar mythos of brotherhood during the Great Patriotic War, the witnesses, both Jewish and non-Jewish, are less influenced by the postwar Soviet mythos than would have been expected.
DOI:
10.1093/hgs/13.3.355
URL:
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