CREES Brown Bag. “Four Angles of Vision on the Holocaust in the Soviet Union: Germans, ‘Collaborators,’ Jews, and the Soviet Government.”

Zvi Gitelman, Preston R. Tisch Professor of Judaic Studies and professor of political science, U-M. Sponsor: CREES.

Not surprisingly, the Holocaust in the Soviet Union was viewed differently by the Nazis, their local collaborators, Soviet Jews, and the Soviet government. Each of them had motivations and perspectives unique to the USSR, not replicated in other German-occupied countries. This talk will touch briefly on the Nazi and collaborator perspectives, but focus on the reactions of Soviet Jewish combatants and the Soviet government to the systematic murder of 2.5 million Jews. I will discuss the changing policies of the Soviet government, as reflected in the press, the reaction to these changes by Jews serving in the military, and the long-term consequences of each. The inconsistencies of Soviet policy cast some light on the nature of government controls during World War Two.