A Story About a Husband in a Camp and a Residence Permit in Birobidzhan. The Letters of Nina (Nehama) Sheinfeld to the Soviet Authorities (1939–1941)

Abstract

The article is dedicated to the analysis of a corpus of letters written by N. Sheinfeld in 1939–1941 to the Soviet procuracy and to the USSR authorities. The source is deposited in the State Archive of the Jewish Autonomous Region (a copy is in the CAHJP in Jerusalem). In the letters, Sheinfeld sought justice for her arrested husband Iosif Forer, as well as her own rehabilitation. The case includes 18 letters from Sheinfeld, her father’s letter to the USSR military prosecutor, a letter from her husband Iosif. Forer to his family, internal prosecutorial correspondence, and documents about the revision of Forer’s case. The corpus of letters is analysed within the framework of the methodology of “soviet subjectivity” (I. Halfin, I. Hellbeck). It also considers Sheinfeld’s construction of her husband’s and her own biographies, as well as her construction of a system of evidence in defence of Forer.