The Gordian Knot of Justice: Prosecuting Jewish Holocaust Survivors in Stalinist Courts for "Collaboration" with the Enemy

Abstract

The Gordian Knot of JusticeProsecuting Jewish Holocaust Survivors in Stalinist Courts for "Collaboration" with the Enemy Diana Dumitru (bio) As World War II drew to an end, a determined Soviet regime combed previously occupied territories, searching for various types of "fascist collaborators" as it reestablished its grip on a profoundly shaken society. This article focuses on one of the most unexpected groups caught in this massive punitive act: Jewish survivors of the Holocaust. The topic of Jewish "collaboration" during World War II has been extremely sensitive, and it took decades for researchers to feel comfortable approaching it. Western historiography dealt with the issue primarily by treading along the lines of Lawrence Langer's analytical model of "choiceless choices" and Primo Levi's call not to pass judgment on the Jews who served as police officers, heads of ghettos and camps, or Sonderkommando members.1 While there has been no sign of a satisfactory resolution to the enormous tension between the impossibility and inevitability of judging these victims, knowledge about the topic [End Page 729] has accumulated.2 Recently, Evgeny Finkel opened a new avenue of research by demonstrating that the prewar political regimes under which Jews lived shaped the patterns of Jewish leaders' behavior and determined the type of survival strategies they chose.3 Aside from Finkel's work, and despite a growing interest in the broader issue of collaboration in the Soviet territories, the topic of Jewish "collaboration" in the region has received relatively little scholarly attention.4 [End Page 730] Wolfgang Schneider's article on the trial of two Jewish ghetto officials from Shargorod and Vadim Altskan's case study of a Zhmerinka ghetto's leader are the only other publications on the topic, while both Tanja Penter and Pavel Polian briefly mention Jewish trials and collaboration.5 One additional study was recently published, with historians examining the trials of Jews accused of collaboration with the Nazis in Lithuania.6 Schneider and Altskan agree with scholarship on Soviet postwar trials, emphasizing the failure of authorities to account for the complexities surrounding the phenomenon of "collaboration." Altskan stresses that "the Soviet authorities were unwilling to consider the complexity of the circumstances surrounding the survival of the ghetto's inmates."7 However, Schneider took a new turn by arguing that "judicial lenience" was possible in a Soviet court, when networks of high-placed individuals supported a Jewish defendant.8 Importantly, Schneider argues that a defendant's wartime violence was a factor that weighed heavily on the severity of punishment dictated by the courts.9 This study uses the arrest dossiers of 11 Jews tried in the Moldavian SSR (MSSR) for alleged collaboration with the Romanian occupational authorities.10 [End Page 731] The Moldovan sample allows for insights into the specificities of the courts' functioning in a new Soviet territory, especially by revealing the prewar legacies that came into play during the trials. The defendants' similar structural circumstances during the Holocaust (Romanian as opposed to German occupation) and their investigation and trial within the MSSR's court system provides for a more coherent understanding of their actions and strategies displayed both during and after the war. All defendants held administrative positions in camps or ghettos within Transnistria between 1941 and 1944 and were tried by Military Tribunals in 1944–48, when thousands of survivors were still present and ready to testify. It appears that suspects were tried inside the republic of their official residence, even if the alleged crime was committed elsewhere.11 The 11 cases represent a fraction of the total collection titled "War Crimes Investigation and Trial Records from the Republic of Moldova," available in copies at the US Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM). The collection comprises over 300 dossiers originating from the former KGB archive of the MSSR and pertains to defendants tried under the accusation of collaboration.12 Unfortunately, the original files, inherited by the archive of the Information and Security Services of the Republic of Moldova, are closed to historians. Hence the number of cases tried in the MSSR and the proportion of Jews among the defendants remains unknown.13 This limitation raises questions about the representativeness of the current sample, yet the small numbers of...