Selected text
When in 1948 a new wave of repressions started in the USSR, the campaign against cosmopolitans [40], we did not hear much about that. How could we have known what was happening in Moscow? We learned from the papers about such events as the death of Mikhoels [41], cosmopolitan processes, the liquidation of the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee [42] and we felt pretty indifferent and aloof as we had never heard about those people before.
I think there was no cosmopolitan campaign in Estonia as there were very few Jews there. The majority of the indigenous Jews of Estonia perished during the war. Of course, we believed things written in the papers. The articles were not written by unknown people, but by such famous people as Ilia Erenburg [43] and other famous Jewish writers and journalists. We had no grounds to question their articles.
Then, during the Doctors’ Plot’ [44], we started unofficial talks about the eviction of Jews. Of course, those talks were not official. My brother Meishe asked me if I was drying rusks. [Editor’s note: there is a phrase in the Russian language that roughly translates as ‘dry rusks,’ meaning to get ready for repressions from the government. The phrase implies that rusks would be handy in prison.]. I did not get his hint and he said that Jews would be exiled soon. I said that I could not believe that it would happen in Estonia. Until now it is not clear whether there was such an order or not. I read a lot of literature on that issue and found no certain answer. They say that the trains were ready to deport the Jewish population, but I do not know if that was true.
I think there was no cosmopolitan campaign in Estonia as there were very few Jews there. The majority of the indigenous Jews of Estonia perished during the war. Of course, we believed things written in the papers. The articles were not written by unknown people, but by such famous people as Ilia Erenburg [43] and other famous Jewish writers and journalists. We had no grounds to question their articles.
Then, during the Doctors’ Plot’ [44], we started unofficial talks about the eviction of Jews. Of course, those talks were not official. My brother Meishe asked me if I was drying rusks. [Editor’s note: there is a phrase in the Russian language that roughly translates as ‘dry rusks,’ meaning to get ready for repressions from the government. The phrase implies that rusks would be handy in prison.]. I did not get his hint and he said that Jews would be exiled soon. I said that I could not believe that it would happen in Estonia. Until now it is not clear whether there was such an order or not. I read a lot of literature on that issue and found no certain answer. They say that the trains were ready to deport the Jewish population, but I do not know if that was true.
Year
1953
Location
Talinn
Estonia
Interview
Isaac Serman