Tag #145343 - Interview #83224 (Ella Perlman)

Routinely anti-Semitism was particularly strong shortly before Stalin died, during the period of the Doctors’ Plot [30]. It was clear that this campaign was directed against Jews. There were rumors that Jewish people were to be deported to Birobidzhan [31] in Siberia. This might have been the case, if Stalin had not died in March 1953. Many people cried after him, but for the most part they were those who had come from the Soviet Union. Latvian people weren’t so emotional about it. Of course, they didn’t express how they actually felt about this, but in truth, neither my relatives, nor I felt any sorrow. We remembered life in Latvia before its annexation to the USSR, and the comparison was not in favor of the Soviet regime.