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Jews from the USSR write abroad (Letters and Diaries of World War II as a Historical Source)
Authors: Leonid L. Smilovitsky
Number of views: 383
This article is devoted to the little-studied topic of the correspondence abroad of Jews from the Soviet Union during the Great Patriotic War. It examines the renewal of mail correspondence of the Jewish families with the outside world, which – due to dramatic internal political changes in the USSR during the 1930s – had ceased until the summer of 1941. The author provides an analysis of Jewish letters from the USSR to the United States, Palestine, South Africa, Argentina, and Mexico. This correspondence offers a window into a number of different aspects of the Jews’ experiences of the period: solidarity with the Red Army, the participation of Soviet Jews in the struggle against Nazism on the fronts of the war, Zionism, and Yiddish from the USSR. Particular attention is paid to such themes as the Holocaust, the search for relatives and the help of the Red Army, aid sent from Palestine, life after evacuation, and observance of the Jewish tradition. The letters of Jews from the Soviet Union abroad during 1941-1945 are an extraordinary phenomenon in the history of private military correspondence. The sympathy and attention demonstrated by tens of thousands of people from abroad helped the USSR overcome its international isolation and provided moral and material assistance, which significantly contributed to the ultimate victory of Soviet weapons over a common enemy.
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