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Re: Jews lived better than Russians in the Soviet concentration camps
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walt tonne
May 20, 2012, 3:36:46 PM5/20/12
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On May 19, 10:18 pm, "sunray22b" <m...@nowhere.com> wrote:
> From Alexander Solzhenitsyn's great book, 200 Years Together. It is athttp://200yearstogether.wordpress.com/2010/10/15/while Professor
> MacDonald's review is athttp://theoccidentalobserver.net/tooblog/?p=2244&cpage=1Another is In the
> camps of GULag - http://www.ethnopoliticsonline.com/archives/ais/ais/
> chapter20.html
>
> Kevin MacDonald: Translation of Solzhenitsyn's "In the Camps of GULag" -
> Chapter 20 of "200 Years Together"
> Kevin MacDonald: Alexandr Solzhenitsyn's important 200 Years Together has
> unfortunately not been translated into English. However, this process is now
> beginning with the posting of Chapter 20, "In the Camps of GULag." [http://www.ethnopoliticsonline.com/archives/ais/ais%20chapter20.html] As
> the title suggests, the chapter discusses the role of Jews in the Gulag.
> There are several important themes.
>
> Despite apologetic claims by Jews, in fact Jews lived better in the camps.
> Obviously, it's a touchy subject-just like everything else about the role of
> Jews in the Soviet Union.
>
> If I wished to generalize and state that the life of Jews in camps was
> especially difficult, then I would be allowed to do so and wouldn't be
> peppered with admonitions for unjust ethnic generalizations. But in the
> camps, where I was imprisoned, it was the other way around - the life of
> Jews, to the extent of possible generalization, was easier.
>
> Jews also looked out for each other-yet another example of ethnic
> networking. Free Jews were often in positions of authority and they favored
> their own people. For example:
>
> A Lett Ane Bernstein, one of my witnesses from Archipelago, thinks that he
> managed to survive in the camps only because in times of hardship he asked
> Jews for help and that the Jews, judging by his last name and nimble
> manners, mistook him for their tribesman - and always provided assistance.
> He says that in all his camps Jews always constituted the upper crust and
> that the most important free employees were also Jews (Shulman - head of
> special department, Greenberg - head of camp station, Kegels - chief
> mechanic of the factory), and, according to his recollections, they also
> preferred to select Jewish inmates to staff their units.
>
> The few Jews who did share in the common labor did so out of principle-in
> order to avoid the stereotype of Jews who did not work. They were rewarded
> for their efforts by being rejected by "both sides" - indicating that
> everyone in the camps was aware of the ethnic divide-just as American
> prisons are organized along ethnic fault lines. But Solzhenitsyn
> optimistically describes Jews who countered the common tendencies: "I try
> not to overlook such examples, because all my hopes depend on them."
>
> Nevertheless, the resentment and hatred of the Jewish position in the camps
> was real. Solzhenitsyn realizes that all humans are prone to these
> tendencies, but he also understands that the ethnic divide exacerbated the
> "heavy resentment":
>
> When an alien emerges as a "master over life and death" - it further adds
> to the heavy resentment. It might appear strange - isn't it all the same for
> a worthless negligable, crushed, and doomed camp dweller surviving at one of
> his dying stages - isn't it all the same who exactly seized the power inside
> the camp and celebrates crow's picnics over his trench-grave? As it turns
> out - it is not, it has etched into my memory inerasably.
>
> The Russians did not show ethnic networking and accordingly suffered. Notice
> that he sees the mass murder involved in collectivization as a personal loss
> to his ethnic group.
>
> Those who know about terrific Jewish mutual supportiveness (especially
> exacerbated by mass deaths of Jews under Hitler) would understand that a
> free Jewish boss simply could not indifferently watch Jewish prisoners
> flounder in starvation and die - and not to help. But I am unable to imagine
> a free Russian employee who would save and promote his fellow Russian
> prisoners to the privileged positions only because of their nationality,
> though we have lost 15 millions during collectivization: we are numerous,
> you can't care about everyone, and nobody would even think about it.
>
> The White Sea canal, completed in 1933, has gone down in history as a
> particularly brutal forced labor project in which thousands of workers died.
> Solzhenitsyn points out that all six of the people in charge of the project
> were Jews:
>
> Genrikh Yagoda, head of NKVD.
>
> Matvei Berman, head of GULag.
>
> Semen Firin, commander of BelBaltlag (by that time he was already the
> commander of Dmitlag, where the story will later repeat itself).
>
> Lazar Kogan, head of construction (later he will serve the same function
> at Volgocanal).
>
> Jacob Rapoport, deputy head of construction.
>
> Naftaly Frenkel, chief manager of the labor force of Belomorstroi (and the
> evil daemon of the whole Archipelago)
>
> Solzhenitsyn's observations fit well with the findings of historians like
> Yuri Slezkine showing that Jews were a political and cultural elite in the
> Soviet Union. Slezkine draws special attention to Jews as Stalin's "willing
> executioners" supervising the greatest crimes of the 20th century.
>
> Throughout the chapter Solzhenitsyn's brutal honesty shines through. He
> bends over backward to give examples of Jews who behaved in ways contrary to
> the general tendencies he and others observed. Nevertheless, he recounts how
> he was often accused of anti-Semitism simply for recording his observations.
> It's okay to depict an evil person as a Russian, but never identify him as a
> Jew.
>
> Solzhenitsyn's observations add to the growing evidence of the role of Jews
> as a hostile elite in the USSR-hostile to the native Russian population and
> willing to engage in the most brutal crimes against them. This translation
> is very important for bringing this message to the English-speaking world,
> if only to dispel the common representation of Jews as always and inevitably
> historical victims.
>
> White Americans should think long and hard about what these observations
> imply for them as they become a minority in a country dominated by hostile
> minorities, including Jews as a hostile elite.
>
> Tags: Kevin MacDonald
>
> Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
>
> 200 Years Together
>
> Chapter 20. In the camps of GULag
>
> http://www.ethnopoliticsonline.com/archives/ais/ais%20chapter20.html-
> broken link
>
> If I haven't been there, it wouldn't be possible for me to compose this
> chapter.
>
> Before the camps I thought that "one should not notice nationalities",
> that there are no nationalities, there is only humankind.
>
> But when you are sent into the camp, you find it out: if you are of a
> lucky nationality then you are a fortunate man. You are provided for. You
> have survived! But if you are of a common nationality - well then, no
> offence.
>
> Because nationality is perhaps the most important trait that gives a
> prisoner a chance to be picked into the life-saving corps of "Idiots"
> [translator note: from Russian "????????" - a fool or idiot. This is an
> inmate slang term to denote other inmates who didn't do common labor but
> managed to obtain positions with easy duties, usually pretending to be
> incapable of doing hard work because of poor health]. Every experienced camp
> inmate can confirm that ethnic proportions among Idiots were very different
> from those in the general camp population. Indeed, there were virtually no
> Pribalts among Idiots, regardless of their actual number in the camp (and
> there were many of them); there were always Russians, of course, but in
> incomparably smaller proportion than in the camp on average (and those were
> often selected from orthodox members of the Party); on the other hand, some
> others were noticeably concentrated - Jews, Georgians, Armenians; and Azeris
> also ended there in higher proportions, and, to some extent, Caucasian
> mountaineers also.
>
> Certainly, none of them can be blamed for that. Every nation in the Gulag
> did its best crawling to survival, and the smaller and nimbler it was, the
> easier it was to accomplish. And again, Russians were the very last nation
> in "their own Russian camps", like they were in the German
> Kriegsgefangenenlagers.
>
> Yet it is not us who could have blamed them, but it is they - Armenians,
> Georgians, highlanders, who would have been in their right to ask us: "Why
> did you establish these camps? Why do you force us to live in your state? Do
> not hold us and we will not land here and occupy these such attractive
> Idiotic positions! But while we are your prisoners - a la guerre comme a la
> guerre."
>
> But what about Jews? For Fate interwove Russian and Jews, perhaps forever,
> which is why this book is being written.
>
> Before that, before this very line, there will be readers who have been in
> the camps and who haven't been, who will be quick to contest the truth of
> what I say here. They will claim that many Jews were forced to take part in
> common labor activities. They will deny that there were camps where Jews
> were the majority among Idiots. They will indignantly reject that nations in
> the camps were helping each other selectively, and, therefore, at the
> expense of others.
>
> Some others will not consider themselves as distinct "Jews" at all,
> perceiving themselves as Russians in everything. Besides, even if there was
> overrepresentation of Jews on key camp positions, it was absolutely
> unpremeditated, wasn't it? The selection was exclusively based on merit and
> personal talents and abilities to do business. Well, who is to blame if
> Russians lack business talents?
>
> There will be also those who will passionately assert directly opposite:
> that it was Jews who suffered worst in the camps. This is exactly how it is
> understood in the West: in Soviet camps nobody suffered as badly as Jews.
> Among the letters from readers of Ivan Denisovich there was one from an
> anonymous Jew: "You have met innocent Jews who languished ...
>
> read more »
Visit: http://www.theoccidentalobserver.net/ The Occidental Observer
> From Alexander Solzhenitsyn's great book, 200 Years Together. It is athttp://200yearstogether.wordpress.com/2010/10/15/while Professor
> MacDonald's review is athttp://theoccidentalobserver.net/tooblog/?p=2244&cpage=1Another is In the
> camps of GULag - http://www.ethnopoliticsonline.com/archives/ais/ais/
> chapter20.html
>
> Kevin MacDonald: Translation of Solzhenitsyn's "In the Camps of GULag" -
> Chapter 20 of "200 Years Together"
> Kevin MacDonald: Alexandr Solzhenitsyn's important 200 Years Together has
> unfortunately not been translated into English. However, this process is now
> beginning with the posting of Chapter 20, "In the Camps of GULag." [http://www.ethnopoliticsonline.com/archives/ais/ais%20chapter20.html] As
> the title suggests, the chapter discusses the role of Jews in the Gulag.
> There are several important themes.
>
> Despite apologetic claims by Jews, in fact Jews lived better in the camps.
> Obviously, it's a touchy subject-just like everything else about the role of
> Jews in the Soviet Union.
>
> If I wished to generalize and state that the life of Jews in camps was
> especially difficult, then I would be allowed to do so and wouldn't be
> peppered with admonitions for unjust ethnic generalizations. But in the
> camps, where I was imprisoned, it was the other way around - the life of
> Jews, to the extent of possible generalization, was easier.
>
> Jews also looked out for each other-yet another example of ethnic
> networking. Free Jews were often in positions of authority and they favored
> their own people. For example:
>
> A Lett Ane Bernstein, one of my witnesses from Archipelago, thinks that he
> managed to survive in the camps only because in times of hardship he asked
> Jews for help and that the Jews, judging by his last name and nimble
> manners, mistook him for their tribesman - and always provided assistance.
> He says that in all his camps Jews always constituted the upper crust and
> that the most important free employees were also Jews (Shulman - head of
> special department, Greenberg - head of camp station, Kegels - chief
> mechanic of the factory), and, according to his recollections, they also
> preferred to select Jewish inmates to staff their units.
>
> The few Jews who did share in the common labor did so out of principle-in
> order to avoid the stereotype of Jews who did not work. They were rewarded
> for their efforts by being rejected by "both sides" - indicating that
> everyone in the camps was aware of the ethnic divide-just as American
> prisons are organized along ethnic fault lines. But Solzhenitsyn
> optimistically describes Jews who countered the common tendencies: "I try
> not to overlook such examples, because all my hopes depend on them."
>
> Nevertheless, the resentment and hatred of the Jewish position in the camps
> was real. Solzhenitsyn realizes that all humans are prone to these
> tendencies, but he also understands that the ethnic divide exacerbated the
> "heavy resentment":
>
> When an alien emerges as a "master over life and death" - it further adds
> to the heavy resentment. It might appear strange - isn't it all the same for
> a worthless negligable, crushed, and doomed camp dweller surviving at one of
> his dying stages - isn't it all the same who exactly seized the power inside
> the camp and celebrates crow's picnics over his trench-grave? As it turns
> out - it is not, it has etched into my memory inerasably.
>
> The Russians did not show ethnic networking and accordingly suffered. Notice
> that he sees the mass murder involved in collectivization as a personal loss
> to his ethnic group.
>
> Those who know about terrific Jewish mutual supportiveness (especially
> exacerbated by mass deaths of Jews under Hitler) would understand that a
> free Jewish boss simply could not indifferently watch Jewish prisoners
> flounder in starvation and die - and not to help. But I am unable to imagine
> a free Russian employee who would save and promote his fellow Russian
> prisoners to the privileged positions only because of their nationality,
> though we have lost 15 millions during collectivization: we are numerous,
> you can't care about everyone, and nobody would even think about it.
>
> The White Sea canal, completed in 1933, has gone down in history as a
> particularly brutal forced labor project in which thousands of workers died.
> Solzhenitsyn points out that all six of the people in charge of the project
> were Jews:
>
> Genrikh Yagoda, head of NKVD.
>
> Matvei Berman, head of GULag.
>
> Semen Firin, commander of BelBaltlag (by that time he was already the
> commander of Dmitlag, where the story will later repeat itself).
>
> Lazar Kogan, head of construction (later he will serve the same function
> at Volgocanal).
>
> Jacob Rapoport, deputy head of construction.
>
> Naftaly Frenkel, chief manager of the labor force of Belomorstroi (and the
> evil daemon of the whole Archipelago)
>
> Solzhenitsyn's observations fit well with the findings of historians like
> Yuri Slezkine showing that Jews were a political and cultural elite in the
> Soviet Union. Slezkine draws special attention to Jews as Stalin's "willing
> executioners" supervising the greatest crimes of the 20th century.
>
> Throughout the chapter Solzhenitsyn's brutal honesty shines through. He
> bends over backward to give examples of Jews who behaved in ways contrary to
> the general tendencies he and others observed. Nevertheless, he recounts how
> he was often accused of anti-Semitism simply for recording his observations.
> It's okay to depict an evil person as a Russian, but never identify him as a
> Jew.
>
> Solzhenitsyn's observations add to the growing evidence of the role of Jews
> as a hostile elite in the USSR-hostile to the native Russian population and
> willing to engage in the most brutal crimes against them. This translation
> is very important for bringing this message to the English-speaking world,
> if only to dispel the common representation of Jews as always and inevitably
> historical victims.
>
> White Americans should think long and hard about what these observations
> imply for them as they become a minority in a country dominated by hostile
> minorities, including Jews as a hostile elite.
>
> Tags: Kevin MacDonald
>
> Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
>
> 200 Years Together
>
> Chapter 20. In the camps of GULag
>
> http://www.ethnopoliticsonline.com/archives/ais/ais%20chapter20.html-
> broken link
>
> If I haven't been there, it wouldn't be possible for me to compose this
> chapter.
>
> Before the camps I thought that "one should not notice nationalities",
> that there are no nationalities, there is only humankind.
>
> But when you are sent into the camp, you find it out: if you are of a
> lucky nationality then you are a fortunate man. You are provided for. You
> have survived! But if you are of a common nationality - well then, no
> offence.
>
> Because nationality is perhaps the most important trait that gives a
> prisoner a chance to be picked into the life-saving corps of "Idiots"
> [translator note: from Russian "????????" - a fool or idiot. This is an
> inmate slang term to denote other inmates who didn't do common labor but
> managed to obtain positions with easy duties, usually pretending to be
> incapable of doing hard work because of poor health]. Every experienced camp
> inmate can confirm that ethnic proportions among Idiots were very different
> from those in the general camp population. Indeed, there were virtually no
> Pribalts among Idiots, regardless of their actual number in the camp (and
> there were many of them); there were always Russians, of course, but in
> incomparably smaller proportion than in the camp on average (and those were
> often selected from orthodox members of the Party); on the other hand, some
> others were noticeably concentrated - Jews, Georgians, Armenians; and Azeris
> also ended there in higher proportions, and, to some extent, Caucasian
> mountaineers also.
>
> Certainly, none of them can be blamed for that. Every nation in the Gulag
> did its best crawling to survival, and the smaller and nimbler it was, the
> easier it was to accomplish. And again, Russians were the very last nation
> in "their own Russian camps", like they were in the German
> Kriegsgefangenenlagers.
>
> Yet it is not us who could have blamed them, but it is they - Armenians,
> Georgians, highlanders, who would have been in their right to ask us: "Why
> did you establish these camps? Why do you force us to live in your state? Do
> not hold us and we will not land here and occupy these such attractive
> Idiotic positions! But while we are your prisoners - a la guerre comme a la
> guerre."
>
> But what about Jews? For Fate interwove Russian and Jews, perhaps forever,
> which is why this book is being written.
>
> Before that, before this very line, there will be readers who have been in
> the camps and who haven't been, who will be quick to contest the truth of
> what I say here. They will claim that many Jews were forced to take part in
> common labor activities. They will deny that there were camps where Jews
> were the majority among Idiots. They will indignantly reject that nations in
> the camps were helping each other selectively, and, therefore, at the
> expense of others.
>
> Some others will not consider themselves as distinct "Jews" at all,
> perceiving themselves as Russians in everything. Besides, even if there was
> overrepresentation of Jews on key camp positions, it was absolutely
> unpremeditated, wasn't it? The selection was exclusively based on merit and
> personal talents and abilities to do business. Well, who is to blame if
> Russians lack business talents?
>
> There will be also those who will passionately assert directly opposite:
> that it was Jews who suffered worst in the camps. This is exactly how it is
> understood in the West: in Soviet camps nobody suffered as badly as Jews.
> Among the letters from readers of Ivan Denisovich there was one from an
> anonymous Jew: "You have met innocent Jews who languished ...
>
> read more »
Visit: http://www.theoccidentalobserver.net/ The Occidental Observer
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