The narrative that the Soviets were saving Jews or tried to stop the #Holocaust is a myth. @Haaretz is right, in 1939 they abandoned Jews and were constantly refusing to help those trying to save their lives by escaping from German occupation to the USSR. #WeRemember
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2) After the partition of Poland between Hitler and Stalin on 17th Sept 1939 and witnessing anti-Jewish repressions and atrocities being already committed by the Germans, thousands of Polish Jews tried to escape to the Soviet zone. They fate was brought to light by Yosef Litvak.
3) The attitude of German and Soviet troops to the Jewish refugees Yosef Litvak illustrated by describing the tragic fate of the Jews of Chelm and Hrubieszów. The German and Soviet troops were shooting to Jews together from their sides of the Bug river.
4) At the beginning of the German-Soviet occupation of Poland, the Germans did not have a specific Jewish policy yet. Besides deporting Jews to the General Government, creating ghettos, the SS also attempted to chase Jews to the Soviet zone or even to resettle them to the USSR.
5) Russian historian Pavel Polian uncovered and published documents from Russian archives which show that the SS officially proposed resettling German Jews from Vienna and Berlin to the USSR. The Soviet government rejected the proposal. novayagazeta.ru/articles/2020/…
6) On Dec. 17, 1939, deputy Soviet FM presented the German ambasador a note protesting chasing Jews to the Soviet zone and detailing incidents of illegal border crossings by large groups of Jewish refugees. This doc. was first published by the Austrian historian Hans Schafranek.
7) The numbers in this note could have been exaggerated. But 2 things are crystal clear: 1) large groups of refugees chasing the border had to be pushed by the Germans 2) the Soviets knew that turning Jews back to Nazi could have meant a death sentence for them.
8) In response to Potimkin’s protest, Auswärtiges Amt urged the SS to cease chasing Jews to the Soviets. Below is the Reich Main SecOffice SD-chief Reinhard Heydrich’s response in which he states that the operations may go on since...it was difficult to relay the orders to stop!
9) The Soviet government also refused to accept Jewish refugees, trying to use the Soviet-German population exchange agreement, a protocol attached to the Soviet-German Treaty of Friendship, 28 Sept 1939, and Die Umsiedlung Aktion to flee from Nazis to the USRR.
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