OK, how could the experience of more occupied European countries during WWII have been similar to that of Denmark & Noway in managing to save the vast m,ajority of their Jewish ppl from the Nazis ?
OK, how could the experience of more occupied European countries during WWII have been similar to that of Denmark & Noway in managing to save the vast m,ajority of their Jewish ppl from the Nazis ?
I would say that Eastern and Western Europe share one key trait, as far as saving of Jews is concerned: unwillingness to give a damn. Remember, those were times when Brits refused Romanian Jews entry to Palestine, Canadian rep in Evian declared that "One Jewish refugee is too many" and USA refused entry to it's soil and pressured its Latin American marionettes to accept as few as possible. You need to do something about this poisonous attitude first, as IOTL there was at least 1.5 years gap between the moment when fate of European Jewry became painfully obvious (Autumn 1939, ghettoes in Poland, and I'm charitable here not picking Kristallnacht as the starting point) and the moment when the door slammed shut (Summer 1941). And, even after Summer 1941, a lot could be done, as far as French, Romanian, Hungarian, Bulgarian, Yugoslav Jewry is concerned.This concerns Western Europe rather than central/Eastern parts.
Say whatever you want about Stalin, but he didn't turn a single Polish Jewish refugee back. His willingness to accept millions haven't been tested, that much is true, but "hundred of thousands" is probably about right. And, worst come to worst, Jewish refugees were subjected to "special settlement" regime, not Gulag, and their mortality were more in line with Soviet civvies (who experienced serious food shortages during WWII), not Gulag prisoners. It was more than for ordinary civvies, that's for sure. Refugee in starving foreign country isn't going to have it nice and easy.In the East it is different as the Jews made up a major portion of the Polish population. Try as I might, I cannot envision pre-Barbarossa Soviet Union accepting a million or two of Polish citizens as refugees. If they do, it will be a one-way ticket to a Siberian mining camp with 50% survival rate. A small improvement on Auschwitz, but that's all one can say.
You need to do something about this poisonous attitude first [...].
Say whatever you want about Stalin, but he didn't turn a single Polish Jewish refugee back. His willingness to accept millions haven't been tested, that much is true, but "hundred of thousands" is probably about right. And, worst come to worst, Jewish refugees were subjected to "special settlement" regime, not Gulag, and their mortality were more in line with Soviet civvies (who experienced serious food shortages during WWII), not Gulag prisoners. It was more than for ordinary civvies, that's for sure. Refugee in starving foreign country isn't going to have it nice and easy.
I'm sorry for being not clear enough, Bulgaria can give Danes an example of how to treat Jews during WWII. They did more than they could under the circumstances. What I meant by including Bulgaria in the list was that, provided that Allies were willing to accept Jews, Bulgaria could be used as conduit to Turkey (which IOTL refused Jewish refugees for fear of being overwhelmed, as well as bowing to British pressure).Forgive me, but once again, the focus of history in the West is on the West. Bulgaria was actually a shining beacon to the world when it came to the treatment of its Jews.
Stalin did hand over Jews to Gestapo after 1939 MR treaty and invasion of Poland.Say whatever you want about Stalin, but he didn't turn a single Polish Jewish refugee back
If you want to get technical, Buber-Neumann was German Jew, and I wrote about Polish ones. Yes, Stalin handed over some KPD activists to Gestapo, including Jews. Shame on him for that. However, en masse Jewish refugees were not turned back.Stalin did hand over Jews to Gestapo after 1939 MR treaty and invasion of Poland.
Examples include Margarete Buber-Neumann, or Hans Walter David. The number of Jewish communists handed over is IIRC around several hundred to thousand.
From what I heard they were not treated as Gulag prisoners but rather similar to the minorities that were forcibly resettled into some middle of nowhere in Kazakhstan - Volga Germans, diverse Caucasus nationalities etc. who had death rates by "resettlement" well into double-digit numbers.
Of course if you are a refugee and your host country is starving your expectation should rather be very low.
Birobidjan saga isn't really linked to a story of EE Jewish refugees in Soviet Union. To the best of my knowledge, there wasn't any serious effort to send refugees to the Jewish Autonomy. They were more or less spread across USSR, cortesy of fate more than any settlement effort.I'm pretty certain that Stalin wanted to create a Jewish homeland in the wilds of Siberia.
OK, how could the experience of more occupied European countries during WWII have been similar to that of Denmark & Noway in managing to save the vast m,ajority of their Jewish ppl from the Nazis ?