A JEW-COMMUNIST STEREOTYPE IN LITHUANIA, 1940-1941 Alfonsas Eidintas An issue of a Jew-Communist stereotype is an important one if we look at the causes and motives that made the local population assist the Nazis during the Holocaust, and, first of all, having in mind the fact that within the Lithuanian society a theory of two genocides had prevailed for a long period of time. According to this theory, once the Soviet Union occupied Lithuania in the summer of 1941, the Jews extended their support to the Soviets. That is why Lithuanians behaved Jews without mercy. The Nazi Germany occupied Lithuania at the end of June 1941. Afterwards they found no difficulty recruiting accomplices in Lithuania who carried out the massacres. For some, the permanence of the stereotypes may seem extraordinary. However, this permanence of the stereotypes makes the understanding of such a tragedy as the Holocaust in Lithuania more difficult, delaying it. Thus, in this article the author reviews the historical roots of this stereotype that was present throughout the first Soviet period. During the days of independence, especially during the parliamentary period (1920-1926), Lithuanias left-wing political forces (Social-democrats, Populists) expressed their opposition to the attacks radical Christian-democratic nationalists aimed at the Jews. Although this development departed from its original intentions, but the Jewish community, viewed at large, was to some extent pushed to the political left. At the same time, however, given the fact that Lithuanias State Security Department was the main supervisory institution in the country ruled by Smetonas authoritarian regime, the majority of leftwing Jews became regular clients of the State Security Department (further SSD) and the police. Collected through a network of informants, the bulletins of the police and Lithuanias State Security Department contain extensive evidence on social and political activities of the Jews. Same bulletins presented reviews on the activities of the Bolsheviks-communists (the latter included lists of active communists with Jewish names and surnames) as well as on the activities of the Lithuanian political parties, their secret consultations. Besides, they accounted for the activities of other leftwing 2 Alfonsas Eidintas political parties, the Jewish one among them. It is interesting to note that in these records the Polish were identified as the second most dangerous ethnic group in Lithuania in terms of national security. Activity of the Jewish political left was the main cause of concern for the police and the Security services. Speaking about Jewish organizations and Jewish cultural activities in general, one could declare that they provoked no concern as they abided by the law and could be considered loyal to Lithuania. No doubt, under the existing authoritarian regime in Lithuania the career of police and the security officers depended a lot on the results of the fight against the LCP (Lithuanian Communist Party). Considered as an anti-state organization, the activities of the LCP were banned, the organization and its members - prosecuted. LCPs ultimate goal was to overthrow the existing regime. Afterwards they hoped to unite Lithuania with the Soviet Union. The composition of the party, thus, had been constantly changing, first of all, given the numerous arrests and administrative fines that had been tabled. Identification of the Jews with the Communists, 1933-1939 The Jews living in the cities comprised the majority of LCP members. What deserves special attention is the ruling of the LCPs Ukmergë subdistrict. This ruling defined that every communist of Ukmergë was obliged to recruit at least one person of Lithuanian origin Jews-communists understood it clearly that one-nation-dominated organization would not have any major influence on and among the Lithuanians. Security reports attached huge importance to the activities of the Jews within the LCP. For instance, in their review on the LCP activities in Jonava, the reports came to the following conclusion: In their preparations to celebrate the day of the unemployed (August 1st), the Jewish women are the most active; all the activities concentrate midst the Jews they deliver and distribute literature on the occasion of E.Telmans imprisonment in Germany on their own. At the same time, if we divert our attention to the countryside (70 percent of Lithuanian population worked in the agricultural sector, and the majority of the Jews (160 thousand) lived in urban settlements (towns, small and large) A.E.), there is no communist activity evident.1 Activities of Jonava communists intensified in October, once Leiba Solomon and Gita Aronsonaitë had been released from prison.2 In 1933, the SSD defined attempts of the communists to restore their activities in Jonava once the releases were completed in such a way: Recently, a small group consisting of three Jews has intensified its activities in Jonava; this group has embarked on consistent investigation of the reasons that stand behind the (communist) arrests.3 In 1934, the security agencies maintained that the communists had reached the decision to intensify their activities with and inside the non-Jewish youth.4 A Jew-Communist Stereotype in Lithuania, 19401941 3 The title of the LCPs proclamation, dated 1934, is quite elaborate in this respect. It said: A new provocation of the Intelligence. Lets save Schochot, Komodaitë and Sokrataitytë.5 Soon after the Anykðèiai communists started to come around from the arrests, the SSD claimed that those communists who remained in freedom mainly Jews tried to restore their activities and planned to publish proclamations in Jewish, given that the majority of the Jewish proletariat working in the city, were unable to comprehend in Lithuanian. A similar case was evident in Utena. Residents of this city most of them Jews embarked on more vigorous activities. They had established the so-called IOSR (transcribed from the first letters in Russian International Organization for the Support of the Revolutionaries) circle, which collected 65 litas to help the arrested communists and their families.6 Therefore, in the eyes of the local repressive structures and power institutions, the LCP was seen as a Jewish party. Accordingly, during the years of independence the police and the Security had become major prosecutors of the Jews. Not always did they make distinction between the Jews-communists and the majority of Jews-non-communists in their documents, let alone in their minds. Besides, the SSD documents reflect an additional tendency namely that of a general negative attitude towards the Jews. Oftentimes they were described in pejorative terms, the tone the security servicemen use was also unfriendly, and the recommendations tabled often negative in relation to the Jews as a national minority group. High attention paid for the left of Lithuanias Jews did not mean they were undesirable as the Jews the Jews had been a loyal national minority group, Lithuanian authorities knew it very well. The SSD documents, 1933-1940 on the activities of the Jewish organizations put it clear: Jews as a national minority group had caused no trouble, they were to a very large extent apolitical, they had not embarked on sabotaging the status quo, and the economic (business) affairs and cultural life was the only matter what they were concerned with. At the same time, concerned with the issue of moving to Palestine, they expressed dissatisfaction with the vigorous participation of the Jews in LCP organizations. The main problem here rested in the fact that the LCP was nothing more than a composite part of another states Russian Federal Soviet Socialist Republic party (RCP(b). The latter was clearly an anti-state party that sought to undermine the legitimate Government and harbor Lithuania to the RFSSR (later SSSR). The party itself refused to accept Lithuania as a state. As a result, they drafted plans which envisaged that in the future Lithuania would become the 13th or 14th Soviet Socialist Republic. In the light of this Lithuanias police prosecuted the LCP as an anti-state, anti-Lithuanian power. Jews-communists, this logic saved, together with the Lithuanians-communists have put themselves onto the list of the enemies of the state of Lithuania. They only had to embark on the activities of the LCP to become part of it. 4 Alfonsas Eidintas In some settlements citizens of Jewish nationality dominated in the communist movements. According to the SSD material, this was the case in Molëtai. In 1934 this area saw the dissemination of quite a huge volume of the communist literature; and it was in this area that the anniversary of the October revolution in Russia was commemorated. Because of this, the Security service searched out a number of houses that belonged to the well-known and suspected communist activists Fruma Bernsteinatë, Naftal Melamed, Lipë, Peisach, Schmuil and Berel Lichts, Roch, Chan and Pesë Lichtaitë, Leib Schochot, Peisach Glot, Zelman Skurkoviè, Leizer Segal. All of them, except for youngsters L.Segal and Ch.Lichtaitë, became imprisoned. Although they did not admit they had collaborated with the communists and on behalf of these, they were transferred to the detention of the Utena military commandant. Activities of the Bolsheviks-communists in Molëtai got paralyzed once these arrests were carried out, - the SSD report claimed.7 On the word of the SSD, throughout the period from 1927 to 1936, the Security services instituted 3745 cases