And stop apologizing. Go for 2 hours if you need to. This is a problem today; everybody’s attention spans have been zapped by TikTok and whatever else. Just keep going.
I remember having Estonian neighbours when I was a child. They said that when the Soviets came into Estonia for the first time, they simply came and killed any sort of leader - priests, doctors, factory managers, lawyers etc. They were not held in prison as you suggested, but were shot out right. They said that their father, who had been a doctor, was shot right away. There was no trial or prison term. The Soviets also had a plan to subject the people as a whole. They were not to be totally eliminated as the Jews in the areas occupied by the Germans, but turned into some sort of slave state. I cannot say more than what they told me and I do not think they were lying.....Stephan
People tend to forget that a genocide is a very complex and drawn out crime. In Germany, it began in 1933 with the edicts issued against the Jewish people, not when the first victim was shot.
I don't think Poles dispute that there were Poles who collaborated. Peoples were also very devoted to help and they do not want to be said to collaborate as a country or as a whole society. This would be extremely simplistic, untrue and unfair on many Poles who dies for Jews.
The orthodox Jewish community of Tiktin( Tykocin) was rounded up and killed in the Lopuchowo forest. There was a handful of Jewish families in surrounding villages from the Hassidic branch. Integrated, liked & respected before the war. My grandparents were hiding their Jewish neighbor. Someone reported to the authorities. Gestapo came looking for him “miraculously” during the funeral of my 17 yrs old uncle. Abandoned the search afraid of typhus. Haskel was in the attic at that time. Later on, my grandparents beaten up by local bandits. My mom, a young girl, was traumatized for life. God only knows what kind of trauma, and horror he had to live with. Moved to Israel with family in 68.
Nuances of who + why various local populations joined na'zis against Stalin is not well-known and it's a shame. Details about how are generally known, tho of course not to the degree we get from these lectures, but reality is so much more complex + so worthy of discussion. Invaluable lessons for sure
Would you really call it collaboration, if Poles were given this horrible moral choice of saving their families or denounce someone else, a Jew? I call it blackmail...
Very good. But Eastern Ukraine has always been pro-Russian. They always voted for the pro-Russian candidates in national elections, and, when the pro-Russian candidates lost, the nationalists always said the elections were free and fair.
