red-channel

FEFER AND TEUMIN CONFESSED TO BEING ZIONIST AGENTS WHILE OTHERS DID NOT

THE JEWISH ANTI-FASCIST COMMITTEE TRIAL TESTIMONY OF DEFENDANTS AND EXPERTS

PAST HISTORY OF THE JEWISH ANTI-FASCIST COMMITTEE TRIAL DEFENDANTS

SENTENCING

FEFER AND TEUMIN CONFESSED TO BEING ZIONISTS AGENTS WHILE OTHERS DID NOT

The following footnote is ridiculous.

Footnote: the indictment was 45 pages long and recounted a full list of crimes ascribed to the JAC as a whole and to individuals in particular. The text of the indictment, dated March 31, 1952, can be found in the archives of General Volkogonov in the manuscript division of the Library of Congress, Washington DC.

Naumov & Teptsov. Stalin's Secret Pogrom, New Haven, London: Yale Univ. Press, 2001, p. 75

The principle accusation revolved around the "Crimea question": whether during their visit to New York in 1943, Fefer and Mikhoels, in league with James Rosenberg of the Joint Distribution Committee, offered to establish a Jewish republic in the Crimea so that Zionists and American imperialists could use it as a "beachhead" to dismember the Soviet Union. Several defendants were also accused of passing state secrets to two American Jewish figures--Novick, the communist editor of New York's Morgen Freiheit, and the Yiddish journalist (and fellow traveler) Goldberg.

Naumov & Teptsov. Stalin's Secret Pogrom, New Haven, London: Yale Univ. Press, 2001, p. 57

Only Fefer and Teumin fully admitted their guilt, whereas Lozovsky, Markish, Shimeliovich, and Bregman refused to plead guilty to anything; the others pled guilty "in part." Once the testimonies began, the defendants were permitted to make lengthy statements and to cross-examine each other, an aspect of the trial that resulted in moments of high drama, particularly when outspoken defendants like Lozovsky and Shimeliovich challenged Fefer.

Naumov & Teptsov. Stalin's Secret Pogrom, New Haven, London: Yale Univ. Press, 2001, p. 55

THE JEWISH ANTI-FASCIST COMMITTEE TRIAL TESTIMONY OF DEFENDANTS AND EXPERTS

FEFER: So I believe that nationalistic work was carried out in the committee and that the committee leaders sent out materials that represented state secrets.

Naumov & Teptsov. Stalin's Secret Pogrom, New Haven, London: Yale Univ. Press, 2001, p. 84

PRESIDING OFFICER:... Goldberg traveled around the Ukraine and the Baltic region, gathering classified information in the USSR.

FEFER: Yes, from the standpoint of the Register of 1945 he was gathering classified material about industry and agriculture and information about Yiddish literature. What precisely he was interested in I don't know.

PRESIDING OFFICER: Didn't you testify that Goldberg asked the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee to increase its information-gathering activities about our national economy?

FEFER: Yes, he did make such a proposal, and we sent him the materials he asked for. During the entire period of the committee's existence we sent abroad about 20,000 articles and feature stories.

Naumov & Teptsov. Stalin's Secret Pogrom, New Haven, London: Yale Univ. Press, 2001, p. 85

PRESIDING OFFICER: Speak about the circumstances of Novick's visit to Moscow. When did the visit take place?

FEFER: Novick arrived in Moscow at the end of September 1946.

PRESIDING OFFICER: Why did he come here?

FEFER: He is the editor of the daily newspaper the Morgen Freiheit, an organ of the American Communist Party. He came here as the editor of the newspaper and as its correspondent. I did not know that Novick was a spy, but since he was gathering material about industry, agriculture, and culture and since he met with many different people, I judged his activity to be espionage-related, based on situations that I had not known about before.

Naumov & Teptsov. Stalin's Secret Pogrom, New Haven, London: Yale Univ. Press, 2001, p. 87

PRESIDING OFFICER: You know the document produced by the expert commission, dated January 30, regarding the transmission of classified information to America. Seventy-eight documents were taken at random, and it was concluded that such requests from America and England to the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee contained state secrets in and of themselves. Are you familiar with this document, and do you agree with it

FEFER: For the most part I agree.

Naumov & Teptsov. Stalin's Secret Pogrom, New Haven, London: Yale Univ. Press, 2001, p. 91

MEMBER OF THE COLLEGIUM: During the investigation you reevaluated your nationalist work more concretely. In volume 46, page 37, it says that the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee carried out nationalistic activity, had close contact with Zionists, and became a nationalistic center. Is this correct?

FEFER: Correct.

Naumov & Teptsov. Stalin's Secret Pogrom, New Haven, London: Yale Univ. Press, 2001, p. 94

PRESIDING OFFICER: Is the study of Hebrew one of the activities that is part of the struggle against assimilation of the Jews?

FEFER: Hebrew is hardly used today. It is a return to old values, the language of the Bible. People speak it in Palestine. And Hofshteyn did have pro-Zionist sentiments.

PRESIDING OFFICER: Did pro-Zionist sentiments often find their way into his writings?

FEFER: Yes, there were collections of his work and individual poems where he extolled various "great Jews."

Naumov & Teptsov. Stalin's Secret Pogrom, New Haven, London: Yale Univ. Press, 2001, p. 96

Fefer's testimony, during which he pled guilty in full to all of the accusations presented to him by the investigators, began on the first day of the trial, May 8, and continued through the entire morning session of May 9, 1952.

Naumov & Teptsov. Stalin's Secret Pogrom, New Haven, London: Yale Univ. Press, 2001, p. 98

VATENBERG: You testified that Novick engaged in espionage.

FEFER: I knew that in his personal conversations with people Novick got all of the information that interested him.

VATENBERG: Why do you call it classified information?

FEFER: That word is not a favorite of mine, and I never used it. It was only here that I reevaluated a number of things, and I remember now that the information was secret in nature.

VATENBERG: You don't know what information he was collecting. How can you say that it was classified information?

FEFER: I knew that he collected information about industry and the economy.

Naumov & Teptsov. Stalin's Secret Pogrom, New Haven, London: Yale Univ. Press, 2001, p. 106

PRESIDING OFFICER: Which of the defendants has questions for Markish?

LOZOVSKY: I do. Markish said that he did not have the slightest idea what materials the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee was sending abroad. What basis does he have for saying that these materials were sent abroad with help from the hostile hand of Lozovsky?...

MARKISH: Because the materials that the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee sent abroad were not favorable to the Soviet Union, but rather the opposite, and because by sending these materials, the people on the Anti-Fascist Committee were revealing some deep secrets and exposing the true extent of the country's might, and because without Lozovsky they would not have done anything, and they really got everything approved by Lozovsky--this is what I am basing my statement on.

Naumov & Teptsov. Stalin's Secret Pogrom, New Haven, London: Yale Univ. Press, 2001, p. 135

PRESIDING OFFICER: You [Markish] are a person of principle.... Answer this for me. Do you believe that the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee genuinely became a center of Jewish nationalistic activity, as the expert commission concluded?

MARKISH: Assessing the Jewish Anti-fascist Committee’s activity now, I state in the strongest possible terms that the committee did become a preserve of nationalism, and when I read through these 42 volumes, I grew ashamed of my life. I believe that the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee was turned into a tavern where delicate espionage dishes were prepared for intelligence agents.

PRESIDING OFFICER: The committee started sending its agents to gather material, and people started appealing to the committee about all sorts of issues. That means that it was a center.

MARKISH: I agree with you. There is no way that Fefer could not have understood the significance of such words as "the Crimea," "the Black Sea," "Turkey," "the Balkan Peninsula," when hearing them from the lips of an American. But if this weren't enough to open someone's eyes to what these hints really meant, an undisguised hostile word was used as well--beachhead. And in court he confirmed that their every step was coordinated and approved. How, after a conversation with the fascists and their accomplices, after colluding with these reactionaries about separating the Crimea from the USSR for the American government, how, after that, did he dare to appear on the threshold of the Soviet Embassy, how did he dare to look into the eyes of the Soviet government, into the eyes of the Soviet justice system!

Naumov & Teptsov. Stalin's Secret Pogrom, New Haven, London: Yale Univ. Press, 2001, p. 140

MARKISH: Espionage and nationalistic activity were interwoven in the Anti-Fascist Committee.... It is very hard for me to say which of the members of the presidium of the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee were consciously involved in espionage and which did it blindly, for Fefer did not inform the other presidium members about everything.

Naumov & Teptsov. Stalin's Secret Pogrom, New Haven, London: Yale Univ. Press, 2001, p. 142

PRESIDING OFFICER: A final question connected to the interrogation dated February 29, 1952. Regarding hostile activity by former leaders of the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee, whose presidium you were a member of (volume 16, page 312), you told how it took shape. Then further on, you said, "Speaking of activity, and, it follows, of criminal activity, it is appropriate to point out that this committee, which was directed by Jewish nationalists and people hostile toward the Soviet Union, was transformed with their help into a center of espionage, where Jewish nationalists, spies, and other shady nationalistic characters came together." Is this testimony correct?

MARKISH: It is correct.

Naumov & Teptsov. Stalin's Secret Pogrom, New Haven, London: Yale Univ. Press, 2001, p. 143

PRESIDING OFFICER: Further on you testified that the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee published a newspaper in Yiddish called Eynikayt, which was turned into an organ that aroused nationalistic feelings among the more backward segments of the Jewish population. Is this correct?

MARKISH: Yes, it is correct.

Naumov & Teptsov. Stalin's Secret Pogrom, New Haven, London: Yale Univ. Press, 2001, p. 144

PRESIDING OFFICER: Mikhoels played the role of a Soviet patriot, and at the same time he was a nationalist?

BERGELSON: Yes, he was a nationalist and played the role of a Jew and Soviet patriot as well, but he played the nationalist with greater sincerity. In this role, hints of something more sincere slipped through. When he began to play the nationalist, he became himself. And he became himself when committing crimes. When all of his crimes came to light, I came to see him with great clarity. There was nationalism in every aspect of his character.

Naumov & Teptsov. Stalin's Secret Pogrom, New Haven, London: Yale Univ. Press, 2001, p. 154

YUZEFOVICH: I should point out, on the other hand, that the prison administration and medical personnel were exceptionally humane in their treatment of me. I am very grateful to them,...

Naumov & Teptsov. Stalin's Secret Pogrom, New Haven, London: Yale Univ. Press, 2001, p. 206

PRESIDING OFFICER: You [Yuzefovich] stated when you were being interrogated on February 22, 1952 , "Of course, Lozovsky, Mikhoels, and Fefer used me for hostile purposes, and along with other accomplices I am guilty of the fact that the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee, using the opportunities afforded it, turned into an obedient tool in the hands of foreign reactionary circles and American intelligence officers. Operating to please these circles and American intelligence officers, all of us, who were Jewish nationalists, brought enormous harm to the Soviet state by sending a massive flow of material abroad about the economy and culture of the USSR" (volume 7, page 300).

Naumov & Teptsov. Stalin's Secret Pogrom, New Haven, London: Yale Univ. Press, 2001, p. 211

PRESIDING OFFICER: And what can you [Yuzefovich] say about the testimony about you given by defendant's Fefer, Bergelson, Kvitko, Hofshteyn, and Markish? The role they attribute to you is that you were brought onto the committee and carried out nationalistic work.

Naumov & Teptsov. Stalin's Secret Pogrom, New Haven, London: Yale Univ. Press, 2001, p. 212

PRESIDING OFFICER: You [Lozovsky] have been arraigned under a specific accusation. The indictment reads as follows: "Engaged in espionage and led the Jewish nationalistic underground in the USSR, was a moving force and organizer of the transformation of the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee into a center of nationalistic activity, in 1943 assigned Mikhoels and Fefer the task of establishing contact with reactionary circles in the United States."

Naumov & Teptsov. Stalin's Secret Pogrom, New Haven, London: Yale Univ. Press, 2001, p. 224

BERGELSON:... after I learned that according to Lozovsky's testimony, Goldberg had been given documents which had not been published in the Soviet Union--that is, they were secret--I began to believe that nationalism was only part of his activity, and that was why I began to sign all the other testimony about Lozovsky.

PRESIDING OFFICER: Defendant Lozovsky, what can you say regarding Fefer's and Bergelson's testimony? Both Fefer and Bergelson confirm that you formed the Anti-Fascist Committee with nationalistic goals in mind and were the ideological leader of all the committee's subsequent anti-Soviet activity.

Naumov & Teptsov. Stalin's Secret Pogrom, New Haven, London: Yale Univ. Press, 2001, p. 241

LOZOVSKY: Further on in the indictment there is an even more curious accusation: "Believing that the best way to get help from reactionary Jewish circles in the United States in the fight against the Communist Party and the Soviet government might be to pass on to them classified information about the USSR, Mikhoels and Fefer, with Lozovsky's assistance, put together secret materials about Soviet industry prior to their departure and took it with them to America." And on page 33 of the indictment it says even more decisively that Lozovsky "supplied Mikhoels and Fefer with classified material about the state of industry, the economy, and cultural life in the USSR for transmission to the Americans."

Naumov & Teptsov. Stalin's Secret Pogrom, New Haven, London: Yale Univ. Press, 2001, p. 255

PRESIDING OFFICER: No one is accusing you [Lozovsky] or any of the others seated here of being a Jew. That is not why you are here. You are here for carrying out anti-Soviet work.

Naumov & Teptsov. Stalin's Secret Pogrom, New Haven, London: Yale Univ. Press, 2001, p. 284

PRESIDING OFFICER: Do you agree with the expert commission’s conclusions that The Black Book is nationalistic?

SHIMELIOVICH: Yes, it is nationalistic. And I bear responsibility for it, as a member of the presidium of the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee.

Naumov & Teptsov. Stalin's Secret Pogrom, New Haven, London: Yale Univ. Press, 2001, p. 308

PRESIDING OFFICER: Finishing your testimony during the investigation, you said, "I [Bregman] confess that I committed one other crime. Knowing that Mikhoels and Fefer were involved with Americans and specifically with Goldberg, I aided them in gathering information about the Soviet Union."

Naumov & Teptsov. Stalin's Secret Pogrom, New Haven, London: Yale Univ. Press, 2001, p. 320

PRESIDING OFFICER: Defendant Bregman, you understand the question?

BREGMAN: Yes. As to the question of whether I myself knew that Lozovsky was a secret enemy of the party or whether the investigator urged that on me, I can say the following: No one prompted me to say that. I came to that conclusion after I learned during the investigation that the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee had been transformed into a center for espionage and nationalism, and since Lozovsky ran this organization without any intermediaries, Lozovsky should have been responsible for all the committee's operations. On this basis I told the investigator that only a secret enemy of the party could have allowed such behavior and such an attitude toward the organization.

Naumov & Teptsov. Stalin's Secret Pogrom, New Haven, London: Yale Univ. Press, 2001, p. 328

PRESIDING OFFICER: What nationalistic regression did you and Talmy have?

VATENBERG: The day she [Bykhovskaya] came to see me was the very same day when the government decree was issued about rewarding the Stalin prizes to people in the sciences and arts. She looked down the list of recipients and noted that 28 to 30% of the last names were Jewish....

PRESIDING OFFICER: This was in 1943?

VATENBERG: In late 1943 early 1944. Then I said to Bykhovskaya: "Several minutes ago you were telling me about manifestations of anti--Semitism, and now you are saying joyfully that about 30% of the Stalin Prize recipients were Jewish. These people included engineers, scientists, mechanics, and designers. How can you talk about anti--Semitism?"

Naumov & Teptsov. Stalin's Secret Pogrom, New Haven, London: Yale Univ. Press, 2001, p. 361

PRESIDING OFFICER: What do you plead guilty to?

VATENBERG-OSTROVSKAYA: That I translated materials which were nationalistic in character. I never hesitated about it.

Naumov & Teptsov. Stalin's Secret Pogrom, New Haven, London: Yale Univ. Press, 2001, p. 372

PRESIDING OFFICER: Defendant Zuskin, to what do you plead guilty?

ZUSKIN: As a member of the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee, I bear responsibility for its activity. And in so far as it has been acknowledged and proved by irrefutable information that the Jewish Anti--Fascist Committee conducted anti--Soviet hostile activity, that means that I bear responsibility for this as well.

Naumov & Teptsov. Stalin's Secret Pogrom, New Haven, London: Yale Univ. Press, 2001, p. 383

PRESIDING OFFICER: You [Zuskin] stated that he [Mikhoels] was extremely furious and used to curse the Soviet government, which was supposedly oppressing Jews.

Naumov & Teptsov. Stalin's Secret Pogrom, New Haven, London: Yale Univ. Press, 2001, p. 391

PRESIDING OFFICER: The last time you were interrogated in the presence of prosecutor Kozhura, the record is dated March 4, 1952. You pled guilty and testified: "Indeed, as a member of the committee, I am responsible along with the other members for the committee being transformed into a nationalistic center and a center for espionage that waged a struggle against the USSR."

Naumov & Teptsov. Stalin's Secret Pogrom, New Haven, London: Yale Univ. Press, 2001, p. 392

PRESIDING OFFICER: But in this case you believe that Lozovsky brought onto the committee such ardent nationalists as Mikhoels, Fefer, and Markish?

ZUSKIN: Yes, who turned out after the investigation to be such nationalists.

PRESIDING OFFICER: You said of the theater that it was a hotbed of nationalism around which such Jewish nationalists as Markish, Dobrushin, Bergelson, and others gathered. Is this correct?

ZUSKIN: It is correct--again, on the basis of those materials that I read in the case files.

Naumov & Teptsov. Stalin's Secret Pogrom, New Haven, London: Yale Univ. Press, 2001, p. 393

SHTERN:... I want to say that from the day I came to the Soviet Union, I have not had my rights infringed in the slightest.

Naumov & Teptsov. Stalin's Secret Pogrom, Stalin's Secret Pogrom. New Haven, London: Yale Univ. Press, 2001, p. 405

PRESIDING OFFICER: I am asking you [Shtern] a question, and you are lecturing me about the Jews. I am asking you a question. You make nationalistic statements about how it is not the Soviet people but the Jews who should be written about in the newspaper, and how the Jews need to be put forward and overemphasized. You look at everything from the viewpoint of what it will give the Jews--not what did Soviet power give the Jews? But what did the Jews give Soviet power?

Naumov & Teptsov. Stalin's Secret Pogrom, New Haven, London: Yale Univ. Press, 2001, p. 408

EXPERT FEDOTOV: On the basis of this document we concluded that such activity by Fefer and Mikhoels was espionage.

Naumov & Teptsov. Stalin's Secret Pogrom, New Haven, London: Yale Univ. Press, 2001, p. 419

PRESIDING OFFICER: Does the expert confirm that the book contains information which constitutes state secrets?

EXPERT GODOVSKAYA: In Talmy's book On Virgin Soil there are several episodes that in our opinion were state secrets at the time--for example, the description of gold mines and of the Soviet gunboat moorings during the conflict at the Chinese Eastern Railroad, of the sawmill and of the growth of industry in Birobidzhan.

Naumov & Teptsov. Stalin's Secret Pogrom, New Haven, London: Yale Univ. Press, 2001, p. 422

PRESIDING OFFICER: Could the speeches at the official Jewish Anti--Fascist Committee meetings be considered nationalistic?

EXPERT VLADYKIN: We know from the investigators that the reason that the Jewish Anti--Fascist Committee was disbanded was the nationalistic character of its activity. Having reviewed and studied the text of speeches made at the meetings of the Jewish Anti--Fascist Committee, we found nationalistic statements in them.

We believe that there needs to be propaganda urging Jews the world over to unite in the struggle against fascism, but not from a Zionist position. Nonetheless, the Jewish Anti--Fascist Committee was slipping into such a position.

In addition, I want to say that we did not know that our expert commission's conclusion that statements in rallies and articles, including those published in our press, were nationalistic and would be used against the leaders of the Jewish Anti--Fascist Committee as an accusation in criminal proceedings.

Naumov & Teptsov. Stalin's Secret Pogrom, New Haven, London: Yale Univ. Press, 2001, p. 425

EXPERT LUKIN: I want to say that during the time when we worked with the Jewish Anti--Fascist Committee materials it should have occurred to us to ask how nationalistic propaganda could have taken place right before everyone's eyes.

I think that one article or sentence in an article might not have led the censor to think that there was something troubling in all of the Jewish Anti--Fascist Committee's work if he had not previously been sensitized to such material. But when we the experts received this mass of documents, because we were already prepared to look for something troubling in them, the nationalistic character of these materials made a disheartening impression on us.

EXPERT YEVGENOV: The facts that the expert commission had about how the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee began handling questions outside its competence--for example, the re-evacuation of Jews to the Ukraine and the Crimea, appeals on various economic problems and problems of everyday life, and, finally, the question of creating a Jewish republic in the Crimea--gave us the basis to conclude that the Jewish Anti--Fascist Committee had become a nationalistic center. This is additionally confirmed by the fact that when the State of Israel was organized, the Jewish Anti--Fascist Committee raised a lot of nationalistic hullabaloo around this, up to and including a radio broadcast.

Naumov & Teptsov. Stalin's Secret Pogrom, New Haven, London: Yale Univ. Press, 2001, p. 426

PRESIDING OFFICER: Defendant Teumin, in the indictment you are accused of engaging in espionage and being an active nationalist, while in 1946 you passed along classified materials to Goldberg. Tell us, did you, under Lozovsky's orders, review and correct articles for the Jewish Anti--Fascist Committee that were sent to America?

Naumov & Teptsov. Stalin's Secret Pogrom, New Haven, London: Yale Univ. Press, 2001, p. 435

PRESIDING OFFICER: You said that you plead guilty in part. To what part you plead guilty?

BERGELSON: I plead guilty, as I have already said, in part. Since the JAC's work went beyond the framework of its officially assigned duties, and since all of these facts are nationalistic in nature, as is already well-known, I, too, as a member of committee, am also a party to this.

Naumov & Teptsov. Stalin's Secret Pogrom, New Haven, London: Yale Univ. Press, 2001, p. 451

VATENBERG: On page 31 of the indictment it says that Vatenberg has been exposed as having committed crimes through personal confessions, through the testimony of his accomplices who were convicted earlier, through the testimony of witnesses, through the expert commission's conclusions, through material evidence, and through documents.

Naumov & Teptsov. Stalin's Secret Pogrom, New Haven, London: Yale Univ. Press, 2001, p. 456

SHTERN: I knew how we were seen abroad. Abroad, people say all the time that Soviet citizens are not allowed to meet with foreigners. I wanted to show that this wasn't true. I said to foreign scientists of my acquaintance, "Please do drop by if you'd like to," not because they interested me, but because I wanted to show that they were wrong. Some Swiss people came, including the husband of a friend of mine who was a secretary at the embassy. I met him at an official reception. He came over to me and said, "I have greetings for you, but I couldn't make up my mind to come and see you because I've been told that Soviets are forbidden to meet with foreigners, and I didn't want to get you in trouble." Then he added that he was being followed. I said that none of that was true.

"Please come see meet tomorrow if you'd like to at the Institute, and you'll see that no one will be following you."

PRESIDING OFFICER: He told you that he was being followed?

SHTERN: Yes. He said that it seemed to him that he was being followed.

Naumov & Teptsov. Stalin's Secret Pogrom, New Haven, London: Yale Univ. Press, 2001, p. 468

PAST HISTORY OF THE JEWISH ANTI-FASCIST COMMITTEE TRIAL DEFENDANTS

Lozovsky, being a clandestine enemy of the Communist Party who had spoken out against the party line repeatedly in the past and twice been expelled from the party for this,...

...the Yiddish poet Fefer, a former Bundist who had in the past repeatedly spoken out in his works as a nationalist; the Yiddish poets Kvitko and Markish and the Yiddish writer Bergelson, who greeted the Great October Socialist Revolution with hostility and in 1920-1921 fled abroad, where in their works they slandered Soviet reality and the national policy of the Communist Party and the Soviet government and after their return to the USSR again spoke out expressing nationalistic views in their works;...

Naumov & Teptsov. Stalin's Secret Pogrom, New Haven, London: Yale Univ. Press, 2001, p. 484

Furthermore, with the knowledge and consent of Lozovsky, the following people were made members of the Jewish Anti--Fascist Committee: the Yiddish poet Hofshteyn, a Zionist who lived abroad from 1925 to 1927 and published nationalistic works in Palestine in the reactionary Jewish press; Talmy, who was actively involved in 1917-1920 in the work of Jewish nationalistic organizations in the Ukraine and fled to the United States in 1921, becoming an American citizen and continuing nationalistic activity there; and Vatenberg, who from 1905 to 1924 was one of the leaders of the Jewish nationalistic party Po’alei tsion, first in Austria and then in the United States.

This group of participants not only allowed Lozovsky and his like-minded confederates to carry out hostile nationalistic activity under the banner of the Jewish Anti--Fascist Committee among Jews in the USSR, but also created conditions for the establishment of criminal ties with Jewish nationalistic circles in the United States and other countries, for most of the directors of the Jewish Anti--Fascist Committee were known abroad as Jewish nationalists.

Soon after the Jewish Anti--Fascist Committee was organized, its directors, under the cover of carrying out the tasks assigned to the committee, began to unfurl a program of nationalistic activity and establish contact with Jewish nationalistic organizations in America. They began sending information to these organizations about the economy of the USSR, as well as slanderous information about the situation of Jews in the USSR, expecting in this way to obtain material aid from Jewish bourgeois circles and enlist their support in carrying out nationalistic activity in the USSR.

In May 1943, Lozovsky, under the pretext of intensifying propaganda about the achievements of the USSR and about the struggle with fascism, obtained permission for Mikhoels and Fefer to go to United States. He assigned them to establish personal contact with Jewish nationalistic circles in the United States in a struggle against the Soviet state. Before they left for America, Mikhoels and Fefer, at Lozovsky's instruction, collected a number of materials about industry in the USSR, which they conveyed to the Americans. While in the United States, Mikhoels and Fefer established ties with representatives of Jewish nationalists--with the millionaire Rosenberg, with Budish, with the Zionist leader Weizmann, and with others to whom they provided slanderous information about the situation of Jews in the USSR. In conversations with these nationalists, Mikhoels and Fefer agreed to intensify nationalistic activity in the USSR, while Rosenberg demanded of Mikhoels and Fefer that in exchange for material aid they would arrange for the Soviet government to settle Jews in the Crimea and create a Jewish republic there, in which, as Rosenberg stated, American Jews had an interest not only as Jews but as Americans. Along with this, Mikhoels and Fefer agreed with Jewish nationalists in the United States to send broad information about the Soviet economy on a regular basis.

Naumov & Teptsov. Stalin's Secret Pogrom, New Haven, London: Yale Univ. Press, 2001, p. 485

Upon their return to the USSR in late 1943, Mikhoels and Fefer informed Lozovsky and their other confederates about the criminal conspiracy with Jewish nationalists in the United States. Carrying out Rosenberg's assignment, Mikhoels, Fefer and Epshteyn, and Shimeliovich, with the knowledge and consent of their accomplices, drafted a letter to the Soviet government in which they raised the question of settling Jews in the Crimea and creating a Jewish republic there. This letter was edited by Lozovsky before it was sent to the government. In the letter, Lozovsky and his accomplices slandered the national

policy of the Communist Party and the Soviet government, asserting that anti--semitism was supposedly flourishing in the USSR, that the Jewish population in the USSR was not being "properly settled," that the "Jewish question" was not resolved, and that the Jewish masses of "all the countries of the world, would provide material assistance in building a Jewish republic.

Naumov & Teptsov. Stalin's Secret Pogrom, New Haven, London: Yale Univ. Press, 2001, p. 486

At the same time that this was taking place, the Jewish Anti--Fascist Committee leaders Mikhoels, Epshteyn, Fefer, and their accomplices, with Lozovsky's knowledge, broadened their activity in gathering and sending to the United States information about the economy of the USSR. For this purpose Fefer and others brought on as correspondents Yiddish writers and journalists with nationalistic sentiments who were living in Moscow and other cities of the USSR. These correspondents, who were carrying out instructions from leaders of the Jewish Anti--Fascist Committee, visited various industrial sites, newly constructed buildings, and scientific institutions and under the pretense of studying the life and work of Jews gathered classified information about the work of these organizations.

In addition, in order to gather such information in various parts of the USSR, leading members of the Jewish Anti--Fascist Committee--Hofshteyn, Bergelson, Kvitko, and others-- traveled around the country.

The findings of the expert commission about this case have establish that a significant portion of the materials sent to the United States by the leaders of the Jewish Anti--Fascist Committee were secret and contained state secrets.

During their stay in the USSR from 1943 to 1946, the American journalists Goldberg and Novick, who were Jewish nationalists, were provided by Lozovsky and Fefer with broad opportunities to gather information of interest to them. Lozovsky arranged for intelligence agent Goldberg to receive secret materials about the Soviet economy and the economies of Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia and also secret materials that Lozovsky received from Scientific Research Institute 205 about British foreign policy. Furthermore, Lozovsky assigned Fefer to accompany Goldberg to the Baltic region and to the Ukraine, where Goldberg, with Fefer's assistance, contacted local Jewish nationalists and through them also received secret information about the economy and culture of the Soviet Union.

Idealizing the distant past, they extolled biblical images in a nationalistic spirit and spread the idea of a "fraternal" unity of Jews the world over transcending class and based solely on "shared blood," in doing so joining ranks with bourgeois nationalists in the United States, Palestine, and other countries.

By means of their propaganda, the leaders of the Jewish Anti--Fascist Committee aroused nationalistic and Zionist sentiments among the Jewish population and spread slanderous rumors that anti--Semitism was supposedly flourishing in the USSR.

A vivid example of how the leaders of the Jewish Anti--Fascist Committee joined ranks with Jewish nationalists in the United States and their nationalistic activity was the publication in 1946 of the so-called Black Book, which was carried out jointly with Jewish nationalists in the United States and Palestine at the behest of the Jewish Anti--Fascist Committee with Lozovsky's consent. In this book the Jews are set off in a category separate and opposed to other people's; the contribution of the Jews to world civilization is exaggerated; attention is paid exclusively to the losses borne by the Jews during the Second World War; and the idea is presented that fascism supposedly represented a threat to the Jews alone, and not to all peoples and to world civilization.

As a result of the anti--Soviet work carried out by Lozovsky, Fefer, and their accomplices, nationalistic elements among the Jews began turning to the Jewish Anti--Fascist Committee with requests to send them to Palestine, to organize volunteer military units to fight on the side of the State of Israel, together with a number of slanderous complaints about the infringement of Jews' rights allegedly taking place in various parts of the country.

Naumov & Teptsov. Stalin's Secret Pogrom, New Haven, London: Yale Univ. Press, 2001, p. 487

Broadening the functions of the Jewish Anti--Fascist Committee without permission, its leaders engaged in getting housing and jobs for Jewish settlers sent to Birobidzhan and for Jews returning from evacuation, and finding employment for Jews in the formerly occupied parts of the Ukraine and the Crimea.

All of these criminal anti--Soviet activities by the leaders of the Jewish Anti--Fascist Committee attest to the fact that the Jewish Anti--Fascist Committee was transformed into a center of nationalistic activity and espionage.

DEFENDANTS

SHIMELIOVICH--Thus, defendant Shimeliovich spoke repeatedly at sessions of the Jewish Anti--Fascist Committee presidium in favor of broadening the nationalistic activity of the Jewish Anti--Fascist Committee inside as well as beyond the borders of the USSR, and spoke slanderously about discrimination against Jews allegedly occurring in the USSR. Shimeliovich was one of the authors of the letter to the government about organizing a Jewish republic in the Crimea that was written at the behest of American Jewish nationalists.

BERGELSON--Defendant Bergelson, the scion of a prominent merchant family and a convinced Jewish nationalist, carried out nationalistic activity starting in 1918 and was a member of the Central Committee of the Jewish nationalistic organization the Kultur lige, while in 1921, being hostile to Soviet power, he fled abroad, where over a number of years he collaborated with the Jewish reactionary press, publishing anti--Soviet, nationalistic articles. Returning to the USSR in 1934, he continued his nationalistic activity. In addition to active involvement in the anti--Soviet work of the presidium of the Jewish Anti--Fascist Committee, he personally wrote a number of articles in which he spread the idea that the Jews as a people are set apart, special, and exceptional and the idea of the unity of Jews the world over transcending class, and he extolled biblical images.

In meetings with American intelligence agent Goldberg, he provided him with information about Birobidzhan.

KVITKO--Defendant Kvitko, upon returning to the USSR in 1925 after fleeing abroad, joined up with a nationalistic Jewish literary group in the city of Kharkov called Boi (construction), headed by Trotskyites.

As deputy executive secretary of the Jewish Anti--Fascist Committee when it was first formed, he entered into a criminal conspiracy with the nationalists Mikhoels, Epshteyn and Fefer, aiding them in gathering materials about the economy of the USSR for transmittal to the United States.

Naumov & Teptsov. Stalin's Secret Pogrom, New Haven, London: Yale Univ. Press, 2001, p. 488

YUZEFOVICH--Defendant Yuzefovich in 1944 passed to the American intelligence agent Eagan secret information about the work of Soviet trade unions, while in 1945 [actually, 1946] at Lozovsky's orders, he established ties with the American intelligence officer Goldberg and passed secret material to him about Soviet industry, transportation, and culture. Also, on Lozovsky's instruction he passed to Goldberg secret material from Institute 205 about British foreign policy.

Naumov & Teptsov. Stalin's Secret Pogrom, New Haven, London: Yale Univ. Press, 2001, p. 489

SHTERN--As a member of the presidium of the Jewish Anti--Fascist Committee, defendant Shtern repeatedly made anti--Soviet nationalistic speeches at presidium sessions. In 1945 and in 1946 she established ties with a number of foreigners living in Moscow, and informed the Americans Madd and Lesley about scientific problems being worked on by Soviet scientists. She also informed press attache Tripp of the British Embassy about research at an institute of the Soviet Academy of Sciences of which she was director.

TALMY--Over a long period of time, defendant Talmy conducted nationalistic activity. While living in America from 1913 to 1917, he was a member of a reactionary Jewish party of social-territorialists, editor of the party's central organ, and then secretary of the central committee of this party. Arriving in the USSR, in Kiev, in 1917, he participated actively in the work of Jewish nationalistic organizations. Fleeing in 1921 from the USSR to America, where he became an American citizen, he continued to carry out anti--Soviet activity there. Arriving in the USSR in 1929 as a tourist along with other Americans, he contacted Jewish nationalists and with their help gathered information about Birobidzhan.

Arriving in the USSR in 1932 for permanent residence, he carried out the instructions of Jewish nationalists in the United States, and established ties with Jewish nationalists in Moscow. While a member of the Jewish Anti--Fascist Committee, he participated in nationalistic activity. In 1946, during a meeting with the American journalist Novick, he provided him with information about the Soviet economy and slanderous information about the lives of Jews in the USSR.

VATENBERG--Defendant Vatenberg, while living abroad from 1905 to 1924, conducted nationalistic activity as one of the leaders of the Jewish party Po’alei tsion, first in Austria and then in America. Joining the American Communist Party in 1924, he got involved in a factional struggle with the leadership of the central committee. In 1926-29 he came as a tourist to the USSR, where he established ties with Jewish nationalists and with their help collected information about Birobidzhan.

Arriving for permanent residence in the USSR in 1933, he once again established ties with Jewish nationalists who were carrying out anti--Soviet activity in the USSR. As a member of the Jewish Anti--Fascist Committee, he was involved in conducting nationalistic activity at the Jewish Anti--Fascist Committee. In 1946, he met with the American journalist Novick and provided him with information about the Soviet economy and slanderous fabrications about the lives of Jews in the USSR.

Naumov & Teptsov. Stalin's Secret Pogrom, New Haven, London: Yale Univ. Press, 2001, p. 490

VATENBERG-OSTROVSKAYA--Defendant Vatenberg-Ostrovskaya, holding nationalistic sentiments and working as a translator at the Jewish Anti--Fascist Committee, knew about the nationalistic activity of the leaders of the Jewish Anti--Fascist Committee and on instructions from them translated from Yiddish into English materials containing state secrets which were sent to the United States. In 1945-46 meeting with the Americans Novick and Davis in Moscow, she provided them with information about Jews living in Birobidzhan and in the Soviet Central Asian republics.

TEUMIN--Defendant Teumin,...met frequently with Mikhoels and Fefer and shared their anti--Soviet nationalistic views, and in 1945 [actually, 1946], under assignment by Lozovsky, she gathered secret materials about the economies of the Lithuanian, Latvian, and Estonian Soviet Socialist republics and personally avoided the censor while passing them on to the American intelligence agent Goldberg.

THE SENTENCING

All defendants, except Shtern, were sentenced to execution by firing squad, with all of their property to be confiscated. Shtern [was sentenced] to be confined to a correctional labor camp for a period of three years and six months, to be deprived of her rights for three years, without the confiscation of her property, and after this period of confinement has been completed,... the convict Shtern shall be sent to a remote area for five years.

The period of preliminary confinement shall be applied toward convict Shtern's period of confinement, to be counted starting on January 28, 1949.

Naumov & Teptsov. Stalin's Secret Pogrom, New Haven, London: Yale Univ. Press, 2001, p. 491

During the preliminary investigation all of the accused, except for Shimeliovich, pled guilty and gave detailed testimony about the criminal, anti--Soviet activity allegedly carried out by the Jewish Anti--Fascist Committee.

Naumov & Teptsov. Stalin's Secret Pogrom, New Haven, London: Yale Univ. Press, 2001, p. 502