The Far East and European jews during the nazi period (1933-1945)

The paper examines a little-studied story about the role of the Far East in the destiny of European Jews during the tragic years of Nazism. The author uses declassified files from federal and regional archives in Russia, i.e. The State Archive of the Russian Federation, The Russian State Archive of Socio-Political History, The Archive of Foreign Policy of the Russian Federation, The State Archive of the Khabarovsk Territory, The State Archive of the Jewish Autonomous Region, as well as the Jewish periodicals from the international archives, namely The Association of Former Jewish Residents of China in Israel ‘Igud Yotzei Sin’ (Tel-Aviv), YIVO (New York) and the American Jewish Archives (Cincinnati). After Adolf Hitler came to power in Germany in 1933, the Soviet leadership saw a chance for attracting more support for a Jewish autonomy in the Soviet Far East, and promised to accept a certain number of Jews from Europe. This attracted interest from a number of representatives of international Jewish diaspora, who were negative about the “Birobidzhan project’ before. Now they hoped to save at least a part of the Jews from the mortal danger, while the most of countries were reluctant to accept these refugees. Nevertheless, this hopeful promise of Soviet leadership was not delivered mostly due to the political regime that took shape in the USSR. At the same time, the Soviet Union allowed the transfer of Jewish refugees via its territory to Japan, China and other countries. The Jews were transported by the Trans-Siberian Railway network to Vladivostok, and then boarded to the Japanese vessels. Despite the allied relations with Nazi Germany, Japanese authorities did not pursue an anti-Semitic policy due to both historical and political reasons. The Japanese military on the occupied territories neither persecuted the Jewish refugees, nor provided a substantial support to them. A special attention is paid to the destiny of European Jews, who reached Shanghai and settled there. The local and international Jewish organizations provided charity support for 20 thousand of refugees settled in the city. Despite harsh material conditions, the refugees were not discriminated. However, presumably under the pressure of Germany the Japanese occupation authorities eventually created the ghetto in 1943. It had nothing in common with the ghettos in Europe, although it was a sore trial for its inhabitants. At the same time, through all the hardships at the Far East, their lives were saved. Thus, the Far East turned to be a region, where some of European Jews could find a refuge during the above-mentioned period. Moscow did not carry out its initial pledge to accept a part of the refugees in the newly established Jewish Autonomous Region. Nevertheless, the USSR authorities provided and secured their transit via the Soviet territory, therefore helping them to save lives. The position taken by Japan in the “Jewish question” also was a significant chance for their salvation. At the same time, only philanthropic organizations and Jewish communities in China focused their efforts and did as much as they could for the support and help to the Jewish refugees, appeared in the Far East.

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