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This is a "side response" to Ed's statement about few Polish Jews being
deported by the Soviets.

First, here is some POLICY for the group.

While there are sometimes tensions between certain elements of the Jewish
and Polish communities, the Kresy-Siberia group is not a forum to pursue
this topic. There is no basis in fact for the statement on the ethnic or
religious background of members of the Kresy-Siberia group, which is not
screened for membership on those criteria.

I invite all members to read and remember the mission of the Kresy-Siberia
Group, which is to "bring into contact people from countries around the
world with a special interest in the tragedy of the 1.7 million Polish
citizens of various faiths and ethnicities (Polish, Ukrainian, Belorussian,
Catholic, Orthodox, Jewish, etc.) deported from eastern Poland (Kresy) in
1940-42 to special labour camps in Siberia, Kazakhstan and Soviet Asia."

Now for some HISTORY.

Under the Soviets, especially in the Kresy eastern borderlands, while being
Polish was sufficient reason for Soviet persecution, many Jews were also
persecuted because they were seen as threats to the Communist system.

After the 1941 amnesty, the Polish Government-in-Exile in London
investigated the plight of its citizens deported to the USSR and determined
that whilst the largest group of forced deportees was ethnically Polish,
many other Polish citizens were also deported, including land-owning
Ukrainians and Belorussians.

Approximately one-third of all the deportees from Poland to Siberia,
Kazakhstan, etc. were reported by the Polish Government-in-Exile to be
Jewish (that would make it half a million). On the other hand, it is a
fact that a significant proportion of the NKVD officers participating in the
persecutions of Polish citizens were themselves Jewish. If anything,
however, I would think that these facts would prove that being Jewish had
nothing to do with whether a person became a victim or a persecutor under
the Soviet regime.

Ed, is it possible that you (who was there as a young man, while I wasn't)
have formed your impressions because you do not personally remember many
Jews among the deportees? The deportees were scattered amongst hundreds of
far-flung settlements across the USSR - is it possible that not many of the
Jewish deportees did not end up in your settlement?

Furthermore, is it possible that you do not remember many Jewish soldiers in
Anders Army or with the cadets, after your evacuation to Persia?
Unfortunately, most of the Jewish Poles were not able to escape to Persia
with Anders Army. While General Anders issued orders that his Polish Army
was to be completely non-discriminating as to its members ethnic and
religious background, his British sponsors (who were occupying
Palestine/Israel at the time) prohibited armed Jews from being brought in to
the Middle East.

(Note that many Jewish soldiers, like future Israeli Prime Minister Menachem
Begin - slipped out of the USSR with the Polish Army anyway and went on to
form the Irgun anti-British terrorist group and later the Israeli Army after
the Polish Army turned a blind eye to their desertion once they got to
Palestine).

I hope that this note on POLICY and HISTORY helps us to guide our
discussions and keep them on-topic in the future.

Kind regards,

--
Stefan Wisniowski
Moderator, Kresy-Siberia