Bubbe's Place: Stories

When the war was over

After the war in the nineteen forties many Yiddish speaking writers and intellectuals were purged. At that time Jews were excluded from the professions of law, diplomacy, and academics. In 1952 ten prominent Jews, including the general secretary of the Czechoslovakian Communist party were executed. In 1953 nine Kremlin doctors (seven were Jewish) were arrested and charged with murder. Jewish doctors were accused of contaminating drugs in chemist shops. Only the death of Stalin in 1953 prevented mass deportations of Jews to Siberia.

My parents were very grateful that they were able to escape from Russia/USSR. Not all their siblings were so lucky. I was very fortunate that my parents made it to America. I grew up free from overt anti-Semitism, from physical acts of anti-Semitism. Yes, there were Jewish quotas in some schools. Yes, there were places that wouldn't hire Jews or wouldn't allow Jews to be guests or members. Maybe I did face some discrimination, but I was still fortunate to be born in and to be a citizen of America. Everything I read or heard about Europe drove that point home.

When the war was over, I was old enough to see and understand that the world did not care about the unfortunate oppressed Jewish people of Europe. In 1945 I was too young to do much when people were freed from the concentration camps. I was old enough to do something when finally the USSR opened its doors and let her Jews emigrate. I marched. I wrote letters. I gave money. I befriended the new Russian immigrants to Philadelphia.