The Religious Dimension of the First Antisemitic Violence in Eastern Galicia (June–July 1941): Manifestations and interpretations
www.degruyter.com
This article deals with the religious dimension of the violence against the Jews in Eastern Galicia at the start of Operation Barbarossa (the invasion of the Soviet Union by Nazi Germany on June 22, 1941), in June–July 1941. It examines the context of the various attacks, such as the burning of synagogues, the public persecutions of devout Jews, in addition to the verbal insults, especially by priests instigating the local population against their Jewish neighbors. The paper looks at the political use of these narratives, as well as their consequences and justifications.

Before setting fire to it, [Axis] soldiers entered the synagogue with the intention to loot, destroy, and desecrate the religious objects. They took at least one photograph, probably as a souvenir. In the center of the picture, five [Axis] soldiers pose on the steps leading to the “Aron Kodesh”, the Holy Ark usually containing the Torah scrolls, the holiest place in a synagogue.

Signs of the recent looting and destruction surround the soldiers: there are overturned desks, benches, and open drawers. The [Axis] soldiers are mocking the observant Jews, flouting, and ridiculing the sacred objects. The picture immortalizes a grotesque scene, an act of plunder in the center of a vandalized synagogue; after which the building was burnt down.

When the [Axis] entered the city, they caught men, women, children, old and young people and pushed everyone into the great synagogue. They locked them there, poured gasoline on all sides, as well as around the Beith‐Hamidrash and the Belser Klose and set them on fire.

Nothing remained of the synagogues and of the Jews. About 200 Jews perished there. […] The attacks on the Jewish religious buildings went hand in hand with a practice of persecutions against visibly observant Jews and rabbis in the first weeks of the invasion.

[…]

In September 1939, and in June 1941, [Fascist] soldiers and Propagandakompanien (ostjganda companies) took several pictures, showing [Fascists] cutting the beards off of Orthodox Jews. Stripping a man’s beard — by cutting or burning it — is nothing trivial. As the beard is a symbol of masculinity, to deprive a man of his facial hair is to deny him his virility.

This humiliation echoes the practice of shaving women’s heads. [Judaists] followed the prescriptions of the Bible in Leviticus (19:27) forbidding trimming one’s beard.

Therefore, cutting a Jew’s beard is an act aimed at trampling on his religious convictions in addition to taking away a part of his identity. The meaning is twofold: he is deprived of his status as a man, and as a believer.

[…]

The soldiers arrested bearded Jews dressed in religious clothing, and rounded them up in the city center. They ordered them to put on their tallitot — prayer shawls — and then handed them guns. [Axis] soldiers lined up along the opposite wall with their hands up.

A scene of Jews shooting Germans was staged and consequently photographed. According to George Eisenberg, a Sasiv resident, the picture appeared in the newspapers the next day, calling on the Germans for revenge.

(Emphasis added.)

  • @Shrike502English
    3•10 months ago

    And now, seventy years later, idiots on the internet would tell me “Jews invented the Nazis to attack Russia”. Or the more common "Jews are manipulating world events, just look at “scrolls of Sion wisemen!”

    Thank you for your posting, comrade. It matters greatly