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The Unknown Black Book: The Holocaust in the German-Occupied Soviet Territories
The Unknown Black Book provides a revelatory compilation of testimonies from Jews who survived open-air massacres and other atrocities carried out by the Germans and their allies in the occupied Soviet territories during World War II -- Ukraine, Belorussia, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, and Crimea. These documents are first-hand accounts by survivors of work camps, ghettos, forced marches, beatings, starvation, and disease. Collected under the direction of two renowned Soviet Jewish journalists, Ilya Ehrenburg and Vasily Grossman, they tell of Jews who lived in pits, walled-off corners of apartments, attics, and basement dugouts, unable to emerge due to fear that their neighbors would betray them, as often happened.
446 pages, Hardcover
First published December 30, 2007
1 person is currently reading
127 people want to read
About the author
Joshua Rubenstein
13 books14 followersJoshua Rubenstein is an associate of the Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies, Harvard University. He was a staff member of Amnesty International USA from 1975 to 2012. He lives in Brookline, MA.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
January 6, 2011
James 4:2 NIV
You want something but don’t get it. You kill and covet, but you cannot have what you want. You quarrel and fight. You do not have, because you do not ask God.
You have admired your neighbor’s home for years. He has the best view. It’s like a penthouse apartment. He drinks the best wine. His home has the most beautiful things in it. Some are worth quite a bit of money. He drives a car you want to drive. You’re his friend and he invites you into the penthouse. You drink and eat with him. You’ve let his dog out for him and he has helped you, too. Behind closed doors, you and your wife pick at him. He thinks you’re his friend. You hope he remembers you in his will. Then, war breaks out. He’s Jewish. You’re a Christian. A proclamation goes out against Jews. You turn him in and he is beaten. He loses his apartment. You magnanimously take it over enjoying the fruits of your deception. He returns and finds he has no home. He doesn’t even own a coat. You scoff at him and drink wine in front of your favorite new window. Did this really happen?
“I will describe life under Hitler briefly. After this order, our neighbors would no longer let me into my apartment; these were people with whom I had lived in the same apartment for eight years in great friendship. Kristina Stepanovna Artemenko, the wife of a Party member, was always profiting actively from my “death.” She turned me in and set herself up in my room. She took all my belongings, which she is using to this day. She is living in the calmest way that you can imagine in the capital city of Kiev, at 10 Lenin Street, Apartment 3. It seems she works somewhere and is now an honest Soviet citizen. She knew that I was still alive and would get in her way; it is obvious that she thought so. She built her well-being upon my unhappiness. She is openly involved in stealing and looting, and feels on top of the world (no children, a former kulak). But I lie on a bare, cold floor with two children, in a cellar where water streams down from the walls, just as Hitler spilled Jewish blood (without a bed, without a table, without a chair), because I do not have the means to acquire new belongings, and this good-for-nothing of an enemy of the people lives in luxury with my things that I earned through years of honest, hard work. Where is human justice, then?” – GARF, f. 8114, op. 1, d. 960, ll. 138-175ob., 191-198ob. The Original Manuscript.
The Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee (JAC) was established in February of 1942. The German invasion of the former USSR occurred less than a year before that, and JAC, one of five such committees, came together to appeal to the various countries of the west. They supported the war-time alliance of the Western democracies. They published articles, made radio broadcasts, arranged for visits from foreign dignitaries to reveal German atrocities and the valor of Soviet forces who were battling the Wehrmacht on the Eastern front.
Originally, JAC collected first hand accounts of the German Holocaust in the Soviet Union from thousands all over the country. They were survivors or descendants of survivors. After the war, the Black Book underwent excruciating censorship. Russia didn’t want their part in the Holocaust published. Government officials only wanted Germany’s part published. It was only after Gorbachev came into power that the secret KGB vaults were opened and scholars were allowed to examine its documents. Thus, the full manuscript of the Black Book came out of the dark. The Unknown Black Book was published in association with the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum edited by Joshua Rubenstein and Ilya Altman in 2008. The quotes in this article come from that edition.
I’m only halfway through this enormous tome. The book gives a history lesson of the origins of the Black Book followed by letters from people who endured what the National Geographic calls, “The Hidden Holocaust,” Einsatzgruppen. They are letters from Jews and Russians or their descendants. The Nazis murdered six million Jews in the USSR. Whole communities were wiped out. “On the eve of his death, Hitler boasted that he regarded the killing of the Jews as the greatest service rendered by National Socialism to humanity,” says The Unknown Black Book.
“It turned out that the walls were covered with writing in pencil. There was not a single empty spot on the wall. These were the last words of the doomed, their farewell to this world. The Nazis had driven people in here, and then, after robbing them of everything down to their last stitch of clothing, had led them out naked to be shot somewhere outside of Kovel, in the city cemetery, in the swamps or forests, or maybe in Majdanek, which had a direct rail connection to Kovel. They had also killed people right here, those who were too weak, or who had cursed their murderers.” – GARF f. 8114, op. L, d. 960 ll. 6-9. A typewritten manuscript by Sgt S.N. Grutman to Ilya Ehrenburg December 2, 1944
It is a depressing book but necessary read. There are people who view life lightly. That’s the problem with people who deny God’s existence. There are some who are striving to, “put Christ out of business.” First, we allowed abortions. Then, people are trying to abort as late as near delivery. A few years ago a woman was forced to starve to death because her husband wanted to go on with his life and instead of honoring his vows, he preferred to overlook that she wanted to live in spite of her heavy handicap. He said she was brain dead. Her parents said she was aware of her surroundings and wanted to live based on evidence. A judge chose a death sentence.
We have come so far in our society that we no longer value life. We quote people like George Bernard Shaw without really knowing what he believes. We treat people on the road, in the store, online, and even in political debates less than humanely. Technology has made us cold preferring online chats to live ones and video games to real life adventure. I am not done with this book yet. It is graphic. There are accounts of people dying that I cannot recount in this blog. The image is still in my mind. When I was in school I never KNEW about Holocausts like the Einsatzgruppen, the Ukraine Holocaust (prior to Hitler), and I couldn’t empathize with the Jews. I would hear about the Holocaust, but never truly understood the atrocities of it. I didn’t feel it. It was simply more dates to memorize and a long boring account of history. Then, I read this book. My jaw fell. My smile went away. Life meant little to the Nazis. We all have the head knowledge of that time, but until you read The Unknown Black Book, you won’t really understand the horrors of that era. Those horrors could happen in any era if we do not learn from our history and stop buying into cleverly worded arguments from the left. Life is sacred. Period. We should strive to save lives and not kill them because they are inconvenient.
You want something but don’t get it. You kill and covet, but you cannot have what you want. You quarrel and fight. You do not have, because you do not ask God.
You have admired your neighbor’s home for years. He has the best view. It’s like a penthouse apartment. He drinks the best wine. His home has the most beautiful things in it. Some are worth quite a bit of money. He drives a car you want to drive. You’re his friend and he invites you into the penthouse. You drink and eat with him. You’ve let his dog out for him and he has helped you, too. Behind closed doors, you and your wife pick at him. He thinks you’re his friend. You hope he remembers you in his will. Then, war breaks out. He’s Jewish. You’re a Christian. A proclamation goes out against Jews. You turn him in and he is beaten. He loses his apartment. You magnanimously take it over enjoying the fruits of your deception. He returns and finds he has no home. He doesn’t even own a coat. You scoff at him and drink wine in front of your favorite new window. Did this really happen?
“I will describe life under Hitler briefly. After this order, our neighbors would no longer let me into my apartment; these were people with whom I had lived in the same apartment for eight years in great friendship. Kristina Stepanovna Artemenko, the wife of a Party member, was always profiting actively from my “death.” She turned me in and set herself up in my room. She took all my belongings, which she is using to this day. She is living in the calmest way that you can imagine in the capital city of Kiev, at 10 Lenin Street, Apartment 3. It seems she works somewhere and is now an honest Soviet citizen. She knew that I was still alive and would get in her way; it is obvious that she thought so. She built her well-being upon my unhappiness. She is openly involved in stealing and looting, and feels on top of the world (no children, a former kulak). But I lie on a bare, cold floor with two children, in a cellar where water streams down from the walls, just as Hitler spilled Jewish blood (without a bed, without a table, without a chair), because I do not have the means to acquire new belongings, and this good-for-nothing of an enemy of the people lives in luxury with my things that I earned through years of honest, hard work. Where is human justice, then?” – GARF, f. 8114, op. 1, d. 960, ll. 138-175ob., 191-198ob. The Original Manuscript.
The Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee (JAC) was established in February of 1942. The German invasion of the former USSR occurred less than a year before that, and JAC, one of five such committees, came together to appeal to the various countries of the west. They supported the war-time alliance of the Western democracies. They published articles, made radio broadcasts, arranged for visits from foreign dignitaries to reveal German atrocities and the valor of Soviet forces who were battling the Wehrmacht on the Eastern front.
Originally, JAC collected first hand accounts of the German Holocaust in the Soviet Union from thousands all over the country. They were survivors or descendants of survivors. After the war, the Black Book underwent excruciating censorship. Russia didn’t want their part in the Holocaust published. Government officials only wanted Germany’s part published. It was only after Gorbachev came into power that the secret KGB vaults were opened and scholars were allowed to examine its documents. Thus, the full manuscript of the Black Book came out of the dark. The Unknown Black Book was published in association with the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum edited by Joshua Rubenstein and Ilya Altman in 2008. The quotes in this article come from that edition.
I’m only halfway through this enormous tome. The book gives a history lesson of the origins of the Black Book followed by letters from people who endured what the National Geographic calls, “The Hidden Holocaust,” Einsatzgruppen. They are letters from Jews and Russians or their descendants. The Nazis murdered six million Jews in the USSR. Whole communities were wiped out. “On the eve of his death, Hitler boasted that he regarded the killing of the Jews as the greatest service rendered by National Socialism to humanity,” says The Unknown Black Book.
“It turned out that the walls were covered with writing in pencil. There was not a single empty spot on the wall. These were the last words of the doomed, their farewell to this world. The Nazis had driven people in here, and then, after robbing them of everything down to their last stitch of clothing, had led them out naked to be shot somewhere outside of Kovel, in the city cemetery, in the swamps or forests, or maybe in Majdanek, which had a direct rail connection to Kovel. They had also killed people right here, those who were too weak, or who had cursed their murderers.” – GARF f. 8114, op. L, d. 960 ll. 6-9. A typewritten manuscript by Sgt S.N. Grutman to Ilya Ehrenburg December 2, 1944
It is a depressing book but necessary read. There are people who view life lightly. That’s the problem with people who deny God’s existence. There are some who are striving to, “put Christ out of business.” First, we allowed abortions. Then, people are trying to abort as late as near delivery. A few years ago a woman was forced to starve to death because her husband wanted to go on with his life and instead of honoring his vows, he preferred to overlook that she wanted to live in spite of her heavy handicap. He said she was brain dead. Her parents said she was aware of her surroundings and wanted to live based on evidence. A judge chose a death sentence.
We have come so far in our society that we no longer value life. We quote people like George Bernard Shaw without really knowing what he believes. We treat people on the road, in the store, online, and even in political debates less than humanely. Technology has made us cold preferring online chats to live ones and video games to real life adventure. I am not done with this book yet. It is graphic. There are accounts of people dying that I cannot recount in this blog. The image is still in my mind. When I was in school I never KNEW about Holocausts like the Einsatzgruppen, the Ukraine Holocaust (prior to Hitler), and I couldn’t empathize with the Jews. I would hear about the Holocaust, but never truly understood the atrocities of it. I didn’t feel it. It was simply more dates to memorize and a long boring account of history. Then, I read this book. My jaw fell. My smile went away. Life meant little to the Nazis. We all have the head knowledge of that time, but until you read The Unknown Black Book, you won’t really understand the horrors of that era. Those horrors could happen in any era if we do not learn from our history and stop buying into cleverly worded arguments from the left. Life is sacred. Period. We should strive to save lives and not kill them because they are inconvenient.
April 29, 2018
This was not an easy read. To be honest this was my second attempt to read this. The first was about 7 years ago but I had to give up half way as it was too disturbing.
One of the unnerving things is the unemotional way most of the people interviewed described things such as the shooting of families including children. The writers/interviewees have been so traumatised that recalling things like that come out like they got a paper cut. Some of them tend to get more excited about remembering some safety found or food than people dying.
Another realisation I made (which I made part way through my first reading and was why I stopped) was that some of these stories end suddenly. They talk about their life today and sometimes what they intend to do then it ends. Most of these end because the person died. The person you were coming to get attached to, just died. Probably executed. Some of them had babies, children in their story as well.
One thing I think this does a good job of is bringing statistics to life. It is easy to read about the millions of civilians murdered in war either directly by military action or indirectly for starvation and disease when they are recounted in history books as numbers. This makes you understand that every "1" in these numbers was actually a person who was part of a family with hopes and dreams. So by the time you see lists of names and ages of people shot during a pogrom it gives you sense of horror when you read the names. For example in the Molotov Collective Farm, there is a list of the 65 people shot. Some of them were:
Polyakov, Meyer, 60
Polyakova, 55, his wife
Polyakova, Vina, 18, daughter
Polyakov, Pinya, 20, son
Polyakov, Yasha, 37, son
Polyakov, Leva, 15, Yasha's son
Polyakov, David, 6, Yasha's son
Polyakov, 1, Yasha's son
They are not just names and ages, there were a family. From the 60 year old man and his 55 year old wife to their 1 year old grandson.
This is a dark but important book. But brace yourself because this is not fiction. This is a series of very confronting narratives describing what ordinary people are capable of doing to other ordinary people.
One of the unnerving things is the unemotional way most of the people interviewed described things such as the shooting of families including children. The writers/interviewees have been so traumatised that recalling things like that come out like they got a paper cut. Some of them tend to get more excited about remembering some safety found or food than people dying.
Another realisation I made (which I made part way through my first reading and was why I stopped) was that some of these stories end suddenly. They talk about their life today and sometimes what they intend to do then it ends. Most of these end because the person died. The person you were coming to get attached to, just died. Probably executed. Some of them had babies, children in their story as well.
One thing I think this does a good job of is bringing statistics to life. It is easy to read about the millions of civilians murdered in war either directly by military action or indirectly for starvation and disease when they are recounted in history books as numbers. This makes you understand that every "1" in these numbers was actually a person who was part of a family with hopes and dreams. So by the time you see lists of names and ages of people shot during a pogrom it gives you sense of horror when you read the names. For example in the Molotov Collective Farm, there is a list of the 65 people shot. Some of them were:
Polyakov, Meyer, 60
Polyakova, 55, his wife
Polyakova, Vina, 18, daughter
Polyakov, Pinya, 20, son
Polyakov, Yasha, 37, son
Polyakov, Leva, 15, Yasha's son
Polyakov, David, 6, Yasha's son
Polyakov, 1, Yasha's son
They are not just names and ages, there were a family. From the 60 year old man and his 55 year old wife to their 1 year old grandson.
This is a dark but important book. But brace yourself because this is not fiction. This is a series of very confronting narratives describing what ordinary people are capable of doing to other ordinary people.
May 6, 2024
A extremely disturbing collection of the accounts of the beginning of the Holocaust as told by those who experienced it. While many other accounts of the Holocaust are focused on the infamous death and concentration camps, these are accounts of initiation of the murderous Nazi quest exterminate the Jewish people through the actions of the Einsatzgruppen units that followed the Nazi army into Eastern Europe during Operation Barbarossa in June 1941. The actions described are those of the organised systematic torture and extermination - primarily by mass shootings - of a civilian population on a scale unheard of in modern warfare. These accounts are truly horrific and often punctuated with accounts of how willingly and quickly peoples who had been steeped in antisemitism joined in the persecution and slaughter of those who, prior to the invasion, had been their neighbours. More than a few times I was reduced to tears as I read of the atrocities perpetrated in the name of the Nazi hate.
October 17, 2018
Chilling, first person testimony of the Holocaust in German-occupied Soviet territories. For anyone interested in WWII history, this should be required reading. My interest was in the information related to what happened in the areas in which my paternal grandfather lived -- now parts of Ukraine. Some photos are included and an extensive index allows you to search for specific villages, situations, and individuals. This book would be suitable for college level readers, or for older teens.
April 1, 2009
This book is a collection of testimonies about the Holocaust in Russia and the Soviet satellite states that, mainly for political reasons, didn't make it into the regular Black Book and weren't published until now. Hence, the Unknown Black Book.
A word to the wise: reading this is like sticking your head inside a charnel house and taking a big whiff. Every page is spattered in gore. Many scenes described therein would be unacceptable even in a Hollywood horror film. That said, it actually tends to get rather dull. Because every story is basically the same, page after page of houses looted, people beaten, people humiliated, women raped, people tortured, people killed in all sorts of horrible ways. Yawn.
This is a good collection of primary source testimonies on the Holocaust in the USSR, particularly the Einsatzgruppen, but it's hardly beach reading.
A word to the wise: reading this is like sticking your head inside a charnel house and taking a big whiff. Every page is spattered in gore. Many scenes described therein would be unacceptable even in a Hollywood horror film. That said, it actually tends to get rather dull. Because every story is basically the same, page after page of houses looted, people beaten, people humiliated, women raped, people tortured, people killed in all sorts of horrible ways. Yawn.
This is a good collection of primary source testimonies on the Holocaust in the USSR, particularly the Einsatzgruppen, but it's hardly beach reading.
April 13, 2013
After WWII some famous Jewish writers in the Soviet Union gathered stories of the holocaust in their country. A version was published in the US, I think in Yiddish and English, but the original version was suppressed by Stalin or his peeps because it made mention of all the help the Germans got from the Ukrainians, Latvians, etc - and the policy became to only refer to the victims as Soviet citizens. This book is the part that wasn't published. It was finally published in Jerusalem and Moscow by Yad Vashem in 1993. I find multiple stories of this kind from the holocaust to be considerably more depressing than straight histories.
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September 16, 2010Pretty intense. Probably going to take a while to finish.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews