Table Of ContentBeyond the Pale
Rochester Studies in East and Central Europe
Senior Editor: Timothy Snyder
Yale University
Additional Titles of Interest
Revolution and Counterrevolution in Poland, 1980–1989:
Solidarity, Martial Law, and the End of Communism in Europe
Andrzej Paczkowski
Translated by Christina Manetti
The Utopia of Terror: Life and Death in Wartime Croatia
Rory Yeomans
Kyiv as Regime City: The Return of Soviet Power after Nazi Occupation
Martin J. Blackwell
Magnetic North: Conversations with Tomas Venclova
Ellen Hinsey and Tomas Venclova
Witnessing Romania’s Century of Turmoil: Memoirs of a Political Prisoner
Nicolae Margineanu
Edited by Dennis Deletant
Plebeian Modernity:
Social Practices, Illegality, and the Urban Poor in Russia, 1906–1916
Ilya Gerasimov
Making Martyrs: The Language of Sacrifice in Russian Culture from Stalin to Putin
Yuliya Minkova
The Balkans as Europe, 1821–1914
Edited by Timothy Snyder and Katherine Younger
An American in Warsaw:
Selected Writings of Hugh S. Gibson, US Minister to Poland, 1919-1924
Edited and annotated by Vivian Hux Reed
With M. B. B. Biskupski, Jochen Böhler, and Jan-Roman Potocki
Polish Literature and National Identity: A Postcolonial Perspective
Dariusz Skórczewski
Translated by Agnieszka Polakowska
A complete list of titles in the Rochester Studies in East and Central Europe series
may be found on our website, www.urpress.com.
Beyond the Pale
The Holocaust in the North
Caucasus
Edited by Crispin Brooks and Kiril Feferman
Copyright © 2020 by the Editors and Contributors
All rights reserved. Except as permitted under current legislation, no
part of this work may be photocopied, stored in a retrieval system,
published, performed in public, adapted, broadcast, transmitted,
recorded, or reproduced in any form or by any means, without the
prior permission of the copyright owner.
First published 2020
University of Rochester Press
668 Mt. Hope Avenue, Rochester, NY 14620, USA
www.urpress.com
and Boydell & Brewer Limited
PO Box 9, Woodbridge, Suffolk IP12 3DF, UK
www.boydellandbrewer.com
ISBN: 978-1-64825-003-3 hardback
ISBN: 978-1-80010-038-1 ePDF
ISSN: 1528-4808 ; v. 24
Cataloging-in-Publication data available from the Library of Congress
Cover image credit: Execution site of Jewish refugees in Ladozhskaia identified by
Yahad-In Unum. © Yahad-In Unum/Markel Redondo
Contents
List of Illustrations vii
Acknowledgments ix
List of Abbreviations xi
Note on Terminology xv
Introduction 1
Crispin Brooks and Kiril Feferman
1 The Caucasus: A Rock in the Grinding Wheels of World History 25
Georgi Derluguian
2 Dwelling at the Foot of a Volcano? Jewish Perspectives on the
Holocaust in the North Caucasus 48
Kiril Feferman
3 “Operation Blue,” Einsatzgruppe D, and the Genocide in
the Caucasus 69
Andrej Angrick
4 The Kaukasier Kompanie (“Caucasian Company”): Soviet Ethnic
Minorities, Collaborators, and Mass Killers 95
Stephen Tyas
5 Mass Executions in Krasnodar Krai: Cross-Checking Sources for
the Holocaust in the North Caucasus 118
Andrej Umansky
6 In the Shadow of “Mass Treason”: The Holocaust in the Karachai
Region 145
Crispin Brooks
vi contents
❧
7 Rescue and Jewish-Muslim Relations in the North Caucasus 184
Sufian Zhemukhov and William Youmans
8 “We Were Saved Because the Occupation Lasted Only Six Months”:
(Self-)Reflection on Survival Strategies during the Holocaust in the
North Caucasus 218
Irina Rebrova
9 The Holocaust on Soviet Territory—Forgotten Story? Individual
and Official Memorialization of the Holocaust in Rostov-on-Don 241
Christina Winkler
Glossary 263
Bibliography 265
List of Contributors 293
Index 295
Illustrations
Maps
1 The North Caucasus in 1942: administrative divisions 2
2 The North Caucasus in 1942: main cities and other locations 3
3 Soviet evacuation routes into and out of the North Caucasus in
1941–42 53
4 The Karachai autonomous oblast in 1938 155
Figures
5.1 Viktor M., eyewitness to an execution of Jewish refugees in
Ladozhskaia 142
8.1 Tankha Otershtein, during a 2013 interview with Irina Rebrova 221
Tables
I.1 The North Caucasus population in 1897 10
I.2 The North Caucasus population in 1939 11
4.1 Gas van killings in the North Caucasus 115
5.1 Executions of Jews in Krasnodar krai in August 1942 (excluding
Krasnodar) 121
5.2 Executions of Jews in Krasnodar krai in September 1942 122
viii illustrations
❧
6.1 Prewar ethnic composition of the Karachai autonomous oblast 157
6.2 Ethnic composition of the districts and major settlements of
the Karachai autonomous oblast in 1939 158
6.3 Jewish evacuees in the Karachai autonomous oblast in
March 1942 161
6.4 Mass killings of Jews in the Karachai autonomous oblast 171
7.1 The Beslenei orphans’ adopted names 208
7.2 Entry from the Beslenei household record book, with survivor
Vova Tseev 213
8.1 Estimates of Jewish victims in the North Caucasus based on
Soviet sources 228
Acknowledgments
Over the time it has taken for this volume to emerge, the editors have
incurred many debts of gratitude. First, we have greatly appreciated the sup-
port of our home institutions: the University of Southern California (both
the USC Shoah Foundation and USC Libraries Special Collections) and
Ariel University. We would like to thank Sonia Kane, Julia Cook, and Rio
Hartwell from University of Rochester Press, as well as Professor Timothy
Snyder, the series editor, who found interest in the volume and thoughtfully
and patiently proceeded with it. The three anonymous readers who reviewed
the manuscript for University of Rochester Press provided much insight and
guidance to make this a better book. The volume’s authors are all commended
for being able to adjust their insights to meet the editors’ requirements. We
owe a big thank you to Andy Rutkowski, the USC Libraries Visualization
Librarian, for carefully crafting the maps in the book, and to Gabe Vincent
and the USC Libraries Interlibrary Loan and Integrated Document Delivery
team, who handled numerous obscure and difficult requests. Special men-
tion also goes to Ron Coleman at the United States Holocaust Memorial
Museum and Patrice Bensimon at Yahad-In Unum. At various times, Peg
Levine, Jared McBride, and Martha Stroud read portions of the manuscript
and gave valuable feedback. Crispin is also extremely grateful for the encour-
agement of his wife, Yelena, and the humor of his son Sasha, as well as for the
inspiration and guidance of his late father, Nicholas Brooks. Kiril is deeply
indebted to his father, late mother, and wife for their support and patience in
letting him work on the volume.
