metro >>

'Resistance
in Red'

Leizer Selektor, then and now

CJ

Frankel symposium
explores the role
of Soviet Jewish
combatants in WWII.

Sheftl Zisser, then and now

Yaffe Klugerman I Special to the Jewish News

T

hey were not what one might
consider to be typical Holocaust
victims. They were Soviet Jewish
soldiers who had experienced the con-
sequences of Nazism firsthand, and they
were determined to fight.
Their inspiring story of perseverance
will be explored at events organized by the
University of Michigan's Frankel Center
for Judaic Studies, beginning with a sym-
posium Oct. 25 called "Resistance in Red:
Soviet Jewish Combatants in World War
IL' examining the approximately 500,000
Soviet Jews who fought in the Red Army
during the war; only 300,000 survived.
"Surprisingly little is known about what
happened to Jews in the Soviet Union
during World War II," said U-M Professor
Mikhail Krutikov. Few realize, he said,
"how they fought in the Red Army and
among partisans, how they lived and
worked in the Soviet interior, and the
plight of hundreds of thousands of refu-
gees from Poland"
Nine local Jewish Soviet veterans will
be attending, including Leizer Levikovich
Selektor and Sheftl Abramovich Zisser.
Selektor survived the Leningrad
blockade and later served in a marine
unit. Awarded with the Order of the Red
Star, after the war Selektor worked at the
Azerbaijan State Marine Academy, head
of educational programming.
"The attitude of each [Soviet] marine
toward the enemy was the same as the
attitude of a Jew [toward a German]: If
you don't kill him first, hell kill you. The
marines fought accordingly. To be taken
prisoner was not an option:' he said in his
Blavatnik interview.
Zisser was a machine-gunner who
fought until he was seriously wounded.
He was awarded the medal "For Battle
Merit" and an Order of the Patriotic War.
"I returned home at the end of 1944,
after I was wounded; he said in an inter-
view in the Blavatnik Archive. "'You are
still alive?' my neighbors asked. They
were suspicious of my survival"
Jeffrey Veidlinger, Frankel Center direc-
tor, explained that the war experience was
unique for Soviet Jews.
"Many Soviet Jews today prefer to
remember the war through the perspec-

tive of victory rather than victimhood," he
said. "They knew what they were fighting
for and they understood the consequenc-
es of failur'
The symposium brings five scholars to
campus who will participate in roundtable
discussions with Frankel faculty mem-
bers and symposium co-organizers Zvi
Gitelman, Krutikov and Veidlinger about
the Jewish military experience in the
Soviet Union during the war and about
the Holocaust in the Soviet Union.
The symposium will conclude with the
North American premiere of the newly
discovered 1966 Soviet film, Eastern
Corridor. One of the first films produced
about the Holocaust in the Soviet Union,
the Soviet government withdrew it from
theaters soon after its release for failing to
conform to the Party line on the war.
The event also will kick off a multi-
media exhibit about Soviet Jews in the Red
Army during World War II that will be
displayed at the Hatcher Gallery through
Dec. 15, commemorating the 70th anni-
versary of the end of World War II.
The exhibit will contain materials from
the New York-based Blavatnik Archive,
an event co-sponsor, which collects docu-
ments, personal letters, momentos and
oral testimonies pertaining to the Jewish
experience in the Soviet military.
Gitelman said, "The Blavatnik exhibi-
tion gives these soldiers a voice, and tells
a powerful story that people of all genera-
tions should see and hear:' *

1.112 OD Ti']

YOU + BOT

at 11c1 Day School

(For all 4 anc 5 year o cs}

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 29, 2015

10:00 a.m.-11:00 a.m.

or 1:30 p.m.-2:30 p.m.

with a parent, grandparent, nanny or other special caregiver
for a bot "n" good time

Yaffa Klugerman is a program associate for the

Frankel Center for Judaic Studies at the University of

Michigan.

details
The symposium, 1:30 5 p.m.
Sunday, Oct. 25, at Hatcher
Graduate Library Gallery, 913 S.
University Ave., Ann Arbor, will be
followed by a reception from 5-6
p.m. See the film Eastern Corridor
from 6-8 p.m. at UMMA Helmut
Stern Auditorium, 525 S. State
St. The multimedia exhibit runs
through Dec. 15 at Hatcher Gallery.
Events are free.

-

MUSIC
STORYTIME
TINKERING
SNACK

space is limited- RSVP by October 22

with name (s) of your child (ren) and adults (s)
attending to:
Amy Schlussel, 248-539-1484 or
aschlussel@hillelday.org

2022810

October 15 •2015

23