August 24, 1941
A Jewish meeting has taken place: For America. Mikholes, Kapitsa, and Eisenstein made speeches. Here is my speech:
As a boy, I saw an anti-Jewish pogrom. It was organized by the tsarist police and a small group of ??? (CD-- bosyaky. I don't know this word). But Russian people hid Jews. I remember how my father carried a letter from Tolstoy that had been rewritten on a scrap of paper. Tolstoy lived across from us, I saw him often, and I knew that he was a great writer. I was 10 years old. My father read "I Cannot Keep Silent" (CD -- by Tolstoy) aloud -- Tolstoy was shocked by the anti-Jewish pogroms. And my mother would start to cry. The Russian people were not responsible for the pogroms. The Jews knew it. I have never heard a malicious word from a Jew about the Russian people. And I will not hear one. Having won their freedom, the Russian people forgot about the persecution of Jews, as if it had been a bad dream. A generation has grown up that does not even know the word "pogrom."
I grew up in a Russian city, in Moscow. My native language is Russian. I am a Russian writer. Now, like all Russians, I am defending my motherland. But the Hitlerites have reminded me of something else: my mother was named Hannah. I am a Jew. I say this with pride. Hitler hates us more than everyone. And that glorifies us.
I saw Berlin last summer -- it is a nest of thieves. I saw the German army in Paris -- it is an army of rapists. In Germany, pogromshiki are not surrounded by contempt -- there, they are marshals and academics. Today all of humanity is against Germany -- not for territory, but for the right to live.
Must one speak about what these "Aryan" livestock do to Jews? They murder children in front of their mothers' eyes. They force old people to (CD -- "poyasnichat", don't know this word, seems to be something really bad) in agony. They rape young women. They tear, they torture, they burn. The words Belostok, Minsk, Berdichev and Vennitsa will become famous for horror. The fewer words, the better: words are not needed, but bullets. After all, they are proud that they are livestock. They say themselves that fionski (CD-- I don't know what this means) cows are more important to them than the verses of Heine. Before his death, they humiliated the French philosopher Bergson -- for these savages, he is just a "Jude." They ordered to give the soldier ??? (-- "nuzhniki", dunno this word, I think it means "obligatory for soldiers" in this context) by the Polish poet Tuvim: "Jude." The scientist Einstein? "Jude"! The artist Chagall? "Jude"! The poet Pasternek? "Jude"! Who can talk about culture when they rape young women and bury people alive? When I think that Germany, the country of Hitler, exists, I am ashamed to look people in the eye and it is hard for me to listen to the voices of those I love -- how can one endure that the Hitlerites, at least externally, resemble human beings?
My country, and first and foremost the Russian people, the people of Pushkin and Tolstoy, have taken up the battle. I now address the Jews of America as a Russian writer and as a Jewish writer. There is no ocean behind which you can hide. Listen to the voices of the guns around Gomel! Listen to the screams of Russian and Jewish women tortured to death in Berdichev! You will not cover your ears or close your eyes. Into your nights, still full of light, will come images of the bestiality of the Hitlerites. Your sweet dreams will be disturbed by the voices of a Leah in Ukraine, a Rachel in Minsk, a Sara in Belostoksk -- they are crying for their murdered children. Jews, the animals have you in their sights. They mark us so as not to miss us! Let this mark be an honor! We will not forgive the indifferent. We curse those who wash their hands. I am addressing your conscience. Help everyone who fights the cruel enemy! To the defense of England! To the defense of Soviet Russia! Here it is evening, 8 o'clock, it's dark. In the (CD -- "zastenka" -- dunno this word) in occupied Belarus the Germans are torturing people. Do you hear their screams? Here it is evening. Hitlerite airplanes are killing children and old people in the settlements of Ukraine. Do you hear their agony? Where you are, it is still daylight. Don't let them pass! Let everyone do what he can. Soon, he will be asked: what did you do? He will answer before the living. He will answer before the dead. He will answer before
Nu, zayats, pogodi!
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