During the Haitian Revolution of 1791-1804; arguably the most radical revolution of the modern world; slaves and former slaves succeeded in ending slavery and establishing an independent state. Yet on the Spanish island of Cuba barely fifty miles distant; the events in Haiti helped usher in the antithesis of revolutionary emancipation. When Cuban planters and authorities saw the devastation of the neighboring colony; they rushed to fill the void left in the world market for sugar; to buttress the institutions of slavery and colonial rule; and to prevent "another Haiti" from happening in their own territory. Freedom's Mirror follows the reverberations of the Haitian Revolution in Cuba; where the violent entrenchment of slavery occurred at the very moment that the Haitian Revolution provided a powerful and proximate example of slaves destroying slavery. By creatively linking two stories - the story of the Haitian Revolution and that of the rise of Cuban slave society - that are usually told separately; Ada Ferrer sheds fresh light on both of these crucial moments in Caribbean and Atlantic history.
#1613864 in Books Diana Dumitru 2016-04-04Original language:EnglishPDF # 1 8.98 x .79 x 5.98l; .0 #File Name: 1107131960300 pagesThe State Antisemitism and Collaboration in the Holocaust The Borderlands of Romania and the Soviet Union
Review
1 of 3 people found the following review helpful. A mysteryBy George HaritonThe story told by Dumitru is very simple in its outline. Bessarabia (today called Moldova; but that's another issue) and Transnistria are two neighboring regions in far eastern Europe. Until 1919 they were both part of Tsarist Russia. From 1918 to 1940; Besssarabia was governed by Romania and Transnistria was governed by the Soviets. From 1940 to 1941; both were governed by the Soviets; from 1941 to 1944 both were governed by Romania; and after 1944 both were governed by the Soviets again.During the second world war; some 90% of the Jews living in each region died. However; Dumitriu argues that; while the local non-Jewish population in Bessarabia was very hostile to the Jews; their counterparts in Transnistria were not hostile; and indeed; did what they could to help the Jews survive. She ascribes this difference to the fact that Transnistria had a Soviet government in the 1920s and 1930s and that this government worked successfully to eradicate; or at least diminish; anti-Semitism among the population.I don't believe it. I have some knowledge of the people of those regions; and anti-Semitism is alive and well in both. If Soviet rule from 1945 to 1989 was not able to eradicate it; how did Soviet rule from 1918 (or later; as the region was subject to civil war) to 1940 manage it? And remember; this was a time of great famine in Ukraine. Transnistria; as a part of Ukraine; was affected; albeit indirectly. This sort of thing does not work to make people more humane.Well; Dumitru has evidence. She sent out several hundred qustionnaires in the mid 2000s (sixty years after the fact); she consulted Yad Vashem archives; she looked at the transcripts of immediate post-war trials. She says:"One of the most remarkable findings of the research presented here is actually a non-event: no evidence of anti-Jewish episodes of mass violence by civilians anywhere in Transnistria's villages; towns or cities was found. Neither survivors' testimonies nor government records -- not even secondary sources -- report such activity." (page 182)I found that incredible; so I hunted down some secondary sources myself (I am not a historian and do not have access to primary sources). It did not take me very long to find a 500-page book by Avigdor Shachan; called Burning Ice: The Ghettos of Transnistria; published in 1996 by Columbia University Press as part of its East European Monographs series. From the book it does not look as if Shachan is/was a professional historian either; but he has obviously spent an awful lot of time talking to survivors and consulting the Yad Vashem archives (in the preface; he says he spent 25 years on the book). The end notes alone run to 64 pages.Here is how he opens his chapter on "The Attitude of the Local Population":"Most of the local non-Jewish residents of Transnistria treated the deportees with hostility; and there were frequent cases of locals who were directly involved in murdering deportees. Here and there one found an old non_jewish woman or an individual or family which helped the Jews either directly or indirectly. The younger generation; on the other hand; which had grown up and been educated under the Soviet regime; was utterly callous and harassed the Jews whenever afforded the opportunity to do so." (page 341)There follows a list of thirty-nine examples; all referenced to their Yad Vashem sources.Interestingly; Shachan's finding that the younger people were more hostile to the Jews conflicts directly with Dumitru. She finds that the younger people; who had spent a greater part of their lives under Communism; were kinder to the Jews than the older people. (page 217)Shachan's book may be flawed and misleading. But we will never know from Dumitru: It is mentioned nowhere in her book; and so nowhere rebutted. And yet; as I mentioned above; it is hardly invisible to a layman; much less to a scholar such as Dumitru. Did she deliberately blank it out because its evidence was inconvenient?There remains the wider context. Whatever the attitudes of the local populations; some 90% of the Jews in both Bessarabia and Transnistria died. This is inconceivable without at least some help in their deaths from the local population. There is also the curious fact that in the other provinces governed by Romania between 1941 and 1944 -- the Regat and southern Transylvania -- fewer than 8% of the Jews died. (Jean Ancel; The Holocaust in Romania) Clearly Soviet indoctrination was not a factor here. We must search elsewhere for explanations.
