Tag #149400 - Interview #96226 (Ihil Shraibman)

In 1948, after the murder of Mikhoels [24], the anti-Semitic campaign of struggle against cosmopolitism [25] began, the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee [26] was dismissed. Many writers, who I knew and corresponded with, were closely linked with this committee. In 1950 I was accused of nationalism and expelled from the Union of Writers. I expected arrest since many Moldovan Jewish writers had already been arrested. Rivkin, one of them, died in prison and the others were released after Stalin died [1953].

This was a horrible time, the time of fear that I can still feel. This was the fear, when one was even afraid of mentioning it. You know, if you are afraid, it means that there are grounds for you to be afraid.