The Lesser of Two Evils: Eastern European Jewry Under Soviet Rule, 1939-1941 (Research Publications) (Hardcover)

by Dov Levin (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Language Notes
Text: English (translation)
Original Language: Hebrew

Product Details

• Hardcover: 424 pages
• Publisher: Jewish Publication Society of America (May 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0827605188
• ISBN-13: 978-0827605183
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.4 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,646,160 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Worthwhile but not comprehensive., April 30, 2000

By	Zbigniew Biernacki (Houston, Texas) - See all my reviews

The 22 months of Soviet occupation in Eastern Poland and Lithuania is a history little known to western readers. This well researched book provides yet another window into this period. Stalin's occupation was planned with the Nazis and designed to cripple Poland permanently in the same way he crippled Russia, that is to destroy all "reactionary elements," primarily Polish but eventually also Jewish, the target being the political, military, academic, professional and business leadership. The story of the travails of the territory's Jewish inhabitants is very informative albeit somewhat sanitized. Jewish enthusiasm and violence in their collabortion with the Russians against their non-Jewish fellow citizens is glossed over. There is, on the other hand, much told of what happened when the occupiers turned against the Jewish population once the Bolshevik's primary goals were met. These were the execution of over 25,000 Polish citizens and the deportation to slave labor of over 2 million Polish citizens where half were starved, frozen or worked to death. Readers who have a knowledge of history will be unsatisfied by the limited scope of the book and by the book's failure to take the opportunity to put inter-ethnic tensions during the war into perspective.