“If we had wings we would fly to you”. Kiril Feferman
Family Tree
Timeline
| Date | Event |
| August 23, 1939 | Non-Aggression Pact between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union (the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact) signed |
| September 1, 1939 | World War II begins |
| December 26, 1939 | First letter in the Ginsburg correspondence |
| June 22, 1941 | Start of Soviet-German War. Nazi Germany invades the Soviet Union |
| July–August 1941 | David Pinchos conscripted in the army |
| Early August, 1941 | German bombardment of Rostov-on-Don begins |
| Early September, 1941 | German land advance towards the North Caucasus begins |
| September 18, 1941 | Boris Chazkewitz passes away |
| September 19, 1941 | Wehrmacht seizes Kiev |
| September 29–30, 1941 | Murder of more than 33,000 Jews in Kiev |
| October 9, 1941 | The Council for Evacuation approves evacuation of 30,000 women and children from the city of Rostov-on-Don |
| October 13, 1941 | Families of Tamara Meerovich and Tsylya Pinchos are evacuated from Rostov-on-Don to Budennovsk |
| October 17, 1941 | Wehrmacht seizes the city of Taganrog in the Rostov district |
| October 30, 1941 | Murder of more than 1,800 Jews in Taganrog |
| October–November 1941 | Volodya Meerovich fights in the ranks of the “Extermination Battalion”1 defending Rostov-on-Don |
| Mid-November 1941 | The Wehrmacht seizes the Crimean peninsula (except for Sevastopol) |
| November 21–22, 1941 | The Wehrmacht seizes Rostov-on-Don for the first time |
| November 30, 1941 | The Red Army liberates Rostov-on-Don from the Germans |
| December 5, 1941 | German retreat in the Battle of Moscow begins |
| December 13, 1941 | Ban on residents leaving Rostov-on-Don is imposed |
| Late December 1941 | Families of Tamara Meerovich and Tsylya Pinchos move from Budennovsk to Vladikavkaz |
| December 30, 1941 | Soviet forces land in the Crimea, begin their counter-offensive |
| January 1942 | The Wannsee Conference |
| Mid-February 1942 | Ban on residents leaving Rostov-on-Don is moderated |
| February 26, 1942 | David Pinchos is released from the Red Army |
| March 2, 1942 | Volodya Meerovich returns to Rostov-on-Don |
| March 13, 1942 | Tsylya Pinchos’s family returns to Rostov-on-Don |
| April 21, 1942 | Volodya Meerovich is conscripted into the Red Army |
| May 11, 1942 | The Red Army is defeated at Kerch, Crimea |
| Late May 1942 | The Red Army is defeated in the Battle of Kharkov |
| May 29, 1942 | Secret order of the State Defense Committee on the preparation for the disablement of the strategically important oil enterprises in the North Caucasus, and the eviction from the region of “socially dangerous persons,” “unreliable ethnicities,” and foreign citizens |
| May 31, 1942 | Tamara Meerovich’s family returns to Rostov-on-Don |
| June 6, 1942 | “Extermination Battalions” are secretly set up again in Rostov-on-Don |
| July 2, 1942 | The Wehrmacht seizes Sevastopol |
| Early July 1942 | Operation Blau directed at the North Caucasus begins |
| July 7, 1942 | Tamara Meerovich’s family is evacuated to the Rostov district |
| July 14, 1942 | The rest of the Ginsburgs flee from the city to the Rostov district |
| July 18, 1942 | The Soviet Authorities order evacuation of the local residents from the city of Rostov-on-Don |
| July 24–25, 1942 | The Wehrmacht seizes Rostov-on-Don for the second time |
| August 11–14, 1942 | Jews of Rostov-on-Don murdered |
| August 16, 1942 | The Ginsburgs are murdered |
| August 1942 | The Battle of Stalingrad begins |
| Early February 1943 | The German Sixth Army surrenders at Stalingrad |
| February 14, 1943 | The Red Army liberates Rostov-on-Don from the Germans |
| April 1943 | Last letter from Volodya Meerovich |
| July 19, 1943 | Last letter in the Ginsburg collection |
| Late August 1943 | The Red Army liberates the entire Rostov district from the Germans |
1 On Extermination Battalions, see footnote 60 in chapter 1.1.
Introduction
This book is about one Jewish family, which was swept away by the Soviet-German War, the German invasion of Soviet Russia and the Holocaust—the Ginsburg family. The study draws largely on the letters that the members of the family sent to Efim Ginsburg, who was living in Soviet Central Asia. The letters cover a time span that was crucial for Soviet Jewry, stretching from the start of World War II to the murder of almost the whole Ginsburg family in August, 1942, during the Holocaust. The letters touch on many themes, including the wartime atmosphere, the correspondents’ worsening living conditions, and, of course, the crucial question of evacuation.
The evacuation of Jews from the North Caucasus differed from the evacuation (of Soviet citizens, including Jews) from many areas that were quickly overrun and occupied by the Germans at the beginning of the Soviet-German War. Over many months, from 1941 to 1942, the frontline between the German and Soviet army positions