Evreiskii Antifashistskii Komitet
- Jewish Antifascist Committee
- EAK
Dates of Existence
1942/1948
History
In 1942-04 the Soviet government founded several antifascist committees. The Evreiskii Antifashistskii Komitet was the only one that represented a national group. The committee’s goal was to call on the Jews of the World, mainly American Jewry, to join the struggle against Nazi Germany. It used Jewish themes, symbols, and the names of prominent Jews to attract the attention of this target group. The committee was also one of the first institutions to document the atrocities of the Holocaust and the activities of the Jewish resistance. It worked with the Soviet Government Commission for the Investigation of Nazi Crimes, and put together a major work called the Black Book of Soviet Jewry, which documented the crimes committed by the Nazis in the Soviet Union. Besides its anti-Nazi activities, the committee was considered to be the central representative body of the Jews in the Soviet Union, which provided advice and support for its constituents, it was dissolved by the Soviet authorities in 1948-11; most of its leaders, among them the actor Shlomo Michoels, were executed by Stalin during his anti-Jewish purges.
Places
Founded and active in the Soviet Union.
Sources
Encyclopedia of the Holocaust / R. Rozett, S. Spector. – Jerusalem, 2006. – p. 181, 182