Night of the Murdered Poets

The Night of the Murdered Poets (Russian: Дело Еврейского антифашистского комитета, Delo Yevreyskogo antifashistskogo komiteta "Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee case"; Yiddish: הרוגי מלכות פונעם ראטנפארבאנד‎ Harugey malkus funem Ratnfarband, "Soviet Union Martyrs") was an execution of thirteen Soviet Jews in the Lubyanka Prison in Moscow, Soviet Union on August 12, 1952. The arrests were first made in September 1948 and June 1949. All defendants were accused of espionage and treason as well as many other crimes. After their arrests, they were tortured, beaten, and isolated for three years before being formally charged. There were five Yiddish writers among these defendants, all of whom were a part of the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee.

The threat of an attack on Soviet Russia by Nazi Germany catalyzed the start of the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee (JAC), a committee reaching out to Jews worldwide to support the Soviet war effort against Nazi Germany. Solomon Mikhoels, a Yiddish actor and director, headed the Committee. Other members of the committee were prominent Yiddish literary figures, actors, and doctors who wanted to help influence Jewish support for the Soviet Union through their writing and also using radio broadcasts from Russia to different countries. In 1943, Mikhoels and the vice chairman of the Anti-Fascist Committee, Itzik Fefer, traveled to the U.S. and England to help raise money.

As Nazi Germany secured its stronghold in Soviet Russia, Jewish culture and identity was destroyed in the Holocaust. The last influence left in Russia were the Yiddish figures in the JAC, and soon the initial purpose for the committee was changed. The committee felt it had a duty to change priorities, and focus on the rebuilding of Jewish communities, farms, culture and identity. Not everyone agreed with the direction things were headed in and many thought the JAC was "intervening in matters in which it should not interfere."

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