Holocaust ghosts rise in Ukraine

Masked men hand leaflet to Jews in Donetsk ordering them to register with pro-Russian separatist leaders

in Donetsk THE chief rabbi of Donetsk spoke with controlled outrage, holding up a piece of paper bearing an elaborate stamp with two crossed hammers.

“The last time in history that someone wrote a text like that was in 1939 in the Nazi time,” said Pinchas Vishedski.

He stood in the whitewashed calm of his synagogue, bearing a leaflet supposedly issued by the “Donetsk People’s Republic”, the pro-Russian separatists who have seized power over this city in eastern Ukraine.

On the second night of Passover, three masked men arrived outside Beyt Menahem Mendal Synagogue, carrying bundles of these notices. They posted one on the wall and then distributed the rest to about 200 Jewish worshippers who were leaving the ornate building.

The leaflet ordered all “cit-

People were very upset that someone could . . . print a text like that

izens of Jewish nationality” to “register” with the Donetsk regional administration, now controlled by pro-Russian revolutionaries.

They were told to bring a $50 (about R500) fee to a “room 514” in the main government building, which was seized by separatists a fortnight ago.

The Jews were also instructed to take a “passport for us to make a note about your religion” and “documents about your family composition”. The leaflet said they should furnish proof of ownership of all “property and vehicles”. Any Jews who failed to comply would be deprived of their citizenship and expelled from the “borders of the republic”, said the flyer. All their property would be confiscated.

Rabbi Vishedski remembered the moment on Wednesday night when his congregation found this leaflet being pressed into their hands.

“The first minutes were very terrible for people to read out this text,” he said. “People were very upset that someone could write this, someone could sit by the computer — someone could print a text like that.”

No one has established who produced the leaflet, which bears no signature. There is no proof that it came from any of the leaders of the “People’s Republic” — and they adamantly deny involvement.

Vishedski described it as a “provocation” and refrained from casting blame. “We are not taking this out of proportion,” he said. “It did not come from some organisation.”

He added: “We called on the security service and the police and we asked them to take care and find out who made it. But for us, the terrible fact is that someone made it.”

About 900 000 Jews — at least 60% of the total population — perished in Ukraine during the Holocaust. — © The Daily Telegraph, London