On the Eve of the Fire

When Germany attacked the Soviet Union, on 22 June 1941, the people of Skalat had been living a more or less normal life. The Soviets had instituted a certain calm and order during their 22-month rule of Galicia. The Poles, formerly the lords of the land who had lately lost their political independence, gritted their teeth and endured the occupation, or the so-called “Red Exile.” The Ukrainians, who had long had an appetite to rule this land and who dreamed of full sovereignty, reacted to the Soviet rule with hatred while appearing to accept their regime.

The Jewish population found itself in a very uncomfortable position: between the hammer and the forge. On the one hand they adjusted to the new regime but, on the other hand they feared “what the Gentile neighbors would say,” that is, how the Gentiles would view that adjustment. Anti-Semitism had been rooted in the souls of their non-Jewish neighbors for many generations. Now it had a fertile soil in which to flourish. The arrival of the Soviets provided the fuel that fed the fires of the Jew-Haters. “Commie Yids” had been an old slogan in Polish politics and now the Jews “were being chummy with their old buddies, the Bolsheviks...” - so went the popular anti-Semitic rationalization.

Everyone could find work now and life was both good and bad, depending on one's position under the new regime. It was quite understandable that the Jews were able to adjust more easily to the new life, since the Soviet regime trusted the Jewish population more than it did the Gentiles. A significant portion of the Jews - the workers, the artisans and the working intelligentsia, therefore, took on leading roles in the economic and social life of the town. They held important positions in cooperatives and in communal and public institutions. No one group could have adjusted better to the newly created conditions of life than the Jews.

Yet, the radical change in the social and economic structure left the vast majority of the Jews without a way to earn a living. Among them were businessmen, small traders and craftsmen. There were also the opportunity bereft unemployed of a typical provincial town. The number of prosperous Jews and “burzhuyis” ^[10] was very small. All of these declasse Jews were desperate to obtain formal positions because the watchword of the new order was: He who does not work does not eat. In addition this, middle class, the former house owners and traders, made a strong effort to find employment in order to obtain a work-card, which protected one from being considered “non-productive” and therefore exposed to various troubles, including exile to Siberia. Regardless of whether it was out of necessity or simply as a cover-up, the impoverished and declasse Jewish population made every effort to work and be productive. The reshuffling of one's social standing took place overnight, one might say. This phenomenon had, without doubt, some positive value in the social, egalitarian restructuring of Jewish life.

The Ukrainians and Poles, living as farmers on their own land, did not experience a particularly disturbing effect on their accustomed life styles. For that reason, they had no need to find new employment or sources of income. No peasant stopped being a peasant. “Our people left, our people will return” was the familiar, meaning-filled folk-saying among the Gentiles. Their tragedy was rather of an ideological or nationalistic and territorial nature. They lived peacefully, waiting for better times and better conditions. In regard to the Soviet regime, the Ukrainians and Poles were weak and powerless. With respect to the Jews, however, in spreading anti-Semitic poison and in preparing the soil for the eventual slaughter, they were quite powerful -virtual giants. Despite their own national tragedy, the germs of envy, hatred and anti-Semitism grew and increased among the Gentiles into a powerful force which confused the minds and consciousness of both the masses and their leaders. That was why they could hardly wait for the Germans to arrive. Better the Germans than the Soviets, thought many Poles. And the Ukrainians saw in Hitler a Savior, the creator of an independent Ukraine.

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