Female Holocaust Survivors Prosecuted for Collaboration in Soviet Lithuania: Stalinist Justice Confronting the Moral ‘Grey Zone’ in the Nazi Concentration Camps

• In Event: History and Memory of the Holocaust in the Baltic States

Abstract

Out of approximately twenty Jewish women who were tried for treason and collaboration in Soviet Lithuania between 1944 and 1953, half were charged for their conduct in Nazi concentration camps, specifically Stutthof. Most of these trials took place at the height of Stalin's anti-Semitic campaign in 1950–52. Despite being politically motivated, police and judicial investigations did not seek to establish the defendants’ alleged hostility towards the Soviet regime but focused instead on their mistreatment of fellow prisoners. A gendered analysis of the trials offers a novel perspective on Soviet retributive justice.

Author

• Emilia Koustova, U of Strasbourg (France)