ABSTRACT
The Communist revolution of 1917 dramatically changed the lives of Russian Jews, who up until then had been excluded from public life. Aleksandr Pechersky's early life must be placed in the context of the Jews' difficult position and the chaotic years following the victory of Communism and its politics toward minorities. Jews belonged to a minority that had to give up their cultural background as the price to be paid in order to become full Soviet citizens. From March 1942 onward, Operation Reinhard was a major step in the systematic elimination of the Jews of Europe. Three Reinhard camps—Sobibor, Belzec, and Treblinka—were created in order to murder thousands of people in a systematic manner. The Pechersky family traveled from Kremanchuk to Rostov-on-Don, which is quite a distance. The Pechersky family belonged to the masses of Jews who fled east to escape the conflicting parties and warlords in Ukraine only to face war again.
