The Doctrine of Hate

Julius Margolin was born in 1900 in Pinsk. After studying philosophy in Germany in the 1920s he moved to Poland with his family, where he became active in Revisionist Zionism  and published a Yiddish book on poetry. From there he and his family moved to Palestine. For economic reasons, Margolin returned to Poland in 1936, where he was trapped by the Nazi invasion, and was eventually imprisoned in Soviet labor camps. In July, 1945 he was released and made his way back to Tel Aviv, where he wrote a pioneering memoir of the Gulag and died in 1971. The full text of Journey into the Land of the Zeks and Back was not published in his lifetime. After my release from Maxik’s hospital, having had an opportunity to rest, and armed with certification as an invalid, I returned to the camp regime. In Kruglitsa, a certified invalid with a higher education has a wealth of possibilities. You can choose: assist the work supervisor in compiling the lists of personnel in the brigades; work in the Cultural-Educational Sector (KVCh); or be an orderly in the barrack. Until a prisoner is taken off the official work register, he will not be sent to such unproductive work. The place for a healthy, able person is in the forest or field, where hands and shoulders are needed. The work boss will not allow an able-bodied worker to have an office or service job. An invalid is another matter. Whatever he is able and willing to do without being obliged to do so is a pure gain for the state. At first, I was amused at the accessibility of work from which I had been barred as a third-category worker. When they found out that Margolin had been deactivated, people immediately invited me to work

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