“The Night of the Murdered Poets” (August 12, 1952)

“The Night of the Murdered Poets” is the name sometimes given to a Stalinist massacre of thirteen Soviet citizens, several of them poets and writers. All were supporters of the Communist regime, but that didn't matter. They were taken away, tried, and executed -- probably because they were Jewish; at least that was one of the reasons. Their names: Peretz Markish, David Hofstein, Leib Kvitko, Itzik Feffer, David Bergelson, Solomon Lozovsky, Boris Shimeliovich, Benjamin Zuskin, Joseph Yuzefovich, Leon Talmy, Ilya Vatenberg, Chaika Ostrovskaya, and Emilia Teumin.