combined in one great hymn of praise to Comrade Stalin. As for Jewish cultural activity, there was none at all in small towns, while in oblast towns there were: 1 Jewish secondary school and 2 Jewish primary schools. Truth be told, Jewish parents themselves did not want to send their children to a Jewish secondary school, and the secondary schools remained active only owing to pressure from the Party.
[15] In the whole of East Galicia the authorities allowed only one
Yiddish theatre, based in Lvov, while Yiddish theatres in oblast towns such as Stanisławów were systematically forced out of existence, even though the Jewish public attended performances en masse and one had the feeling that this was the only place from which Yiddish culture emanated. Opposition to the troupe in Stanisławów was instigated by the Ukrainian theatre (for nationalistic reasons), and its wishes were systematically carried out by Party officials.
Libraries:
In every locality, even in small towns, the libraries contained a large number of Yiddish books in the original: Sholem Aleichem, a few things by Markish and Ravitch,765 and many translations. Because of the spelling,766 the Jewish public hardly used the Yiddish libraries at all.
Press:
The only Yiddish newspaper one could subscribe to in the occupied territories was Der shtern,767 from Kiev. It was impossible to subscribe to Moscow’s Der emes.768 Russian Jews hardly read [16] the Yiddish press at all.
The situation of the Poles:
Following the collapse of the Polish state, the economic life of the Poles increasingly fell apart, and as Poles were also subjected to heavy political persecution, their social life was strongly affected. Only a very small percentage
