Memoirs of a Jewish District Attorney from Soviet Ukraine
by: Mikhail Goldis
Translated by: Marat Grinberg
October 15, 2024 Academic Studies Press
Review by: Valerie Estelle Frankel
A compelling new book shows post-Holocaust life in the Ukraine through the day-to-day struggles of one Jewish lawyer. Mikhail Goldis (1926-2020) worked as a detective and district attorney for 30 years in Ukraine and wrote these memoirs in safety, after immigrating to the US in 1993. Many modern readers have no idea the constant threat someone in his position was under and will thrill at the suspense and danger. As the book reveals in one critical scene:
“Soon thereafter my boss called me in. He told me that he had received a directive from the regional party committee to remove me from the regional attorney’s office because I was a Jew; he also swore me to secrecy. The higher-ups couldn’t care less about my successes and professional abilities. They were administering their policy of frenzied antisemitism, incomprehensible even to such faithful servants of the regime as the region’s chief attorney.“
The contrast between big-city and rural, the unwelcome attentions of the Soviet government—all complicate the characters’ lives. Criminals sometimes do their acts on behalf of the party, strongly complicating matters. Meanwhile, those who want justice must often struggle through prejudice, a callous government, and many other hurdles to be heard—an increasing problem in society today. Corruption and cruelty are common, as are surprise revelations. Through it all, Goldis struggles to defend the lives and dignity of his fellow Jews. Likewise, the memoir breathes life into their individual struggles, memorializing them against a background of neglect, indifference, and outright cruelty.
The protagonist goes into intense detail, bringing family stories to life—these are intertwined with the dark history of the region, of course. In one tale, the family discovers the remains of children buried twenty years previously—children massacred in Krasyliv during the war. In fact, they were mixed Jewish-Ukranian children shot by the Nazis and Ukrainian collaborators. The echoes of the Holocaust continue, with new relevance for today’s readers as well as the hero of the book. He, in fact, investigates criminals, even as their lives are complicated by the shifting regimes and threats of death. As he concludes, “From the distance of all these years, I think that if a monument were to be erected to the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, those words should be engraved on it: ‘And what does the constitution have to do with it?’”
Memoirs of a Jewish District Attorney in Soviet Ukraine is published in the Immigrant Worlds and Texts series from Boston’s Academic Studies Press. As such, it shares such vital narratives with the readers of today, showing how much these events influence present reality and bringing the individual journeys into prominence. The translation is smooth and easy to follow. Plenty of photographs bring the distant world to clear, vivid life. This will appeal to readers of memoirs, mysteries, detective thrillers, and stories of survival through adversity. Mikhail Goldis’ amazing story has finally reached the English-speaking world, and it’s astounding.