President Roosevelt and Molotov talk about the Jewish Problem
May 29, 1942
[Notes by interpreter Professor Samuel H Cross, head of the Russian Department, Harvard University] on Molotov Conversation, Friday May 29, 1942, after dinner:
"MR HOPKINS remarked that, while the American Communist Party had played ball one-hundred percent since December 7 [1941], the fact was that its composition of largely disgruntled, frustrated, ineffectual, and vociferous people -- including a comparatively high proportion of distinctly unsympathetic Jews -- misled the average American as to the aspect and character of the Communists in the Soviet Union itself.
"On this the President commented that he was far from anti-Semitic, as everyone knew, but there was a good deal in this point of view. Mr Molotov admitted affably that there were Communists and Communists, and readily recognized the distinction between 'Jews' and 'Kikes' (for the latter the Russians have a word of Similar connotation: zhidy) as something that created inevitable difficulties."
National Archives, FDR Library, Hyde Park, NY: Papers of Harry L Hopkins: Sherwood Collection. Box 311, file: "Molotov Visit, 1942"; FRUS, 1942, iii, pp. 570-571. |
