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The Organisational Efforts of the Karaims from the First Wave of Russian Emigration on the Eve of the Second World War as Described in the Correspondence with Hachan Seraya Shapshal

Mariola Abkowicz

info@karaimi.org
Section of Hebrew, Aramaic and Karaim Studies, Department of Asian Studies, Adam Mickiewicz University (Poland)
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6188-5955


Abstract

The correspondence of Hachan Seraya Shapshal from the interwar period provides us with new insights into life in the Karaite community in 20th-century Europe. The fact that Karaims from the first-wave of the Russian emigration (white émigrés) who settled in Germany and Czechoslovakia were motivated to organise themselves and that their newly-formed groups were subordinate to the hachan of the Republic of Poland were crucial factors that saved the Karaims in Poland and Soviet Union from the Holocaust. In the years 1934–1939, thanks to the efforts of Michal (Musa) Kowszanly, Simon Duwan and Seraya Shapsal the Nazi German authorities introduced regulations classifying Karaims as “Aryan” and thus not subject to the restrictions imposed by the Nuremberg Race Laws.


Keywords:

Karaims in Germany, Karaims in Czechoslovakia, Karaims in Romania, Seraya Shapshal, Michal Kovshanly, Karaims and the Nuremberg Laws

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Published
2014-12-30

Cited by

Abkowicz, M. (2014). The Organisational Efforts of the Karaims from the First Wave of Russian Emigration on the Eve of the Second World War as Described in the Correspondence with Hachan Seraya Shapshal. Karaim Almanac, 3, 7–24. https://doi.org/10.33229/ak.2014.3.01

Authors

Mariola Abkowicz 
info@karaimi.org
Section of Hebrew, Aramaic and Karaim Studies, Department of Asian Studies, Adam Mickiewicz University Poland
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6188-5955

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