THE GATES OF GAZA by Amir Tibon

February 25, 2025szfreiberger Middle Eastern History Leave a comment

(Memorial candles line the charred desks in the destroyed command center of Nahal Oz base, February 23, 2024.)

One of this morning’s lead articles in the New York Times read “Fate of Bibas Family Recalls Trauma of October 7, Renewing Fears of Gaza Truce.” The crux of the article centered on the return of three Israeli citizen’s bodies, two babies and their mother. The problem emerged that the body of the mother was misidentified, it was another victim of this war. According to the article the “news set off a paroxysm of fury and agony in Israel rarely seen since the tumultuous days that followed the Hamas led attack on Oct. 7, 2023, when up to 1,200 people were killed and 251 were abducted, including Ms. Bibas and her sons, on the deadliest day in Israeli history.

For Palestinians, the devastation wrought by Israel’s military response to the Oct. 7 raids — a reaction that, among other consequences, razed Palestinian burial grounds and killed thousands of children including some younger than Kfir Bibas — has long overshadowed Hamas’s terrorist attacks at the start of the war.”

(Nahal Oz Kibbutz residents Miri Bernovsky-Tibon and Amir Tibon)

But Israelis remain deeply traumatized by the October assault, and the return of the Bibas boys, coupled with the uncertainty about their mother’s whereabouts and the disrespectful way that Hamas paraded the coffins on Thursday, revived the torment. The war has resulted in the death of between 40-50,000 Palestinians according to the Arab Red Crescent and the near total destruction of Gaza and its infrastructure.

The brutal attack by Hamas and the Israeli response has set the Middle East on fire resulting in an Israeli invasion of Lebanon targeting Hezbollah, a “pseudo-war” with Iran, and a long range conflict with the Houthis in Yemen. Currently, the region is experiencing a ceasefire in Gaza, which is only in its first phase and there are doubts it will continue to the next phase. The question is how did we get here, what was the experience of the attack like, and historically what events led to the attack. Answers to these questions are discussed and analyzed in Amir Tibon’s THE GATES OF GAZA. The superb monograph is part memoir as Tibon and his family reside in Nahal Oz, a Kibbutz that borders the Gaza Strip, and a historical look at events and outcomes as Tibon is an award-winning diplomatic correspondent for Haaretz, Israel’s paper of record.

One of the questions that is repeatedly asked is why Israelis settle on land so close to the Gaza border where rockets, snipers, intruders are a constant threat. The answer lies in Israeli defense policy that emerged in October 1953 when Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion and General Moshe Dayan argued that the border with the Gaza Strip needed more military installations in order to be totally fortified. The border itself was not an “internationally recognized” border, but a cease fire line drawn to end the 1948-9 Israeli War of Independence. As Tibor writes, “there needed to be civilian life at the border – especially agriculture – before the region would be completely safe. A permanent population to detect and deter attacks and to convince the Arab world that the young recently founded state of Israel was there to stay.” The kibbutz which the Tibon family settled on and was attacked on October 7 was founded by sixty men and women members of a military unit called Nahal in 1953.

Israel enters the West Bank with tanks and raided Jenin for the first time since 2002

(Israeli tanks enter the city for the first time since 2002, in Jenin, in the northern West Bank, Feb. 23, 2025.)

The title of the book was derived from a speech given by General Moshe Dayan on a day when four couples were to be married. Instead, it became a funeral oration, “the Gates of Gaza,” which originated from the biblical story of Samson fighting the Philistines. In this case the speech was to honor Roi Rothberg who had been murdered by Egyptian fire as he patrolled the boundaries of the kibbutz and tried to return Palestinians who had crossed the “demarcation line” and entered Israeli territory. The Egyptians did return the “mutilated body” of their victim.

Aftermath of a deadly infiltration by Hamas gunmen in Kibbutz Beeri

(Children’s toys and personal items lie on the bloodstained floor of a child’s bedroom, following a deadly infiltration by Hamas gunmen, in Kibbutz Beeri in southern Israel, October 17. REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun)

If one fast forwards to 2025 nothing has really changed between Palestinians and Israelis. Wars seem to break out every few years, constant rocket fire from Gaza with the inevitable Israeli response, border incursions from both sides leading to numerous deaths, and leaders on both sides whose ego’s, lust for power, and what I guess is called ideology dominate. Tibon focuses on these aspects throughout the narrative, along with his family’s personal journey and survival on October 7.

Israeli military officers organise dead bodies before relatives are called to identify them, following a mass infiltration by Hamas gunmen from the Gaza Strip, in Ramla

(Israeli military officers stand by a container in which bodies of the dead are stored before their relatives are called to identify them, in Ramla, Israel, October 13. REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun)

Tibon structures his book with alternating chapters. First we have the attack of October 7, then a history lesson. He moves on with chapters alternating between the events he and his family experienced on October 7, continuing with a careful historical analysis of events and personalities leading up to today. Tibon integrates the Hamas attack on his family, their escape into the “safe room” in their house to wait out the violence occurring outside the front door. Tibon assumed that the “all clear” would be sounded within a few hours as usually is the case, but much to his surprise this was different as the bullets, mortars, and rockets continued. Tibon would soon realize that this was not a random attack by a terror cell, but a large well planned operation that would not be over quickly. The key for Tibon was his two toddlers, Carmel and Galia, and his wife Miri. The task was to keep the children quiet as not to give the terrorists another family to murder. Tibon did not realize how bad the situation had become with a nearby military base overrun by Hamas and the hundreds of bodies scattered between Nahal Oz and the base – throughout the early hours, Tibon wondered where the Israeli Defense Force was. Women and children were being murdered, and the IDF was nowhere to be found.

benjamin netanyahu smiles and looks to the left, he wears a gray suit jacket, light blue dress shirt, red tie and israel flag pin

(Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu)

The historical narrative and analysis are succinct and damning in terms of Israeli and Palestinian Authority and Hamas leadership. Tibon chooses certain historical aspects as a means of explaining how the Israeli and Palestinian people have reached the abyss they now found themselves in. A key turning point was reached in 1987 as Palestinians could no longer accept the loss of prime agricultural land, which in part led to the first Intifada. Interestingly, Yasir Arafat and the PLO ;leadership were totally caught off guard by events. As a result of the violence Sheik Ahmed Yassin and Palestinian Islamists formed a new organization called Hamas – Islamic Resistance Movement. The Intifada turned Hamas into a central force in the Palestinian community. The more forceful the Israel response, the more Hamas’ popularity and ideology were enhanced, reducing the influence and power of the PLO.

Two villains emerge in Tibon’s discussion. First is Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who has been in office most of the last two decades. In 1993 Tibon argued that Netanyahu worked to prevent a peace settlement following the Oslo Accords. He worked to incite Israel’s right wing which led to the assassination of then Israeli Prime Minister and architect of Oslo, Yitzhak Rabin. Netanyahu would defeat Shimon Peres in the next election and slowed down the peace process increasing Hamas’ popularity at the expense of Arafat. He then ordered the assassination of Khaled Mashal, the head of Hamas’ Political Bureau. After the attempt was botched, Netanyahu agreed to release Shiek Ahmed Yassin, Hamas’ spiritual leader, and blocked the extradition of Mussa Abu-Marzouk who raised millions of dollars to fund Hamas, allowing him to settle in Jordan. If one fast forwards to October 7, Netanyahu’s fingerprints are all over the disaster even though he was thrown out of office in 1999.

(An aerial view shows damage caused following a mass infiltration by Hamas gunmen from the Gaza Strip, in Kibbutz Beeri in southern Israel, October 11. REUTERS/ Ilan Rosenberg)

Netanyahu would return to power in 2009 and would later be accused of corruption. The Israel Police began investigating Netanyahu in December 2016 and subsequently recommended indictments against him. On 21 November 2019, Netanyahu was officially indicted for breach of trust, accepting bribes, and fraud, leading him to legally relinquish his ministry portfolios other than prime minister. His legal problems led to legislation by the Israeli right wing in the Knesset designed to reduce the power of the Israeli Supreme Court which provoked enormous demonstrations in Israel in 2022 and 2023. For many, Netanyahu’s legal problems were a national security threat for the state of Israel as he put his own personal quest for power to escape prosecution above the needs of the Israeli people. Netanyahu’s behavior and policies further emboldened Hamas as he approved Qatari funding of Hamas whereby millions of dollars were used to build the tunnel infrastructure that allowed for attacks against Israel for years and finally the events of October 7.

Israel Defense Forces handout at Al Shifa hospital in Gaza City

(Israeli soldiers inspect the Al Shifa hospital complex, in Gaza City, November 15. via Israel Defense Forces)

Netanyahu also approved the trade of 1027 Palestinian prisoners for Gilad Shalit, an Israeli soldier seized by Hamas in 2007. Among those released in 2011 was Yihyia Sinwar, the Hamas tactician and ideologue who designed the plan that was carried out on October 7. Further damning of Netanyahu took place in 2016 as Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman warned him, a right wing member of Likud that Israel intelligence uncovered a plot which would be catastrophic for Israel: “a secret plan by Hamas to cross the border fence at several points simultaneously, attack a long list of Israeli communities near Gaza, murder hundreds of citizens, and take dozens of hostages into Gaza. With this evidence and the fact that Hamas was using Qatari money to build tunnels and rockets, Netanyahu did nothing.

There are obviously others who deserve condemnation for the events of October 7. Yasir Arafat’s refusal to make peace in 2000, the corruption of the PLO and later the fecklessness of Arafat’s replacement Mahmoud Abbas and his corruption laden administration in the Palestinian Authority which was defeated by Hamas in elections and the battlefield. Sinwar is also a key figure who spent years in an Israeli jail for murdering Israeli citizens. While in prison he learned Hebrew and studied every aspect of Israeli life and politics he could and began to develop his plan for a massive incursion of Israel from Gaza. Even when released from prison Sinwar worked methodically applying Qatari money, Netanyahu’s errors, and the fact that by March 2023 Israel was being torn apart from the inside with many reserve soldiers and pilots refusing to carry out orders because of the demonstration by Israeli citizens against Netanyahu’s cohorts in the Knesset’s attempts to reduce the power of the Israeli Supreme Court for the benefit of its Prime Minister. Sinwar would ramp up attacks in the West Bank in the summer of 2023 in hindsight a diversion for October 7. Netanyahu sent 30 battalions of soldiers to the West Bank, leaving only 4 to defend the kibbutzim on the Gaza border. As this was occurring Netanyahu encouraged Qatar to continue to send millions to Hamas.

IDF handout image shows Israeli soldiers take position in the Gaza Strip

(Israeli military vehicles manoeuvre during the ongoing ground operation of the Israeli army against Hamas in the Gaza Strip, as seen in an image released on November 13. Israel Defense Forces/via REUTERS)

A key event which Tibon uses to tie Israeli history to the events of October 7 revolves around the first time Nahal Oz was attacked in 1956 when Palestinian fedayeen encouraged by Egyptian president Gamal Nasser crossed the border and killed Roi Rotberg, a young member of the kibbutz, and taking his mutilated body back to Gaza. As Max Strasser writes in his November 4, 2024, New York Times book review entitled “The Reckoning”; “The next day, Moshe Dayan, then the military’s chief of staff, delivered the most famous eulogy in Israeli history.

“For eight years they have been sitting in the refugee camps in Gaza, and before their eyes we have been transforming the lands and the villages, where they and their fathers dwelt, into our estate,” Dayan said. “How did we shut our eyes and refuse to look squarely at our fate, and see, in all its brutality, the destiny of our generation? Have we forgotten that this group of young people dwelling at Nahal Oz is bearing the heavy gates of Gaza on its shoulders?”

IDF handout image shows Israeli soldiers taking position in a location given as Gaza

(Israeli soldiers take position during the ongoing ground operation of the Israeli army against Hamas, in a location given as Gaza, in this image released on November 13. Israeli Defense Forces/via REUTERS)

This was, Tibon writes, “a rare recognition by an Israeli leader of the Palestinian Nakba.” Dayan had identified Israel’s tragic endowment — a country built on displacement — and declared that the only response could be strength, a country where thriving in a kibbutz on a border forged in war would help secure peace.

But Tibon does not offer the whole quote. “We are the generation of settlement,” Dayan went on. “Our children will not have a life if we do not dig shelters, and without barbed wire and machine guns we will not be able to pave roads and dig water wells.”

In the epilogue, Tibon goes back to visit his deserted, bullet-scarred kibbutz and stands looking over the border at the rubble of Gaza. He rereads Dayan’s eulogy and wonders if his former neighbors at Nahal Oz will someday be able to return if peace with the people on the other side of the border is conceivable. It’s certainly hard to imagine, so long as the people of Gaza live with barbed wire and machine guns.”

(Shiri Bibas and her children Kfir and Ariel)

AGENT ZO: THE UNTOLD STORY OF A FEARLESS WORLD WAR II RESISTANCE FIGHTER ELZBIETA ZAWACKA by Clare Mulley

February 20, 2025szfreiberger World War II Leave a comment

(The General Elżbieta Foundation, ToruńZo, as seen on her student pass, graduated from Poznań University with a higher degree in mathematics)

During World War II Poland witnessed many individuals engaging in serious heroic actions. The list is long and includes people like Witold Pilecki, an intelligence agent and resistance leader who volunteered to enter Auschwitz to gather intelligence and then escaped; Arena Sendler, head of the children’s division of the Zegota Council for the aid of the Jews which smuggled 2500 children out of the Warsaw Ghetto; Jan Karski, a Polish soldier, resistance fighter, and diplomat who provided evidence of the Holocaust to western leaders, and acted as a courier for the Polish government in exile to western allies; Mordechai Anielewicz, led the Jewish Combat Brigade (ZOB) during the Warsaw Ghetto uprising, and numerous others. However, none are more remarkable than Elzbieta Zawacka, aka “Agent Zo,” the only female member of the Polish Elite Force during the war and took a leading role in many areas including the Polish uprising in Warsaw in August 1944. Her actions, and the actions of many of her compatriots in the Polish resistance during the war and after are accurately chronicled in Clare Mulley’s latest book, AGENT ZO: THE UNTOLD STORY OF A FEARLESS WORLD WAR II RESISTANCE FIGHTER ELZBIETA ZAWACKA.

Mulley presents a series of themes in her monograph, but none is more fascinating then how women were viewed by Polish and English authorities during World War II. Mulley correctly argues that thousands of Polish women rushed to defend their country in response to the twin invasions led by Germany in the west, and the Soviet Union in the East in September 1939. Eventually over 40,000 Polish women were sworn in as members of the Polish Home Army, 10% of which were soldiers, none more important than Agent Zo who was a member of the Cichociemni or “Silent Unseen” made up of Polish Special Forces paratroopers. The other 90% of women engaged in a myriad of activities ranging from acting as couriers, medical technicians, clerks, bomb makers, and gathering intelligence. Agent Zo and her partners passionately argued that women could fight as well as men and should be declared part of a “legitimate” military force to be covered by the Geneva Convention, which when finally recognized by Polish and British bureaucrats in London would save many lives. This theme pervades the narrative and provides great insight into the misogyny experienced by women in dealing with military and diplomatic decision makers during the war. For example, Colin Gubbins, head of the British Special Operations Executive which engaged in sabotage against the Nazis throughout Europe, upon learning of Zo’s exceptional bravery and accomplishments referred to her a “grand gal.”

(The General Elżbieta Foundation, ToruńZawacka (centre) took the nom-de-guerre Zo after being sworn into the Polish resistance)

Agent Zo’s remarkable life is examined in detail. After explaining her familial roots Mulley examines Agent Zo’s rise from a senior instructor with the Polish “Woman’s Military Training Force (PKW)” to her varied assignments during the war as she craved serious military service once Nazi Germany had violated her country. Mulley does a remarkable job recounting Agent Zo’s various relationships with both men and women. All were Polish patriots with the same goals of working to keep the allies informed about Nazi atrocities, troop movements, and any intelligence they could gather. The author explains Agent Zo’s many relationships, who influenced her the most, and who she relied upon and trusted. A few stand out like Marianna Zaodzinska, a literary person and poet who was tactical instructor who would wind up as a commander during the Warsaw uprising. General Stefan Rowecki who worked to unite all Polish resistance groups and create the Home Army who was also Zo’s commander. Maria Witteck, Zo’s close friend and Commander of the Women’s Auxiliary Services. Emelia Malessa, Zo’s superior who oversaw the Farmstead, the Polish overseas communication team. Zofia Franio, supplied weapons to Jews fighting in the Warsaw Ghetto. Sue Ryder, who volunteered at the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry (FANY), lying about her age, further as part of the SOE she transported agents for the ”Silent Unseen.” Kazimierz Bilski, known as “Rum,” a member of the “Silent Unseen” and the Polish Sixth Bureau in London; and General Tadeusz Komorowski, “Bor,” Rowecki’s former deputy who succeeded him as head of the Home Army.

The role of female couriers was of major importance in the war. Their harrowing experiences crossing Europe to provide intelligence hidden on microfilm to London from Warsaw are fully explored. Zo and her fellow resistance fighters experienced numerous run-ins with the Nazis as they carried out their assignments. Their fears of arrest, torture, and death were constant, but they did not let their anxieties interfere with completing their missions. They provided evidence of Nazi atrocities, the Holocaust, technical information concerning Hitler’s miracle weapons – VI and V2 rockets, German troops positions, the needs of the Home Army, etc. These brave women accomplished remarkable things and were willing to sacrifice their lives for their country. A few examples include how Zo leaped from a moving train when Nazi soldiers entered and asked for identification on a trip in Silesia, or her parachute training which she had never done before the war leading her to jump behind Nazi lines.

Getty Images Black and white photo of Polish troops with guns surrounded by rubble in Warsaw (Getty ImagesThe Warsaw Uprising was the largest organised act of defiance against Nazi Germany during World War Two)

From the outset of the war Zo argued for a Woman’s Auxiliary Officer Corps, which would eventually be ratified into law. British and Polish “higher ups” described Zo as “an insane feminist and pioneer of the liberation movement and equality of women….a hysterical women.” It took until October 1943 for a decree on “Women’s Voluntary Service,” providing women between 18 and 45 the same rights and duties as men in the armed forces. The result – thousands of Polish women came forward to volunteer.

Mulley’s research is impeccable, and she devotes a great deal of time to the political and diplomatic components of the war. A few stand out. It became clear to Zo that by the Fall of 1943 Polish influence and/or importance to the British government was waning, especially when there were no Polish diplomats present at the Tehran Conference. As the Soviet Union broke through in the east, Stalin’s plans for a post war Poland began to become clear. The Russian dictator planned to seize areas in eastern Poland, and shift Poland’s border westward in return. Stalin denied that Russian soldiers committed the Katyn massacre which took place in the spring 1940 which was a series of mass executions of nearly 22,000 Polish military and police officers, border guards, and intelligentsia prisoners of war carried out by the Soviet Union, specifically the NKVD, at Joseph Stalin’s orders. Stalin would not recognize the Polish government in exile and appointed his own government in Lublin, Poland toward the end of the war. Another egregious action or non-action by Stalin was his refusal to allow any military assistance, be it bombers, supplies, men, the use of Russian airfields in order to assist Polish resistance fighters as they rose up against the Nazis in Warsaw in August 1943. Stalin’s goal was clear – to wipe out any Polish opposition to Russian hegemony in Eastern Europe after the war. Franklin Roosevelt felt the need to appease the Russian dictator, in part, because the Soviet military had done the bulk of the fighting against the Nazis. Churchill had little choice but to go along.

The Nazis finally identified Zo, resulting in a price on her head in March 1944 as the Nazis b targeted all women in their thirties as a means of finding her. Mulley describes her clandestine life and travels in detail as she was ordered to remain in a convent to escape the Nazi dragnet. Finally, she emerges to play a key role in the Warsaw Ghetto uprising, but not as a fighter which was against her wishes. With her experience and knowledge of the city, its sewers, basements, and neighborhoods in general she was put in charge of organizing women to deliver supplies, make incendiary bombs, deliver medical supplies, organize ambulances, and use couriers as a means of getting the truth out to the world. In the end 18,000 resisters, and 200,000 civilians were killed in the uprising. Once the city succumbed, Zo escaped and spent her time trying to reorganize the Farmstead.

Clare Mulley Two images of a tall communist-era apartment block with a mural featuring several paintings of Zo on the side of it (Clare Mulley/A mural depicting Zawacka has been painted on the side of the communist-era apartment block where she lived in Toruń)

Once the war ended Zo’s personal battle for Polish independence did not end as the new communist regime imposed by Stalin began to show interest in her just as they wanted to destroy any remnant of the Home Army that may have remained. Stalin’s henchmen rounded up any Home Army veterans who they saw as part of a possible anti-communist resistance. For Zo, the peace she fought so long and hard for instead “she felt that her country’s occupation by one hostile foreign power had now been replaced by another, and Poland was still not free.” As Marissa Moss points out in her December 11, 2024, review in The New York Journal of Books; “Zo herself was sent to prison, arrested for being part of a network spying on the communist government. She wasn’t part of any such group but looked guilty simply because of her past. Like many of her compatriots in the Home Army, her real crime lay in telling the story of Poland’s resistance, a story that contradicted the official Soviet version.” She was tortured and imprisoned and finally freed after Stalin died in March 1953, but she was not allowed to teach because of her “criminal record” and her refusal to join the communist party. It was not until the arrival of the Solidarity movement and the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1989 that she could be sure that her secret archive detailing the Home Army would be secure, as she was determined to collect even more stories of the Home Army, especially the part played by women.

Zo was the recipient of many awards and medals for her bravery and devotion to her country, but to her what really mattered was the history through which she had lived. She created a vast archive, hoping to educate a new generation about their country’s history. This book serves her mission well.

(The General Elżbieta Foundation, ToruńElżbieta Zawacka crossed international borders more than 100 times as she smuggled military intelligence to the Allies)

BLACK BUTTERFLIES by Priscilla Morris

February 12, 2025February 12, 2025szfreiberger Historical Fiction Leave a comment

A Bosnian soldier returns fire in downtown Sarajevo as he and civilians come under fire from Serbian snipers, April 1992.

(A Bosnian soldier returns fire in downtown Sarajevo as he and civilians come under fire from Serbian snipers, April 1992)

In the 1970s CIA analysts warned that if Josip Broz Tito, the authoritarian leader of Yugoslavia died eventually the country would break apart and the result would be a nasty civil war. Tito would pass from the scene in 1980, and it took until January 1992 for the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia to cease its existence, dissolving into its constituent states. Earlier an American National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) 15-90 presented a dire warning; “Yugoslavia will cease to function as a federal state within a year and will probably dissolve within two….A full-scale interrepublic war is unlikely, but serious intercommunal conflict will accompany the breakup and will continue afterward. The violence will be intractable and bitter.”

Slovenia was the first to declare its “sovereignty” in 1990. Croatia followed in May, and in August, the Yugoslav republic of Bosnia-Herzegovina also declared itself sovereign. Soon after, Slovenia and Croatia both declared formal independence on June 25, 1991. Bosnia-Herzegovina declared its independence in May 1992, while the Serbs in Bosnia declared their own areas an independent republic.

(Women run for their lives across ‘Sniper Alley’ under the sights of Serb gunmen during the siege of Sarajevo. 1992)

Serbia and Montenegro formed a new Federal Republic of Yugoslavia as a successor state to the old Yugoslavia, but the international community did not recognize its claim. Over the next three years war would ensue in Bosnia and Herzegovina claiming hundreds of thousands of lives and displaced millions from their homes, as Europe experienced the most horrific fighting since World War II. One major component of the fighting was the siege of Sarajevo which came about because the Bosnian Serbs wanted to create a new Serb state of Republika Srpska and would encircle the city, located in the southern part of Bosnia-Herzegovina. Starting in April 1992, Serbia set out to “ethnically cleanse” Bosnian territory by systematically removing all Bosnian Muslims, known as Bosniaks. Serbia, together with ethnic Bosnian Serbs, attacked Bosniaks with former Yugoslavian military equipment and surrounded Sarajevo, the capital city. The resulting blockade and the ensuing assault with artillery, tanks, and 500,000 bombs resulted in the death of 13,952 people, including 5,434 civilians. The population of Sarajevo dropped by a third because of the siege which lasted from April 5, 1992, to February 29, 1996, three times longer than the siege of Stalingrad, and a year longer than the siege of Leningrad.

The reasons behind the country’s breakup ranged from cultural and religious divisions between the ethnic groups that made up the former Yugoslavia, including Serbs, Croats, and Muslims. Sarajevo’s 1991 ethnic population consisted of a total of 527,049, including; 259,470 ethnic Muslims; 157,143 Serbs; and 34,873 Croats. In addition, the memories of World War II and the atrocities committed by all sides greatly contributed to the breakup, as did the growing nationalist forces. Another major contributing factor was following the death of Tito in 1980, the provisions of the 1974 constitution kicked in providing for the dissolution of all power away from the federal government to the republics and autonomous provinces within Serbia. The result was that the federal government maintained little control over the country.

This situation forms the background for Priscilla Morris’ evocative novel, BLACK BUTTERFLIES. The story begins as Zora, an artist and teacher, and her husband, Franjo arrive at Zora’s aged mother’s apartment to find three people squatting and refusing to leave arguing that the city government had decided that if a flat was unoccupied anyone could live there. Their daughter Dubravka was married to an Englishman and resided near Salisbury, and they decided to send her mother to visit because of the stress of the situation and her declining health, accompanied by Franjo leaving Zora alone in Sarajevo.

(A wounded woman is helped to get out of her apartment building after it was hit by a rocket fired from Bosnia Serb positions, June 1995)

The novel focuses on the experiences of Zora Kocovic, an artist and teacher at the National Academy of Art and her attempts at survival as Sarajevo is being pounded by artillery and sniper fire by Bosnian Serbs who want to ethnically cleanse the city of Muslims and Bosnian Serbs who do not support them. Zora’s family has left for England and Zora thought it would be safe to remain in the city, but that turned out to be a “pipe dream.” Along with her neighbors they try to navigate a situation where electricity, water, phone lines, and the airport have been cut off and it is too dangerous to walk the street to find food and water because of sniper fire. Bodies lay in the street for days and city services are non-existent.

One of Morris’ most important themes is the importance of art in wartime, particularly those who are suffering. This can be seen in numerous ways. Zora continues to instruct those students who are able to make their way to her flat, even creating an art exhibition out of any material they can employ for the neighborhood. When she runs out of paper and canvas, she and her eight year old neighbor’s daughter Una draw on the walls and paint natural scenes. To further her work, Zora takes her last few coins to purchase art supplies from the wife of an artist who has disappeared.

(UN peacekeepers and Sarajevo citizens take cover from gunfire on the city’s infamous ‘Sniper Alley’, March 1993)

Morris’ description of Sarajevo is vividly rendered from its cobblestone streets, grandfathers playing chess outside, the shade offered by the spires of Orthodox churches, and the minarets dating to the Ottoman era. It was a beautiful city before the siege and served as a bridge between east and west based on its multi-ethnic culture and religions. But as the siege begins to take its toll people are reluctant to leave despite the danger for fear squatters would take over their flats, stealing their possessions. Morris uses the dialogue between her characters to shine a light on the ethnic hatred that exists in the city. A comment by Zora’s neighbor Vensa, an orthodox Christian is emblematic of how people feel, she says to Zora; “But God, I’m terrified, aren’t you? Day by day, Sarajevo is becoming more Muslim.” Zora visits her Uncle Vuk who believes that the Muslims want an Islamic state, and Serbs would then be treated as if the Ottoman Empire were reconstituted. This leads to constant anxiety among her characters as she goes on to describe “Bosnian Serb snipers lying behind sandbags on the tops of buildings and taking aim at people in the street below as if they are sparrows.”

Serb nationalists cannot accept that people like Zora want to go on living with Muslims and Croats as they have always done – historically, Sarajevo was always seen as a model of tolerance. The situation is very trying for Zora. Her studio was her sanctuary, but once Bosnian nationalists banned it, she hurried to recoup as much art supplies and her paintings as possible, but they would soon run out. Zora becomes further depressed when she was promised a seat on a UN bus leaving the city and at the last minute it fell through.

In one of the most poignant scenes in the book is also its title, Zora and her neighbors are outside when it seems to be raining black puffs of paper. In reality it is paper from books that have been destroyed from the National Library by the shelling. They refer to the paper flying around as “Black Butterflies.” For Zora, her national heritage has been destroyed. She states, “Zora Kocovic, the painter, is dead.” Her survival rests on her relationship with her neighbor Mirsad, who owns a bookstore and his son Shamir, who has joined the anti-nationalist forces. Their camaraderie, along with other neighbors, becomes the core of each other’s existence. The people become their own family, and their relationships carry them through the harshest aspects of the shelling. They create a sumptuous meal for all in Zora’s flat, they work to find a phone that works so Zora can speak with her daughter in London, Zora cooks pigeons, spending money needed for art supplies to buy garlic so she can cook for all, among other examples. Even when Zora falls in love with Mirsad, which occurs after many seasons of mutual suffering, it is a love doomed to fail as the conflict rages on, as it is born out of proximity and trauma and the constant fear of loss, rather than a betrayal of her husband in England.

Morris takes a narrow approach in developing her story and toward the expanding fighting. Her focus on Zora and her compatriots allows her to keep the burgeoning war in the background as she focuses on the daily travails of her characters. According to Malavika Praseed in her August 28, 2024, book review entitled, “Rebirth Amongst Despair in “Black Butterflies” in the Chicago Review of Books; “While it is easy for a book of this nature to end either in soul-crushing despair or unrealistic optimism, Morris is savvy in her story craft and chooses neither. This is true to Zora’s character arc compared to her life arc; while the former ends, the latter must continue in new circumstances and with new knowledge of the suffering that came before. It is also true to the Bosnian genocide as a whole, which only just begins in Sarajevo and escalates to a multi-year conflict with an Islamophobic focus. Nevertheless, Black Butterflies is both a historical portrait as well as a character one, with emphasis on the latter. Morris understands her intent, to tell a single story touched by many other characters, but still unmistakably Zora’s, instead of widening her scope and losing tender moments and pinpoint detail in the process.”

Further, Bea Seaton wrote in the New York Times on September 3, 2024 ,a view I agree with wholeheartedly; “This is a dark novel that wrests beauty and hope out of suffering. It is a work of literature that transforms horror and violence into a life force.”

(A boy playing on a tank in the Sarajevo neighbourhood of Grbavica, April 1996)

SYMPHONY FOR THE CITY OF THE DEAD: DIMITRI SHOSTAKOVITCH AND THE SIEGE OF LENINGRAD by M. T. Anderson

February 8, 2025szfreiberger Biography, Russian History Leave a comment

(Dimitri Shostakovitch)

There are many historical works that describe the Nazi siege of Leningrad during World War II. The monographs that stand out are Anna Reid’s LENINGRAD: TRAGEDY OF A CITY UNDER SIEGE, 1941-1944; Harrison Salisbury’s THE 900 DAYS: THE SIEGE OF LENINGRAD; and David M. Lantz’s BATTLE FOR LENINGRAD: 1941-1944. All reflect the military strategy pursued by the Germans and the utter devastation they employed. Further, they are well researched and reflect each author’s mastery of the material. Another piece that describes the horrors of the siege, but in a different manner is M. T. Anderson’s SYMPHONY FOR THE CITY OF THE DEAD: DIMITRI SHOSTAKOVICH AND THE SIEGE OF LENINGRAD. The book is the story of the siege, mostly through the eyes of Russian musician and composer, Dimitri Shostakovich, and its impact on his beloved city of Leningrad.

The narrative is different from other works that explore the siege and is a story according to the author “about the power of music and its meanings – a story of secret messages and double speak, and how music itself is a code; how music coaxes people to endure unthinkable tragedy; how is allows us to whisper between the prison bars when we cannot speak aloud; how it can still comfort the suffering, saying whatever has befallen you – you are not alone.”

(Dmitri Shostakovich and second wife Margarita Kainova in the Bois de Boulogne in Paris. May 1958)

Anderson educates the reader as to Shostakovich’s early years and career, reviewing his symphonies and other artistic works. He also provides the reader with the historical background that impacts Shostakovich. Beginning with World War I, the Russian Revolution, the role of Vladimir Lenin, the rise of Stalin and the implementation of the Five year plans, the resulting collectivization of the peasantry, and the purges and “show trials” that were employed to foster blame for the death of millions of peasants. Anderson is able to integrate Shostakovich’s artistic development during the period and his relationships with other intellectuals, artists, i.e., Vsevolod Meyerhold, Vladimir Mayakovsky who would commit suicide because of Stalin’s repressive regime, Boris Pasternak, and the poet Osip Mandelstam who died in a transit camp near Vladivostok.

Interestingly, the horrors that Stalin inflicted on the Russian people in the 1930s did not immediately affect Shostakovich. However, as the decade progressed and intellectuals, artists and poets were sent into internal exile or murdered he realized he would have to deal with the authorities. For Stalin, literature and the arts were the gear and screw of his propaganda machine. Anderson carefully lays out the impact of the new Soviet system on the arts and literature. He describes in detail how writers, musicians, poets, etc. were manipulated by the regime to propagandize the masses, i.e., using symphonies to depict the joys of collective farming!

Shostakovich’s problems began when Stalin attended Lady Macbeth at the Bolshoi for which he had written the score. Stalin was not pleased and complained “that’s a mess, not music.” Shostakovich became a target in Stalin’s war against culture. He was accused of “formalist” crimes which no one really understood as Stalin pushed “Socialist Realism.” Shostakovich was attacked for “being too simple, being too complex, being too light and trivial, being too gloomy and despairing, being too emotional, being too unemotional, including popular dance tunes, neglecting music of the people, tossing out the old ways of the great composers, and following the old ways of the great composers from the pre-Revolutionary past.” The government refused to allow Shostakovich to play his Fourth Symphony in public (it would remain banned for twenty-five years).

(Dmitri Shostakovich with his first wife Nina Varzar, Ivan Sollertinsky (far left), Alexander Gauk, and unidentified. Photograph from the 1930)

The effect of the Great Terror (see Robert Conquest’s book of the same title for a comprehensive look at Stalin’s murderous repression of the 1930s) on Shostakovich’s relatives and friends was immense as some were arrested, some went into internal exile, some were tortured, some were murdered. Shostakovich was listed by the NKVD as a “saboteur.” When Shostakovich’s Fifth Symphony was completed, two members of the Committee for Artistic Affairs stated the “Symphony’s success has been most scandalously fabricated.” As Shostakovich watched everyone disappear he assumed he would be next. The Great Terror was a period of insanity as Stalin even purged the military including Marshal Tukachevsky, the Soviet Union’s most talented general who was murdered. Roughly 60-70% of the Soviet officer corps were eliminated; 27,000 officers were killed or lived in exile in the east. This would come home to roost as the Nazis invaded Russia in 1941 and the Russians offered little resistance at the start.

In the end the Great Terror resulted in eight million arrests; one million shot; and seven million sent to prison camps. As Anderson chronicles the horrors – two million died in camps between 1937-8. The question is how did Shostakovich avoid arrest. First, he was an international celebrity. Second, even though the NKVD paid a great deal of attention to him, gathering a case for prosecution, once the war drew closer it diverted their attention away from him.

(TASS/Getty ImagesHorses transport supplies to Leningrad over the frozen Ladoga Lake, dubbed the “Street of Life.”)

In part one of the narrative Anderson prepares the reader for the coming of the Second World War. Shostakovich’s life is studied and analyzed in detail. After recounting the impact of Stalin’s terror, in Part II, the author turns his attention to Russia in June 1941 as Germany invades and ultimately Shostakovich’s beloved Leningrad is placed under siege. Anderson lays out Nazi policy toward Russia and Hitler’s desire for lebensraum or living space in the east. Stalin had read MEIN KAMPF, and like Winston Churchill believed that a German invasion was inevitable. Anderson explores Stalin’s coping strategy which culminated in the Nazi-Soviet Pact of August 1939, which failed to stop a Nazi invasion, but in Stalin’s eyes it allowed Russia over a year to prepare. Interestingly, at the same time Stalin could not believe that Hitler would go back on his word as they split Poland in two. The first days of the Nazi invasion were a massacre, and Stalin would disappear for ten days as he could not believe the Russian people would support a murderer, but in reality what they opposed even more was a German murderer. During this time Shostakovich composed music for the soldiers, dug ditches, and became a rooftop fire fighter. Shostakovich and the Russian people believed that “the Nazi barbarians seek to destroy the whole of Slavonic culture.” Shostakovich’s music was designed to remind Russians of the power and legitimacy of their own culture, so slandered by the invading German horde.

Anderson does a wonderful job mining period photographs of the war and the siege of Leningrad depicting the horrors that the Russian people were subjected to over a three year period. Famine, cannibalism, eating corpses, and other demeaning behaviors dominated the people of Leningrad as they tried to survive. Anderson’s chapter “The City of the Dead” explores the dreadful experiences of the Russian people in detail, to the point he explains the differences between cannibalism and eating dead corpses. The city’s population remained about 2.5 million, after 636,000 evacuated. The losses from starvation in part can be blamed on the incompetence of Russian leadership. For example, Andrei Zhdanov and Kliment Voroshilov, the Leningrad city bosses stored all of the city’s emergency food supply in one place, a group of thirty-eight year old wooden warehouses which made it easy for the Germans to destroy massively contributing to the city’s famine. The Nazi nutritionists figured out how much food intake the Russian people would need to survive. Once they decided that there was not enough food supply to feed the city’s residents they stopped bombing the city, implemented a siege, all to save German soldiers, and eradicate the subhuman Slavs. This would drive the Russian people to make many moral decisions dealing with who should live and who should die.

Citizens Dig Through Rubble And Snow Leningrad

(Sovfoto/UIG/Getty ImagesResidents clearing snow and ice. The city declared a clean-up operation to prevent the spread of disease from scattered feces and unburied corpses)

Anderson follows Shostakovich’s personal journey as he fled Leningrad and settled in Kuibyshev, a Moscow suburb. He decided on his latest symphony; the 7^th would be a testimonial to Leningrad’s struggle. He would broadcast for the Radio Committee and worked to raise morale, a key component in any war. This coincided with the turning point in the war as Nazi troops were finally stopped twenty miles south of Moscow, and the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor bringing the United States into the war which provided massive amounts of equipment, planes, and weaponry. At the same time, December 1941, Shostakovich completed his 7^th Symphony. As the symphony was analyzed, was it anti-Stalin, was it anti-Hitler, was it anti Stalin and Hitler or something else. From Shostakovich’s perspective it “was an abstract depiction of the bondage of the spirit; all those petty, ugly things that grow disastrously within us and lead us all in a dance of destruction.” The symphony was dedicated to the people of Leningrad. The playing of the composition had to be put off for months as it required a large orchestra, however, half the number of musicians needed were dead. Anderson’s portrayal of how the orchestra was pieced together and the impact of the concert which took place August 9, 1942, is extremely moving and important, as it showed the Russian people how committed they were to their country as they finally experienced normality for a brief period of time.

Stalin’s regime decided to use the 7^th Symphony as a vehicle to cement the United States as a Russian ally and convince the American people to support the Soviet Union. At the outset of the book Anderson describes how a microfilm of the symphony was transported from Russia to the United States “across steppe, sand, sea, and jungle” in the midst of the war. Once it arrived it was performed in New York and Leningrad to try and shift the negative mood of the Russian people and even went as far as placing Shostakovich on the cover of Time magazine.

(A soldier buys a ticket for the first concert of Shostakovitch’s 7th Symphony)

If there is one area that the author could have improved upon it is his sourcing. To his credit the photos are remarkable, as are the excerpts from survivor’s diaries, and literary figures depicting the plight of the city. However, too many citations are from secondary sources which Anderson summarizes. But, there is enough primary material available so as to not rely so much on secondary works.

Anderson’s historical portrayal contains all the World War II intrigue of an Alan Furst novel. It tells of the horror of living during a three year siege and describes the physical oppression and daunting foes within and outside Leningrad. This is also a story of survival against impossible odds. Throughout, the author weaves the thread of Shostakovich’s music and the role it played in this appalling drama. Anderson’s writing flows beautifully despite his topic and is a useful tool to explore its subject matter without getting bogged down in minute detail.

Black and white photograph of composer Dmitri Shostakovich

(Dimitri Shostakovitch)

Doc's Books

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Month: February 2025

THE GATES OF GAZA by Amir Tibon

AGENT ZO: THE UNTOLD STORY OF A FEARLESS WORLD WAR II RESISTANCE FIGHTER ELZBIETA ZAWACKA by Clare Mulley

BLACK BUTTERFLIES by Priscilla Morris

SYMPHONY FOR THE CITY OF THE DEAD: DIMITRI SHOSTAKOVITCH AND THE SIEGE OF LENINGRAD by M. T. Anderson