The
Cantonists: The Jewish Children's Army
of the Tsar
By Larry Domnitch
Recent
press reports about the Tamil Tigers of
Sri Lanka have placed heavy emphasis on
their practice of forcibly inducting
12-year-old boys into their terrorist
army. With all the focus placed on it,
one might assume this was a new
phenomenon.
The
history of Tsarist Russia tells a
different story. In The
Cantonists, Larry Domnitch researches the
history of the thousands of Jewish boys who
were seized by the tsar's army. By scouring
libraries in Israel and the United States,
Domnitch unearthed graphic reports in
Hebrew, Yiddish, and Russian that have
enabled him to produce an authentic
anthology of personal accounts as recorded
by the victims themselves and eyewitnesses.
Cantons
were areas where Peter the Great established
barracks to house Jewish children and others
who were press-ganged into his army. The
children, referred to as cantonists,
suffered from the policies, introduced in
1742, aimed at trying to assimilate Jews
into Russian society.
Boys from
the age of 12, and some even younger, were
forced into military service to induce them
to forsake Judaism and convert to
Christianity. The story of these abducted
children forms part of Jewish folklore,
which also describes countless means used by
families to avoid losing their sons. Some
would have fingers amputated or even,
unbelievably, have an eye removed to make
them ineligible for military service,
although even this did not always prevent
the authorities from seizing a child. There
was actually a regulation stating that,
under these circumstances, another member of
the child's family could also be taken.
DURING THE
reign of Nicholas I (1825-1855), some 50,000
Jewish children and 20,000 Jewish adults
were snatched from their homes. Kahals, or
government-authorized Jewish community
councils, were made responsible for ensuring
that quotas were reached. "Chappers," who
were often Jews, were paid per child to
abduct the victims. Unscrupulous kahal
members stopped at nothing. Rich Jews got
kahals to find "volunteer" recruits of
similar age to replace their own sons; it is
clear from Domnitch's research that the
conduct of some Jews, apart from the
chappers, was shameful.
Some
children could be exempted - those studying
at yeshiva and those who were married. The
latter excuse resulted in many under-age
marriages. Unfortunately, no explanation is
given as to why yeshiva study, a far
less-permanent commitment, wasn't the
primary choice for exemption purposes.
Cantonists
had to serve for 25 years after reaching the
age of 25, so it is not surprising that many
forgot their Jewish ancestry and were only
vaguely reminded by triggered memories of
special events. Many could not adjust after
finally returning to the shtetl. The
spine-chilling stories, which discuss both
the way in which the children were kidnapped
and their subsequent experiences, can make
for painful reading.
We learn,
for example, of a motherless 10-year-old who
looked after his blind father. On the day
after the child's abduction, his helpless
father was found frozen to death in the
snow. Many details are given about the
treatment to which cantonists were subjected
in the hope they would convert. Boys were
beaten and whipped so severely that many
died, and others found it impossible to
resist the pressure. It is, however, the
remarkable bravery shown by those who did
resist that is most impressive.
Occasionally, a compassionate priest
appears, but the clergy's ultimate objective
was still to "save souls."
Not all
cantonists' lives ended in tragedy. There
was the lucky boy adopted by a Russian
officer and who later became a musician to
the tsar. Another chapter describes the life
of Chaim Merimzon, who was snatched the day
before his bar mitzva and, like others,
suffered a great deal. The enlightened
Alexander II abolished the cantonist system
in 1856, and Merimzon was sent to Moscow as
a joiner's apprentice. He tried a number of
trades, eventually practicing medicine
before being allowed to return to his
family.
Simon
Dubnow, the great historian of Russian
Jewry, covers this subject in a more
succinct manner, but the personal accounts
that emerge from Domnitch's findings leave
the reader with a more powerful
understanding of the suffering of so many
young Jews.
One
cantonist wrote many years after winning his
freedom: "These things may not be forgotten.
We must tell them to our children and our
grandchildren."
Larry
Domnitch has triumphantly fulfilled that
wish.
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