Following the announcement that bin Laden was killed during a U.S. raid in Pakistan, the New York Daily News noted an eerie coincidence: Adolf Hitler and Osama bin Laden were both declared dead on the first of May (sixty-six years apart).
JTA has covered the various Jewish reactions to the news about bin Laden, and our writer Sue Fishkoff examines how Jews should react.
From the bottom of page two of JTA’s Daily Briefing in 1945, here was the Jewish reaction in Moscow to the news about Hitler’s death:
Jewish Generals Cited for Capture of Berlin, Moscow Jews Rejoice at News of Hitler’s Death (May 3 1945)
MOSCOW–
In three orders-of-the-day issued yesterday by Stalin in connection with the capitulation of Berlin, the seizure of Rostook and the end of resistance of 120,000 Germans south of Berlin, many Jewish officers were mentioned. Among those cited were Lieut. Gen. Kazankin, Maj. Gen. Bukstynowich, Maj. Gen.Moiseyevsky, Maj. Gen. Folkenstein, Mag. Gen. Shapiro, Lieut. Gen. Cherniskovsky and many others.
The Moscow radio today reported that the Red Army had captured an inspector of S.S. troops who had personally killed more than 1,000 Poles and Jews in the ghettes and concentration camps of Poland.
Crowds of happy Jews gathered in Moscow’s synagogues last night after the announcement by Marshal Stalin that Berlin had fallen and the report thatHitler was dead. Around the aynagogue on Moroseike Street a throng remained discussing the news long after Moscow’s usual bedtime.
