I couldn’t spend the night at Nalchik; I had to go back up to Pyatigorsk to file a report. The next day, I was summoned by von Gilsa. “Hauptsturmführer, we have a little problem in Nalchik that also concerns the Sicherheitspolizei.” The Sonderkommando, he explained, had already begun to shoot some Jews, near the racecourse: Russian Jews, most of them Party members or officials, but also some local Jews, who seemed to be those famous “Mountain Jews,” or Jews of the Caucasus. One of their elders had gone to find Selim Shadov, the Kabard lawyer chosen by the military administration to be the leader of the future autonomous district; he in turn had met in Kislovodsk with Generaloberst von Kleist, to whom he had explained that the Gorski Yevrei were not racially Jewish, but a mountain people converted to Judaism just as the Kabards had been converted to Islam. “According to him, these Bergjuden eat like the other mountain people, dress like them, get married like them, and speak neither Hebrew nor Yiddish. They’ve been living for more than one hundred and fifty years in Nalchik and they all speak both Kabard and Balkar Turkish, along with their own language. Herr Shadov told the Generaloberst that the Kabards would not accept having their mountain brothers killed, and that they should be spared and even excused from wearing the yellow star.”—“And what does the Generaloberst say about this?”—“As you know, the Wehrmacht is carrying out a policy here that aims to create good relations with the anti-Bolshevist minorities. These good relations should not be thoughtlessly imperiled. Of course, the security of the troops is also a vital consideration. But if these people are not racially Jewish, it may be that they present no danger. The question is a delicate one and should be studied carefully. So the Wehrmacht is going to form a commission of specialists and conduct an assessment. In the meantime, the Generaloberst is asking the Sicherheitspolizei not to take any measures against this Group. Of course, the Sicherheitspolizei is entirely free to submit its own opinion on the question, which the Army Group will take into consideration. I think the OKHG will delegate the affair to General Köstring. After all, it concerns a zone that is intended for self-government.”—“Very good, Herr Oberst. I have made a note of it and will send a report.”—“Thank you. I would also be grateful to you if you would ask Oberführer Bierkamp to confirm to us in writing that the Sicherheitspolizei will not undertake any action without a decision from the Wehrmacht.”—“Zu Befehl, Herr Oberst.”
