Sascha Schapiro: Difference between revisions

Latest revision as of 18:56, 3 April 2024

Alexander "Sascha" Schapiro (1890 - 1942) was an anarchist and soldier in the Russian Revolution and Spanish Civil War.

Life

Childhood

Born into a family of Hasidic Jews in the border town of Novozybkov. He began to identify more with the working class and peasantry of Russia than his own wealthy family. Leaving the town at 14 to join an insurrectionist anarchist group similar to the Chernoe Znamia. The group was repressed by police in 1905, after the failed Russian Revolution and an attempt to assassinate Tsar Nicholas II.

Arrest

The rest of the group was executed, but Sascha was sentenced to life in prison on account of his youth and he was placed in a Moscow dungeon. However, the influence of a friend managed to secure a position in the nicer Yaroslavl prison. His left arm was shot while trying to escape, resulting in its amputation.After an attempted suicide, he spent the year 1914 in solitary confinement.

Release and Russian Revolution

Sascha was released from prison in 1917, with the collapse of the Czarist regime and new Provisional Government led by Alexander Kerensky. Hailed as a hero across the country, he became an outspoken critic of the new regime. Befriending the anarchist revolutionaries Lev Chernyi and Maria Nikiforova, and joining the Black Army. He married a woman named Rachel, and had a son, Dodek. However, repression of the anarchists by the Bolsheviks led him to flee to Minsk, where he met Alexander Berkman. He escaped Russia through the Polish border in 1921, using forged papers.

Life in Europe

By 1922, Schapiro had reached Berlin, where he remained except for a few travels to Paris and Belgium until 1924. He befriended other anarchists there, such as Francisco Ascaso, Buenaventura Durruti, Francesco Ghezzi and Theodor Plievier. He remained in contact with Nestor Makhno and members of the Dielo Truda. Along with Sébastien Faure, Ugo Fedeli and Henryk Walecki he founded the Paris-section of the International Works of Anarchist Editions, run by Severin Ferandel. He met Hanka Grothendieck while working as a street photographer, and they had a son, Alexander.

Spanish Civil War

Forced to flee Germany after the rise to power of Adolf Hitler, and intent on fighting in the coming Spanish Civil War, the couple sent Alexander to live with the Heydorns, a middle-class family with anarchist sympathies, in 1933. He worked as a soldier in Spain, fighting until the bitter end of the war, where he fled to France, being interned at Camp Vernet.

Nazi Germany

Sascha lived in Nazi-Occupied Paris, active in the underground anarchist movement, but was soon arrested and deported to Auschwitz concentration camp in 1942, where he was killed.^[1]

References

↑ Wikipedia - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sascha_Schapiro

[1] Wikipedia - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sascha_Schapiro

[1]

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
-{{Infobox_character|name = Sascha Schapiro|image = Sacha Schapiro.jpg|aliases = Alexander Tanarov
+'''Alexander "Sascha" Schapiro''' (1890 - 1942) was an [[Anarchism|anarchist]] and soldier in the [[Russian Revolution]] and [[Spanish Civil War]].
-Sascha Piotr
+== Life ==
-Sergei}}'''Alexander "Sascha" Schapiro''' (Russian: Александр Шапиро; <abbr>c.</abbr> 1890 – 1942), also known by the ''noms de guerre'' '''Alexander Tanarov''', '''Sascha Piotr''', and '''Sergei''', was an anarchist and father of eminent 20th century mathematician [[Alexander Grothendieck]].<sup>[1][2]</sup>
+=== Childhood ===
+Born into a family of Hasidic Jews in the border town of Novozybkov. He began to identify more with the working class and peasantry of Russia than his own wealthy family. Leaving the town at 14 to join an [[Insurrectionary Anarchism|insurrectionist anarchist]] group similar to the [[Chernoe Znamia]]. The group was repressed by police in 1905, after the [[Russian Revolution (1905)|failed Russian Revolution]] and an attempt to assassinate [[Tsar Nicholas II]].
-== Early years and Russian revolutions ==
+=== Arrest ===
-Born into a Hasidic family in the predominantly Jewish border town of Novozybkov,
+The rest of the group was executed, but Sascha was sentenced to life in prison on account of his youth and he was placed in a Moscow dungeon. However, the influence of a friend managed to secure a position in the nicer Yaroslavl prison. His left arm was shot while trying to escape, resulting in its amputation.After an attempted suicide, he spent the year 1914 in solitary confinement.
-<nowiki> </nowiki>Russia in 1889 or 1890, Alexander Schapiro grew up identifying more
-with the impoverished proletariat than with his own well-to-do family.<sup>[2]</sup> In 1904 at the age of fourteen he left the town and joined an anarchist militant group (akin to the Chernoznamentsy) who were rounded up by the authorities in 1905 after an unsuccessful attempt to murder Czar Nicholas II.<sup>[1][2]</sup>
-<nowiki> </nowiki>All were executed, save Schapiro who was spared on account of his
-youth, sentenced to life imprisonment and sent to rot in a dungeon in
-Moscow. He was spared a lingering death there by the intercession of an
-influential friend who secured his transfer to Yaroslavl, where he stayed for twelve years.<sup>[1]</sup> It was here that Schapiro was shot in his left arm whilst trying to escape, resulting in its amputation.<sup>[2]</sup> After an attempted suicide, he spent the year 1914 in solitary confinement.<sup>[2]</sup>
-With the collapse of the Czarist regime  in Russia in 1917, Schapiro was released, and hailed as a national hero.<sup>[1]</sup> He was one of a number of anarchists who spoke out against the representative system for electing the Constituent Assembly proposed by Alexander Kerensky's Russian Provisional Government,
+=== Release and Russian Revolution ===
-<nowiki> </nowiki>writing that "no parliament can break the path toward liberty, that the
+Sascha was released from prison in 1917, with the collapse of the Czarist regime and new [[Provisional Government (Russian Revolution)|Provisional Government]] led by [[Alexander Kerensky]]. Hailed as a hero across the country, he became an outspoken critic of the new regime. Befriending the anarchist revolutionaries [[Lev Chernyi]] and [[Maria Nikiforova]], and joining the [[Revolutionary Insurrectionary Army of Ukraine|Black Army]]. He married a woman named Rachel, and had a son, Dodek. However, repression of the anarchists by the [[Bolsheviks]] led him to flee to Minsk, where he met [[Alexander Berkman]]. He escaped Russia through the Polish border in 1921, using forged papers.
-<nowiki> </nowiki>good society can be realized only through 'the abolition of all
-power'".<sup>[3]</sup> He befriended the anarchist revolutionaries Lev Chernyi and Maria Nikiforova and became a leading figure in a cadre of heavily armed anarchists fighting in Ukraine associated with Nestor Makhno's Black Army.<sup>[2]</sup>
-<nowiki> </nowiki>Schapiro lead a tempestuous life in Russia between 1917 and 1921 in an
-atmosphere of increasing repression of anarchists by the Bolshevik
-regime, marrying a Jewish woman named Rachil, with whom he had a son,
-Dodek.<sup>[2]</sup> In an attempt to evade the Bolsheviks searching for him, he fled in 1921 to Minsk, where he encountered and was financially supported by Alexander Berkman.<sup>[2]</sup>
-<nowiki> </nowiki>With the assistance of a Jewish woman named Leah, Schapiro then crossed
-<nowiki> </nowiki>the Russian-Polish border using forged papers bearing the name of '''Alexander Tanarov'''.<sup>[2]</sup>
-== Life in Europe, family and death ==
+=== Life in Europe ===
-By 1922, Schapiro had reached Berlin, where he remained save for spells in Paris and Belgium until 1924.<sup>[1][2]</sup> There, he assumed the name '''Sacha Piotr''' and throughout the 1920s was an active participant in the anarchist movement, in 1928 becoming friends with prominent Spanish anarcho-syndicalists Francisco Ascaso and Buenaventura Durruti, Italian anarchist Francesco Ghezzi and German author Theodor Plievier, who dedicated his 1927 novel ''Stienka Rasin'' to Schapiro.<sup>[2]</sup> In Paris, he was a regular at the artist's hangout Café Dome, and befriended journalist and artist Aron Brzezinski, who made a bronze bust of him, as well as the novelist Scholem Asch.<sup>[2]</sup> During this period he was in infrequent contact with Makhno and his platformist Dielo Truda group, who were based in Paris.<sup>[2]</sup> Schapiro was one of the founding members, alongside Sébastien Faure, Ugo Fedeli and Henryk Walecki, of the Paris-based ''Œuvres Internationales Des Editions Anarchistes'' (''International Works of Anarchist Editions'').<sup>[2]</sup> He contributed at least two articles to the publication, run at that time by the anarchist Severin Ferandel.<sup>[2]</sup>
+By 1922, Schapiro had reached Berlin, where he remained except for a few travels to Paris and Belgium until 1924. He befriended other anarchists there, such as [[Francisco Ascaso]], [[Buenaventura Durruti]], [[Francesco Ghezzi]] and [[Theodor Plievier]]. He remained in contact with Nestor Makhno and members of the [[Dielo Truda]]. Along with [[Sébastien Faure]], [[Ugo Fedeli]] and [[Maksymilian Horwitz|Henryk Walecki]] he founded the Paris-section of the International Works of Anarchist Editions, run by [[Severin Ferandel]]. He met [[Hanka Grothendieck]] while working as a street photographer, and they had a son, [[Alexander Grothendieck|Alexander]].
-Schapiro met anarchist journalist Hanka Grothendieck, who was
+=== Spanish Civil War ===
-then married to left wing journalist Alf Raddatz, through the movement
+Forced to flee [[Nazi Germany|Germany]] after the rise to power of [[Adolf Hitler]], and intent on fighting in the coming [[Spanish Civil War]], the couple sent Alexander to live with the Heydorns, a middle-class family with anarchist sympathies, in 1933. He worked as a soldier in [[Spain]], fighting until the bitter end of the war, where he fled to France, being interned at [[Camp Vernet]].
-in Berlin while working as a street photographer. Due to the
-increasingly anti-Semitic environment in Europe at the time, the couple
+=== Nazi Germany ===
-decided to give their son Alexander the surname of Grothendieck's
+Sascha lived in Nazi-Occupied Paris, active in the underground anarchist movement, but was soon arrested and deported to [[Auschwitz]] concentration camp in 1942, where he was killed.<ref>[[Wikipedia]] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sascha_Schapiro</ref>
-well-established Hamburg middle-class family.<sup>[1]</sup> Forced to flee Germany after the rise to power of Adolf Hitler, and intent on fighting in the coming Spanish Civil War, the couple sent Alexander to live with the Heydorns, a middle-class family with anarchist sympathies, in 1933.<sup>[1]</sup> In Spain, under the name '''Sacha Pietra''', Schapiro fought the fascists until the defeat of the Second Spanish Republic, after which he and his wife crossed the French border and he was interned at Camp Vernet with his comrades.<sup>[2]</sup> The Heydorns had cared for Alexander in Berlin for seven years, but decided in May 1939, shortly before France entered the Second World War, that it had become too dangerous to keep him and he was put on a train to Paris to his parents.<sup>[1]</sup> In Occupied Paris, Schapiro was free for a short time, constantly active in the anarchist movement, until he was arrested and deported to [[Auschwitz]] concentration camp in 1942, where he was afterward murdered.<sup>[2][4]</sup>
-[[Category:Libertarian Socialist Wiki]]
+== See Also ==
+* [[Alexander Schapiro]]
+== References ==
+[[Category:AnarWiki]]
 [[Category:Libertarian Socialism]]
-[[Category:Libertarian Socialists]]
+[[Category:Anarchists]]
 [[Category:Anarchists]]
 [[Category:Anarchism]]
@@ Line 43: / Line 34: @@
 [[Category:Europe]]
 [[Category:Holocaust Victims]]
+[[Category:Disabled People]]