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Finding Aron David Baum (*)
by H. Daniel Wagner
(*) A condensed form of this article has appeared in Avotaynu XXX (3) Fall 2014, pp. 40-45, and the present
version is published here with permission.
In 2009, I wrote a paper to demonstrate the part often played by
serendipity and pure luck in genealogy research1. The detailed answer presented
here to a 75-year-old family enigma once again has chance as its starting point.
Aron David Baum was the eldest of 12 brothers and sisters, among them
my grandmother Dora. Aron’s disappearance in St. Petersburg in the late 1930s
has remained a family enigma until recently. Very little was known about him
until about two years ago. When my grandmother died in the mid-1980s I found
a few old pictures in her apartment. These photographs show Aron with his
daughter Liza (or Elza), with another woman assumed to be Aron’s wife and
with Mania Goldberger (née Baum, a sister of Aron and Dora) during a1937
visit in St. Petersburg. Some Russian colleagues confirmed that the photographs
had been taken in St. Petersburg near the Mariinsky-Kirov Theater, which still
exists today. The statue in the background is that of the Russian composer
Mikhail Glinka.
(a) (b)
From left to right: (a) Arnold, Liza, Mania, Dina (?); (b) Dina (?) and Liza
1 Henry (Herszl) David Wagner (a pseudonym), “A Poker Player’s Approach to Genealogical Research”,
Avotaynu XXV (2) Summer 2009, pp. 31-34.
2
There were a few more photographs in my grandmother’s box, including
one of Aron with his daughter Liza.
Arnold and Liza. The inscription on the back reads “In memory, for Aunt Dora,
from Liza Baum, Sestroretsk, 5/8/1928.” Sestroretsk is a small resort town on
the shores of the Gulf of Finland, about 35 km northwest of St. Petersburg.
In the early 1990s I interviewed my father (who had a generally reliable
memory) about the history of our family. I learned a few more things that my
father had collected from old family rumors: (i) Aron was also called Arnold;
(ii) like his 11 siblings he was born and grew up in Lodz (Poland); (iii) he was a
fervent communist and left Poland for Russia right after the 1917 Revolution;
(iv) he probably studied engineering in St. Petersburg and married a woman
named Dina, with whom he had a daughter named Liza or Elza; (v) there was
almost no news from him before World War II, and therefore it was decided
that Mania would travel from Brussels—the Baum family had migrated to
Belgium in the mid-1920s—to meet Aron in Russia and see how things were
going for him and his family; (vi) after Mania’s visit, there was no more news,
and it was then assumed that Arnold and his family had been killed, or perhaps
sent to a gulag, during the Stalinist purges in the late 1930s.
3
World War II broke out, and as Jews, our family had major, life-
threatening issues with which to contend. Some of the Baum siblings and their
respective families remained hidden in Belgium; others escaped to the south of
France and then to Switzerland; others went to the Belgian Congo. At the end of
the war, they all returned to Belgium and, gradually, resumed normal life. They
never heard again from their eldest brother, Aron. His fate and that of his wife
and daughter remained unknown, apparently forever.
Breakthrough (2013−14)
In the early months of 2013, I bumped into an old friend in a coffee shop
in Yafo, Israel. I had not seen him for 30 years, and this providential encounter
led to major developments in the “Arnold case.” My friend was now director of
the Moscow branch of the American Jewish Distribution Committee (JDC,
commonly known as the Joint). At some point in our long conversation, I told
him about the disappearance of my great-uncle Arnold in the 1930s. He
responded that he might be able to offer some assistance and he put me in touch
with a genealogist he knew in Russia.
The genealogist explained that information about people who had
disappeared during the infamous Stalinist purges now was becoming available
on the Internet. The source he cited was The Recovered Names Project led by
Anatoly Razumov, director the Russian National Library in St. Petersburg.
Razumov was in the process of elaborating a book entitled: Book of Memory,
the Leningrad Martyrology, 1937-1938, about those executed in the Leningrad
area. General information about the project appeared at
http://visz.nlr.ru/eng/about.html. My specific query about Arnold led to a
possible hit (translated from Russian):
Baum Arnold Teodorovich, 1893, born in Lodz, a Jew, a former member
of foreign communist parties, political refugee, a member of the CPSU
(b) in the years 1920-1937, director of the plant. "Komsomolskaya
Pravda," lived: Leningrad, nab. p. Moyka, 84, apt. 7. Arrested on
February 7, 1938, Special NKVD troika LO 15 October 1938 sentenced
under Art. Art. 58-6-7-9 RSFSR Criminal Code to capital punishment.
Shot in Leningrad on October 22, 1938.
4
The father’s name, Teodor, was not correct (Arnold’s father, my great-
grandfather, was Icek Meir), and the birth date also was incorrect; it was 1896,
not 1893. The birth place, Lodz, was correct, however, as well as the place in
Leningrad where he lived, Moyka Street (again, from family sources). Was this
“my” Arnold Baum? At any rate, if it were, this rehabilitation document2
provided the first substantiation of Arnold’s execution by the Stalinist
government.
Meanwhile I had asked all the relatives on the various Baum branches
who are dispersed all over the globe, from Belgium to the United States, from
Israel to Burkina Faso, to search for documents about Arnold, especially
pictures. The replies were all negative. No one had any documents concerning
Arnold—except for Mania’s daughter, who mentioned that she possessed an
album with old pictures of the Baum clan. She invited me to her home in
Jerusalem, and together we discovered several photographs of Arnold and his
family. But the fate of Arnold and his family remained unknown.
2The Great Purge was denounced by Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev following Stalin's death. Khrushchev
referred to the purges as an "abuse of power" by Stalin which resulted in enormous harm to the country, and he
recognized that many of the victims were innocent and were convicted on the basis of false confessions
extracted by torture. In the 1950s, some of the convictions were overturned and victims were declared innocent
("rehabilitated"). According to the declassified Soviet archives, during 1937 and 1938, the NKVD (the
precursor of the KGB) detained 1,548,366 persons, of whom 681,692 were shot - an average of 1,000
executions a day. Several experts believe the evidence released from the Soviet archives is understated,
incomplete, or unreliable, and that the probable figure for executions during the years of the Great Purge is
some two and a half times as high. The claim is that the KGB was covering its tracks by falsifying the dates and
causes of death of rehabilitated victims. Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Purge#Rehabilitation.
5
Left to right: Dina, Liza and Arnold. From the old album of Mania’s daughter.
In July 2013, Anatoly Razumov provided further assistance with a copy
of a 1957 rehabilitation document that cancelled the past condemnation of
Arnold Baum by the Stalinist Troika.
6
7
(Translation)
DOCUMENT N86-H(?)-57
THE COURT-MARTIAL OF LENINGRAD MILITARY COMMAND
consisting of:
Major-general of Justice Dept. PISARKOV (chairman),
lieutenant-colonel of Justice Dept. IVANENKO and
colonel of Justice Dept. ALEXANDROV
On 18th of November, 1957, considered an appeal made by the Military Prosecutor of
Leningrad District to the Ruling of a Special Troika of NKVD of Leningrad Military District from
October 15th, 1938, according to which the following was executed:
BAUM Arnold Teodorovich, born in 1893 in Poland, arrested on February 7th, 1938,
before arrest – chief manager of Komsomolskaya Pravda (Komsomol Truth) factory.
After considering the report of ALEXANDROV and the evaluation of the appeal by
Assistant to the Military Persecutor of Leningrad Military District, lieutenant-colonel ZIMIN,
ESTABLISHED THAT:
BAUM was accused of espionage and sabotage acts in favor of the German Intelligence
Service.
In his appeal, the Military Prosecutor requests to close BAUM’s cases due to the lack of
component elements of the offense, since additional investigation has established that his
execution was groundless.
After a thorough review and an agreement with the appeal, the Court-Martial of
Leningrad Military Command, according to the Order of August 19th, 1955, by the Presidium of
the Supreme Soviet of the USSR,
RULED THAT:
The Ruling of a Special Troika of NKVD of Leningrad Military District from October
15th, 1938, respective to BAUM Arnold Teodorovich is to be CANCELLED, and Baum’s case is
to be closed due to the lack of component elements of the offense.
The current document is to be considered genuine only with the proper signatures.
SIGNED BY: the Member of the Court-Martial of Leningrad Military Command, colonel of
Justice Dept. ALEXANDROV
(…)
26.12.1957
8
The document, however important it may have been, still did not
corroborate that Arnold Baum, son of Teodor, was the man I was seeking: Aron
David Baum, son of Icek Majer. A definitive proof was soon provided by
another document sent by Razumov, a form Arnold completed on February 8,
1938, when he was arrested:
9
10
11
The form included details about Arnold’s birth date and place (October
15, 1893, Lodz, Poland; residence (Moika Street 84/7, Leningrad); the address
of his workplace (Vitkovska House 11b, on the canal, he was the director); his
profession (engineer); the fact that he came from a small town; his political past
(“revolt” in Poland); his nationality (Jewish, Russian); that he had been
registered in the Communist Party from 1920 till 1937, then expelled from the
Party; that he had been a communist in Lodz since 1918; his education level
(high); his fitness for the military service (average); that he had never been
previously arrested; and that his health was good. Item 22 on the form,
translated below, was the proof I was looking for: a list of Arnold’s relatives,
including those of his family abroad, the Baum clan in Brussels!
Relation Names Age Work Place Residence
Wife Baum D.S. 39 Scientific (?) Moika 84
Daughter Baum E.A. 14 Student -“-
Mother Baum Haya 63 Bruxelles,
Belgium, Rue
des Ca…( ?)
Sister Baum
Gustava
40 -“-
Sister Baum Mania
(or Maria)
23 -“-
Brother Baum Alek 38 -“-
Brother Baum Mathis 37 -“-
Moreover there are two more brothers and four sisters, all of whom lived in the
same place. Form filled out on February 8, 1938
There was no doubt: Arnold Teodorovich was indeed Aron David Baum,
the brother of my grandmother Dora. His father “Teodor” was not included in
the list, likely because he had died in Brussels in 1932.
Meantime, Anatoly Razumov was sending me detailed information
concerning his research about the Stalinist Great Terror era, which included
descriptions and protocols of the arbitrary detentions, torture, condemnations
and killings of thousands of individuals3. A total of 19,370 citizens were
3 Additional information may be found in a detailed booklet I recently prepared.
12
executed in Leningrad in 1937 and 21,536 in 1938, more than 40,000 people in
18 months. Most victims were buried (usually at night) in a secret burial site
near the village of Levashovo starting in 1937 on the 20th anniversary of the
October Revolution. In the Levashovo Memorial Cemetery, there are many
memorial stones, including one for the fallen Jews, erected in 1997 by the St.
Petersburg branch of the Russian Jewish Congress.
Dina and Elza
At this point my St. Petersburg genealogist found Liza/Elza’s birth record
(October 23, 1923, in Petrograd) at the Central State Archives of St. Petersburg,
as well as a copy of the marriage record (March 27, 1923) of Arnold
Teodorovich Baum and Dina Sergeevna Ksenofontova. Their home address was
Moyka, 84, flat 7, the same address at which Arnold was living when arrested
in 1938. I noticed that the marriage record had yet another birth date for Arnold,
namely 1895.
A had faint hope that Elza, born in 1923, might still be alive. A death
notice was found for Elza’s mother, Dina, who had died in June 1972.
Unfortunately, a death notice also was found for Elza, who had died relatively
recently, in March 2005 at age 81. Both Elza and Dina had survived the Great
Stalinist Terror , as well as World War II. With the assistance from JDC staff,
the locations of both tombstones were soon discovered in the Northern
Cemetery, and pictures were sent to me.
13
Grave of Vladimir Alexandrovich Aduev and Elza
Arnoldova.
From her death record it appears that Elza was buried together with a
Vladimir Alexandrovich Aduev, her husband, in the family grave in existence
since 1983 (probably when Vladimir Aduev was buried). The record also
indicates the name of a person responsible for taking care of the burial place, I.
V. Adueva. Could this be a son or daughter of Elza?
Igor Vladimirovich Aduev
St. Petersburg telephone books were then checked by my contact in St
Petersburg for the surname Aduev, using the online St Petersburg White pages
in English, http://spb.telkniga.info/id4503265/. The search showed that Elza
Arnoldovna Adueva, born in 1923, and Igor Vladimirovich Adueva, born in
1943, both lived in Kurlyandskaya Street, 18-37, St. Petersburg 190020, and
had the same telephone number. My contact at the JDC in St. Petersburg
immediately called Igor, who confirmed that, indeed, Elza was his mother, and
that his grandfather was Arnold Baum from Lodz. Igor Aduev was, therefore, a
newfound second cousin, thus far unknown to any of the Baum family! I hope
to be able to meet him in the future.
Since Igor Aduev was born on February 10, 1943, it is likely that Elza
and Vladimir Aduev were married around 1942, when Elza was about 19 years
old. (I have not yet been able to secure a marriage record to date.) It is not
14
known whether they married in Leningrad at a time when the living conditions
in a city at war must have been particularly tough, or elsewhere. Indeed, the
siege of Leningrad by the German army lasted from September 1941 to 1944.
By the end of the siege, hundreds of thousands of people are thought to have
died, with thousands having starved to death.
Arnold’s File in the Archives of the Communist Party
In July 2013 I wrote to the following address, requesting information
about the file of Arnold Baum in the archives of the Communist Party in
Russia:
email: [email protected];
www.rusarchives.ru/state/cgaipdspb/index.shtml.
An answer soon arrived from a Mr. Taradin, director of the Central State
Archive of Historic and Political Documents of St. Petersburg. He reported that
a 150-page file for Arnold Teodorovich Baum had been conserved, and that
copies could be obtained for a fee. After payment was organized with the
generous assistance of most Baum cousins around the globe and with technical
help of the JDC, the archives sent a digital copy of Arnold’s long and detailed
file on a CD. No photographs were included in the file, unfortunately, but it did
have several autobiographies—including handwritten ones, possibly in his own
handwriting, character descriptions, protocols of meetings of the Party
Committee, political judgments, and technical material about his job. All this
reveals much of Arnold’s personality, details about his early life in Poland,
relations with his parents, daily life in Russia and worries at work (he declared
that his Party membership card was lost or had been stolen) and towards the
party, as well as a clear image of the harsh political atmosphere in Stalinist
times. The following is a translation of an excerpt:
I keep the correspondence with my mother and two sisters who live
with her. With brothers I stopped all contact in 1923. –We have
quarreled because of me; -I did not provide material support for my
parents. From the letters that I have saved, I learned that one of my
sisters was arrested in 1924 in Poland, for more than 6 months, for
participating in the trade union movement. Now my brothers and sisters
15
are actively involved in the anti-fascist movement in Belgium. Earlier this
year, from a younger sister‘s letters, I learned that she wants to come to
the USSR as a tourist. So I figured out that the relatives are working in
the sewing workshop (Atelier Mode) on the basis of share, and the sister
who arrived is employed as a cutter (?).
Until 1908 I studied in school in Lodz. The difficult financial
situation of parents forced me to leave school and begin to work. The
first 2 years since 1908, I was working as "a boy” (courier), in a
warehouse, which was selling yarn. In the same warehouse, from 1910-
1915, I worked as a clerk, bookkeeper, and an assistant accountant.
From 1915 to mid-1916 I was unemployed (since the beginning of the
war in 1914 until the autumn of 1918, Lodz was occupied by the
Germans).
In the end of 1914 I joined the S. D. party BUND. I was an
ordinary member of the party until the summer of 1918. When the BUND
began to oppose actively the slogan of the proletarian dictatorship in
Poland, with other comrades, I went out from BUND, and in late 1918,
after returning to Lodz, I joined the Polish Communist party. I joined the
salesman’s trade union, and simultaneously I was performing different
party assignments—was a Technical Secretary of the Communist section
of trade union "Spartacus," and as a Technical Secretary in a unofficial
communist society by name of “Swiftly (Light)”(…)[Then]I fled to
Belgium. In Brussels, thanks to the letter of recommendation from one of
my comrades from Lodz, I received a job at a metallurgical factory in
Charleroi. I was a member of the local Communist party group.
In May 1920 the election of delegates to the second congress of the
Comintern was carried out. I was participating in the first conference in
Brussels. After that, in early July 1920, I, together with a few friends
from the Belgian delegation, went to Moscow as a political emigrant.
(…) Due to the beginning of my study in LCTI and my interest in
specialization in industrial chemistry, I moved to work in Institute
Chemplastmass in December 1932. At the beginning I was assigned as
manager of the department of development. This department was
transferred to another factory and I moved together with it. Since
February 1934 I was appointed as director of this development factory. I
16
worked there till 1936. Then I was transferred as a director to another
factory by the name “Komsomolskay Pravda.”
To my oral testimony regarding the visit from Belgium of my sister
as an Intourist I can add the following:
My sister Mania Baum (23 years old) came to Leningrad on 22 of
August this year as part of an organized group of tourists of the 3d
category. Her circuit was Leningrad-Moscow-Kharkov-Kiev.
She is supposed to stay in the USSR for 13 days. From our
conversations I understood that she is a paid worker, a cutter in an
atelier-mode which belongs to her two brothers and four sisters on a
joint basis. Three sisters are working [as sewers] and one as a cutter.
One of the brothers is a “voyageur”, the other is a director. Their
income is sufficient only for living. The sister who arrived has a salary of
five Belgian francs per hour and she works nine to ten hours a day. She
came on her own money and to do this she had to save money over four
years. Her political opinion—and of the other brothers and sisters—
towards the USSR is very close to ours.
She speaks with great love about our achievements.
Their lives as foreigners in Belgium: they cannot actively
participate in any political movement because of their status, as they
could be deported back to Poland. Nevertheless, they are taking active
part in anti-fascist movements (they participate in in-house closed
meetings and so on). They collect money and parcels for the children of
the Spanish Republic.
(My sister donates part of her weekly salary towards the Spanish
Republic.) In addition I have two more brothers in Belgium who are
salaried workers. They devote their political life to anti-fascist
movements in Poland. To conclude, I declare that I never told my sister
about my position and about which factory I was working in over the last
years. She only knows that I am working as an engineer in a factory.
Signature (BAUM)
LENINGRAD 27 August 1937
The address of my mother and sister:
17
Bruxelles-Nord 30 rue des Camions
Chaja Baum (Bruxelles)(Belgium)
Two months after Mania’s visit, Arnold was expelled from the
Communist Party. He appealed that decision in vain. The following document is
the confirmation of his expulsion.
18
19
Partial translation:
Minutes of the meeting of the Party Committee, Branch of the Leningrad
region
BAUM Arnold born in 1893, in USSR since 1920. Member of BUND
from 1914 to July 1918. In 1918 became member of Communist Party in
Poland. Moved to Germany then Poland. From white collar class, has
higher education. Currently Director of factory: Komsomolska Pravda.
Expelled from the Communist Party on Sept 17, 1937, for surrounding
himself with foreign elements at work, ignoring the orders of the Party, in
close contact with Troskyst Vigdorovich now under arrest by NKVD, also
not trustworthy.
Arrived in USSR in 1920 as emigrant together with war prisoners. His
relatives live abroad, in Belgium. He is in written contact with them.
Baum’s sister visited in July 1937, arrived in USSR as an Intourist and
had a meeting with Baum.
-Response of Baum.
-Intervention by comrade speaker Nikitze
Present: Baum, comrades Kulibyaken (?), Leonov.
DECISION: Reconfirm previous decision to expel Baum from Communist
Party.
In Arnold’s file I found a note written by his wife Dina on a small piece of
paper, addressed to the Communist Party. Obviously worried, Dina queried
about the fate of her husband.
20
Note written by Dina Baum: “To the Branch of the Communist Party –
Leningrad region. Statement: I am the wife of Baum A.T., informing that on
20/2 my husband was arrested by the NKVD. I do not know the reason [of his
arrest].22/3/1938. D. Baum
The Belgian Episode
In one version of his autobiography (there were several in his Party file)
Arnold mentions that he had fled from Poland to Duisburg, Germany, then to
Belgium in 1919. Why to Belgium is unknown, but interestingly all the family
eventually moved to Belgium in the 1920s. At that time (before World War II),
all foreigners who arrived in Belgium were registered by the Security Police
(“Police des Étrangers”) and, indeed, I was told by Louis-Philippe Arnhem at
the Office des Étrangers (I had known him from previous investigations) and by
Filip Strubbe at the Archives Générales du Royaume that they had documents
showing that Arnold had resided in Antwerp and then in Charleroi. Soon I
found the online Antwerp file at familysearch.org
(https://familysearch.org/search/image/index#uri=https%3A%2F%2Ffamilysear
ch.org%2Frecords%2Fcollection%2F2023926%2Fwaypoints).
21
I also received copies of the Charleroi file (which is not online).
These records confirm that Arnold went to Belgium in early December
1919 via Duisburg in Germany, first to Antwerp (from December 2, 1919, to
May 13, 1920), then to Charleroi (from May 13, 1920 to July 1920). Arnold’s
Belgian period lasted only about eight months, with possibly (according to his
autobiography) a few days back to Germany in March 1920 during the Kapp
putsch4. Interestingly, in the Belgian records Arnold called himself Aron and
4 The Kapp Putsch, named after its leader Wolfgang Kapp, was a coup attempt in March 1920 aimed at
undoing the results of the German Revolution of 1918–1919, overthrowing the Weimar Republic and
22
his father Icek or Isaak. Only in Russia did he call himself Arnold, and his
father became Teodor, perhaps to hide or at least diminish his Jewish origins.
The Antwerp records show that in Lodz he resided on Piotrkowska Road
(a central location with a high density of Jews), whereas his parents lived on
Cegielnia Street 17. The picture that emerges of Arnold is that of an idealist
with a temperament that seems quite different from that his siblings. His
character, political beliefs and way of life (he married Dina who was a
communist and a Gentile), contrast strikingly with his parents who were
Orthodox Jews.
Finally, it may very well be that Arnold never knew his real birth date. In
Charleroi and Antwerp he wrote October 15, 1893, and everywhere else it was
always 1893. However, his Polish birth record clearly indicates March 19,
1896.
In conclusion, that accidental meeting with my old friend in a coffee shop
in Yafo indeed proved crucial, as it led to the solution of the “Arnold’s
question”. This also confirmed that luck often plays a decisive part in genealogy
research (refer to Footnote 1). But to quote Thomas Jefferson: “I'm a great
believer in luck, and I find the harder I work, the more I have of it”.
establishing a right-wing autocratic government. It was supported by parts of the military and other
conservative, nationalistic and monarchistic forces. Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kapp_Putsch
23
Archival Sources
Following is a partial list of useful sources used to reconstitute the course
of Arnold’s life.
1. Anatoly Jakovlevich Razumov, Head of the Center “The Returned Names” at
the Russian National Library, Books of memory « Leningrad мартиролог »,
Member of the St. Petersburg Commission on restoration of the rights of
rehabilitated victims of political reprisals.
Address: 191069, St. Petersburg, Garden street, 18.
Phone (812) 718-86-18. Local ph. 1618
Fax (812) 310-61-48.
Mobile: (7) 911-950-1059
e-mail: [email protected]
Skype: rifatoll
2. Vladimir Paley, Genealogy Service in Russia, FSU, Europe, Israel, USA
+1 718 717-2157
+7 985 760-0976
http://jgs.ru/museum/en
http://info.paley.tel
3. St. Petersburg White Pages (telephone directory) in English
http://spb.telkniga.info/id4503265/
http://spb.telkniga.info/id4503264/
4. Archives of the Communist Party in Russia
http://www.rusarchives.ru/state/cgaipdspb/index.shtml,
email: [email protected]
The answer to my email query was received via regular post from Mr Taradin,
Archive Bureau of St. Petersburg, St. Petersburg state public institution
“Central State Archive of Historic and Political Documents of St. Petersburg”
(CSAHPD SPb), 39, Tavricheskayast, Saint Petersburg, 191015.
5. Petrograd Civil Register, Central State Archives of St Petersburg
24
6. State Archives, Lodz branch (Archiwum Państwowe w Łodzi)
www.lodz.ap.gov.pl
7. Archives de la Ville de Charleroi
Caserne Trésignies, bloc P
Rue Tumelaire, 80 à 6000 Charleroi, Belgium
Email: Archiviste: Mme Carine Gouvienne
Tel: +32 71 51 84 63 (Gosselies) or +32 71 86 15 71 or +32 493 96 42 82.
Email: [email protected]
8. Filip Strubbe, Algemeen Rijksarchief - Archives générales du Royaume
Afdeling 5 "Hedendaagse Archieven" - Section 5 "Archives contemporaines"
Ruisbroekstraat 2, 1000 Brussels - Rue de Ruysbroeck 2, 1000 Bxl.
www.arch.be - www.facebook.com/rijksarchief