In Ovruch we found the Soviet Commission for the investigation of pogroms, which had come from the city of Mozyr on orders of the late Sverdlov, president of the all-Russian Central Committee of Soviets. The commission upon its arrival issued a proclamation, a copy of which is attached hereto. Unfortunately the activities of this commission will not give the proper results, since for comprehensible reasons the Jews are afraid to give the names of persons connected with the pogroms, even when they know them. As a result some persons, known accomplices of the pogromists, are enjoying liberty, and some of them actually are in the service of the local Soviet regime. We came in contact with this commission and learned from its members that Sverdlov promised to appropriate almost three million rubles for the pogrom victims. It is hard to say how genuine this promise is, but it is indubitable that even such a sum would amount to little for the restoration of what was destroyed in that city.
Pogrom in Korosten*
The pogrom in Korosten began with robberies and murders of Jews at the station. Afterwards the pogrom spread through the town. The homes which chanced to be nearest to the Podol-
* Cf. below, pp. 365 ff.
KOROSTEN:
sky station suffered most. In one household, consisting of nine people, the pogromists manifested exceptional barbarity. They began by violating three daughters of the house. Since the young women showed superhuman resistance, they were all mutilated and mangled. Even now they are still suffering, with broken arms. They killed the old grandmother, who tried to protect her granddaughters, after first tearing out her tongue and cutting off her nose. In this house they also killed two men and a little girl. The other members of the family were mutilated. One man died later of the wounds he received. The house was plundered.
There were murders also in other houses. Ten people in all were killed in the town. I cannot refrain from speaking of the following very characteristic incident.
In one house, whose owners hid themselves, only one old Jewess remained. The pogromists came into the house and demanded to be fed. The old woman received them kindly and fed them abundantly. They ate, thanked her for the hospitality, and went away, without touching anything in the house. After their departure a seriously wounded Jew ran into the house and implored her help. The old woman rushed for help. It was dark, and, without knowing it, the old woman happened upon the same pogromists who had been in her home. They asked her where she was hurrying, and she explained. Then the pogromists returned to her home, and one of them, rolling up his sleeves, washed his hands, and, in. perfectly correct fashion, bound up the Jew's wound. When they were gone, the Jew told the old woman that they were the same pogromists who had wounded him.
I arrived at Korosten on March 12. About two days before a fresh company of the Red Army had come to Korosten. On the thirteenth one of them went into the store of a Jewish woman and took about twenty pounds of sugar, without paying. The Jewess ran out on the street and raised an outcry. An officer passing by stopped the Red soldier, took the sugar away from him, and, striking him in the face, placed him under arrest. His comrades of the same company took his part, and demanded of the commandant that their comrade be freed, and the officer handed over to them. The soldier was freed, but they were refused the surrender of the officer. Then they began to hold meetings, and at 8 P.M. opened an incessant fire into the air from rifles and shotguns. This firing was the signal for the beginning of a Jewish pogrom. The pogrom began. One Jew, the cantor of the synagogue, was killed. The pogrom stopped,
UKRAINE
owing to an unexpected cannonade on the part of the Petlurists, who began to attack Korosten.
I did not succeed in collecting testimony either about this pogrom, or about the one preceding it, since on, the next day I was compelled to leave the town under the incessant roar of guns.
II. CITY OF PROSKUROV
Proskurov has the aspect of a very lively town, in the government of Podolia. Its population amounts to 50,000, of which nearly 25,000 are Jews. Its democratic municipal council consisted of 50 members; 26 Christians and 24 Jews. Of the Jewish members 18 ran on Jewish tickets, the others on general socialist tickets. At the head of the council in Proskurov, as almost everywhere in Podolia and Volhynia, were Poles. The mayor was a Pole, Sikora, and the president of the municipal council was a Pole, Dr. Stavinsky.