It was the sad function of Proskurov to establish a new phase in the technique of pogroms. Previous pogroms had as their chief purpose robbery, that is, the stealing of Jewish property; murders followed the looting, but still they were not the principal purpose. The Cossacks regarded the looting as the just reward for their faithful service; and in the killing of peaceful and unarmed people they saw a manifestation of their valor and personal prowess. Beginning with Proskurov the basic purpose of the pogroms in Ukraine appears as the total destruction of the Jewish population. Looting was also widely practised, but it took second place.
In Proskurov the Uman massacre of the time of Honta was repeated. The difference is only that in Uman, under Honta, Poles and Jews were massacred, while in Proskurov only Jews were massacred, with strict neutrality on the part of the Poles and other Christians.
III. FELSHTIN ( F PODOLIA)
The Felshtin pogrom must be regarded not as an independent pogrom but as an episode of the Proskurov massacre.
As I stated in my report on Proskurov, a part of the soldiers who revolted on the morning of Saturday, February 15, went along the road to Felshtin, in order to raise a revolt there. Upon arriving there they first arrested the commandant of militia and announced to all that a bolshevik revolution had taken place in Proskurov, and that a similar revolution was to take place in the whole canton of Proskurov. But soon they released the commandant of militia and took from him, as from other people, their signed statements that they unqualifiedly submitted to the newly organized bolshevik regime. However, on
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the same day, February 15, they learned that the bolshevik revolt in Proskurov had failed. They then hastily quitted Felshtin and scattered in various directions.
This episode with the bolshevist uprising greatly disturbed the local Jewish population. In the evening, this disquietude increased when vague rumors began to arrive about the events in Proskurov. The alarm of the Jews increased more when on the next day, Sunday, these rumors became more definite.
The Jews applied to the commandant of militia, asking him to strengthen the guard. He promised to summon peasants from the neighboring village of Porichie, and also from Proskurov, to help the local guard. For this he received from the Jews a corresponding sum of money. And, in fact, on Monday morning there appeared armed peasant youths from Porichie, who surrounded the place. This was the auxiliary guard which the commandant of militia had collected. He himself went to Proskurov on Monday morning. He returned at 6 P.M. and after him appeared Cossacks with "red caps," that is, those same Gaidamaks who, as was now definitely known in Felshtin, had massacred the Jews in Proskurov.
The Jews understood that they were fated for slaughter and began to hide wherever they could. Most of them hid in cellars and garrets. Many tried to leave the place, but the guard surrounding the place, which the commandant of militia had invited from Porichie, did not let the Jews pass through. Thus the Jews were completely hemmed in; very few got out.
The night was spent in great agitation. Occasionally individual shots were heard.
According to the testimony of the witness Landa, whose house opens on the square of the main street of the town, he saw from the window of his house that several hundred Gaidamaks were collecting in the square, and with them many peasants' carts from the neighboring villages. In the morning, approximately at seven o'clock, he heard the sound of a horn, and saw the Gaidamaks forming in line on the square. Someone addressed them, after which they scattered through the town. Soon he began to hear the cries of people being murdered. Four Gaidamaks came in to his own house, and one of them made a motion at him with his sabre, but another stopped him. They demanded money of him, and he gave them about 6,000 rubles, assuring them that he had no more, and offering them all his things, but asking that they spare his life. They took no things and went to the door. The same Gaidamak who had stopped his comrade when he threatened him with a sabre said: "You had better hide, because
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