With the entry of the Soviet forces the Jewish population came out of its places of refuge, but it was impossible to return to their houses, since all the Jewish houses had been. plundered, all the furniture and beds taken away or smashed to bits, all the articles of the households stolen, so that there was nothing to sleep on, cover oneself with at night, or cook dinner with. In Yelisavetgrad the number of Jewish inhabitants was reckoned at 50,000, and they were all left beggars. In the city there had been some provisions, but most of them had been stolen, and what remained with the Christian co-operatives was enough for a week. The flour in the mills had been plundered at the time of the pogrom; in several mills the communicating cords had been removed, so that they could not function. The population was utterly ruined and condemned to extinction. Commerce was destroyed, and from this the peasant population also suffered. Out of hundreds of stores there were only five counted which happened to be spared by accident.
On the day after the pogrom they began to take the bodies to hospitals and cemeteries. All the hospitals were filled with the dead, who were reckoned at two thousand people. The Grigorievists ordered burial immediately after the pogrom and forbade anyone to go to the cemetery except people needed to dig the graves. An accurate count is still going on at the present time, since, when I left Yelisavetgrad on May 27, they were still finding bodies of the dead in various places.
Aid in all shapes and forms is necessary. If aid is not furnished to the city of Yelisavetgrad, the entire Jewish population will perish. This is no exaggeration. People have no change of linen and no possibility of getting it, so that unless help is furnished the appearance of contagious diseases is unavoidable. There are very few provisions, and the peasants do not come to market, since there is nothing for them to buy; there is no importation of provisions, and famine has already begun. There remain thousands of widows and orphans; there are wounded, and they must be treated.
In Yelisavetgrad a committee of aid for the suffering population has been formed; it consists of Christian and Jewish persons in public life. This committee empowered me to use every
UKRAINE
means to get aid. In the name of this committee and in the name of the fifty thousand Jewish population, I appeal to you for immediate assistance. I cannot set definite limits. The losses are reckoned in hundreds of millions. It is necessary immediately to send underclothes and other garments, provisions, and medical aid. It is necessary to establish feeding stations, to treat the wounded, and, if possible, to prevent the fearful plague of an epidemic from arising.
From eight to ten thousand Jewish families are ruined. Ten to fifteen feeding stations are required for the feeding of ten to fifteen thousand people. The necessary medicines, bandages, and medical personnel are on hand in the city. For the first about ten thousand suits of underwear for men and women are necessary.
CHERKASSY ( F KIEV) Pogrom of May 16-20, 1919
Preface to the Material Collected by I. G. Tzlfrlnovlch; by the District Teacher Kliiger, July 15, 1919
From the material evidence collected offhand, and still more from the valuable statements of persons who were utterly unwilling to furnish written testimony (through fear of revenge, since their testimony involves a whole series of people, persons in public life, and organizations, which are now flourishing and peacefully functioning), — from all this evidence it is clear that the pogrom was planned in advance and carried out according to definite plans. There are strong suspicions that the people of Cherkassy, who took direct part in the murders and robberies and at the same time concealed in their houses many Jewish neighbors, did this with the definite purpose of rehabilitating themselves afterwards in regard to their activity in the pogrom. All Russian servants in service with Jews left their places before Grigoriev's entrance, evidently being informed of what was coming. Peasant women and city market-wives, who arrived at the market to hang around even on May 12, complained, saying: "They said it would start at two o'clock, and here it is almost three and nothing doing I Maybe they have postponed it."
Following the course of the massacre it is easy to establish the fact that almost one and the. same gang, without demanding money or ransom, and without looting, kept on slaying and
CHERKASSY: