4. The convention of the villages of the Uman district, summoned by the Executive Committee of Uman, which opened at the outbreak of the rebel movement, on March 11, clearly reflected these fundamental inclinations, stubbornly and halfconcealedly refusing to enter into the necessary contact with the Soviet authorities. On its part the Executive Committee also assumed a no less sharp tone in dealing with the assembly. After the attempts of some communist speakers, among them some Jews, to incline the assembly to their side, had ended in failure, the Executive Committee declared the assembly closed. This was considered by the villagers as a challenge and only increased the anti-Semitic and anti-Soviet rebellious feelings.
5. The first wave of the rebels consisted of village peasants of very different ages, beginning with striplings and ending with bearded old men. Many were armed with scythes, rakes, or simply long white staves. The larger part were armed with rifles, revolvers of the most varied sorts, swords, sabres, etc. On the whole the first movement of the mob into the city gave the impression of a triumphant movement of village peasants who had conquered the city.
6. In many cases the plundering, beating and killing were motivated as revenge for the "pacification" of uprisings by the Jews and for the general seizure of power of which they were accused. When looting, torturing and shooting, the black-hundred and pogromist portion of the rebels constantly declared, "All that is to make up for Buhl" (the name of the Jewish military commissar), or "Fisch" (the commander of a separate detachment— a Jew), or "Kulik" (a well-known Jewish communist of local extraction).
7. The end of the pogrom and massacre upon the expiration of the period of three days is explained by many in different ways; but there is no doubt that the limit was put upon the pogrom and massacre partly under the influence of the requests and arguments of various Ukrainian and Jewish delegations, which waited upon the leaders of the rebels.
7a. It should be recorded that the pogromists committed special atrocities when they were drunk— when they became absolute beasts, and paid no attention to arguments or entreaties or anything.
8. One case (unique, to be sure) is known in which a Jew placed a saint's image in the window of his dwelling, having borrowed it from a Christian neighbor. The home of this Jew was not touched by the rebels, whereas they entered the other apartments in the same courtyard and behaved quite as usual.
9. Of which the following may be noted: I. Vrachinsky, L. Zbanovsky, Alexeiev, Khokhol, Slobodianik, Dr. Kramarenko.
10. Peikhel.
11. Mention should also be made of the attitude of the Polish population to everything that fell to the lot of the Jews during these months. Behaving externally correctly and constantly emphasizing their "neutrality," the Poles for the most part refused to give the slightest help to the perishing Jewish population. With very rare individual exceptions, the Poles did not admit the Jews to their homes, hid no one, and, on the contrary, in many cases expressed malicious joy at what was taking place. Although there are no evidences of physical participation in the pogrom and massacre on the part of individual Poles, it must nevertheless be said that in general the attitude of the Poles to the Jewish population during this period was clearly malevolent, though this was poorly concealed under a mask of "neutrality."
12. The corpses of two Jewish brothers were found thrown out in some garden or other in one of the environs of the city. It is known that they were killed by a petty bourgeois or peasant, who promised to hide them from the pogromists, but afterwards fell on them unawares in their sleep, and robbed and murdered both, throwing their bodies into some one else's garden.
13. At the same time, however, the rebel authorities lost no chance to annoy the Jewish population in an organized way. Thus, for instance, the Jews were ordered to "surrender their weapons" in the course of four hours from the moment of publication of the order; and if they failed to obey the order they were threatened with popular anger, etc.
14. Especially characteristic is the proclamation of the garrison commander of the 8th Soviet regiment, Col. Iliesh, to the effect that all inhabitants of the city should keep the doors of their dwellings open and should not fear the entry of Red soldiers, whereas in the same proclamation he advised the Red soldiers not to enter dwellings or visit each other later than 9 P.M.
15. Of cases of murder, especially ghastly is the murder of the wife of the watchmaker Lirmann in the attack on his dwelling. When his wife raised a cry for help, she was shot on the spot by Red soldiers.
UKRAINE