In attaching hereto the certificate issued by the Annopol Committee of the Poor, I beg you to grant aid in money to the extent of 500 rubles for each Jewish family, so that thereby at least for the time being the population may be relieved, until the formation in the canton of a Committee of Relief, and until the Committee of the Poor may be able to give more help. The prices in Annopol are frightful. A pound of bread costs seven or eight rubles, whereas two weeks ago it cost four rubles. Work of every sort is at a standstill, the shops are closed, so that even at seven rubles there is no bread. Therefore I, the emissary of the Committee of the Poor, beg you to supply aid for the physically and morally crushed population. For five years now, that is, since the beginning of the war, Annopol has been living on the basis of military activities, and at every change of government Annopol has borne on its shoulders all the weight of violence and destruction. Hence I beg you to hear the voice crying in the wilderness and send financial aid to the extent of 500 rubles for each family. The local Committee of the Poor will take upon itself the handling of the money and the furnishing of relief; it is acquainted with local conditions. If the section decides to grant money, I beg you to hand it over to me, personally, since money sent through various institutions is a long time in arriving.
(Signature)
Supplementary Report
The population was principally employed in the grain and lumber business. There are tanneries, and many workmen; it was a very wealthy town. It is proposed to use the money for the establishment of a dining-hall and hospital. The 150 families in want, mostly artisans, even if the instruments of production could be furnished them, would have no work to do and no orders. The amount requested is for first aid. Typhus is raging; there is a hospital, with inventory and list; but there are no supplies and hence it is not functioning.
VOLOCHISK ( F VOLHYNIA)
To the Volochisk Revolutionary Committee, from the Undersigned Citizens of the Town of Volochisk:
PETITION
It is now more than six weeks that the present condition of our town and district has lasted— like one long nightmare. It is not the bombs that burst over our heads almost every day and in great numbers, nor the incessant fire from machine guns and rifles that frightens us. From the bombs the population can hide in cellars. But for three weeks now the violent and arbitrary actions of certain Red soldiers in our town have never ceased. Our hundreds of depositions have no results, since the militia is. powerless to do anything against the Red soldiers. But in the meantime in broad daylight homes are broken open, and, under fear of death by shooting, the property of people who are not rich (for the rich have left town), but poor petty traders and principally workmen, is carried off. The losses already amount to about five millions. There have been cases of beating in cellars, while the hiding population was being fired upon. Old men and women have been beaten. Locks of stores are broken open at night, and what goods are left there are carried off. A violent anti-Semitic agitation is going on.
In view of all the above-mentioned facts, we apply to you with the request that you adopt measures to put a stop to occurrences of this sort, and appropriate a sum for the support of the existence of the plundered poor population.
DISTRICT OF KOROSTEN
To the Head Mission of the Russian Society of the Red Cross for Ukraine and Crimea, Division of Relief for Victims of
Pogroms: From S. S. Kahan, in Charge of Relief Work in the District of Korosten
August 10, 1919 KOROSTEN *
The Korosten region of relief work includes Korosten, Ushomir, Luginy, Olevsk, Vaskovichi, and Ovruch.f The center of this region, because of its geographical position, is the town of Iskorost (railroad station of Korosten, Southwest Railroad). The pogrom outbreaks, all characteristic manifestations of the first wave of pogroms in Ukraine, took place here comparatively long ago, in the winter (January) and in the early spring (March and April). This district has already been investigated, in part twice, by agents of the Central Jewish Committee (Ov-
* Cf. infra, pp. 200 ff. t Cf. infra, pp. 185 ff.
UKRAINE