Pogrom of June 27, 1919 Testimony of Etia Kipms, Aged 74, Merchant
Three weeks ago bands of armed men came to our village. I was in my own house in the village of Dobrin, and my son Srul had gone to a mill nine versts from the village. Just while my son was at the mill, a group of bandits went past and asked those who were standing around the mill whether there were any Jews there. The peasants replied that there was one Jew, and indicated my son. The armed men went up to my son and killed him on the spot. The owner of the mill, a Russian,
GORSCHIK: SOKOLOVSKY'
when the bandits left, buried my son right there beside the mill. We heard of my son's death on the same day. My other son on this day had gone to find the body of a certain young Jew who had been killed by the roadside. Peasants who met him told him he need not go after the body of a stranger, since his own brother was killed and buried beside the mill. In Dobrin two young men, including my son, were killed. In the neighboring village of Buki they killed two elderly Jews at the same time. In the village of Sany there was also killed a young man, Putinsky, 25 years old. The names of the Jews killed in Buki were Avrum Steinberg and Nukhim Margulis. After the murder of Nukhim Margulis, bandits came to the house the second time and wanted to kill his wife and children. When the bandits had already raised a revolver, a peasant who happened by ran up to them and said: "What are you doing? Kill the children first, don't leave them orphans." With these words the peasant seized the gun out of the bandit's hand and saved that family. At present all the Jews have fled from all these villages, and the local peasants are doing as they please; acting on the precept and example of the bandits, they have plundered the property of the Jews.
The bandits who visited us call themselves "Sokolovsky's men" and operate under the command of a certain Matiashko, a young peasant, less than thirty years old, a former stone-cutter, from the village of Ganopal. He himself has taken part in the murder of Jews. He often goes into the villages and issues orders not to let the Jews get away nor to conceal them, under pain of death. This Matiashko goes into the villages, calls the peasants together, makes speeches, and agitates against the Jewish "communists." Our village did not adhere to Matiashko while I was there; what is happening there now I do not know. There is in actual fact no government in the village at all.
ELTA KIPNIS.
GORSCHIK ( F VOLHYNIA) Pogrom of July 16, 1919
Yentel Gorstein, of Ushomir, Aged 50
Gorschik is twelve versts from Ushomir. Last week two boys came to Ushomir and said that eight Jews had been killed in Gorschik, among them Benjamin Friedlau, an old man, and his son-in-law, Avrez Avrum (his last name we do not know), an
UKRAINE
old man, and his son, the two sons of a certain Israel-Ber (his last name we do not know), and Idel Glozmann and his son. The boys did not tell us the circumstances of the murder of these Jews. We knew five of the slain. The relatives of the slain sent a cart from Ushomir to Gorschik after the bodies. For a long time no one ventured to go. A Russian consented to go for the bodies and took 3,000 rubles for it. The cart returned without the bodies and the driver said that the peasants would not surrender the bodies and had buried them in^Gorschik It was said that "Sokolovsky's men" had killed theTjews.
Besides this, in the Moshkosky glass factory, six or eight versts from Ushomir, a man and his wife named Faiermann were killed at this time. The dead couple left nine children, three grown and six little ones. Yesterday the bodies of the slain were brought to Ushomir by a German of the town, and yesterday they were buried by a large company of Jews. It is said that they were killed by "Sokolovsky's men." The children tell about the frightful story as follows: The children were mowing hay near the forest, when suddenly they noticed some mounted armed men. The children cried: "Save yourselves, it is the men of Sokolovsky!" The riders rushed out of the woods; the family of Faiermann hid. The riders attacked the husband and wife and killed them.