All these murders alarmed the inhabitants of Ushomir. Even now reports of the murder of Jews are coming from various places. On Friday evening of last week, and on Saturday, the peasants of all the surrounding villages collected in Ushomir, all armed. There were so many peasants that the whole town and village was filled with them. They came from all directions. The peasants marched through all the streets. The Jews hid in their houses in alarm, but the peasants reassured them, saying they had nothing against them, that they were aiming only at Iskorost, where the "commune" was established, and that they had determined to have a reckoning only with them (the Jews of Korosten); they asked the Jews of Ushomir to join them, enrolled their names, and issued to them some sort of "certificate" with a seal, in exchange for ten rubles. In this way, they, as it were, attached the Jews of Ushomir to their movement. We know very well many of the peasants who came in; many old men did it very unwillingly and told us that they were under compulsion. The peasants not only did no harm to the Jews, but did not even take anything from anyone, or if they did they paid for it. On Monday all the peasants went to Korosten.... On the same day the peasants in withdrawing passed
LITIN: SHEPEL'S GANG 389
through Ushomir, but this time they ran through side streets; many were killed, and we saw no more of the peasants. I must observe that when the peasants were in Ushomir they issued the above-mentioned "certificates" to all Jews between the ages of sixteen and forty, threatening that if anyone refused to accept the certificate he would be killed. Thus nobly did the peasants deal with us in Ushomir. Among the rebel peasants were some of Sokolovsky's men as instructors, with white bands on their arms.
On Monday the peasants left Ushomir. On Tuesday appeared a group of five armed men on horseback, who went to the market and began to beat up whatever Jews they met. These horsemen at once attracted attention by their inhuman appearance, which sharply distinguished them from the peaceful aspect of the rebel peasants who had been there before. When the tumult started in the market, peasants of the town appeared in the market and defended the Jews, asking the "men of Sokolovsky" why they had come thither. The horsemen replied that they had come to punish the Jews. The peasants then told the horsemen that they should not dare to touch a single Jew, since the Ushomir Jews were all going along with the peasants, and that if a single Jew should be hurt, the peasants would hold the horsemen to account for it. The horsemen began to make excuses, saying they had come not to kill Jews but to get out the bombs which the Petlurists had thrown into the river. Soon they disappeared. Confusion and alarm among the Jews in the town lasted for some time after these people left. These horsemen went from Ushomir in the direction of Gorschik, and there perpetrated the murders which I told about.
(Illiterate)
LITIN ( F PODOLIA)
I. From Report of Authorised Investigator V. A. Guminer, June 24, 1919
I have returned from Litin, where I learned the situation of the devastated city. Litin is a small cantonal capital, thirty versts from the station of Vinnitza, with which it is connected by a paved highway. Out of a population of 12,000 the Jews comprise 4,000, the Ukrainians 5,000, the Great Russians 2,000, and the rest (Poles and others) 1,000. Relations between the Jewish and non-Jewish inhabitants were excellent.
The pogrom was wholly unexpected to the Jews of Litin.
UKRAINE
There were cases, as everywhere, but no general appeals (to pogroms), and no signs that the Jewish population was threatened by any serious danger. On the night before May 14 a band under the leadership of Shepel burst into the city. The band was a small one, of 25 to 50 men. The local garrison resisted, but a certain section of it was treacherous. Towards morning the Jewish pogrom began. Local inhabitants and also peasants from the surrounding villages joined the band. Vodka was gotten from somewhere or other, and drunkenness, looting, and murders began. In all a hundred people were killed.
The pogrom was terminated only by the entrance of the detachment of the Vinnitza Extraordinary Committee, which fired on the villages with artillery, but soon departed. The rebels again entered Litin, but there was no more looting. One Jew was killed; he happened to appear in the streets as the rebels were entering the town. After this the rebels attacked Vinnitza unsuccessfully; and Litin was cleared of rebels by the International Regiment and the cursants (Soviet military cadets).