VORONOVITZY ( F PODOLIA) Pogrom of July 10, 1919
Testimony of Sh. Gronfain* Aged 24, a Refugee from Voronovitzy; Taken Down by S. Y. Maizlish, July 28
The town of Voronovitzy is in the canton of Bratzlav, government of Podolia, and is on the railroad (narrow-gauge line) Vinnitza-Gaisin, forty versts from Bratzlav. There are about 300 Jewish families in the town.
The rebel movement in the region of Voronovitzy began in May, and the leaders of the rebels were former Petlurist officers, such as Bilinchuk (a native of Voronovitzy, a gymnasium student of the 8th class), Sibranchuk (was a commandant, with the rank of colonel, under the Directory), Gorban, father and son, Ponomarchuk, and others. The persons enumerated agitated among the local peasants against the Soviet regime, using the watchwords of the Ukrainian nationalists. Bilinchuk afterwards went to Bratzlav, where an agent of the Extraordinary Committee recognized him and arrested him. He was shot.
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On May 9 a band of rebels came to Voronovitzy and at once began looting. This lasted two or three days. One Jew was killed. On the following day they were about to start a massacre of the whole Jewish population, but thanks to the intervention of a certain Kudren (a former Petlurist) and the approach of Soviet forces from Vinnitza, it was not carried out. The band withdrew, and the 8th Soviet regiment entered the town. This regiment did considerable looting on May 13.
The pogrom which occurred on July 10 may be described as follows. A band started to approach Voronovitzy along the railroad. It proved impossible to get a clear idea of the nature of this band. According to some they were "Grigorievists"; others said they were going to the Rumanian front, to join the Allies. On Wednesday, July 9, the band arrived at the station of Gumennoie, eight versts from Voronovitzy. Here three bandits stopped a train, drove all Jews out of the cars, robbed. some of them, beat some with rods, and killed two (one of them a Jew). Some of the passengers were released, receiving from the bandits some sort of documents; others fled; while some the rebels took along with them, and what happened to them is unknown. Among those who were detained were many women. Some women were violated on the spot. On the way to Voronovitzy the gang killed many Jews whom they met, and many of the bodies were afterwards discovered. On Thursday, July 10, five members of the gang (the rest remained outside of the city) entered the town and in the course of something like two hours killed twelve people (six in the town itself, six outside), and did some looting. Among the Jews, of course, a panic arose, and they all hid. But at this time Soviet forces, attacking from the direction of Vinnitza, began to fire on the town, and the band withdrew.
T ( F PODOLIA) I. Testimony of Bogdansky, July 25, 1919
Trostianetz is a town in the government of Podolia, on the railroad, about 50 versts to the southwest of Gaisin. The Jewish population is about 500 families. There are almost no Christians; they live in the country outside. The pogrom movement began on May 1 and lasted until the 17th. The principal butchery was on May 10. The pogrom was perpetrated by local peasants with the watchword "Kill the Jews, away with the commune." The organizers of the pogrom were persons known as sympathizers with the Ukrainian nationalist movement: the
UKRAINE
student Gonzenko and the former Petlurist officer Drevinsky. They rang the signal bell, the peasants collected and the pillaging began. In the commissariat's quarters about four hundred Jews were herded together— all of the male sex, beginning with boys of ten and ending with decrepit old men. Drevinsky energetically spread the rumor that Jews from surrounding towns were approaching in armored automobiles, and that in one village they had already massacred all the Christians. "If we simply keep still, they will massacre all of us, too." Then the peasants rushed to the quarters of the commissariat and began to throw bombs through the windows and to fire from rifles. Since the Jews who were there threw themselves flat on the floor, the peasants then rushed in and massacred them all. This butchery was perpetrated on Saturday, May 10, at 6 P.M.; but on the night before an enormous grave had already been dug outside the city. All the bodies were carried there in carts and dumped into the pit. About eighty corpses were carried out from the dwellings. The total number of the dead was as many as 400, among them 13 women. The murders continued until ten o'clock in the morning; but on the next day only pillaging and general devastation took place.