Lwów pogrom (1918)
Encyclopedia
The Lwów pogrom of the Jewish population
of Lwów (now Lviv
) took place on November 21–23, 1918 during the Polish-Ukrainian War
. In the course of the three days of unrest in the city, an estimated 52-150 Jewish residents were murdered and hundreds injured, with widespread looting carried out by Polish soldiers, lawless civilians, and local criminals. 270 more Ukrainian Christians were killed during this time as well." The Poles did not stop the pogrom until two days after it began. Over a thousand people, including some soldiers, were arrested by Polish authorities during and after the pogrom.
The events, widely publicized in the international press, led to US President
Woodrow Wilson
appointing a commission
, led by Henry Morgenthau, Sr.
, tasked with investigating excesses against the Jewish population in Poland.
Polish-Ukrainian conflict
, and fell victim to a rising wave of pogroms across the region, fueled by post-World War I
lawlessness. In early 1918 a wave of pogroms swept across Polish-inhabited towns in the western areas of Galicia. Although committed largely by demobilized soldiers and deserters from the army, the pogromists were supported by Polish civilians. Throughout the 1918-1919 Polish-Ukrainian conflict, Jews had served as scapegoats for the frustrations of the warring forces. Since the first days of the Polish-Ukrainian conflict Polish quarter of Lwów was defended only by a group of poorly armed volunteers, mainly students and even younger people in their early teens, known in Polish historiography as Lwów Eaglets
. On November 9–10, the Jews of Lwów formed a militia and declared their neutrality in the Polish-Ukrainian conflict over the city
. Other than reports of isolated instances of Jewish support for the Ukrainian side, Lwów's Jews remained officially neutral; the accounts of sporadic Jewish support for the Ukrainians would serve as a rationale for false accusations that most Jews adopted the anti-Polish stance. The Ukrainian government respected Jewish neutrality and during the two weeks that the city was controlled by Ukrainian forces there were no incidents of anti-Jewish violence. Poles resented the proclaimed Jewish neutrality, and there were reports, leading to exaggerated rumors, that some Jews, including the militia, collaborated with the Ukrainians in various ways, up to actively engaging the Polish forces. On the morning November 22, after taking the city in the night of November 21 to November 22, and amidst rumors that Lwów's Jews would be made to pay for their "neutrality" in the Polish-Ukrainian conflict, Polish forces interned and disarmed the Jewish militia.
Before withdrawing from the town, the retreating Ukrainian forces let the criminals out of the prisons, some of whom volunteered to join Polish militia and fought against the Ukrainians. The town was also full of Austrian army deserters. Polish authorities also armed a number of volunteers (including some former criminals) who promised to fight the Ukrainians. The riots, including pogrom
s in the Jewish quarters (but an even larger disturbance in the Ukrainian quarters, with three times as much dead), broke out after Polish forces managed to get control over all parts of the city, including the Jewish quarters, where they encountered resistance from Jewish-Ukrainian sympathizers.
quotes Jewish eyewitnesses who stated that as the Ukrainian soldiers retreated a festive mood came over the Polish fighters as they anticipated their reward for their fighting - the looting of Jewish stores and homes. First-hand accounts differ, for example, according to a report by one Jewish eyewitness, many victims gave testimonies that rioting Polish soldiers claimed that their officers allowed them to 48 hours to pillage Jewish quarters, as a reward for capturing the city from the Ukrainians. A report prepared for the Polish Foreign Ministry noted that the Polish Army "burned with desire for revenge" against the Jews, and soldiers wrongly believed that an order had been issued commanding a "punitive expedition" against the Jews. This report found no evidence that such an order had been issued, but noted that two full days passed before the troops participating in the pillaging were ordered to desist. The Polish commanding officer of the 1918 battle of Lwów, Czesław Mączyński, in his account of the battle, acknowledged that there were rumors of such an order, which the criminal elements unsuccessfully attempted to obtain by bribes. An investigation by Israel Cohen on behalf of the British Zionist Organization reported that Jewish leaders in Lwów, protesting the pogrom, were told by Army Chief of Staff Antoni Jakubski
that the violence was a "punitive expedition into the Jewish quarter, which cannot be stopped."
Mączyński delayed the implementation of a November 22 order for martial law from Brigadier General Bolesław Roja for a day and a half. In the interim, Mączyński issued inflammatory proclamations, using what has been described as "medieval terminology," of supposed acts of Jewish treachery against Polish troops. He claimed, for example, that Jews had attacked Poles with axes. The Jewish quarter was cordoned off for 48 hours by fire officials, and buildings in the quarter, including 3 synagogues, were allowed to burn. The killing and burning in the quarter had already been done by the time Mączyński allowed patrols to enter the area.
Joseph Tenenbaum, a leader of the Jewish militia and eyewitness to the pogrom, wrote that troops cut off the Jewish quarter and that patrols of 10-30 men, each led by an officer and armed with grenades and rifles went through the quarter banging on doors. Doors not opened were blown open with grenades. Each house was systematically plundered, and its occupants beaten and shot. Shops were likewise looted, with the stolen goods loaded onto army trucks. Mączyński, the Polish commander during the pogroms who had issued the anti-Jewish propaganda, claimed that according to several accounts Jewish militia assaulted Polish forces without provocation, and that the Polish forces tried to stop the pogrom quicker, but were undermanned, and that while the some unruly soldiers participated in the pogrom, officers actively tried to stop them. William Hagen wrote that according to a Jewish report a Polish officer bashed in the head of a Jewish infant, and a Jewish eyewitness claimed to have seen a young Polish officer twirl a four-week-old Jewish infant by the legs, threatening to bash it against the floor while asking the mother "why are there so many Jewish bastards?" The Polish Foreign Ministry report, however, concluded that during the days of the pogrom "the authorities did not fulfill their responsibilities." The report noted that delegations of both Christian and Polish Jews hoping to end the violence had been turned away by officials and that during the pogrom, Polish officials and military commanders had spread false inflammatory charges against Jews, including claims that Jews were waging an armed struggle against Poland. Several Polish officers, according to the report, took part in the killings and pillaging, which they said continued for a week afterwards under the guise of searching for weapons. In his 1919 report, Henry Morgenthau concludes that in Lemberg, as well as in the cities of Lida, Wilna, and Minsk, captured by Polish troops "the excesses were committed by the soldiers who were capturing the cities and not by the civilian population." Although Jewish eyewitnesses described Poles as committing the pogrom, Mączyński, the Polish commander who prior to the pogrom had issued anti-Jewish pamphlets, blamed Ukrainian criminals for initiating it, and claimed that they were the most numerous group among the rioters. Writing in 1971, Adam Ciołkosz, a former leader of the Polish Socialist Party who arrived in Lwów on November 21 as a 16-year-old scout, recalled that rumors circulated that Jews had fired on Polish troops, and maintained that the Polish army had tried to stop the pogroms, not instigate or support it.
According to William Hagen in addition to robbing or killing the Jews, the Polish forces made sure to humiliate them in ways that anticipated later German National Socialist treatment of Jews. Some examples, according to Hagen included, a group of Jewish gymnasium students being forced into compulsory labor where they were the victims of "pranks" such as being forced to jump over tables; Jewish intelligentsia being forced to work in the most demeaning jobs such as cleaning latrines; Polish soldiers pulling Jews by their beards into a street and forcing them to dance to the delight of Polish onlookers; one drunken soldier tried to cut off an elderly Jewish man's earlocks but when the man resisted he shot him and plundered the corpse. Hagen also states that according to Jewish witnesses, in addition to Polish soldiers, Polish civilians of various social classes including members of the intelligentsia took part in murdering and robbing Jews.
Polish forces were able to brought order to the city after one or two days (reports vary), on November 23 or November 24. Ad hoc courts handed verdicts during the riots. About one thousand people were jailed for participating in the riots. Mączyński notes that between 1300 to 1500 people were jailed by Polish authorities, primarily Ukrainians (60%), the rest Polish (30%), but also some Jewish criminals (10%). Mączyński also gives the statistical breakdown of rioters' professional occupations, compiled and published in contemporary press in Lwów by Jewish authors, that includes 18 officers and 54 soldiers among those arrested.
During the pogrom, according to a report by the Polish foreign ministry, over 50 two- and three-story apartment buildings were destroyed as were 500 Jewish businesses. Two thousand Jews were left homeless, and material losses amounted to 20 million contemporary dollars.
As a result of the pogrom, an all Jewish unit of around 1000 men was formed in the army of the West Ukrainian National Republic
. The Council of Ministers of the West Ukrainian People's Republic also provided financial assistance to Jewish victims of the pogrom.
The events were widely reported by European and American press, including The New York Times
News reports of the massacre to have been greatly exaggerated, were later used as a means of pressure on Polish delegation during Paris peace conference
into signing the Minority Protection Treaty (the Little Treaty of Versailles
). and in 1921, the events also resulted in Polish government awarding liberal minority rights
for Polish Jewish population in the March Constitution.
International outrage at the series of similar acts of violence committed by Polish military (Pinsk massacre
, Lida, Minsk and Vilna pogroms) and civilian population (Kielce pogrom
) against the Jews led to the appointment of an investigation commission by US President Woodrow Wilson
in June 1919. On October 3, 1919 commission led by Henry Morgenthau, Sr.
published its findings. According to Morgenthau Report
excesses in Lwow were "political as well as anti-Semitic in character". At the same time, the Morgenthau report cleared the Polish government of any responsibility for the events and attributed the casualties to "the chaotic and unnatural state of affairs".
The Polish government also investigated Lwow events. A report prepared on December 17, 1918 for the Foreign Ministry of Poland emphasized the role played by criminals released during the struggle over the city and recruited by the Polish Armed Forces. According to the report this resulted in a "tragic and vicious circle" when a soldier fighting for the Polish cause, also "robbed at every opportunity and wherever he could." The report noted that as of December, sentence had not been passed on some 40 soldiers, along with one thousand civilians identified as "criminals" who had been jailed for robbery and murder, and emphasized that there was no evidence that there had been any desire to immediately stop the pogrom.
, where the new German government disseminated them for political propaganda reasons, hoping that they would affect the peace negotiations and prevent German territorial losses to Poland. The Times
, in December 1919 called the contemporary reports of the events "greatly exaggerated", while the Pall Mall Gazette
blamed the German Reich for "machinations" and the exaggerations. More accurate estimates from reliable sources, such as the Morgenthau report or American diplomats in the Polish capital, emerged only later.
Figures for the death toll vary; according to William W. Hagen
, citing a report prepared for the Polish Foreign Ministry, approximately 150 Jews were murdered and 500 Jewish shops and their businesses were ransacked, while the 1919 Morgenthau report
counted 64 Jewish deaths. A simultaneous British government investigation led by Sir Stuart Samuel reported that 52 Jews were killed, 463 injured and a large amount of Jewish property was stolen. Jewish contemporary sources reported 73 deaths; official city documents support only 41 deaths. Mączyński, the Polish officer involved in the violence, claimed that some of Jewish deaths were a result of combat between Polish forces and Jewish Ukrainian sympathizers.. However, the last Ukrainian soldier had left the city and the Jews offered no armed resistance. According to Tadeusz Piotrowski
, in the chaotic events of the riot, more Christians than Jews have died, and Morgenthau Report, for example, raised a question of whether the label pogrom it technically applicable to such riots in the times of war. The report submitted to Polish Foreign Ministry cited by Hagen characterized the incident as a pogrom, and criticized the inaction of Polish officials in failing to halt the violence, while accusing the officials of publicizing inflammatory charges against Lwów's Jews. Historian Norman Davies
has cited figures of 340 total deaths in the violence, of whom two thirds were Ukrainian Christians and the remaining 70 were Jews. Davies questioned whether these circumstances can be accurately described as a "pogrom". Historian David Engel
has noted that the Polish Foreign Ministry had conducted a campaign to discourage the use of the term "pogrom" by foreign investigators, although it used the term freely in its own investigation.
Jews
The Jews , also known as the Jewish people, are a nation and ethnoreligious group originating in the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East. The Jewish ethnicity, nationality, and religion are strongly interrelated, as Judaism is the traditional faith of the Jewish nation...
of Lwów (now Lviv
Lviv
Lviv is a city in western Ukraine. The city is regarded as one of the main cultural centres of today's Ukraine and historically has also been a major Polish and Jewish cultural center, as Poles and Jews were the two main ethnicities of the city until the outbreak of World War II and the following...
) took place on November 21–23, 1918 during the Polish-Ukrainian War
Polish-Ukrainian War
The Polish–Ukrainian War of 1918 and 1919 was a conflict between the forces of the Second Polish Republic and West Ukrainian People's Republic for the control over Eastern Galicia after the dissolution of Austria-Hungary.-Background:...
. In the course of the three days of unrest in the city, an estimated 52-150 Jewish residents were murdered and hundreds injured, with widespread looting carried out by Polish soldiers, lawless civilians, and local criminals. 270 more Ukrainian Christians were killed during this time as well." The Poles did not stop the pogrom until two days after it began. Over a thousand people, including some soldiers, were arrested by Polish authorities during and after the pogrom.
The events, widely publicized in the international press, led to US President
President of the United States
The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....
Woodrow Wilson
Woodrow Wilson
Thomas Woodrow Wilson was the 28th President of the United States, from 1913 to 1921. A leader of the Progressive Movement, he served as President of Princeton University from 1902 to 1910, and then as the Governor of New Jersey from 1911 to 1913...
appointing a commission
Morgenthau Report
The Morgenthau report was a report issued by the United States' commission led by Henry Morgenthau, Sr., Homer H. Johnson, Brigadier General Edgar Jadwin and from the British side, Sir Stuart M. Samuel to investigate reports of mistreatment of Ashkenazi Jews in Poland...
, led by Henry Morgenthau, Sr.
Henry Morgenthau, Sr.
Henry Morgenthau was a lawyer, businessman and United States ambassador, most famous as the American ambassador to the Ottoman Empire during the First World War. He was father of the politician Henry Morgenthau, Jr. and the grandfather of Robert M. Morgenthau, who was the District Attorney of...
, tasked with investigating excesses against the Jewish population in Poland.
Background
In 1918, the Jews of Galicia found themselves caught in the middle of the post-World War IWorld War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
Polish-Ukrainian conflict
Polish-Ukrainian War
The Polish–Ukrainian War of 1918 and 1919 was a conflict between the forces of the Second Polish Republic and West Ukrainian People's Republic for the control over Eastern Galicia after the dissolution of Austria-Hungary.-Background:...
, and fell victim to a rising wave of pogroms across the region, fueled by post-World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
lawlessness. In early 1918 a wave of pogroms swept across Polish-inhabited towns in the western areas of Galicia. Although committed largely by demobilized soldiers and deserters from the army, the pogromists were supported by Polish civilians. Throughout the 1918-1919 Polish-Ukrainian conflict, Jews had served as scapegoats for the frustrations of the warring forces. Since the first days of the Polish-Ukrainian conflict Polish quarter of Lwów was defended only by a group of poorly armed volunteers, mainly students and even younger people in their early teens, known in Polish historiography as Lwów Eaglets
Lwów Eaglets
Lwów Eaglets is a term of affection applied to the Polish teenagers who defended the city of Lviv in Eastern Galicia, during the Polish-Ukrainian War .-Background:...
. On November 9–10, the Jews of Lwów formed a militia and declared their neutrality in the Polish-Ukrainian conflict over the city
Battle of Lwów (1918)
Battle of Lviv begun on 1 November 1918 and lasted till May 1919 and was a six months long conflict between the forces of the West Ukrainian People's Republic and local Polish civilian population assisted later by regular Polish Army forces for the control...
. Other than reports of isolated instances of Jewish support for the Ukrainian side, Lwów's Jews remained officially neutral; the accounts of sporadic Jewish support for the Ukrainians would serve as a rationale for false accusations that most Jews adopted the anti-Polish stance. The Ukrainian government respected Jewish neutrality and during the two weeks that the city was controlled by Ukrainian forces there were no incidents of anti-Jewish violence. Poles resented the proclaimed Jewish neutrality, and there were reports, leading to exaggerated rumors, that some Jews, including the militia, collaborated with the Ukrainians in various ways, up to actively engaging the Polish forces. On the morning November 22, after taking the city in the night of November 21 to November 22, and amidst rumors that Lwów's Jews would be made to pay for their "neutrality" in the Polish-Ukrainian conflict, Polish forces interned and disarmed the Jewish militia.
Before withdrawing from the town, the retreating Ukrainian forces let the criminals out of the prisons, some of whom volunteered to join Polish militia and fought against the Ukrainians. The town was also full of Austrian army deserters. Polish authorities also armed a number of volunteers (including some former criminals) who promised to fight the Ukrainians. The riots, including pogrom
Pogrom
A pogrom is a form of violent riot, a mob attack directed against a minority group, and characterized by killings and destruction of their homes and properties, businesses, and religious centres...
s in the Jewish quarters (but an even larger disturbance in the Ukrainian quarters, with three times as much dead), broke out after Polish forces managed to get control over all parts of the city, including the Jewish quarters, where they encountered resistance from Jewish-Ukrainian sympathizers.
The pogrom
Following the retreat of main Ukrainian forces and the disarming and interning of the Jewish militia by the Polish army, Polish troops, including some officers, civilians, criminals, and Polish militia volunteers began the sacking, pillaging and burning of the town's Jewish quarter. William W. HagenWilliam W. Hagen
William W. Hagen is a prominent historian and Professor of History at the University of California-Davis. Hagen's focus is on Modern European History, primarily in relation to Germany and Eastern Europe. He obtained his B.A. from Harvard University and his M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of...
quotes Jewish eyewitnesses who stated that as the Ukrainian soldiers retreated a festive mood came over the Polish fighters as they anticipated their reward for their fighting - the looting of Jewish stores and homes. First-hand accounts differ, for example, according to a report by one Jewish eyewitness, many victims gave testimonies that rioting Polish soldiers claimed that their officers allowed them to 48 hours to pillage Jewish quarters, as a reward for capturing the city from the Ukrainians. A report prepared for the Polish Foreign Ministry noted that the Polish Army "burned with desire for revenge" against the Jews, and soldiers wrongly believed that an order had been issued commanding a "punitive expedition" against the Jews. This report found no evidence that such an order had been issued, but noted that two full days passed before the troops participating in the pillaging were ordered to desist. The Polish commanding officer of the 1918 battle of Lwów, Czesław Mączyński, in his account of the battle, acknowledged that there were rumors of such an order, which the criminal elements unsuccessfully attempted to obtain by bribes. An investigation by Israel Cohen on behalf of the British Zionist Organization reported that Jewish leaders in Lwów, protesting the pogrom, were told by Army Chief of Staff Antoni Jakubski
Antoni Jakubski
Antoni Władysław Jakubski was a Polish zoologist and explorer.Jakubski was born in Lemberg , Galicia, Austria-Hungary on 28 March 1885. He studied zoology from Prof. Józef Nusbaum-Hilarowicz at the Lwów University where he received a habilitation in 1917...
that the violence was a "punitive expedition into the Jewish quarter, which cannot be stopped."
Mączyński delayed the implementation of a November 22 order for martial law from Brigadier General Bolesław Roja for a day and a half. In the interim, Mączyński issued inflammatory proclamations, using what has been described as "medieval terminology," of supposed acts of Jewish treachery against Polish troops. He claimed, for example, that Jews had attacked Poles with axes. The Jewish quarter was cordoned off for 48 hours by fire officials, and buildings in the quarter, including 3 synagogues, were allowed to burn. The killing and burning in the quarter had already been done by the time Mączyński allowed patrols to enter the area.
Joseph Tenenbaum, a leader of the Jewish militia and eyewitness to the pogrom, wrote that troops cut off the Jewish quarter and that patrols of 10-30 men, each led by an officer and armed with grenades and rifles went through the quarter banging on doors. Doors not opened were blown open with grenades. Each house was systematically plundered, and its occupants beaten and shot. Shops were likewise looted, with the stolen goods loaded onto army trucks. Mączyński, the Polish commander during the pogroms who had issued the anti-Jewish propaganda, claimed that according to several accounts Jewish militia assaulted Polish forces without provocation, and that the Polish forces tried to stop the pogrom quicker, but were undermanned, and that while the some unruly soldiers participated in the pogrom, officers actively tried to stop them. William Hagen wrote that according to a Jewish report a Polish officer bashed in the head of a Jewish infant, and a Jewish eyewitness claimed to have seen a young Polish officer twirl a four-week-old Jewish infant by the legs, threatening to bash it against the floor while asking the mother "why are there so many Jewish bastards?" The Polish Foreign Ministry report, however, concluded that during the days of the pogrom "the authorities did not fulfill their responsibilities." The report noted that delegations of both Christian and Polish Jews hoping to end the violence had been turned away by officials and that during the pogrom, Polish officials and military commanders had spread false inflammatory charges against Jews, including claims that Jews were waging an armed struggle against Poland. Several Polish officers, according to the report, took part in the killings and pillaging, which they said continued for a week afterwards under the guise of searching for weapons. In his 1919 report, Henry Morgenthau concludes that in Lemberg, as well as in the cities of Lida, Wilna, and Minsk, captured by Polish troops "the excesses were committed by the soldiers who were capturing the cities and not by the civilian population." Although Jewish eyewitnesses described Poles as committing the pogrom, Mączyński, the Polish commander who prior to the pogrom had issued anti-Jewish pamphlets, blamed Ukrainian criminals for initiating it, and claimed that they were the most numerous group among the rioters. Writing in 1971, Adam Ciołkosz, a former leader of the Polish Socialist Party who arrived in Lwów on November 21 as a 16-year-old scout, recalled that rumors circulated that Jews had fired on Polish troops, and maintained that the Polish army had tried to stop the pogroms, not instigate or support it.
According to William Hagen in addition to robbing or killing the Jews, the Polish forces made sure to humiliate them in ways that anticipated later German National Socialist treatment of Jews. Some examples, according to Hagen included, a group of Jewish gymnasium students being forced into compulsory labor where they were the victims of "pranks" such as being forced to jump over tables; Jewish intelligentsia being forced to work in the most demeaning jobs such as cleaning latrines; Polish soldiers pulling Jews by their beards into a street and forcing them to dance to the delight of Polish onlookers; one drunken soldier tried to cut off an elderly Jewish man's earlocks but when the man resisted he shot him and plundered the corpse. Hagen also states that according to Jewish witnesses, in addition to Polish soldiers, Polish civilians of various social classes including members of the intelligentsia took part in murdering and robbing Jews.
Polish forces were able to brought order to the city after one or two days (reports vary), on November 23 or November 24. Ad hoc courts handed verdicts during the riots. About one thousand people were jailed for participating in the riots. Mączyński notes that between 1300 to 1500 people were jailed by Polish authorities, primarily Ukrainians (60%), the rest Polish (30%), but also some Jewish criminals (10%). Mączyński also gives the statistical breakdown of rioters' professional occupations, compiled and published in contemporary press in Lwów by Jewish authors, that includes 18 officers and 54 soldiers among those arrested.
During the pogrom, according to a report by the Polish foreign ministry, over 50 two- and three-story apartment buildings were destroyed as were 500 Jewish businesses. Two thousand Jews were left homeless, and material losses amounted to 20 million contemporary dollars.
Aftermath
Over a thousand people were arrested, hundreds individuals accused of participation in the pogrom were punished by Polish authorities after they established themselves in the city, promises of material compensation were made.As a result of the pogrom, an all Jewish unit of around 1000 men was formed in the army of the West Ukrainian National Republic
West Ukrainian National Republic
The West Ukrainian People's Republic was a short-lived republic that existed in late 1918 and early 1919 in eastern Galicia, that claimed parts of Bukovina and Carpathian Ruthenia and included the cities of Lviv , Przemyśl , Kolomyia , and Stanislaviv...
. The Council of Ministers of the West Ukrainian People's Republic also provided financial assistance to Jewish victims of the pogrom.
The events were widely reported by European and American press, including The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
News reports of the massacre to have been greatly exaggerated, were later used as a means of pressure on Polish delegation during Paris peace conference
Paris Peace Conference, 1919
The Paris Peace Conference was the meeting of the Allied victors following the end of World War I to set the peace terms for the defeated Central Powers following the armistices of 1918. It took place in Paris in 1919 and involved diplomats from more than 32 countries and nationalities...
into signing the Minority Protection Treaty (the Little Treaty of Versailles
Little Treaty of Versailles
Little Treaty of Versailles or the Polish Minority Treaty was one of the bilateral Minority Treaties signed between minor powers and the League of Nations in the aftermath of the First World War. The Polish treaty was signed on 28 June 1919, the same day as the main Treaty of Versailles was signed...
). and in 1921, the events also resulted in Polish government awarding liberal minority rights
Minority rights
The term Minority Rights embodies two separate concepts: first, normal individual rights as applied to members of racial, ethnic, class, religious, linguistic or sexual minorities, and second, collective rights accorded to minority groups...
for Polish Jewish population in the March Constitution.
International outrage at the series of similar acts of violence committed by Polish military (Pinsk massacre
Pinsk massacre
The Pinsk massacre was the murder of thirty-five Jewish residents of Pinsk taken as hostages by the Polish Army after it captured the city in April 1919, during the opening phases of the Polish-Soviet War. The local Jews were arrested while holding a meeting...
, Lida, Minsk and Vilna pogroms) and civilian population (Kielce pogrom
Kielce pogrom (1918)
Kielce pogrom of 1918 refers to the events that occurred on November 11, 1918, in the Polish town of Kielce, in Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship. According to 1919 Report by Henry Morgenthau, Sr...
) against the Jews led to the appointment of an investigation commission by US President Woodrow Wilson
Woodrow Wilson
Thomas Woodrow Wilson was the 28th President of the United States, from 1913 to 1921. A leader of the Progressive Movement, he served as President of Princeton University from 1902 to 1910, and then as the Governor of New Jersey from 1911 to 1913...
in June 1919. On October 3, 1919 commission led by Henry Morgenthau, Sr.
Henry Morgenthau, Sr.
Henry Morgenthau was a lawyer, businessman and United States ambassador, most famous as the American ambassador to the Ottoman Empire during the First World War. He was father of the politician Henry Morgenthau, Jr. and the grandfather of Robert M. Morgenthau, who was the District Attorney of...
published its findings. According to Morgenthau Report
Morgenthau Report
The Morgenthau report was a report issued by the United States' commission led by Henry Morgenthau, Sr., Homer H. Johnson, Brigadier General Edgar Jadwin and from the British side, Sir Stuart M. Samuel to investigate reports of mistreatment of Ashkenazi Jews in Poland...
excesses in Lwow were "political as well as anti-Semitic in character". At the same time, the Morgenthau report cleared the Polish government of any responsibility for the events and attributed the casualties to "the chaotic and unnatural state of affairs".
The Polish government also investigated Lwow events. A report prepared on December 17, 1918 for the Foreign Ministry of Poland emphasized the role played by criminals released during the struggle over the city and recruited by the Polish Armed Forces. According to the report this resulted in a "tragic and vicious circle" when a soldier fighting for the Polish cause, also "robbed at every opportunity and wherever he could." The report noted that as of December, sentence had not been passed on some 40 soldiers, along with one thousand civilians identified as "criminals" who had been jailed for robbery and murder, and emphasized that there was no evidence that there had been any desire to immediately stop the pogrom.
Casualties
The initial reports on the number of casualties of the pogroms were exaggerated, sensationalist in nature and often embellished, with an extimated number of victims as high as 3,000. The large casualty figures and supposed graphic details were transmitted through BerlinBerlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
, where the new German government disseminated them for political propaganda reasons, hoping that they would affect the peace negotiations and prevent German territorial losses to Poland. The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
, in December 1919 called the contemporary reports of the events "greatly exaggerated", while the Pall Mall Gazette
Pall Mall Gazette
The Pall Mall Gazette was an evening newspaper founded in London on 7 February 1865 by George Murray Smith; its first editor was Frederick Greenwood...
blamed the German Reich for "machinations" and the exaggerations. More accurate estimates from reliable sources, such as the Morgenthau report or American diplomats in the Polish capital, emerged only later.
Figures for the death toll vary; according to William W. Hagen
William W. Hagen
William W. Hagen is a prominent historian and Professor of History at the University of California-Davis. Hagen's focus is on Modern European History, primarily in relation to Germany and Eastern Europe. He obtained his B.A. from Harvard University and his M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of...
, citing a report prepared for the Polish Foreign Ministry, approximately 150 Jews were murdered and 500 Jewish shops and their businesses were ransacked, while the 1919 Morgenthau report
Morgenthau Report
The Morgenthau report was a report issued by the United States' commission led by Henry Morgenthau, Sr., Homer H. Johnson, Brigadier General Edgar Jadwin and from the British side, Sir Stuart M. Samuel to investigate reports of mistreatment of Ashkenazi Jews in Poland...
counted 64 Jewish deaths. A simultaneous British government investigation led by Sir Stuart Samuel reported that 52 Jews were killed, 463 injured and a large amount of Jewish property was stolen. Jewish contemporary sources reported 73 deaths; official city documents support only 41 deaths. Mączyński, the Polish officer involved in the violence, claimed that some of Jewish deaths were a result of combat between Polish forces and Jewish Ukrainian sympathizers.. However, the last Ukrainian soldier had left the city and the Jews offered no armed resistance. According to Tadeusz Piotrowski
Tadeusz Piotrowski (sociologist)
Tadeusz Piotrowski or Thaddeus Piotrowski is a Polish-American sociologist. He is a Professor of Sociology in the Social Science Division of the University of New Hampshire at Manchester in Manchester, New Hampshire, where he lives....
, in the chaotic events of the riot, more Christians than Jews have died, and Morgenthau Report, for example, raised a question of whether the label pogrom it technically applicable to such riots in the times of war. The report submitted to Polish Foreign Ministry cited by Hagen characterized the incident as a pogrom, and criticized the inaction of Polish officials in failing to halt the violence, while accusing the officials of publicizing inflammatory charges against Lwów's Jews. Historian Norman Davies
Norman Davies
Professor Ivor Norman Richard Davies FBA, FRHistS is a leading English historian of Welsh descent, noted for his publications on the history of Europe, Poland, and the United Kingdom.- Academic career :...
has cited figures of 340 total deaths in the violence, of whom two thirds were Ukrainian Christians and the remaining 70 were Jews. Davies questioned whether these circumstances can be accurately described as a "pogrom". Historian David Engel
David Engel
David Engel is an American historian and Professor of Holocaust and Judaic Studies at New York University. Dr. Engel holds a Ph.D...
has noted that the Polish Foreign Ministry had conducted a campaign to discourage the use of the term "pogrom" by foreign investigators, although it used the term freely in its own investigation.
See also
- Pogroms in UkrainePogroms in UkraineIt is estimated that one third of Europe's Jews lived in Ukraine, which from 1791 to 1917 partly belonged to the Pale of Settlement. The concentration of Jews in this region made them an easy target for pogroms and massive, anti-Jewish riots.-During Czarist Russia:...
- Lviv pogromsLviv pogromsThe Lviv pogroms were two massacres of Jews living in and near in the city of Lwów, the occupied Republic of Poland , that took place from 30 June to 2 July and 25–29 July 1941 during World War II. 700 Jews were killed in the rioting by some Ukrainian nationalists and Ukrainian militia and further...