Within the Pale: The True Story of Anti-Semitic Persecution in Russia

CHAPTER X

IV. AN IMPARTIAL ACCOUNT

M. de Plehve next asserts that the “nearest cause of the outburst” was the striking of a Christian woman on Easter Day in the market place “by a Jew proprietor of a carousing machine.” Here again the Minister has been badly informed by his subordinates.

I sought for and found the proprietor of this identical carousing machine (a merry-go-round). He was not a Jew, but a Christian, German by nationality, and Reinhold Mergert by name. He told me he saw no Christian or other woman struck by any Jew on the occasion, while no such act was committed by himself or anyone in his employment.

Had any such injury been done to a Christian woman by a Jew, would the carousing machine have been spared by the mobs which wrecked seven hundred Jewish homes, and five or six hundred Jewish shops the same day? Or would the Jew be alive to tell the story?

I saw this very machine in full swing, with its loads of laughing children, on several days during my stay in the city.

“Workers then began breaking windows, pulling down Jewish stores, as sign of protest,” continues M. de Plehve, in his official explanation.

My information, gathered on the spot from eye-witnesses—Russian and Jewish—tells a far different story. It is this:

A few nights before the outbreak, members of the society organised by the Bessarabetz, a large number of Moldavian and Russian artisans, and several Seminarists and students, assembled in the “Moscow” hall. Speeches were made in which it was declared that the Tsar had given permission to kill Jews for a period of three days, beginning on the coming Sunday!

The conveners of this meeting were the leaders of the mobs of Sunday, April 19th, and Monday, the 20th.

That there had been plan, premeditation, and organisation for all this, there is not a shadow of doubt. It was no sudden uprising, as M. de Plehve had been informed, but a carefully prepared and officered arrangement to strike terror into the “Jewish Socialists” of Kishineff, and, through them, into the alleged propagandists of revolutionary doctrines throughout the cities and towns of the Pale, from Odessa to Warsaw.

One more fact establishing the case of preparation:

A fortnight before the riots the band of thirty Albanians referred to in Letter IV arrived in Kishineff. They were strangers and evil-looking. They all took part in the riots, and the mutilations of a child and of two of the four Jews murdered at 13 Asia Street, Bender Rogatka district, were the work of these imported brigands. They were not imprisoned after the riot. They were expelled the city.

The various bands of rioters referred to above proceeded with absolute impunity, in presence of the police, to destroy Jewish homes and smash and loot Jewish shops, until darkness set in, on the Sunday night. In places where Christian citizens lived among Hebrews, a cross marked in black was found on the front of the house, or an ikon was displayed in a window. Not one of the dwellings thus indicated as non-Jewish was injured. I counted over a hundred such houses marked and protected in this manner during my stay in the city. At the junction of Podolian Street and Armenian Street, looking out upon an open space, with a police station forty paces away, and a military barracks some two or three hundred yards distant, the Feldstein premises were in possession of the looters for fully five hours, owing to the trouble they found in breaking open Mr. Feldstein’s safe, where they found fifteen thousand roubles. All this time police and soldiers were in the street, actually looking on at the “sport.” The looters were grateful for this official neutrality, and brought up out of the Feldstein cellars bottles of champagne which they shared freely with the officers of the peace and a few of the soldiers, one leader of the gang, mounting the roof of the saloon, and asking the crowd of spectators to drink with him “the health of Kroushevan, the Editor of the Bessarabetz, and terror of the Jews.”

Before this festive toast had been proposed the incident of the meat took place, which had such a fiendish influence upon the subsequent proceedings of these patronised ruffians.[7]

The attack on the Feldstein saloon and home occurred near the dinner hour, and some meat was being prepared for the family meal. The family fled, or rather was rescued by a humane gendarme, a neighbour, when the mob assailed the premises. The rioters found the meat alluded to in the kitchen, whereupon the leader of the band fixed it upon the end of his stick, mounted the house-top (a building of one story), and, holding up the meat to the gaze of the people and police below, shouted, “Behold the remains of a Christian child which we found in the home of the rich Jew, Feldstein!”

By eleven o’clock that night ten Jews had been murdered, and hundreds of homes and shops broken into and looted.

Over twenty thousand roubles’ worth of costly wines was destroyed in the Feldstein premises. After eleven at night dozens of vehicles were seen carting away goods and property from places visited by the mobs, and articles of furniture, which had been flung into the streets. The vehicles were owned and led, in every instance, by virtuous anti-Semites.

During all these hours General Von Raaben, the Governor, remained indoors. No orders of any kind were issued by him, or by the Vice-Governor, either to the police or military. The mobs were left in possession of the city, with not alone the indirect encouragement by the non-action of the authorities, in face of assassinations and looting, but with the knowledge that the head of the police of the city, Tchemzenkov, or “Baroda,” as he was popularly called, had been seen driving round the streets during the day, smoking, as if thoroughly enjoying the whole infernal saturnalia of sanguinary ruffianism.

Seeing that there was no protection offered them by the authorities, some Jews organised themselves during the night of Sunday, and on the “sport” being renewed at eight on Monday morning, they gathered, to the number of 150, at the New Bazaar, and easily drove away one or two of the gangs, one shot only having been fired, which inflicted a slight wound upon a rioter. Instantly the police and military were on the scene; the Jews were dispersed, and their leaders arrested and lodged in the prison.

The deeds of Sunday were more than surpassed, in character and in number, on the second day. Over thirty more men, women, and children were butchered; some of the unfortunate victims being mutilated in a manner more barbarous than anything recorded against the customs of African savages. Then, at the hour of seven on Monday evening, the city was declared in a state of siege, and the military cleared the centre of the town of the murderous bands in a few moments. But only to drive them to the Bender Rogatka, Skulanska Rogatka, and other districts and suburbs, where they sought out the women and girls who were concealed in lofts and in other hiding-places the previous day.

It is not possible to describe the outrages perpetrated during this night. Women and girls who went through it all told me their stories in the house of the Rabbi and elsewhere, and it was impossible to doubt the statements which, in depicting the infamies resorted to by “Christian” men, recorded their own sufferings and dishonour.

One statement must, however, be put on record. A number of women and girls, some twenty in all, were discovered concealed in a loft at No. 11 Nicolaievskai Street. For four hours the moral pupils of the Bessarabetz, and of the religious and other colleges of Kishineff, held their victims in this dark place; several of these being girls under seventeen. A married woman, who succeeded, after being violated by six ruffians, in breaking away from her captors, ran to the nearest police station, and implored an officer to rescue the women, including her daughter, Simme, aged sixteen. She was driven from the station and told that “the Jews are only getting what they deserve.” The woman’s name is Chane Zeytchik, and the gallant officer in question is one Maretzky.

There were many exceptions, however, among the police; the dictates of decent humanity asserting themselves where the connivance of their chief had outraged their sense of moral manhood. Among these was officer Sloutschevsky, of one of the Bender Rogatka streets, who with twelve men drove a mob of seventy out of his district. Several artillery officers off duty also helped to save families and women. These instances of Samaritan kindness were gratefully mentioned to me by both men and women who had witnessed such acts. Among the comparatively few Christians who were conspicuous in this humane service were the citizens Dorianov, Demtchenks, Dr. Doroschevsky, Dr. Wolsky, the pope Laschkov, and M. Georgior. Many Russian women also saved the girls of their Jewish neighbours by giving them shelter in their homes.

The mobs were composed mainly of Moldavian and Russian workingmen; the former being five-sevenths of the whole. The Albanian contingent has already been referred to. A few Macedonian refugees, and some Bulgarians, were also among the gangs. All the accounts given to me agreed in one particular—that the worst crimes were the work of the Moldavians. In the murders inside the carpenter’s shed in the Skulanska Rogatka suburb, all the assassins were Moldavians resident in the very district. The sister-in-law of little Feya Wouller[8] told me that the Moldavian father and son who led the mob in this work, and in the murder of her husband, who tried to save his little sister, were walking about free during my stay in Kishineff, having been released from prison after a few days’ detention.

A brace of other assassins, a car-driver and his son, who were concerned in no less than four murders, were pointed out to me in the streets!

One feature of the massacres is most significant, and is not mentioned by M. de Plehve in his official account, namely: All the Jews who were killed, with one exception, were workingmen, regular or casual; carpenters, masons, smiths, clerks, and a few very poor jobbing dealers. The exception was one Galantor, a cattle dealer, who was known to have fifteen thousand roubles in his possession. He was assassinated and robbed by the driver and his son alluded to above.

The women and girls who suffered were the wives and daughters of Jewish artisans. Those females who were killed were also, like the male victims, of the same class. A few young ladies of richer families suffered too, but their names, for obvious reasons, were not made known to their families. No rich Jews were killed or wounded.

The leaders of the gangs, in almost every instance, were Seminarists, disguised as workingmen. There were two students from Odessa, sons of wealthy Kishineff families, prominent among the captains of the mobs; but to the seminaries of the city belonged the shame and dishonour of having contributed mostly all the directors, guides, and active instigators of the two-days’ carnival of crime, lust, and looting. Employés of the post office and telegraph departments were along among the rioters, but chiefly for loot.

Among the organisers of the plot, but not in the actual execution of it, were a notary of the city, an engineer, a well-known wealthy citizen, two minor officers, two sons of a rich merchant, and members of the staff of the Bessarabetz.

None of these had been arrested when I left Kishineff, on the 30th of May last.

The question of official responsibility has been raised, and a circular alleged to have been issued by M. de Plehve has been published which would tend to connect the Minister of the Interior with an intimate knowledge of the intended outbreak. No one in Kishineff with whom I came in contact knew of any such circular. Charges of complicity were freely made against the Government by many leading Jews, but no proofs of any kind were adduced. These charges were entirely based upon the culpable inaction of Governor Von Raaben, and the all but active participation of the head of the City Police in the riots, along with the well-known anti-Semitic record and feeling of the Vice-Governor, Ostrogoff.

Official responsibility might be deduced from these facts, but I failed to discover any evidence, outside these circumstances, which could even indirectly bring home to the Government the charge of guilty connivance in the Bessarabetz plot.

The Governor was, beyond all doubt, the person most to blame for the crimes which were allowed to disgrace the capital of his province and a civilised city during two whole days. And he was forewarned in time of what was coming.

Ten days before Easter he was waited upon by leading Jewish citizens and his attention called to the incendiary appeals of the Bessarabetz, in connection with the murder of the boy at Doubossar. General Von Raaben assured them that they need not dread any disturbance, as he would not hesitate to employ all the military force at his disposal in order to preserve law and order. He fulfilled this promise on Easter Sunday and Monday by refusing to leave his house during the forty-eight hours in which the slaughter of forty-five victims of the anti-Semitic crusade was carried out.

It has been alleged that the Governor, on realising the gravity of the first day’s events, wired to St. Petersburg for authority to declare a state of siege. This I believe to be untrue. M. de Plehve’s explicit statements, as given in his second communication to Mr. Arnold White, dispose of this allegation. In face of the clear language of the Criminal Code it would be an absurd and unnecessary proceeding on the part of the Governor.

Clause 340 of this Code, and Clauses 1 and 8 of the supplement to Section 316, of Vol. II., give, I am informed, the fullest powers to the administration of any province or city to take all necessary measures for quelling riots or disturbances which threaten to become a menace to life or property. There could, therefore, be no excuse or ambiguity in the language of the law necessitating such a message, as that alleged, to the central Government. What happened, in all probability, was this: Someone in lower authority, seeing the criminal neglect of the Governor in presence of such a situation as was developed on Monday morning, may have telegraphed to M. de Plehve an account of what was taking place. This would necessarily have to be verified, in reply to messages from the Minister, and in this way, as he relates in his despatch to Mr. Arnold White, he ordered martial law to be proclaimed on Monday evening; unfortunately after most of the murders and other outrages had been committed.

In an official sense only M. de Plehve is answerable for the conduct of his subordinates, as all Ministers are, under similar circumstances, even in constitutionally governed countries; but without evidence, which has not yet been forthcoming from any quarter, I refuse to credit accusations of direct cognisance of, or complicity in, the plot which owed its origin to the indications of a powerful local paper; its plan and purpose to local anti-Semites; and in the execution of which several minor officials of the local administration, some police officers, employés of public departments, students, Seminarists, and Moldavian and Russian artisans were notoriously engaged. In character it was a savage anti-Semitic outbreak, and in purpose a terrorising demonstration against the Jews as advocates of Socialism and suspected enemies of the Tsar’s Government.

M. de Plehve’s borrowed version of the origin and objects of the outbreak is the concoction of incriminated local officials, and members of the Bessarabetz staff. It is therefore, and on that account, prejudiced and untrue.

CHAPTER XI

V. DOCUMENTS

We, the numerous Jewish inhabitants of the town of Kishineff, having suffered from an inhuman and sanguinary outburst which resulted in unprecedented plundering on the part of an unrestrained mob on the 6th and 7th (19th and 20th) of April, perceive in the arrival of your Excellency into our town an unmistakable sign that the Supreme Government takes an interest in the causes responsible for the sad event, and in the conditions which made the occurrences assume such terrible proportions. In this case we, the Jewish population of the town of Kishineff, are convinced that your Excellency will not refuse to listen to our complaints as sufferers.

It is impossible, in our opinion, to attribute the causes of the present outbreak to the economical exploitation of the Christians by the Jewish inhabitants. Hitherto there has been no friction between Jews and Christians, in Bessarabia in general and in Kishineff in particular. This state of affairs is explained partly by the peaceful character of the local population, partly by the favourable economic condition of the province. The result has been that for the last twenty years there has been no collision whatever between the two groups of the population in the province of Bessarabia; and whilst in the South and Southwest of Russia several outbreaks against the Jews have occurred, peace and order reigned at Kishineff.

When in the eighties the whole South was ablaze with attacks against the Jews, not a single spark found its way into Bessarabia. During all those years the province suffered on several occasions from failure of crops, and yet the Christians never thought of attributing the cause of economical troubles to their Jewish neighbours. The present year, following upon a very good one for Bessarabia, could offer no reason whatever for hostile feelings between Jews and Christians on economical ground.

We are therefore of opinion that the economical question must be entirely excluded from a consideration of the recent massacres. Not only does the rich and fertile province of Bessarabia secure an easy existence for every kind of work, but it is also quite free from the vagabond element of the rabble in seaports, from whom the rioters are usually recruited. The recent outbreaks, unequalled even in the history of attacks on the Jews, are so entirely out of harmony with the usual social life and habits of the province, that we must necessarily look for the reasons not in the relations existing between Jews and Christians, but in special events which have taken place during the last few years, and in certain occurrences immediately preceding the outbreak. Among such events we count, in the first instance, the influence of the local press, the only representative of which is the Bessarabetz. This paper has been established for over five years. Before its existence there was no local organ in the province (with the exception of the short-lived Bessarabsky Viestnik). Thus the Bessarabetz was bound to begin its activity upon virgin soil, and its influence was, for this very reason, considerable from the commencement. In the second year of its existence the paper began a systematic campaign of Jew-baiting, which took a much more monstrous form than that in any other paper. The Bessarabetz evidently made a special feature of Jew-baiting. We could quote articles which plainly incite the mob to exterminate the Jews. The local population, with only one paper, the Bessarabetz, at its disposal, the Censor having refused to authorise another organ, were told day by day that “the Jews are enemies,” and that “the Jews must be destroyed.”

The local Censor, in the person of the administrative power, evidently found such a tendency useful from some other point of view, otherwise his attitude remains quite incomprehensible. It naturally followed that the average reader, and especially the half-educated mass, had in the end to adopt the views of the press which told them that the extermination of the Jews was not only desirable but also possible. This is one phase of the state of affairs,—the preparatory stage, consisting in the endeavour to influence the local population towards one end and in one particular direction. The absence of any other local organs, the attitude of the Censor, and the daily activity of several individuals under the leadership of the editor of the Bessarabetz, helped forward the movement. There is hardly a number of the paper which did not contain an attack on the Jews. Phrases like “death to the Jews,” “all the Jews must be killed,” were suggested regularly as the means of solving the Jewish question. Being the only local organ the Bessarabetz is read in all the taverns and teashops, and it is evident to what an extent this paper could foster the hatred of the Christians towards the Jews and how all-pervading its influence upon the passions of human nature must have been.

In order to convince his readers of the necessity of solving the Jewish question, especially in the spirit advocated by the paper, the editor of the Bessarabetz availed himself of the circumstances, inexplicable at the beginning, attending the murder of a lad living in Doubossar. As insinuatingly as possible he attributed the disappearance of the lad to ritual murder by the Jews, and to the alleged requirement of Christian blood. The official denial of the accusation by the competent judicial authorities was purposely worded in such a way as to be only half convincing.

All these circumstances, together with the general attitude of the Bessarabetz, could not but create such a state of mind in the mob that one stone thrown into a Jewish window was sufficient to call forth a regular attack. We are unable to trace the source whence came the circulars read in the taverns and according to which: “the Tsar had ordered the extermination of the Jews during the three days of Easter.”

We must, however, remark that under the conditions existing, it was impossible for the mob not to consider these circulars as the logical sequel to the campaign of the Bessarabetz extending over a course of years.

If we now turn to the lesson which the population of Kishineff could take from the action of the local administrative authorities towards the Jews, we see that the mass could not but come to the conclusion that what was unlawful with regard to any other section of the inhabitants, was legal and permissible where Jews were concerned. These acts include the expulsion of Jews from various localities, subsequently recognised as unjust by the Senate; and the actions of individuals, as, for instance, the Pristav Von Oglio.

The Jewish population, becoming aware long before the festivals of the attitude of the crowd and of the dangers that threatened them, addressed themselves through their representatives to the Governor of the province, and asked him to take the necessary measures to protect them and their property. The Governor gave them a reply of a very assuring nature, relying upon which the Jews considered it needless to think of self-defence.

Under these circumstances the Easter festival approached with danger feared by all the population. It was talked of publicly and openly; it was no secret even to the authorities. Strangely enough, however, not only did the local government take no preparatory measures against a possible outbreak, but even when the attack began it neglected to take the steps within its power which would have prevented the massacres from assuming unheard-of proportions, and of which it is impossible to speak without feelings of horror and pity. Before the very eyes of the police almost incredible havoc was worked upon human victims, and cruelties committed unequalled in the history of Russia during the past few decades. The military power remained inactive and, for reasons altogether incomprehensible, the local government did not avail itself of the rights and privileges accorded to it in such cases by the § 340 of the Criminal Code and by § 1 and § 8 of the additions to § 316. Remaining unmoved itself, it kept inactive the military forces and thus encouraged the mob. The latter, perceiving the passive attitude of the authorities, soon ceased breaking the windows and took to sacking houses and shops, and finally to murder and violation.

In their complaints addressed by the sufferers to the public prosecutor, they pointed to cases where the police encouraged the rioters by the words: “Kill the Jews!” (Byei Zhidoff!). Jews who had armed themselves in self-defence were soon disarmed by the police. The result of such an unheard-of state of affairs has been the loss of 45 lives, with 86 dangerously wounded and 500 slightly wounded, and the violation of women and children—in a word, all the horrors of a massacre.

It is not astonishing that when some of the rioters were arrested they expressed surprise, asking: “Why they were being arrested, since it had been permitted to kill the Jews?” There was an instance in which the mob was engaged over eight hours plundering one house, situated in a populous street, without being stopped, although the sufferers applied for help to all the authorities. Only towards five o’clock in the afternoon of the 7th (20th) of April, when the military were called upon to check the riot, did the rabble cease its terrible work.

The horrors and crimes committed have brought about a state of things which, offering no guarantee as far as life and property are concerned, prevents the inhabitants from resuming their peaceful occupations. The people, deprived of their homes and property, are trembling for their lives. The losses cannot be exactly estimated, but they amount to several millions of roubles, and the fire that has broken out in Kishineff is spreading all over the province. The Jewish population therefore trusts that your Excellency will restore order and tranquillity and protect the Jewish inhabitants from the dangers threatening their lives and property. The arrival of your Excellency into our town has already inspired us with the hope that definite and energetic measures will be taken.

(II) List of the killed and those that died from wounds in the Hospital.

1. Seltzer, Michel Josiphov.

2. Makhlin, Moses Chaskelev, 45 years, Asia Street, No. 13, killed by a bootmaker; his daughter was also killed; murderers armed with hammers.

3. Berladsky, Hosea Abramovitz, Asia Street, No. 13, had hidden himself in the attic, and was thrown into the street.

4. Kainarsky, Kopel Davidovitz, 60 years old. His grandsons know the murderer. The sons are in the hospital. Kainarsky was killed in the slaughter-house; he lived in the Mountzeskaya road. His money was taken from him and his abdomen was opened and filled with feathers.

5. Tounik, Jacob Elchunov, killed in his own house.

6. Kogan, Abraham Routor, killed in the slaughter-house; was a dealer in fowls.

7. Menduk, Mottel Davidovitz, shop-keeper in the Mountzeskaya Street, killed in the slaughter-house in the stables; wife and children in Berlin (?) in very poor circumstances.

8. Ullman, Israel Yacoblewitz, wine-shop proprietor near the botanical gardens; wife and children in Berlin.

9. Shalistal, Israel Leiservitz.

10. Baranovitz, Benja Shimenov, lived in Gostinaya Street, No. 33. With him in the same house 8 men were killed.

11. Fanarnei, Eiss Davidovitz (?); lived near the slaughter-house. The daughter Fliga is in the hospital, and is ignorant of the father’s death.

12. Salapter, Ben-zion Leibov, lived in Gostinaya Street, No. 33; killed; the roof was torn off by the mob who killed Galantor, cattle dealer, and robbed him of 1500 roubles, and others with clubs.

13. Goldiss, Chaim Leibov.

14. Chaskelevitz, David Nisselev, smith; killed together with his grandmother. His sister, 12 years old (violated), has since died in the hospital.

15. Wouller, Leinha; married, no children; killed defending his sister Feya, aged 13, who was violated and killed; wife now at home.

16. Liss, Hirsch Yankelev, killed in the courtyard; lived at the corner of Gostinaya Street, No. 2; dealer in bread, etc. Son was in the hospital, student of the commercial school.

17. Krupnik, Idel; lived in Krovskaya Street, No. 52.

18. Krupnik, Isaac, son of the former.

19. Drachmann, David Moisuv; baker, worked in the bakery of Silberstein.

20. Greenspoon, Mordecai; killed with a knife. The murderers mutilated the body.

21. Byeletzky, Isaac David Mendelev.

22. Kantor, Joseph Abramovitz; joiner, lived in Gostinaya Street, No. 33, 28 years old, married.

23. Bolgar, Hirsch Chaimov; commission agent at the railway station; killed in the courtyard; married, 8 children.

24. Nissenson, Chaim Nissinov, formerly a bookkeeper. Died in the hospital the following day, in consequence of blows received on the head with clubs; he was in a terrible state.

25. Urrmann, Samuel Baruch, died in the hospital.

26. Weinstein, Abraham; bootmaker, 47 years old; died in the hospital.

27. Kiegel, Moshe Samuel; lived in Ismailovsk Street, shopkeeper, 27 years old; married, no children.

28. Brachmann, Aaron Isaacov; his wife is now in the hospital.

29. Rosenfeld, Isaac Yankelev.

30. Greenberg, Joseph Hirsch Danilov. Lived in Nicolaievskai Street, No. 33.

31. Charidon, David Abrahamov, brought in a box (to hospital or cemetery?) with parts of his body cut off; single.

32. Kodja (?), Beila Leiserovna.

33. Katzap, Rose Falikovna; lived in Gostinaya Street, No. 33; killed in the yard; lived with her son.

34. Papagei (?), Chaja Sarah Abramovna.

35. Berger, Itlia, 52 years old; had come on a visit to Kishineff.

36. Spivak, Pinya Isaacov.

37. Fishmann, Simeon; 6 months old; smothered whilst the mother defended herself.

38. Michel Shaev Lashkoff.

39. Wolowitz, Kalmann, 60 years old; died in the hospital.

40. Kiegelmann, Chaya Leah, 38 years old, died in the hospital; daughter employed in the free reading room in the professional school.

[This list is not complete. It was probably prepared soon after the massacres. A few dead bodies have been found since the first lists were compiled.—M. D.]

(III) Extracts from a report upon the outrages by two Christian ladies.

Seltzer. Gostinaya Street, No. 75. His daughter rushed to the police station, asking for help. The police replied: “We shall do nothing.” The father escaped, but was caught by the crowd and killed; the policeman who took him to the hospital trampled him under his feet.

The Jews assembled on Monday, and armed themselves in self-defence, but the police officer, Dobroselsky, ordered them to disarm.

Makhlin. Asiatskaya Street, No. 13. Whilst the crowd was at its murderous work in this place, the Jews addressed themselves to the military, asking for help. The reply was: “We have no orders.” About 300 Jews assembled near the barracks, when suddenly a drunken sergeant (feldwebel) rushed in, calling out to the Jews: “Dogs, I shall kill all of you.” The Jews rushed away, frightened, and fell into the hands of the mob.

Makhlin, Berladsky, Greenspoon, and Nissenson were killed.

The daughter of Berladsky was thrown down from the attic.

The daughter of Makhlin had the skin of her finger torn off, together with the rings.

Greenspoon. (The following is told by his wife.) She had hidden herself, together with two little children and a neighbour, in a shed. When her husband was being beaten in the yard she rushed out to defend him, but one ruffian struck the child in the face and pushed her back into the shed. She found the dead body of her husband only on the following morning, in a neighbouring yard. In the same house there were wine vaults, and the crowd drank, shouted, and danced upon the corpses.

Myntsheskaya Road. Forty families lived here.

Munduk.

Meier Weismann.

Kogan, Abraham, was running towards the town to save himself, when he was caught by the crowd and struck upon the head. His wife, who was with him, was caught by fifteen men, who violated her, in the open road, one after the other. A daughter, 22 years old, and two sons, 16 and 18 years old, were wounded, and when they sought refuge in the house of a retired Colonel, who was cashier in the gut-works, he refused to shelter them. A converted Jew showed equal cruelty with regard to the victims.

Israel Ullmann. When the crowd left him, thinking he was dead, his little son came, crying: “Father, father!” Ullmann lifted up his head, and some of the Christian onlookers shouted: “Ullmann is still alive.” The murderers returned and finished him.

Fanorissi Siss and his wife. The wife had nails driven through her eyes.

Chariton.

Kainarsky.

Baronowitz, Gostinaya Street, No. 33. Whilst the crowd was breaking the windows, the Assistant Police Officer passed, but took no notice of what was happening. The officer Goresonsky passed afterwards and showed the same indifference. The son of Baronowitz hid himself in the closet; the crowd tore off the roof and killed him. When the father saw that the son was being killed, he wept and begged the murderers to take everything, but to spare his son. The murderers replied: “Be quiet, Jew; we shall soon do the same to you.” Whilst he was endeavouring to save the other children he was dragged back into the yard.

Baronowitz fell on his knees before the officer Solovkin, kissed his hands, and told him that his son had been killed. “Well,” said the officer, “don’t worry; it is all over now in your house, they will harm you no more.”

Drachmann. Gostinaya Street, No. 33.

Skyljanskaya Rogatka. When the Jews went to the police station to ask for help, the inspector replied: “Serves you right, why do you use our blood?”

A little girl of ten years, having begged the officer Osovsky to protect her from the murderers, the officer replied: “Go away, you Jewish brat.”

Kiegelmann, killed; wife died in the hospital. A son and a daughter, 18 years old, defended themselves, when six ruffians seized the girl by the hair, dragged her out into the yard, and attempted to violate her. She fought desperately, defending her honour, her clothes were torn off her body, but at last the ruffians left her. The mother rushed to the daughter’s assistance, but was severely injured.

Weinstein. The wife was ill (she has died since) in bed. The crowd, led by some Government officials, came into the house and beat the husband until he fell down bleeding and motionless. The little children defended the bedridden mother. One little girl, 10 years old, having thrown her arms round her mother, had her arm cut off; another daughter and her intended had their teeth broken, and their lips cut off. The murderers were two peasants whom they knew well, and who used to be on very good terms with the family. They left the house shouting: “Where are Itzko and Israel [two sons], we shall kill them.”

Volowitz. Killed; one daughter dangerously wounded; she begged the murderers to kill her together with her father. A younger daughter rushed into the streets, imploring the military for help, but the officer took no notice of her.

Alexandrovskaya Street, No. 37. Golder hid himself in the cellar, having with him a child 2 years old. There he passed the night. The child, in consequence of the cold, died the next day.

Fishmon, Solomon. The crowd was led by several men, evidently belonging to the better class of society. The wife of F. tried to escape, holding in her arms a child 10 months old, when somebody struck her in the back so violently that she fell, and in her fall smothered the infant with her own body.

Not far away from the scene of the murder, the Superintendent of the Police, the Pristav Solovkin, and the patrol were looking on quietly and unmoved.

A Christian boy of about 15 jumped upon a tram, asking: “Are there no Jews here?” There was only one Jewish woman whose husband had just been killed, and who, tremblingly, managed to hide herself behind her neighbour, a Christian woman. At last the reply was given: “No Jews here.” Then a gentleman, well dressed, having a hat on, and with rings on his fingers, asked the boy: “Well, how goes it?” “Very well,” replied the youth. “By the evening we shall have killed all the Jews.” The gentleman encouragingly patted the boy on the cheek.

The Superintendent of the Police visited the crowd on the first day of Easter, addressed a few words to them, and went away. The crowds shouted: “Hurray, bravo!” and at once began breaking the windows.

Elie Mutshnik and 150 Jews came on the first day of the riots to the Vice-Governor to ask for help. The latter ordered the soldiers to disperse them.

Whilst the crowd of rioters was attacking a family in which there were little children, a lady, passing by, said to her husband, a Government official, that she was sorry for the children. “Never mind,” said her husband, “let them get their reward.” An eyewitness says that the military and the police refused to help the victims, and coolly looked on whilst houses were sacked, and men and women killed.

In Asiatskaya passage (Perenlok) all the houses were destroyed, and many women violated.

Among the rioters were women, girls, students of the seminary, government officials,[9] and some belonging to the better classes.

CHAPTER XII

NOTES AND COMMENTS

Both the Bessarabetz and the Znamya have studiously refrained from alluding to the indignation excited in Western Europe and in the United States over the consequences of their savage appeals to fanatical mobs. No other papers being read in Kishineff by the anti-Jewish section of the populace, these people remain unaffected by this outburst of public reprobation in other countries. They are under the impression that the attack on the hated Hebrews was a good work done for the Tsar, the church, and themselves.

The credulity of the average Russian, in all anti-Hebrew matters, is boundless. A Christian lady in Odessa told me that her servant, a very intelligent-looking young girl, informed her a few evenings after the horrible events at Kishineff, that the Jews of Odessa were planning the murder of all the Christian children in the city. When the girl was asked what information she had of this intended wholesale slaughter, she replied: “I was told so! The Jews will put poisoned chocolate on Christian doorsteps some night, and then, when the children come out for school or play the following morning, they will see the chocolate, eat it, and die. All the Jews in Odessa should be burned out!”

The popes, or Russian priests, are not in any special sense anti-Semitic. Anyhow, they wield little, if any, influence of that or any other kind upon even the simple and superstitious peasantry. The Russian pope is, in fact, a man who has neither social nor political importance of any kind. He is not invited to the houses of the nobility, nor is he looked up to or relied upon by the people. He is a badly educated Mujik, as a rule, and commands neither the confidence of his own class nor the esteem of the ruling order. When he marries, his family ties and domestic interests are believed to be his chief considerations, while the worldly benefits of his clerical position, comparatively small though these may be, are believed to be his primary concern in life. Whatever little distinction belongs to his garb and calling arises entirely from the fact that he is, in reality, a clerical soldier of the Tsar; earning his living as an officer of a religious army, whose head and commander-in-chief is the great Emperor of all the Russians. He is, in another sense, the Tsar’s moral policeman among the Russian people.

The ordinary Russian policeman corresponds in many respects to the average member of the Royal Irish Constabulary. He is a man of the peasantry, of fine physique, and of unbounded self-importance. He lacks, however, the education and superior intelligence of his Irish rural prototype, while his reputation is on a lower moral plane. He is badly officered, as a rule, and this accounts largely for the suspicion which attaches to the performance of his duties in districts where the numerous vexatious restrictions in operation against the “Semitic malady” are so many temptations to the guardian of the law “to wink the other eye” at evasions of legal obstructions made profitable not to see. His pay is small, and this, too, is an explanation of his official dereliction in these matters.

Strenuous efforts have been, and are still being, made to induce a more educated class of Russians to officer the police force of the Empire, but with slow and uncertain results, so far. The nobility look upon the army as the only honourable service open to them, apart from diplomatic and administrative posts. Trade and commerce are, of course, infra dig., and the police is even more so, from the point of view of all sections of the aristocracy, poor and rich, fortunate and the reverse. There is not, strictly speaking, a Russian middle class, but there will soon be an intellectually developed class of men from a corresponding social grade turned out of Russia’s fine colleges and gymnasiums, from whose ranks an educated body of officials will be recruited for this and kindred public employments. Well officered, and better paid than they now are, the Russian police would soon rank in efficiency, as well as in appearance, with the best peace-preserving forces of any country.

A Russian city mob has little or no fear of the police force. Nor do the ordinary military, as a rule, inspire rioters with any sense of serious apprehensions. The explanation is probably due to the immediate kinship of class and feeling between the rough elements of an urban community and the conscript force of which they are a potential part, and (in anti-Semitic outbreaks) to the fact that policeman, soldier, and artisan share a common sentiment of antipathy towards the Jew. It is emphatically otherwise with Cossacks. The mob exhibits no hesitation when confronted with this arm of the military power. It disperses in double-quick time. I was told by one of the foreign Consuls in Odessa that on one occasion, some fifteen years ago, there was a sudden outbreak of mob violence which neither military nor police could, or would, quell. They attacked the houses of some foreign residents, and the Consul was called upon for protection. He went at once to the Governor, and suggested the employment of a dozen Cossacks to clear that part of the city of the disturbers. A troop of these splendid horsemen was turned loose without delay, and the riots were at an end within an hour. Nothing can stop their sweeping charge through a city’s streets. They ride over or through obstacles, human or otherwise, knout in hand, and spare no one who has not already cleared out of their path. As the Consul remarked to me when discussing the action, and inaction, of the military at Kishineff, “A dozen Don Cossacks would have settled the whole business with the rioters on Easter Sunday in half an hour.”

During an attack upon a Jew’s shop in Kishineff, an artillery officer, who was lodging in a Christian house opposite, saw a soldier enter the premises, and join in the looting of the unfortunate Hebrew’s goods. The officer, indignant at the disgraceful act of the soldier, rushed across the street, and seizing the military culprit, tore off his number, with the view of reporting him to the Colonel of his regiment. The mob turned upon the officer, who was compelled to seek shelter in his quarters. The windows were smashed with stones, and he was called upon to return the badge containing the soldier’s number. This he refused to do, and telephoned to the nearest military barracks for assistance. He was ultimately rescued from the mob’s threatening display.

It was difficult to obtain any reliable account of the actual number of persons who were arrested, tried, and punished for the murders and looting on the 19th and 20th of April. M. Polak, the Procurator from Odessa, came to Kishineff to put the law in motion against the rioters. About seven hundred out of the fifteen hundred or two thousand persons implicated were lodged in prison. M. Polak had to rely upon the local authorities to execute the orders of the Government through him. After his return to Odessa no less than five hundred of the prisoners were liberated, following an inquiry before the Juges d’Instruction which was remarkable for the hurried manner in which it was conducted.

Punishment averaging a few months’ imprisonment was meted out to about 150, by the judges of the peace, before whom the cases were sent by the Juges d’Instruction. Some fifty were held on more serious charges, but the results of their trials are not yet made known. They will presumably be tried before the Criminal Court of Assize.

None of the known local instigators of the outbreak were arrested up to the date of my departure from Kishineff.

Some of the rioters protested, on arrest, that they were led to believe that the local authorities had lent their sanction to the massacre and looting, in order to punish the Jews for being the enemies of the Tsar’s Government and the supporters of Socialism.

The Juge d’Instruction, M. Davidovitch, who had to deal with the accused in the first instance, was at one time a contributor to the Bessarabetz—the active agent of the outbreak. I was informed that he had written an article for the paper shortly after the massacres, showing how the Jews were themselves the sole cause of the attack made upon them at Easter.

Two especially revolting outrages, the particulars of which have been published, one, the killing of a woman who was enceinte, and the putting of feathers in her body after disembowelling her; and the murder of a child two months old, were not included in the list of murders which I obtained, and I am not satisfied that these two crimes were actually committed as alleged. The Jewish doctors in the Hebrew Hospital could not confirm the report or particulars of these two cases. In the instance of the infant, they told me that the mother, in defending herself, and subsequently in her flight from the mob, had let the child fall, and that its death really happened in that way.

The foundation for the other and more inhuman story was, I think, this: A Jew named Kainarsky, a dealer in sheep and cattle gut, was attacked, robbed, and murdered in a slaughter-house. The mob cut open his bowels and put feathers inside; prompted, doubtless, to this act of barbarity by the nature of the poor fellow’s calling and business. It was an outrage base and inhuman enough, in all conscience, but not quite so fiendish in character as that of the account which represented a woman with child as the object of this peculiar atrocity.

The man thus murdered is included in the list of victims given to me in Kishineff, while no woman is mentioned as having undergone such mutilation, a circumstance which, it is sincerely to be hoped, disposes of the story as untrue.

“Byei Zhidoff!” the terrible cry which was the signal of slaughter at Easter, means “Kill the Jews!” Zhidoff is a term of Russian contempt for the Jew.

The “Narodovostvo,” or People’s Freedom Party, which is supposed to be a growing movement in Russia, has no branch or supporters in Kishineff, at least I failed to obtain information of its existence. It represents an aspiration rather than an original force. A student who joined the rioters on the first day’s outbreak, with the object of diverting the mob, if possible, from resorting to extreme violence against the Jews, began by raising a cry for constitutional freedom. The crowd did not understand him, whereupon he shouted “Down with the Government at St. Petersburg!” He was instantly knocked down, and would have been killed had the police not interfered on seeing a Russian in danger. He was taken off to prison.

Ten days after the Kishineff massacres there was an attempted Socialist demonstration at Odessa. It was in some way supposed to be a May Day Labour affair, but assumed the form of an Anarchist turnout, of which the police appeared to have had timely intimation. A band of some forty men, workers and prolétaires, attempted to march toward the centre of the city, with a red flag at their head. After proceeding along a small street, and raising a few feeble cries, they were pounced upon by the police and taken to prison. It was found, on examination, that nineteen of the forty were Jews. They were all liberated after a few days’ detention.

One ground of objection to the Zionist movement for the repatriation of the Jews is that the Hebrews, who are not a military people, would be shut off from European help while being at the mercy of Turkish rule and of Arab hostility in Palestine. The implied loss of European protection may be an imaginary risk. The record of the Turks in the matter of modern anti-Semitism compares more than favourably with that of the tender feelings of European Christianity. The Arab is of the same racial family as the descendants of Father Abraham, and even were the offspring of Ishmael more numerous in Palestine than they are estimated to be, they might be trusted to show no more savage propensities towards their Israelitish kindred than Russian Seminarists or Roumanian Christians have done in recent years.

Two or three millions of Jews in Palestine would, however, develop a national sentiment and idea that would soon nourish a spirit of patriotism capable of defending them from possible Arab aggression. The Jews of the world would be their foreign friends and allies, while the civilised nations inhabited by the scattered Hebrews could not in reason neglect to take a sympathetic interest in the protection and welfare of one of the oldest peoples in the world, restored again to the Promised Land of Israel.

Russia’s diplomatic common sense should see in the Zionist movement a noble racial effort, worthy of assistance on its merits, but especially calling for Russian help and encouragement. The creators of the Pale of Settlement, and those responsible for the poverty and suffering which are alone due to this cause, owe some reparation to the people who have been thus treated. No ten million pounds which Russia could spend on her army and navy would render her empire a better or more lasting service than what would follow to her domestic peace if a sum of that amount, or more if necessary, were devoted to the carrying out of the great work of the Zionist leaders. If Russia will only trust and obey her better instincts in adopting a humane policy of this kind, coupled with a stern moral warfare against the propagation of the blood-accusation legend inside the Empire, she will cure the “Semitic malady,” which will otherwise grow to be an increasing and more dangerous evil within her borders.

The Russian Jew as an emigrant to the United States is a subject which will demand serious consideration after public interest in the Kishineff horrors subsides. All who can find means to go will leave Bessarabia, unless the Tsar is inclined, or induced, to speak words which will be an Imperial guarantee against further violence. No such words have yet been uttered. This is much to be regretted by all who believe in the humanity of the Emperor’s personal disposition. It tends to create the possibly erroneous and unjust suspicion that the terror created by the massacres in April is to be used by the Tsar’s advisers “pour encourager les autres,” to lessen the extent of the “Semitic malady” by emigrating from Russia. But, in any case, large numbers of Jews will endeavour to quit the Pale, and their relatives and friends who fled in 1891, and who have prospered in America, may be counted upon to lend assistance to the new aspirants for United States citizenship and protection.

It is the proletarian Jew and the members of the small huckstering class who are the chief undesirables in Russia now. They are three-fourths of the Semitic population of the Pale, and their numbers are increasing.

I saw thousands of these in the cities and towns, from Odessa to Warsaw. They are not a drunken nor an abnormally immoral class. Russian officials have testified to their general good conduct, on the whole; when due allowance is made for the precarious nature of their employments and the poverty of their lives. I observed how uniform were the healthy looks of their children, even amidst some of the most wretched surroundings. This is a good testimony to personal character and civic qualities. In England the children of the lowest classes are neglected and underfed by parents who expend in gin and beer what would provide more nourishment for their offspring. There is no corresponding bad trait in the average proletarian Jew of the Pale.

There are, as a matter of course, traits of low cunning, of shady subterfuge, and of other obnoxious qualities found among a people who have been hunted and ground down for generations. It would amount to a miracle of racial morality if such results did not follow from the treatment and experiences of the Russian Jew. They are also sufferers from the indifferent sanitary system of towns like Kishineff, where there is an abundance of water badly utilised in municipal management for the health and cleanliness of the poorer quarters and suburbs of the city.

Their poverty and persecution, along with the habits peculiar to the lowest grade of Hebrew humanity in Eastern Europe, render them singularly objectionable in appearance; carrying with them, as they do, all the traces of social degradation which cling to a pariah people as a physical certificate of the wrongs and hardships they have had to endure.

No country, be it ever so free, hospitable, or humane, could in reason be expected to open its ports to such a class of emigrant in order to relieve the Russian Government and nation of these wronged and unfortunate undesirables. They must first be improved in the land of their birth by more liberty and better treatment, or be sent for change—for better conditions of industrial life and hopes—to Palestine, where land labour could be provided for them. Transplantation would be an effective remedy, if carried out under careful supervision. The root qualities of the Jew—his intelligence, his faith, his intense ambition to possess money—would, under a more favourable environment, reclaim him from the induced vices which have naturally grown out of the congenial surroundings of poverty, suffering, and injustice. The human being who can succeed in living at all the semblance of a civilised existence, under the depressing conditions obtaining for the Jew within the towns of the Pale, could not fail in winning a better livelihood where rural industries and petit culture, such as the soil and situation of Palestine will encourage, would be open to his intelligence, ambition, and energies. Such a Jew has no hope in Russia. He could not possibly meet a worse fate in Palestine. No other country can be expected to give him the privilege of its citizenship. Therefore, if he is not to be improved off the face of the earth by a corroding poverty, or by periodical outbreaks like that of Kishineff, he should be taken by the Zionist movement to where there are both the promise and inspiration of a new life.

The Polish proletarian Jew has more virility than the Hebrew of the same class within the Pale. He is no more prepossessing in appearance, while it is not wronging him to say that he is less desirable, in some other respects, as a citizen of another country. The Jews are sufficiently numerous in Poland to enlist the co-operation of Socialist revolutionary forces there, and thereby to obtain, by some means, a right to live. They are not so powerless as those within the Pale, and Russia may soon find it a wise and necessary policy to allow them to have a freer access than they now enjoy to the resources of the country, in order to lessen their growing numbers in the ancient capital of the Kingdom of Poland. There are over a quarter of a million of them in Warsaw. They would be a dangerous element there if driven to extremities, or in the event of any complications arising between the Russian Empire and Germany. In any case, the Polish Jew will work out his own destiny. He has lived in Poland for over seven hundred years, and this long experience of varied forms of fortune and of oppression gives him a tenure and a hope which may yet win him back some of the rights and privileges he once enjoyed before he lost the tolerant protection of the Polish people in becoming the agent and tool of the Polish landed aristocracy.

Since the foregoing parts of this book were prepared for the press, it has been announced from Russia that Vice-Governor Ostrogoff has been transferred from Kishineff to Stavropol, in the Caucasus. This action marks the severe condemnation of this official’s conduct by the Russian Government.

The head of the gendarmerie at Kishineff has been retired from service.

It has also been reported from apparently reliable sources that several persons who were at first accused of participation in the massacres, and liberated after a short detention in prison, have been re-arrested, and will be tried in September. It is further stated that there are to be 53 indictments for manslaughter in addition to 34 prisoners already held for trial, while 400 other cases are under investigation.

It has likewise been published in the press that former Governor Von Raaben had asked for, and had been denied, an interview with the Emperor.

According to reports circulated from Vienna on the 10th of July, the special visit paid to Kishineff by the Minister of Justice was responsible for the action of the authorities in re-arresting suspected culprits, and for the intention to prosecute several of the prominent instigators of the riots at Easter who had been arrested or accused for their connection with the massacres up to the date of the author’s departure from Kishineff.

From a similar Vienna source, it has been reported that one of these prominent anti-Semites of Kishineff had committed suicide, as a result of an inquiry instituted into his conduct during the disturbances.

The actual murderers of the Christian boy, Ribalenko of Doubossar, who was declared by the Bessarabetz newspaper to have been killed by the Jews for sacrificial purposes, have been discovered and arrested. He was killed by one Tischtchevko, the caretaker of the orchard in which the body was found. The murderer confesses that the uncle of the boy took part in committing the crime. Both the murderers are Russians and Christians.

The latest published report of the Kishineff Relief Committee gives the following account of the moneys received and how expended by that body:

“To the end of June 735,476 roubles have been received as follows:

RECEIPTS

EXPENDITURES

“The number of families who suffered from the riots is given at about 2750. Applications for relief were received from 2538 families, to the amount of 2,332,890 roubles. The number of persons murdered, or who died of wounds, is put down at 47; severely wounded, 92; slightly wounded, 345. Some of the latter were treated by private doctors. The killed left behind 35 widows and 123 orphans. The number of persons rendered unfit for work has not yet been ascertained, but is so far given as 50. The Committee is of opinion that in order to satisfy all the losses for which only now claims are being made 200,000 roubles will still be required.”