The Denver Jewish news. [volume] (Denver, Colo.) 1915-1925, 1919-10-01
By HERMAN BERNSTEIN.

Were there any pogroms in Poland OF
were the stories of pogrons invented and
circulated by Jews and German propa-
Eandists? Have the Jews exaggerated the
atrocities In order to influence the peace
conference to protect the rights of minor
tiles in the newly liberated countries?
Have the Polish leaders and press agents
told the truth when they described the
anti-Jewish atrocities in Poland as mere
conflicts between Poles and Bolsheviki-
when they denied the wilma. Ida. Pinsk
and Chestochow outrages? Is Polish
Jewry being pogrommed or is the Polish
state being sIandered malicously by the
Jews? Is 1t all an international Jewish
plot or a deep laid German scheme 20
disgrace and discredit the new born free
dom of Poland? Or is Poland repeating
the horrors perpetrated by old Tsaristic
Russia? Have innocent Jews been muir
dered merely because they were Jews N
Poland after her liberation by the allied
Powers?
Many people have asked these questions
and are eager to know the answers. Many
persons who did not know Poland ana
some of her present day leaders were
amazed at the stories of atrocities attrih-
cred Poland. Many people could not be-
lieve that a nation which had striven 20
long to regain Its Independence and which
had suffered under the Jokes of Russia
barbarism Immediately after 1t had been
set free.
In Poland to Learn Truth.
I went to Poland to find an answer to
some of these questions. to ascertain the
truth, to investigate carefully the occur
rences which aroused public opinion in
America and England. ar
To me Polish anti-Semitsm was not n
new phenomenon. I remembered how the
Russian autocracy. which oppressed both
the Jews and the Poles, encouraged and
intensified the strife of one oppressed ma
tionality against the other in order to
divert attention from the crimes COM
mitted by the government against all the
people. I knew that Poland learned her
lesson wei, fro:sl Russian uutecracy, that
during the last ten Years the Poles carried
out a systematic and cruel anti-Jewish
policy which assumed the form of ar
economic boycott. that anti-Jewisli hatred
was preached in Poland by the press.
knew that some ten years ago. when the
Constitutional Democratic party. headed
by Paul Milukov. introduced = bill in the
Russian Duma to secure equal rights for
the Jews of Russia, the Polish members OF
the Duma, the Polish lSclo. headed by
the same Mr.. Dinowskl who .rnw repre-
eents Poland at the peace conference.
voted agninst the granting of equal rights
10 the Jews. That bill was interdcd for
Russia, not Poland, at . time when the
Poles themselves were oppressed: never
theless, they expressed their opposition to
the abolition of the restrictions under
which another oppressed nationality was
suffering.
/ also remembered that during the first
two years of the war the Poles were In
large measure responsible for the cruel
Ties imposed upon the Russian Jews by the
Russia, government. To divert attention
from their own strange conduct during
the early part of the war. the Poles in
vented some of the most Fantastic stories
about Jewish treachery and espionage. AS
a result Of these legends hundreds of
ehousauds of Jews were driven from their
homes Jewish communities We're up
rooted. many Jews were branded as spies
and traitors and wero put to death and
many died of hunger and cold. To me