The Denver Jewish news., 1920-02-04
Commission
Makes its Report
Continued from Page one.)


world-stimulated tendency. toward ma
tional self-determination, accentuated-
the feeling between Jewish and nom
Jewish elements. The chauvinistic re-
action created by the sudden acquisl-
ton of long coveted freedom ripen-
ed the public mind for anti-Semitic
or anti-alien sentiment, which was
strongly agitated by the press and by
politicians This finally encouraged
physical manifestations or violent out
groupings of an unbalanced social con-
dition.
when i'm November, 1918, the Aus
trian and German armies Uf occupation
left Poland there was no firm govern
ment until the arrival of General Pill
sudski, who had escaped from a Ger
man prison, and it was during this Pc
riod, before the Polish Republic came
into being, that the first Of the exces-
IS applied to everything from
petty Outrages to premenlitated
and carefully organized massacres. No
fixed definition is generally under
stood. There were eight principal ex-
cesses.''
These excesses were then described
l,y Mr.. lMorgentleaMa Gin chronological
order viz. Kielce. NOvemDer II, 1918;
Lemberg. November, 21-23, 1918;
Pinsk, April 3. 1919; Ida. April IL,
1919; Wilma. April 1921. 1919; KOl
bussowa, May I. 1919; Czestoehowa.
May %, 1919; Minsk, August s, 1919.
The most serious occurred at Lem
berg, Pinsk and wilma. In the former
town on November II. 1918, the re-
port says that general rioting and dis
order took place following the collapse
of the Austrian Empire and was ag
gravated by the presence in the city
of some 15.OOO uniformed deserters.
and numerous criminals released by
4 the Ukranians from tine local jails.
During these disorders thirty-eight
houses were burned, the synagog was
destroyed and sixty-four Jews were
killed.
The outbreak at Pinsk occurred OH
April ), 1919, when band of Polish
Soldiers, with the official permission
of the town commander, Major LusZyn-
sky, arrested seventy-flve jews of both
sexes on the ground that they were
conducting Bolshevist melting. Thir-
| ,y-five of the prisoners. the report
| sI,
ton and no trial whatever
The report continues:
Just as the Jews would resent be-
ing condemned rs race for the action
Of few of their undesirable core
ligionists. SO it would De, correspond
ingly unfair to condemn the Polish ma
tion as whole for the violence com
nitted by uncontrolled troops or local
ly not premeditated. for if they had
been part of the preconceivcd plan. the
number of killed would have run in
to the thousands instead of amounting
to about 2SO. 1t is believed that these
cNcesses were the result of an wide
spread and-Semitic prejudice ag-
cravated by the belief that the Jew
ish inhabitants were politically hostile
to the Polish State.
Besides these excesses there have
been reported to the mission numerous
eases of other forms of prosecutions
Thus. in almost every one of the cities
and towns of Poland, Jews have been
stopped by the soldiers aid have had
their boards either torn ont or cut off.
As the Orthodox Jews feel that the
shaving of their boards is contrary to
their religious belief, TINS form of per-
secution has particular significance
TO them. As result many of them
are afraid to travel The result of
all these minor prosecutions is to keep
the Jewish population in state of
ferment and to subject them to the /.
fear that graver cxcesses may again /.
occur.
Whereas it has been easy to deter |
mine the excesses which took place and |
to fix the approximate number of .
deaths, it was more difficult to estab-
lish the extent of anti-Jewish discrimi-
nation. This discrimination finds its