The Denver Jewish news., 1920-03-24
American Girl Describes b.
dapest Poerom
Continued on Page Two.

III NNoAlluuCu oh oSS WY
they were also leaders in the anti-BOl-
shevist movement. The reaction came
upon the fall Of the Bella Kun govern
ment in late July, and the stored up
hatred of people who had been OPP
pressed was poured forth upon all the
Jews, Bolshevists and antiBolshevists,
guilty and not guilty alike"
Il remember" Miss Gonda told me ::
that piacards appeared along all the
principal streets of Budapest. There
was an edict prohibiting such placards.
and consequently no one knew. or
rather all pretended not to know.
! whence they came. OF course, the
pictures and the wording varied. but /
remember quite distinctly one poster.
1t depicted the Bolshevist in the garb
of hte Polish-Jew, with gabardine and
long side curls, a gigantic red figure,
who held a dripping weapon in one
hand, whose body was drenched with
blood, standing astride over the bodies
I of his victims. and underneath the cap
4 ton read: 'This is how the Jews
will treat their victims. Rise all you
Christian brothers-Defend your-
selves" Every few days the placards
changed, but the purpOrt of all of them
was similar.
| ,b,Antiisemites- Christian. socialists
they call themselves-held inflamma-
tory public meetings until they were
forbidden by the police, and then the
meetings were held in secret. Under
Bolshevism the synagogs had remained
open. However, the Christian social
lists and their sympathizers raided
synagog after synagog and beat out the
worshippers. Then the synagogs were
closed.
1T was during the first few days
of the Roumanian occupation, about
the :Ird of August, that the big po-
grom took place I was going home
from my office when l saw u mob
advancing with clubs and guns. The
young boys and men of tn clover strata
of the population. of the type that we
in America would call ''gangstcrs."
They were led by former police guards
those same police who had once
sworn revenge against Bella Kun.
saw them stop street cars and go
thru the cars dragging out men and
boys. Everyone whose appearance was
| lpxyich 1rnu tl,., n
was beaten with the butts of revolvers
and with clubs. Several tried to run
away and they were shot as they ran
The rioters asked no questions. If a
1t is an interesting fact that of the
victims who were taken TO the hos
pitfalls, ninety percent were not Jews.
The rioters stopped car after car and
went thru the same program The
ieoumanian police guards stood all
around the square and looked on. The!
said that they could not interfere in
the internal affnirs Of Hungary. The
rioters then ran thru the streets froIn
house to house, inquiring at each build
ing whether Jews lived there. They
shot and plundercd everywhere they
found jew"
| Miss Gonda is not Jewish type"
She was known as the American" and
consequently was not suspected durin.
this time
| Il do not know how many people
were put to DEATH" she said. The
figures were ever compueted, because
the government made every effort to
hush the affair up. The papers print
ed no account of it, and altho the
death lists ran into the hundreds. no
one accurately knows the total. Suf-
flee it to say, however that gov.
eminent order was issued shortly after
wards and the pogronis ceased. Riot
ing continued for many days between
\ Jewish and non-Jewish students at the
! universities. budapest is not the only
place where the reaction against Bol-
shevism fell upon the heads of the
! Jews"
Miss Gonda also related that nfter
Bella Kun had withdrawn from Czecho-
slovukia, Czech soldiers turned loose
their wrath upon the Jews. In the city
ff Eosire snIdiere fpre,ad Jip,s tl,,-,