page_title: Sholom Schwartzbard
section_title: The assassination of Petliura
hierarchical_section_title: Sholom Schwartzbard / The assassination of Petliura
caption_attribution_description: English: The Schwartzbard court trial Paris Oct 1927. Sholom Schwartzbard speech in the court. Below him, Henri Torrès, his attorney. Context: Sholom Schwartzbard assassinated Symon Petliura on May 25, 1926. He fully admitted to the crime. The trial turned on accusations of Petlura's responsibility for the 1919–1920 pogroms in Ukraine, during which Schwartzbard had lost all 15 members of his family. Schwartzbard was acquitted. Українська: Судовий процес Самуїла Шварцбарда Париж, жовтень 1927. Шварцбард, виступає у суді, під ним на світлині Анрі Торрес, його захисник. Контекст: Самуїл Шварцбард вбив Симона Петлюру 25 травня 1926 року. Він цілком визнав провину. У судовому процесі захист базувався на відповідальності Петлюри за погроми в Україні 1919-20 рр., в ході яких Шварцбард втратив усіх 15 членів своєї родини. Шварцбард був виправданий.
context_page_description: Samuel Schwarzbard was a Russian-born French Yiddish poet of Jewish descent. He served in the French and Soviet military, was an anarchist, and is known for the assassination of the Ukrainian national leader Symon Petliura. He wrote poetry in Yiddish under the pen name of Baal-Khaloymes.
context_section_description: Symon Petliura, who was head of the Directorate of the Ukrainian National Republic in 1919, had moved to Paris in 1924 and was the head of the government-in-exile of the Ukrainian People's Republic. Sholom Schwartzbard, who had lost his family in the 1919 pogroms, held Symon Petliura responsible for them (see the discussion on Petliura's role in the pogroms). According to his autobiography, after hearing the news that Petliura had relocated to Paris, Schwartzbard became distraught and started plotting Petliura's assassination. A picture of Petliura with Józef Piłsudski published in the Encyclopedia Larousse allowed Schwartzbard to recognize him.
  On May 25, 1926, at 14:12, by the Gibert bookstore, he approached Petliura, who was walking on Rue Racine near Boulevard Saint-Michel of the Latin Quarter, Paris, and asked him in Ukrainian, "Are you Mr. Petliura?" Petliura did not answer but raised his cane. Schwartzbard pulled out a gun shooting him five times and, after Petliura fell to the pavement, twice more. When the police came and asked if he had done the deed, he reportedly said, "I have killed a great assassin." Other sources state that he attempted to fire an eighth shot into Petliura, but his firearm jammed.
caption: Sholom Schwartzbard speech in the court. Below him, Henri Torres, his attorney. Oct 1927
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