The Pogroms in Ukraine, 1918-19: Prelude to the Holocaust by Maurice Wolfthal;

Author:Maurice Wolfthal;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Jewish people;pogroms;Ukraine;Jewish communities;Volunteer Army;Russian White Army;Nokhem Schtif;Yiddish linguist;Yiddish
Publisher: Open Book Publishers
Published: 2019-03-19T16:00:00+00:00

The Officers

Let us note here another aspect of the Volunteer Army pogroms. On October 17–20, during the mass pogrom in Kiev, you could observe in Jewish homes the refined manners of uninvited guests who had been “well-educated,” who spoke French, and even many musicians. These were officers of the Volunteer Army who had been members of the [Russian Imperial] Leib-Guard Preobrazhenska and Semyonov divisions and other regiments. They showed no “coarseness.” In a firm, and in a manner-of-fact tone, they extorted money, jewelry, and gold. Sometimes one would politely request a handkerchief of fine cloth, saying he would return it clean. Not all the officers were so “refined,” those commanders of the Ossetians, the Chechens, and other Caucasus tribes.

But when it came to committing pogroms, they were not inferior to their highborn comrades. On the contrary. As a general rule, the officers supported the troops under them, either openly or secretly. In Pryluk an officer of the Semyonov regiment saw a soldier in torn boots, and he said to him: “Why don’t you go up to the first Jew and take his boots?” In Bila-Tserkava officer Yakovlev of the Second Terek Plastun Brigade30 asked his commander, Colonel Shchepetilnikov, for clothes to dress in, and the reply was: “Rob a Jew. Nothing will happen.” We have reports of officers plundering in Bogodukhov, Borzna, Boryspil, Horodyshche (Lieutenant Captain Svetsky and Ensign Kalgushkin); in Dymer (Lieutenant Colonel Beznebov), in Korsun, Kremenchug, Niezhyn, Pryluk, Fastiv, Cherkasy, Tomashpil, Yampol, Kurilovtsy, Tetiiv (Prince Golitsyn and Prince Lvov), and others.

In some places the officers initiated the pogroms: Boyarka, Rossovo, Krivoye-Ozero (Officer Mlashevsky), Mohilev-Podolsk (Colonel Mizernitsky), Miaskova, and others. Dr. S.,31 on behalf of Dr. B., reports on pogroms led by officers in Bila-Tserkava: Ensign Kuzmichov recounts that Colonel Shchefetilnikov and other officers described how he had tortured a ten-year-old girl. He also told how his soldiers had raped women every day, and this account was gotten accurately straight from the Colonel.

Centurion Zhivodyarov, who has a lot of Jewish suffering on his conscience, stole a cow from a Jew and sold it for 22,000 “Nikolayev” rubles. Cavalry Capt. Kundo loaded onto his wagon six fox pelts, a gold watch, and other things that he had plundered from Jews. Capt. Podshivalov (of the 4th Company) took a piano in his wagon. Ensign Inzhuarov made it a specialty to rob doctors. He bragged to the above-mentioned Dr. B that he had made 400,000 rubles just from the dental instruments that he had plundered. Cornet Bandarenko would ride into town dressed as a civilian to facilitate his robberies. He told Dr. B. that wounded Jews should be killed, not treated. There were cases of plundering by officers whose cynicism was really unbelievable. In Cherkasy an officer of the Volunteer Army was quartered at the home of Israel Halpern. He was friendly to the family and would often eat with them. But as the Volunteer Army was retreating from Cherkasy, the very same officer plundered them completely, gun in hand. In Kremenchug a colonel even dragged away his host’s furniture.

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