(Jewish Telegraphic Agency)
The authentic life story of Sholom Schwartzbard, who killed Petlura, was released by Henri Torres, Schwartzbard’s counsel, to the correspondent of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency here.
Torres denied the report circulated that Schwartzbard’s father was killed in the pogroms. According to Torres’ data, Schwartzbard was born in Smolensk on September 30, 1888. He lost his mother when he was nine years old and when he was ten he started to work to help his father. At the age of 17 he was arrested for participating in revolutionary activities. Schwartzbard never read Karl Marx’s “Capital” or other socialistic literature, but he was inspired by reading Isaiah and Amos. In 1910 Schwartzbard came to Paris. With his two brothers, he joined the French army as soon as war was declared. Schwartzbard was wounded three times and was awarded the Croix de Guerre.
When, in 1915, a Russian colonel proposed that the Russian volunteers in the French army return to enlist in Russia, Schwartzbard replied, “The ungrateful fatherland will not have my bones.” In 1917, following the outbreak of the Russian revolution, Schwartzbard volunteered for the French Mission to Russia and proceeded to Baita to see his father. When the pogroms started, Schwartzbard joined the Jewish Self-Defense Corps. In the meantime, his father had died. His uncle, Israel Schwartzbard, owner of a large steam flour mill, was killed in the pogrom in Baloskow, District of Podol, on Passover in 1919, when he was leaving the synagogue, carrying his tallis.
His uncle’s family was killed in Krivoye Ozero. Another uncle, his mother’s brother Weinberg, was killed in Balta in 1919 along with his entire family, the women of the family being violated before being put to death.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
