The anti-Jewish student excesses which started at Lemberg University, shifted to Cracow and then to Warsaw, where they are still in progress, are now at their height at Vilna University, where they have already resulted in the first death of this series of outbreaks. The victim is a Christian student, Stanislav Waclawski, who got his head broken by a stone in the fighting and died soon after he was admitted to the hospital. Sixteen Jewish students have been injured and one of them is in a serious condition.
The trouble started this morning, when Jewish students arriving at the University found big bodies of National Democratic students barring the entrances and refusing to allow them to enter, the Polish Telegraphic Agency, the official news agency of the Polish Government, states. The Rector of the University had anticipated some trouble, and had issued an order forbidding any disturbances, but the National Democrats took no notice of his order. Some fighting took place between the two sides, but it was soon suppressed by the authorities. Shortly after, there was a new clash at the Anatomical Institute, in which the dead student, Stanislav Waclawski, received his injury.
The news of his death spread rapidly and had a sobering effect on the students, who formed up at about four o’clock in the afternoon and marched quietly in procession to the hospital mortuary, where the body had been placed. Although the students caused no trouble, says an official statement issued in connection with the occurrences, the mob which followed their procession, however, smashed windows in Jewish houses and shops in the Zawalna Street. The police promptly intervened and soon restored order.
Nevertheless, the J.T.A. was informed on making a long-distance telephone enquiry in Vilna, there was a panic in the Jewish quarter in the evening. Jewish shops in the Zawalna, Niemiecka and Troker streets were hastily closed after several windows had been smashed, but the night passed without incident.
The University itself has been closed down.
The “Gazeta Warszawska”, the official organ of the National Democratic Party issued a special edition containing a report from Vilna which alleged that the Jews had killed two Christian students, and called on its readers to take revenge on the Jews.
The authorities immediately had the issue confiscated.
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.
