The Jewish population of East Galicia in Poland is being terrorized by their Ukrainian neighbors in a manner that is reminiscent of the pogrom period of Bogdan Chmelnitzki, a special correspondent of the London Jewihs Chronicle reported. There are 586,000 Jews in East Galicia and 76,000 of them reside in villages. They have been engaged in agriculture since the seventeenth century. Many combine farming and shopkeeping.
These Jewish farmers are now the target of a most violent hatred and outrages, while the Polish authorities do nothing to prevent further attacks, the correspondent stated. Jewish houses are often set on fire while Ukrainian neighbors stand by and jeer at the Jewish efforts to extinguish the blazes. Sometimes Jewish houses are set on fire with the doors bolted from the outside and all those in the houses perish, the Chronicle correspondent reported.
In the districts of Lemberg. Stanislawow and Tarnapol, hardly a Jewish house is left standing where the windows were not broken by bands of organized hooligans, who make this act the first warning for the Jews to leave their farms. When the warning is not heeded, incendiary bullets, which cause fires, are shot into the houses and cause the death of the Jewish families.
Jewish shopkeepers in East Galcia are being strictly boycotted from the priests down to the peasants, while Ukranian guards prevent peasants from entering the Jewish shops. The peasants who do not heed the boycott are severely beaten, and unripe corn on their field cut; trees are uprooted, wells poisoned, and cattle maimed.
Although the Ukrainians are themselves a minority, they are making the Jews a scapegoat in their fight against the Polish regime, the Chronicle correspondent declare pointing out to the Ukrainians that the Jews were their most generous supporters after the war. He concludes by asking the Ukrainians this is the gratitude they show for the generous Jewish support.
Bogdan Chmelnitziki is the Co-sack chieftain who in 1675 pilla? and ravaged the Jewish settlement in the Ukraine.
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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.
