Public prosecutor Ratkiewicz in District Court today charged Jews were responsible for the disorders in Przytyk on March 9 in which two Jews and a Gentile were killed and scores of Jews injured.
Summing up in the trial of 43 Poles and 14 Jews on charge arising from the disturbances, he declared that the outbreak resulted from the activities of a Jewish self-defence group.
While admitting that the Jews had been terrorized for months before the disorders, he asserted that the rioting occurred when Lazar Feldberg, a Jew, went out into the street with an axe, with other Jews following and beating up peasants.
The peasants retaliated, he stated, but Sholem Lesko, one of the Jewish defendants, killed M. Wiesniak, the Christian victim, “driven by feelings of revenge like the rest of his co-religionists.”
The anti-Semitic Nationalist advocate, Niebeski, demanded that the Jews be driven out of the towns.
A verdict is expected next week.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
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.
