Ex-Deputy Dr. Wygodski, the President of the Vilna Jewish Community, has an article in the Warsaw “Najer Hajnt”, which has just arrived here, describing the occurrences in Vilna and the unresponsive attitude of the authorities and the police, who made no attempt, he claims, to put down the anti-Jewish outbreaks.
It was clear at the very beginning, he says, that the Vilna police were not concerned to prevent the trouble. All that the police did was to act as an escort for the National Democratic student mob, except when they came upon a group of Jewish students, no matter how small, when they immediately adopted a truculent attitude and dispersed them with blows. The police made no effort to prevent the anti-Jewish manifestations, and when thousands of National Democratic students went out to start the pogrom upon the Jewish population the police went with them as a kind of bodyguard to prevent interference.
A friend of mine, an engineer, Dr. Wygodski writes, asked a policeman who was looking on while some National Democratic students were beating Jewish students belonging to both sexes, why he did not drive off the assailants. What does it matter to me? the policeman replied.
But the clearest insight into the behaviour of the police was afforded to me when I happened to be in the Club of the Jewish Students’ Union on the Tuesday, when the National Democratic students tried to break their way inside, Dr. Wygodski writes. We had information that, notwithstanding the assurances given us by the District Commissioner, we could expect another attack on the Jewish Students’ Club, so I stopped there to discuss with the students how to act if the attack came. It was like a beehive. One could smell powder in the air. We shall not attack anyone, but if we are attacked we shall defend ourselves, the Jewish students were saying. We shall not permit ourselves to be driven out of the University. We shall not allow Jews to be beaten. Engineer Spiro, who was with me, and I told them that they must stand firm, but that they must act coolly and not lose their heads. Very soon we heard shouting outside. The hooligans had come. All the Jewish students went down to the entrance, through which the National Democratic students were trying to break into the building. There was a mob of over a thousand people, mostly National Democratic students, with an escort of police. Stones started flying through the windows which were shut. Less than a minute had passed when police armed with rifles and rubber cudgels came rushing into the Jewish Students’ Club and started pushing the Jewish students out into the street, right into the arms of the National Democrats. The Jewish students were between two fires, the National Democratic students in front, and the police behind. Naturally, they were panic-stricken, and something terrible might have happened, if some of the police had not broken into the room where Engineer Spiro and I were sitting at the telephone. As soon as they saw us, they seemed to realise that their plan had failed. They began to whisper among themselves, and they were soon gone. The National Democratic students, too, disappeared. No comments are necessary.
About an hour later, I was talking over the occurrences with the Vilna District Commissioner, who had asked me to come over to see him, and he gave me a 100 per cent. pledge of security if I would exert my influence on the Jewish youth, the Jewish press and the Jewish population as a whole, that they should keep order. I promised to do that. An hour-and-a-half later there was a pogrom in the centre of the town, in the Zawalna Street, and the police arrived half-an-hour “late”.
It must be admitted, Dr. Wygodski adds, that the District Commissioner, and the Vilna Police Commandant as well, who had failed to do their duty, have been suspended from their posts by the higher authorities.
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.
