Family Stories and Memoirs

Elias HEIFETZ: Beating the Jews in the Ukraine in 1919
(Heb., Ukrain. Committee of the Red Cross) (New York, 1921)
Translation and notes by Alexander Kopelberg (Israel, 2010)
Adjustment and adaptation of Evgeniya Scheinman (U.S., 2010)

Town of Emilchino (Volyn province)
Petlyura Pogrom April 10, 1919

Testimony of Vera daughter of Boris Rozenshtejn.

Town of Emilchino, Novograd-Volyn district, located 15 miles from the station Jablonec, Korosten Shepetivsky-Podolsk branch railway. The population was 4 to 5 thousand, of which 2 to 2.5 thousand were Jews.
Before the war, the settlement and its surroundings were home to many German colonists. When the war began, they moved to the eastern province. Some of them returned in 1918.
Relations between Jews and Christians have long been good, there was no tension. The Jewish population is very backward economically, politically, it was, especially young people, steeped in the spirit of Zionism and Jewry.
The Christian population was fairly prosperous, and always treated with great friendliness towards the Jews. On April 9, at midnight, in the town appeared detachment of cavalry in Petlurites 500-600 as they travelled from Olevsk in Novograd Volyn. First, they defeated the Jewish "night patrol". The Jewish "patrol" was common in this part of Ukraine. The absence of a strong and stable government and the emergence, after this, of internal strife, forced the Jewish population to engage in self-defense.
From the beginning, this guard was not armed force in accordance with the wishes of the Jewish population, and as such it remained throughout their history. In addition to the Jewish patrol, there was an armed guard of 10 "mercenaries" (as they are called in the village), which consisted exclusively of Russian, as well as militia, which numbered 15 people.
All the Jewish inhabitants of the town quickly learned the arrival of the [horse] detachment and worried. In spite of the night, they poured into the streets and decided to send to the commander of the detachment a delegation of the most authoritative representatives of the Jewish people headed by SHNAYDERMAN, who owned a clothing store. When they asked the commander about the detachment, he replied that they were traveling from Olevsk in Novograd Volynynskij. He asked for a bed and food for the group. The Jews provided food for the immediately began collecting food for the group.
But suddenly, about an hour after midnight a few soldiers from the detachment passed by the Jews and cried out: "Hey, Jews go immediately to your home or we will start to shoot!" This threatening warning, as well as a few more such threats, followed shortly and were no less formidable.  The Jews observed the full extent of the squad’s unfriendliness. They immediately began to hide, and sent the girls to primary school, under the protection of teachers and local judge. Others hid and some stayed at home.
In the house where the ROZENSHTEJN family rented an apartment, were housed two people of the detachment, who called themselves the "commanders". Rosenstein initially thought that the danger had passed because the "commanders" said they will not cause damage to the house. The family decided to stay. Suddenly, the house owner's son came running and said that "commanders", which had apartments in their house, boasted about participation in the Jewish pogrom. Then shots rang out and screams were heard. By morning it became clear that the soldiers fired into the air, burst into the house and demanded money. It forced the ROZENSHTEJN family to escape from the house to hide somewhere. So they ran to a neighbor, a German-sausage maker. He led them to the dwelling of a locksmith, a Pole, which was more like a barn than a house. Ms. ROZENSHTEJN herself fled to her aunt, but by morning found that soldiers were particularly interested in young girls. She came running back to be with her sister, who remained in the house of a mechanic, a Pole. But it was too crowded, so they went to the Polish-German butcher.
In the morning, along with a huge crowd of peasants from neighboring villages, basically, "Katsap" (native Russians) soldiers ( 1 ) from the village Nitino ( 2 ) (eight miles from Emilchino ), along with the peasants, began to break into the stores and took out everything that was there.   By 2 p.m. a Jew was killed, the first victim of a pogrom in Emilchino. he was Haykel BRAUCMAN, 50 years old, who ran from the house to save his hardware store. By two o'clock, of 100 stores, more than half were looted. The soldiers began to walk from house to house, accompanied by groups of alien peasants. Local farmers took part in the robbery only to a lesser extent. This went on all day. By night the excitement became especially strong. Rumors echoed that the soldiers had promised to kill all the people at night.
By morning April 11 squad left the village in the direction of Novograd Volhynskij. The Jews thought that everything was over and started to return to their abandoned homes. But suddenly a squad reappeared. Later said that that night, after much drinking, the soldiers began to quarrel, and one was wounded. The soldiers went away to a distance of eight miles and reached the village Serby ( 3 ), they turned back and entered the town to complete the devastation it. Peasants accompanied them on this day.
Shops that have not been robbed before were set on fire.In front of the stores the soldiers set up machine guns and the soldiers threatened to shoot anyone who tries to extinguish the fire. Since the burning shops were located next to the church and the fire threatened to spread to it, the priest came to the crowd with a cross in his hands and turned to her with these words: "I'm not defending the Jews and their property, but you have shed enough blood, and enough looted, in addition, remember that now may be affected even the church. "
The speech had an effect, no more fires started, but looting continued in the homes.
In the morning a detachment left the town, leaving it completely plundered and destroyed. In the two days pogrom 11 people were killed and 18 shops were burnt, plundering more than 300,000 rubles banknotes and 21 to 23 million rubles in goods and privately owned (by rough estimate).

1 "Katsap" - in the Ukraine so-called Russian by nationality

2 "The Village Nitiya" - the correct name of the village, Nitin, the main population of Russian Old Believers.

3 "Village Sereb" the correct name of the village of Serbs.