PART II
CHAPTER SEVEN
1917–1918
It started with the violent destruction of noble estates across Russia by peasant mobs.
Rebecca and Isaac feared that the pattern of violence sweeping the country would soon be redirected toward the Jews. They saw with their own eyes the vicious attack against Count Branicki’s palace and the torching of his botanical gardens in Stavishche.
Russia and Ukraine had a long tradition of anti-Semitism, and Jews were a popular scapegoat for the oppressed peasants. Following the tsar’s murder, when nationalists fought the Bolshevik armies in 1918–1921, they ensured the support of the uneducated Ukrainian peasant population by associating the Jews as Bolsheviks, stirring up anti-Semitism. Pogroms against Jews, whose beliefs, dress, language, holidays, and traditions set them apart from the rest of the country, were now an incentive for the nationalist troops to fight against the Reds.
The Jews of Stavishche were not spared from anti-Semitic outbreaks and pogroms. On October 17, 1917, Stavishche’s spiritual leader, Yitzhak Avraham Gaisinsky (Haissinsky in Yiddish),I affectionately known to all as Rabbi Pitsie Avram, received troubling news. The local Jewish Communal Council was preparing to send an urgent telegram to the Jewish National Secretariat in regard to not only a pogrom in Stavishche, but also of twelve others in nearby villages that were committed simultaneously earlier that day by peasants.II The pogrom in Stavishche appears to be one of the earliest on record there during this time period, but it was only the beginning of many.
Less than a year later, in August 1918, Khlavna Kohen (Kagan), a Jewish former member of the Stavishche Town Authority, presented a document to the rabbi detailing another raid by the Bolshevik leader, Gribenko. Gribenko led a few thousand peasants in a pogrom against the Jews, whom they accused of bringing in the Germans. Before taking over Stavishche, Gribenko and his followers began a killing spree in nearby villages, leaving a trail of over one hundred Jewish corpses.
All too aware of the volatile situation in Stavishche, as well as in its neighboring villages, Rabbi Pitsie Avram decided it was time to take action. After witnessing continuous carnage in his beloved town, Pitsie Avram sat by his desk near a kerosene lamp with a pen in hand. He composed, with great forethought, the following letter of alarmIII to the chief rabbi of Kiev, Rabbi Shelomoh Aharonson.IV In 1911–1913, Rabbi Aharonson had played an active role in successfully defending Menahem Mendel Beilis, a Jewish brick factory supervisor who was tried and acquitted in the notorious blood libel trial in Kiev that made headlines worldwide. The Stavishche rabbi pleaded for help.
LETTER OF ALARM TO THE RABBI OF KIEV
WRITTEN BY YITZHAK AVRAHAM GAISINSKY, RABBI OF STAVISHCHE
Stavishche, 5 Elul, 5678 (August 13, 1918)
To His Honor, the Honored and Learned Rabbi of the Congregation of Kiev and Environs, Rabbi Shelomoh Aharonson, the Priest of God On High Peace!
We, the representatives of the Jews in Stavishche, pour forth our plea to you, our rabbi, to stand by us in this hour of mortal danger, which is over us, for of the ten measures of suffering which have been afflicted on the Jews of (the) Ukraine in this time of emergency, nine measures have come upon us.
Our isolated town, fifty viorst [a Russian measure of distance equal to about 3,500 feet, a kilometer, or .662 mile] from the railroad, is in the center of the land where the partisan uprising is happening. About six weeks ago our town was filled with the sound of army boots of the partisans, with Gribenko at their head. They declared a draft of all men aged eighteen to forty. Afterwards they lay a fine upon our town of 15,000 rubles. They were given all the money and they nullified the draft order. They confiscated much merchandise for which they sometimes paid a small sum. There is almost no shop which has not suffered from this confiscation.
In the early period the partisans seemed to be satisfied with taking money and merchandise and did not cause violence and the spilling of blood, because there was a certain amount of discipline imposed by their leaders, to whom we could turn for protection. However, now the situation has completely changed. Two weeks ago, a group of Germans came to town and the partisans left. On the second day a battle began between the two camps. It started outside of Stavishche but little by little the partisans were forced to retreat into the town and the narrow streets became killing fields. For seven hours without cease there was thunder of rifles and grenades and a rain of fire on the town. Of the Jews there were four dead and many wounded because the bullets of death penetrated the walls into the houses. But our most terrible sufferings began after the battle.
The leaders and some of the partisans retreated and left our area and found refuge on the other side of the Dnieper. However, a large portion of them, peasants from the area, returned to their homes, hid their arms, and posed as peasants going about their work. The Germans could not find them, because their families would not give them up. The Germans stayed in town five days and as soon as they left, the partisans removed their disguises, took up their arms, and became rulers. Since they had no leaders, they were simply a band of robbers and murderers. They would gather into bands of ten or more men, lay ambushes on the roads and kill all the Jews passing by, after taking everything they had. Every day one or two dead Jews are brought into town. No one dares to leave for fear of these bandits.
The sources of income have stopped, and the lives of the residents hang by a thread. The bandits are not satisfied with ambush only, but invade the town, band by band, armed with swords, rifles, and grenades; they attack houses and rob them, enter the stores and take merchandise, then require tribute from the town.
For example, on Sunday, this week, a band of eleven bandits came into town, armed with grenades, and demanded a tribute of 25,000 rubles. After much begging by the rabbi, in tears, they lowered the sum to 15,000 rubles. They gave us one hour to collect the money. Now there is a rumor that they are planning to set fire to the whole town, after they have plundered it. Our small community is in the midst of tens of villages filled with murderers and robbers, armed to the teeth. We are like a lamb ringed by seventy wolves. We are poor and without weapons to defend ourselves. Have mercy, Rabbi, on our unfortunate community, and send us assistance in our time of trouble. Let the authorities know that they must send us a defense force immediately, for death awaits us and our wives and children, horrible death by sword and fire.
We have been informed that a German unit is approaching but will be here only a few days, and afterwards the bandits will again wreak havoc upon us. We ask and plead in the name of one thousand Jewish families for help. Please send us a permanent defense force so that the Germans will not just come in and out for they do nothing to prevent the violence and the robbery.
So says the member of the Judicial Authority [signature]
So says Yitzhak Avraham Gaisinsky, Rabbi of Stavishche [signature]
P.S. Since the letter has been delayed until today, the tenth of Elul [August 18], more dead bodies have been gathered that were found on the roads. Yesterday they found nine dead Jews, five men and four women, near the village Zshidivsko Grebli. In another place there were dead Gentiles. Even though the Germans are in town and protect it against attack, the roads are still dangerous.
Received: August 23, 1918
There are no known surviving documents confirming whether Rabbi Pitsie Avram’s plea for help was ever answered. Four days after the rabbi drafted the letter, a battle transpired between the peasants and the Germans, who eventually drove Gribenko out of Stavishche. While retreating, the peasants killed six Jews in town. The pogrom attacks targeting the Jews of Stavishche continued on a steady basis between the years 1918 and 1921.
1. I. After the deaths of his father, Rabbi Israel Gaisinsky, and of Isaac Caprove’s grandfather, Rabbi Meir Caprove, the Jews of Stavishche looked to Rabbi Yitzhak Avraham Gaisinsky for leadership.
2. II. According to the Committee of Jewish Delegations, this widespread violence in the region included a bloody riot that exploded at a fair eighty-five miles away in Pogrebishtche.
3. III. The letter appeared in Hebrew in the Stavishche Yizkor Book. It was translated from Hebrew to English by Dr. Ida Selevan Schwarcz. English translation courtesy of Dr. Robert Barnes. The Stavishche Yizkor Book credits YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, New York, for their documents. (See Notes.)
4. IV. Rabbi Shelomoh Aharonson, the intended recipient of Rabbi Pitsie Avram’s letter of alarm, served as the chief rabbi of Kiev from 1906 to 1921. Aharonson later became a rabbi in Tel Aviv.