THE JEWS IN THE
EASTERN WAR ZONE

[17]

RUSSIA

[18]

NOTE ON SOURCES OF INFORMATION

For the purposes of this report it has been deemed advisable to select, from the mass of material available upon the present status of the Jews in Russia, only evidence based upon:

1. Official and semi-official reports of the Russian government published in its official daily newspaper, “Pravitelstvenny Viestnik,” in its semi-official organ, “Novoe Vremya,” or in its several military organs.

2. Debates and Proceedings in the Imperial Duma and in the Council of the Empire, particularly evidence furnished by non-Jewish deputies or evidence of Jewish deputies that has passed unchallenged or has been challenged unsuccessfully by the Right benches.

3. Statements in the Liberal Russian press and the Jewish press published in Russia, all of which have been rigorously censored.

4. Protests and manifestoes of non-Jewish organizations, parties and leaders against the anti-Jewish policy of the government. These protests have been made publicly and have passed unchallenged by the Russian Government.

In brief, the present report is based exclusively upon evidence furnished by the Russian government itself, officially in its own press, or countenanced by reason of the revision applied, through its military and civil censorship, to the opposition press, or in public speeches and declarations that have passed the government benches in the imperial legislative chambers unchallenged.

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RUSSIA

INTRODUCTION

Russia acquired the great bulk of her Jewish population through the partitions of Poland, from 1773 to 1795. Strongly medieval in outlook and organization as Russia was at that time, she treated the Jews with the exceptional harshness which the medieval principle and policy sanctioned and required. By confining them to those provinces where they happened to live at the time of the partitions, she created a Ghetto greater than any known to the Middle Ages; and by imposing restrictions upon the right to live and travel even within this Ghetto, she has virtually converted it into a penal settlement, where six million human beings guilty only of adherence to the Jewish faith are compelled to live out their lives in squalor and misery, in constant terror of massacre, subject to the caprice of police officials and a corrupt administration—in short, without legal right or social status.

Only twice within the last century have efforts been made to improve the condition of the Jews in Russia; and each interval of relief was followed by a period of greater and more cruel repression. The first was during the reign of Alexander II; but his assassination in 1881 resulted in the complete domination of Russia by the elements of reaction, which immediately renewed the persecution policy. The “May laws” of Ignatieff (1882) which enmesh the Jews to this day, were the immediate product of this régime. The second period, a concomitant of the abortive revolution of 1904–5, was followed by a “pogrom policy” of unprecedented severity which lasted until the outbreak of the present war.

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THE PALE OF SETTLEMENT

At the beginning of the war the number of Jews in the Russian Empire was estimated at six million or more, comprising fully half of the total Jewish population of the world. Ninety-five per cent. of these six million people were confined by law to a limited area of Russia, known as the Pale of Settlement, consisting of the fifteen Governments of Western and Southwestern Russia, and the ten Governments of Poland, much of which territory is now under the German occupation. In reality, however, residence within the Pale was further restricted to such an extent that territorially the Jews were permitted to live in only one two-thousandth part of the Russian Empire.[1] No Jew was permitted to step outside this Pale unless he belonged to one of a few privileged classes. Some half-privileged Jews might, with effort, obtain special passports for a limited period of residence beyond the Pale; but the great majority could not even secure this privilege for any period whatsoever. A tremendous mass of special, restrictive legislation converted the Pale into a kind of prison with six million inmates, guarded by an army of corrupt and brutal jailers.

The Recent “Abolition” of the Pale

In August, 1915, the Council of Ministers issued a decree permitting the Jews of the area affected by the war to move into the interior of Russia. This act has been supposed in some quarters to constitute the virtual abolition of the Pale, this interpretation being chiefly attributable to the extensive publicity given the measure by the Russian government; but the evidence, official and otherwise, clearly indicates that far from being a [21] generous act of a liberal Government toward an oppressed people, it is in reality only a temporary expedient, dictated mainly by military necessity and partly by the need of a foreign loan; it is evident that it was granted grudgingly, with galling limitations which served to emphasize the servile state of the Jews; that it is in practice ignored or evaded at the convenience of the local authorities; and that it has been utilized, if not designed, to mislead the public opinion of the world.

Evidence in support of this view will now be considered:

1. It is a temporary measure dictated by military necessity. It does not remove any of the disabilities to which the Jews in Russia are legally subject.

This is admitted officially in the Minute of the Council of Ministers for August 4 (17), 1915, at which session the abolition decree was promulgated. This Minute reads as follows:

“It has been observed, of late, in connection with the military situation, that Jews are migrating en masse from the theatre of war and are gathering in certain interior governments of the Empire. This is explained, on the one hand, by the endeavor, on the part of the Jewish population, to depart in good time from the localities threatened by the enemy, and, on the other hand, by the order, issued by our military authorities, to clear certain localities in the line of the enemy’s advance. The further concentration of these refugees, whose number has been growing ever greater, in the limited area now available to them, is causing unrest among the local native population and may lead to alarming consequences in the form of wholesale disorders. This excessive accumulation of Jewish refugees also impedes the [22] Government seriously in its efforts to provide food, work and medical attention for them. Under these circumstances, deeming it urgently necessary to take prompt measures to avert undesirable possibilities, the Acting Minister of the Interior has made a representation with respect to this matter before the Council of Ministers.

“Taking up this immediate subject for deliberation and without touching upon the question of the general revision of laws now in force concerning Jews, the Council of Ministers has found that the most advisable way out of the situation created would be to grant the Jews the right of residence in cities and towns beyond the Pale of Settlement. This privilege, established because of the exigencies of the military situation, must not, however, affect the capital cities,[2] and the localities under the jurisdiction of the Ministries of the Imperial Court and the Minister of War.”

The appalling facts back of this dry official statement were already known to all Russia. Hundreds of thousands of Jews had been expelled from their homes overnight by act of the military authorities. At a previous session of the Council of Ministers, Prince Shcherbatoff, himself a Conservative, had presented the terrible condition of these refugees. He pointed out that they were perforce driven into forbidden territory, that it was difficult to direct them anywhere, each one naturally seeking some place where he had friends or relatives in the hope of finding some means of livelihood, and that because of the residence restrictions they found themselves outlaws against their will, and poured in petitions and telegrams in tremendous numbers, begging [23] for official permission to reside legally in their new homes. These people, he pointed out, cannot be turned away from places beyond the Pale, because they cannot possibly go back to their old homes.[3]

As was shown by Duma Deputy Skobelev, “the question of the Pale was brought up in the Council of Ministers only when the wave of Jewish refugees had already swept away this medieval dam!”[4] Another deputy, an Octobrist, Rostovtzev, declared in the Duma: “What Pale is this you are speaking of? There is no Pale; Kaiser Wilhelm has abolished it!”

If any further evidence were needed to demonstrate that the abolition decree was not a voluntary act of emancipation but was forced upon the government by conditions beyond its control, the inspired editorial in the semi-official government organ, the “Novoe Vremya,” of August 9 (22), 1915, supplies this evidence. It declares flatly that the reception of the measure by the general press as “the first rays of a new dawn” is entirely unwarranted; that the question of removing all Jewish disabilities was never discussed; it is not particularly important anyway; it was not even worked out for presentation to the Duma.[5] Certain conditions, created by a state of affairs already existing, had made it necessary to modify some of the regulations with respect to the Pale. That is all. No permanent statute will be enacted.

2. The decree was issued in the hope of facilitating a foreign loan.

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Count A. Bobrinski, a Conservative member of the Imperial Council, declared, in a statement to the editor of the “Dehn”:[6]

“The conservative members of the Imperial Council raised no objection whatsoever against the recent Government measure granting permission to the Jews to reside outside of the Pale. I believe that we shall have to become accustomed to the idea of seeing the Jews dwell in all parts of Russia after this war is over. There can be no return to the old conditions.

“The necessities of the war must lead us also to sanction future concessions toward the Jews whenever the need thereof will be recognized by the Government in order to be able to place a Government loan in America.”

The attitude of “Kolokol,” the organ of the Holy Synod, reflects this with perfect frankness:

“Power has gradually passed from the mailèd knights, from heroes of the battlefield to the counting house, because in gold there is more power than in fearless argonauts. If Germany excels us in armament and was better prepared in every other way it is because her nation is older than ours, older in its culture by several hundred years. Herein lies our weakness. But the Jews are the oldest people on earth. Their cult is the cult of gold and of brains. It does not matter that they have forgotten their glorious epoch of military heroism, have forgotten how they defended their Jerusalem. It does not matter that they are no longer accustomed to bear arms and to decide with the sword their differences and quarrels. This people has learned to draw to itself the gold of the world. It is like a sponge.... It has learned caution and foresight and is organized into a powerful international force. Under the conditions of the present war the Jews are a power not to reckon with which is to be politically blind. Would it not be advantageous to Russia to throw into its scales these nuggets of gold, these billions of the international bankers?...”[7]

The naïveté of these statements is ridiculed by the liberal press, led by the Petrograd “Retch,” with the [25] comment that “It is difficult for the anti-Semites of yesterday to pour new wine into old flasks. The scare-crows of ‘Jewish freemasonry,’ the ‘universal Kehillah’ and other myths still terrify the editors of ‘Kolokol’; but instead of screaming: ‘The Jews are strong; crush them!’ the cry now is ‘The Jews are strong; yield to them!’ It does not seem to occur to these new converts that the Jewish question is merely one of elementary civic decency.”[8]

The significance of this will be appreciated when it is recalled that the liberal press reflects the ideals of the Russian masses just as “Kolokol” reflects the hopes and fears of the Russian government.

3. The measure was granted grudgingly, with galling limitations which emphasize the humiliating position of the Jews.

The Jews are even under the provisions of the new decree still debarred from all villages, from the two capitals Petrograd and Moscow, from the vicinities where royal residences happen to be located and from the districts of the Don and Turkestan which happen to be under the jurisdiction of the ministry of war. These restrictions were denounced as senseless by all the liberal elements of the Empire. “Russkoe Slovo,” August 13 (26), 1915, declares:

“Hereafter a Jew may live in Kaluga, but is excluded from Tashkent; in Yekaterinodar he may not live; in Nizhni he may. It is very hard to find any sense in such distinctions, even from the point of view of the Black Hundreds. If you should ask Markov 2d [the leader of the Black Hundreds.—Tr.] into what cities we ought to admit Jews—whether into Nizhni, or into Tashkent, he would answer at first, of course, that we ought not to admit them into either; but confronted with ‘dire necessity’ he would [26] hardly give preference to Tashkent, already full of alien nationalities.

“And yet to whom, except Markov 2d and his kind, would all these exceptions and limitations give any aid or comfort? Suppose we do allow the Jews perfect freedom of travel within the country; suppose we do find villages where so much as a whole Jew—and not a fractional Jew—exists statistically per hundred of peasant population; suppose we do find a Jewish tailor, a blacksmith or a merchant in a Russian village—would that be such a calamity?”

4. In practice the act is often ignored or evaded by local officials.

The Governor of Smolensk has continued to expel Jews entering his province, entirely regardless of the law. The government of Kiev even refused to permit the publication of the ministerial decree until the middle of September, some six weeks after its official promulgation, and has consistently ignored it since. In practically all the other governments of the Empire the administration of the act is entirely dependent upon the whims of the local governors. Late advices bring reports of the expulsions of Jews from the Caucasus, Tomsk, Vladivostok, Siberia, and many other cities and provinces in which, under the terms of the abolition decree, Jews are permitted to reside.[9]

In many places the local authorities have even taken advantage of the new decree to deprive the Jews of rights possessed by them under older statutes. In Saratov, for example, a small number of Jewish merchants, professional men and artisans have been permitted to live and engage in gainful occupations since 1893, under the terms of a special Ukase issued in that year, although the city, being outside the Pale, is closed to Jews in general. The regulations, however, required [27] that the Jews obtain special passports from the police department certifying to their right of residence in Saratov, and special permits from the local license boards, based upon the police certificates, authorizing them to engage in their several occupations. But now that the Pale has been “abolished” the police officials have discontinued the issuing of special certificates, claiming that since all Jews have been granted the right of residence throughout the Empire the need for issuing such certificates to individual Jews no longer exists. Yet the license boards persist in their demand for such certificates from the Jews and have, to date, absolutely refused to grant them the necessary licenses without which they cannot continue in their occupations. In other words, the Jews of Saratov now have the legal right to live in that city, but are denied the legal right to secure the wherewithal to live.[10]

5. The promulgation of the abolition act, designed to mislead the public opinion, and thereby to win the sympathy, of the civilized world, has not misled the people of Russia.

This is clearly indicated by the typical expressions of editorial opinion which follow; and at this point it may be well to remind the American reader again that in Russia, more than in any other country, the press must weigh its words carefully, since editorial missteps have serious consequences.

The “Russkoe Slovo,” August 13 (26), 1915, condemns the measure as a half-way measure, as a substitution of one Pale for another, “even though it be granted that the new Pale is larger than the old.” It demands the full abolition of the Pale—“that greatest misfortune of Russian life.”

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“Unfortunately,” it continues, “we tend to repeat our mistakes only too often. When we do ‘submit’ to the demands of life we do so either too late or with such indecision and so grudgingly that in the end, instead of evoking real satisfaction, we not infrequently evoke a feeling of misunderstanding or produce an effect which is the very opposite of the one intended. Yet an act can be valid and precious and achieve its highest aim only when it is done in good time, cheerfully, frankly, straightforwardly and with decision—as befits a government that is strong and sure of itself.”

The Petrograd “Retch,” the great liberal daily, August 20 (September 2), 1915, points out that the measure is merely tentative and must be legalized by statutory enactment within six months. It hopes that this enactment will not preserve the absurd limitations of the original decree.

“If it has at last been recognized as expedient to remove that shameful blot, the Pale, we ought to leave not even a small speck of it. From a moral point of view,—and even an empire must have a point of view—it matters little whether a man is held by a long chain or a short one. There should be no chains at all....”

This is echoed by the Petrograd “Courier”:

“If there is only one corner of Russia left to which Jews may not be admitted, the Pale still remains, no matter what arguments may be used, and no matter what promises of future ‘privileges’ may be made. A principle cannot be measured quantitatively. The step taken so far is merely a beginning, and life demands that it should be completed. Besides the ‘right to live’ there are other rights derived from it:—the right to attend school, to do business, to own property, to choose one’s occupation freely.”[11]

Even the extreme reactionary organ, “Kolokol,” which has hitherto been most insistent in its demand that “True Russians” be protected from Jewish competition by the confinement of Jews to the Pale, now declares:

“Abolish the Pale entirely. Even now it is, in fact, nothing but a sieve. All of real ability in Jewry, every Jewish faculty [29] sharpened for the struggle for existence, easily escapes the Pale. But this constant necessity for circumvention of the law only corrupts the Jews and exasperates them.”[12]

The persons most affected, the six million Jews of Russia, received the “Emancipation Act” with deep mistrust. They were chiefly concerned lest the news of this act should deceive their co-religionists abroad. At a national conference of Jewish publicists and relief workers at Petrograd these resolutions were adopted:

“We are unwilling that our brethren in other lands shall gain a false impression from our attitude toward the abolition measure.... The permission to reside in cities outside of the Pale in no way remedies the evil, nor does it relieve the pressing needs of our times, nor does it affect in any way the legal restrictions in force against Jews.... In expressing our profound indignation at the humiliation and persecution to which the Jews have been subjected since the beginning of the war, we declare that the State can do justice to the Jews and prevent further persecutions only by the total and unconditional repeal of all special restrictions.”

The leading Russian Jewish Weekly, “Evreyskaya Zhizn,” of August 23 (September 5), 1915, declared editorially:

“If this measure had been passed in July or August of 1914 we would have met it with faith and joy. Then the Jewish people were ready to appreciate any political measure of relief and looked upon everything as the beginning of a new era. That new era came, but, alas! of what a different nature! Periods of accusations and horrors, of Kovno expulsions and Kuzhi[13] slanders came and the people grew desperate. This half measure of the Ministers, in spite of its practical importance, cannot vitalize the Jewish people, and the main reason lies in the fact that this measure does not carry with it any new view upon the real subject matter of the Jewish question. This measure is only a slight relief in the condition [30] of citizens who have no rights and who remain without rights.... The Jews are considered, in the new order, as citizens of the second class. We remain the same pariahs, from whom something has to be kept back, to whom the villages must be closed with fear, and to whom the chosen centers must be closed with a feeling of loathing.... The element of distinction between Jews and other citizens remains and is even more emphasized. The principle of equality of rights for Jews has not been realized and without it no material benefits promised by the new act will find their way to the soul of the people. Only acknowledgment of the right of Jews to all rights of Russian citizenship will melt the ice of that cold disappointment which has seized all Russian Jews.”

Finally, the eminent Jewish historian, Simeon Dubnov, in an impassioned article in “Evreyskaya Nedelya” (September, 1915), denounced the hypocrisy of the government and demanded the immediate abolition of all Jewish restrictions:

“It is fully a year since the terrified faces of the ‘prisoners’ appeared through the bars of that gigantic prison known as ‘the Jewish Pale.’ Part of the prison was already enveloped in the flames of war, and the entire structure was threatened. The prisoners, in deathly terror, clamored that the doors be thrown open. They were driven from one part of the prison to another part that seemed in less danger, but the prison doors remained shut. The warden’s answer to their prayer was that it was impossible to ‘release them,’ even in war time, because later it would be difficult to ‘recapture’ them!

“Ultimately the keepers were compelled to open the doors slightly and to let out a part of the dazed and half-asphyxiated inmates; but even then they were quarantined within three governments, which were immediately congested with refugees; and only now, when the largest section of the Pale, with a Jewish population of two million, has become foreign country—only now are the gates of the overcrowded prison thrown wide open and the prisoners cautiously permitted to leave....

“Should our further emancipation proceed at the same pace, we shall attain full freedom only after our complete annihilation.... The sop is thrown to us under conditions internal and [31] external which sharply emphasize its enforced character. This measure is not one of restoration; rather it is like a rag thrown to the victim after his last shirt has been taken from him. This belated, partial, privilege must remind the Jew that of all nationalities in Russia—not excepting the semi-savage tribes—he alone needed such a favor.

“At this time of profound mourning, upon the graves of thousands of our brothers who have fallen victims not only to the sword of the enemy, but because of outrage within our own borders, amidst the ruins of our cities, our weary hearts cannot rejoice over the beggarly dole tossed out to us. In silence shall our people accept the miserly gift from those from whom it is accustomed to receive only blows; but, as ever, it will demand aloud that those rights of which it has been deprived should be restored to it.”

It is apparent, therefore, that the legal status of the Jews in Russia has remained substantially unchanged by the war.

The restrictions normally imposed upon the Jews of Russia (with the exception of certain specially designated—and numerically negligible—fractions) subject them to the following principal disabilities:

1. Other Residence Restrictions

(a) Within the Pale. Although originally granted the right to live anywhere within the Pale, the privilege was gradually restricted until the Jews were, in effect, confined to the cities and larger towns. By the law of May 3 (15), 1882, the Jews were forbidden to settle in the villages of the Pale. By the law of December 29, 1887 (January 10, 1888), they were forbidden to move from one town to another. By judicial and administrative interpretation “towns” were often designated as villages and the Jews expelled from them overnight. The net result has been the congestion of the Jewish[32] population in the cities and larger towns. Although they constitute only 12 per cent. of the total population of the Pale, they form 41 per cent. of the urban population. As this congestion tended to create a ferocity in competition which reduced incomes and standards to the lowest limits, many Jews of necessity attempted to escape into the interior of Russia. But their illegal stay was possible only with the connivance of a corrupt police. Even then the numerous police raids at midnight or early dawn (oblavy—literally “hunts”), accompanied by an excess of brutality, made the life of these illegal residents one of fear and torment.

(b) Outside the Pale. The privileged five per cent. that was granted the theoretical right of free travel and residence throughout the Empire, was also continually harassed by arbitrary police and judicial measures which practically nullified their privilege. This class comprises:

Artisans, permitted free residence by the law of 1865; but constant restrictions and new interpretations of the term have reduced the number of Jews enjoying this status to a bare fraction of the Jewish population.

Merchants of the First Guild, allowed to leave the Pale after five years’ membership in their guild, and on condition of the payment of an annual tax of 800 roubles ($400) for ten years, after removal from the Pale. Numerically insignificant to begin with, this class was further reduced by police blackmail until it became almost negligible.

Jewish graduates of Russian institutions of higher education. The operation of the “percentage” rule, however, reduces these to a minimum. (See pp. 33–34.)

Prostitutes. Jewish women who have become prostitutes are permitted to live outside the Pale.

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2. Occupational Restrictions

The public service of the Empire, or of any of its political subdivisions, is practically closed to Jews. Jews may not be teachers (except in Jewish schools), or, as a rule, farmers. These artificial restrictions operate to drive the Jews into the occupations permitted to them, chiefly trade and commerce, thus overcrowding the ranks of tradesmen and artisans.

3. Property Restrictions

Jews may not buy or sell, rent, lease or even manage land or real estate outside the Pale or outside of the city limits within the Pale. The artisans privileged to practise their handicraft outside the Pale may under no circumstances own their homes. The ownership, direct or indirect, of property in mines or oil fields is also forbidden to Jews.

4. Fiscal Burdens

The Jews pay, in addition to the normal taxes, a candle tax, designed for the support of Jewish schools, and a meat tax, originally destined for Jewish religious purposes; but in practice these funds are diverted to general, non-Jewish, purposes, and even used, in part, for the enforcement of police measures against the Jews.

5. Educational Restrictions

Jews are not admitted to the secondary or higher educational institutions and universities, except in proportions varying from 3 to 15 per cent. of the entire number of non-Jewish pupils. (For high schools: 10 [34] per cent. within the Pale and 5 per cent. outside the Pale, except in the two capitals St. Petersburg and Moscow, where it is only 3 per cent.; and for universities all over the Empire, about 3 per cent.)

A ministerial decree issued in August, 1915, permits the children of all Jews actively connected with the war to enter any educational institution in the country regardless of the percentage norm; but in practice this decree, like the decree abolishing the Pale, is entirely subject to interpretation and modification by the local authorities, who have, so far, virtually ignored it.

The result of the percentage norm applied to the admission of Jews to secondary schools and universities is that in the towns to which the Jews are restricted by the domiciliary regulations and where they constitute in many cases a very large proportion of the population, the great majority of the Jewish youth are denied the means of a higher education. In Warsaw, the Jews constitute 36.30 per cent. of the population; in Lodz, 47.59 per cent.; in Lomza, 39.42 per cent.; in Kovno, 54.60 per cent.; in Vilna, 40 per cent.; in Grodno, 52.45 per cent.; in Bialostock, 65.62 per cent.; in Brest Litovsk, 78.81 per cent.; in Pinsk, 80.10 per cent.; in Berditcheff, 87.52 per cent., etc., yet in all these towns only the stipulated percentage of Jewish students may be admitted.

In addition to this restriction, many secondary schools (School of Military Medical Hygiene, School of Railroad Engineering, School of Electricity, etc.), are entirely closed to Jews. Even commercial schools, maintained by Merchants’ Guilds, admit Jews only in proportion to the Jewish membership of the Guilds.

The Government also restricts the establishment of higher schools under Jewish auspices. In 1884, it closed [35] the Technical Institute of Zhitomir (founded in 1862), on the ground that, in the southwestern Pale provinces, the Jews contributed a majority of the artisans, and a special Jewish technical school would increase this disproportion. In 1885 it closed the Teachers’ Institute (a noted center of Jewish learning) because “there was no further need for it.”

As a consequence of these limitations and restrictions there has been a scramble among Jews to gain admission to these institutions. Parents have employed every expedient to have their children enrolled. Another consequence is that many Jewish young men emigrated to Switzerland, Germany and France, to obtain a higher education, and thereafter to return to Russia to enter professional life. A recent calculation shows that about 3,000 Jewish students from Russia annually exile themselves in order to attend foreign universities.

6. Military Service

The Jews constitute only 4.05 per cent. of the population of the Empire, but the proportion of Jews in the annual army contingent was estimated, at the outbreak of the Japanese war, at 5.7 per cent. This is due to the fact that a great many exemptions which the law provides for non-Jews are made inapplicable to Jews. In the army the Jews can achieve no rank higher than that of corporal. A penalty of 300 rubles ($150) is placed upon each Jewish defection, and the whole family, including parents and relatives by marriage of the person accused, is held responsible therefor.

The results of these repressions and persecutions are known. Politically outlawed, socially and economically degraded, the Jewish population imprisoned in the [36] Pale has festered in misery. The merchants have been obliged to resort to fearful competition. Workingmen, overcrowding their industries, have been compelled to work for starvation wages. Most of the Jewish homes in Russia are miserable hovels, with little air or light. In the great cities, the proportion of paupers approximates a fifth of the Jewish population. In Odessa in 1900, of a population of 150,000 Jews no less than 48,500 were supported by charity; 63 per cent. of the dead had pauper burials, and a further 20 per cent. were buried at the lowest possible rate. In the Governments of Ekaterinoslav, Bessarabia, Pietrikov, Chernigov and Siedlets, the number of charity cases at the Passover festival increased from 41.9 per cent. to 46.8 per cent. in four years.

THE OUTBREAK OF THE WAR

It was against this background of ever-spreading persecution and misery that the great war broke upon the Jews. They accepted it as loyal Russian citizens, and not without hope that it might lead to some improvement in their own conditions.

The Kehillas (communities) of Petrograd, Odessa and other cities officially sent large sums in gold for the reservists, established hospitals for the use of the wounded without distinction of race or creed, held great patriotic demonstrations in the synagogues, at which the Rabbis urged the Jewish youth to render their full share of military service, and in other ways, presented, as the Mayor of Odessa said, “an example of readiness to sacrifice everything for the army.”

The spirit of the Jews of Russia at the outbreak of the war is well expressed in the appeal which the Jewish [37] community of Vilna, the oldest in Russia, at the very heart of the Pale, issued in connection with the establishment of a military hospital:

“Our beloved Fatherland—the great Russian Empire—has been provoked to bloody, terrible conflict. It is a struggle for the integrity and greatness of Russia. All true sons of Russia have risen as one man to shield their country, with their own breasts, against the onslaught of the enemy. Our brothers of the Jewish faith, all over the Russian Empire, have also responded to the call of duty ... and many have voluntarily joined the army which has gone forth to the field of battle. But circumstances now demand that those of us who have not been fortunate enough to be called forward to fight for our country with weapons in our hands should also make whatever sacrifices we can. We owe a sacred obligation to those who have left their families behind, those who are defending our country, and us, with their blood and their lives. It is our duty to assume all responsibility for the families of the reservists. It is our duty to take care of those who will fall wounded or ill in the war. No doubt this sacred duty will be assumed by the entire Jewish population of the Empire, by individuals no less than by entire communities. The history of all past wars, especially those of the nineteenth century, beginning with the war of 1812, shows that the Jews have honestly and sacredly fulfilled their duty as citizens and were ever ready to sacrifice upon the altar of their country their wealth, their blood and even their lives.... In like manner, at this great crisis in the life of our country, we, the representatives of the Jewish community of Vilna, the oldest in Russia and at the very heart of the present conflict, take the liberty of appealing to our co-religionists to begin at once the work of organizing relief for the wounded and for the families of the reservists. We must care equally for all the soldiers of our glorious army, without distinction of race or creed, for all are brothers, sons in common of our great Fatherland....”

The Jewish press also gave resonant voice to this spirit of loyalty and devotion. The “Novy Voskhod,”[14] one of the leading Jewish organs in Russia, issued this call:

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“We were born and brought up in Russia. Our ancestors are buried here. We Russian Jews are bound to Russia by ties which cannot be broken, and our brothers who have been driven beyond the ocean by cruel fate cherish their memories of Russia all through life. Custodians of the commandments of our forefathers, nucleus of the entire Jewish nation, we, the Jews of Russia, are nevertheless united inseparably with the country in which we have dwelt for hundreds of years, and from which neither persecution nor oppression can tear us away. At this historical moment, when our country is threatened by foreign invasion, when brute force has taken up arms against the great ideals of humanity, the Jews of Russia will bravely go forth to battle and will fulfil their sacred duty....”

The Jewish contingent in the Russian army numbered from 350,000 (an estimate made by the Mayor of Petrograd before the Conference of Russian Mayors in August, 1914), to 400,000 (the estimate made by the Jewish Colonization Association, Petrograd). The thousands of Jewish students who have matriculated at foreign universities because the “percentage rule” had closed the Russian universities to them, returned to enroll under the colors, even though they knew that there was no hope of preferment for them.

On the field of battle the Jewish soldiers distinguished themselves for valor. Over one thousand received the Medal or Cross of St. George. From the many letters of appreciation and affection written by Russian officers to the relatives of Jewish soldiers under their command who had been disabled or killed, it was evident that the Jews had won the affection and respect of the fighting men in the field. But it was their eternal misfortune that the war, by the logic of military geography, had [39] to be fought out, on the Eastern side, in Poland; for between the Poles and the Jews there had long been a state of open conflict—and the developments of the campaign in Poland foredoomed the Jews to disaster appalling and almost irretrievable.

POLES AND JEWS

The conflict between the Poles and Jews dates back to the earliest period of Jewish life in Poland.

In its early stages it was purely religious. The Church Synod of 1542 declared that: “Whereas the Church tolerates the Jews for the sole purpose of reminding us of the torments of the Savior, their number must not increase under any circumstances.”[15]

The Synod of 1733 reiterated this gospel of hate by declaring that the reason for the existence of the Jews is:

“That they might remind us of the tortures of the Savior, and by their abject and miserable condition might serve as an example of the first chastisement of God inflicted upon the infidels.”[16]

In its later stages the struggle was chiefly political and economic. When Russia acquired Poland, through the several partitions in the eighteenth century, it frankly adopted the old Roman principle of DIVIDE ET IMPERA. It persistently fomented hostilities between the Polish and Jewish population by crowding them together in a restricted area where neither could make a decent livelihood, by pitting them against each other in an [40] economic struggle conducted on the lowest possible plane and on the most hopeless terms, by playing off religious and racial prejudices and by every other device possible to a government with unlimited power and an unprincipled policy. And the Poles, politically undeveloped, instead of combining with the other victims of Russia against the common oppressor, turned upon their fellows with a ferocity truly unparalleled in European history.

Several years before the war broke out this struggle came to a climax over the election of a deputy to the Duma. The Jews of Poland felt that they were entitled to at least one member to represent them in the Duma, particularly in the city of Warsaw, where they constitute nearly half of the population. It happened, however, that in the city of Lodz they unexpectedly elected one Jewish deputy, Bomash. The Jews, therefore, seeking to conciliate the Poles and not to wound their national pride by insisting upon the election of a Jewish deputy from Warsaw, the ancient Polish capital, offered to compromise, stipulating only that the Polish candidate be not an avowed anti-Semite. The Poles, however, insisted upon putting up a notorious anti-Semite. The Jews, equally unable to support such a candidate in self-respect or to elect one of their own, united on a Polish Socialist candidate, electing him to the Duma. This led to retaliation in the form of a boycott directed not only at Jewish tradesmen, but even at Jewish physicians, artisans and other workingmen, which soon spread destitution throughout Poland, affecting, as it did, Jews and Poles alike. So ugly and bitter a form did the boycott assume that at times even the Russian government was compelled to take the part of the Jews as against the Poles.

[41]

Anti-Semitism in Poland

A significant observation upon the economic character of the Polish-Jewish struggle was made by the well known Russian journalist, Madam A. E. Kuskova.

“I found red-hot anti-Semitism everywhere in Poland. We have anti-Semitism in Russia, but of a different kind.... Anti-Semitic papers like ‘Dva Grosha’ accused all Jews of all sorts of crimes, without protest from the Progressive press, and succeeded in arousing the Polish people. In Pyasechna, a ruined place near Warsaw, where ten-day battles took place, I spoke to many peasants who accused the Jews of many of their troubles, but could never explain what they really blamed them for. We Russians held a meeting to try to find the causes of this feeling.... We came to the conclusion that ... the Polish-Jewish question is really a Russian-Polish-Jewish question, and touches us as much as the Poles. They have not room enough to live, and more and more Jews are coming there. Even democratic organizations are compelled to take cognizance of this. One peasant organization expresses through its organ the idea that it is true that the Jews are a burden to Poland, but it warns the peasants against anti-Semitism nevertheless.”[17]

THE WAR IN POLAND

When the fighting armies overran Poland, the Poles saw their chance and seized it. The dream of a free Poland had never been absent from their minds. When the world catastrophe came the Poles saw in it not only an opportunity to regain their land, that had been dismembered more than a century before, but also an opportunity to avenge themselves on the hated Jews. Just as the Russians had always played the Poles against the Jews, so now the Poles hoped to play Russian, German, Austrian and Jew against each other. It was indeed to the interest of both Russia and Austria to[42] court the sympathy of Poland. And the Poles seized the occasion to denounce the Jews, now to the Russians, now to the Germans, as spies and traitors.

The position of the Jews under this cross-fire became unbearable. Here are several cases, selected at random, showing its effect upon the Jewish population:

One of the first towns in Russian Poland captured by the Austrians was Zamosti, near the Hungarian frontier, taken by a detachment of Sokol troops in September, 1914. They were soon driven out by the Russians; and at once the Poles of the town denounced the Jews to the Russian commander, accusing the Jews of having given aid to the enemy during the Austrian occupation of the town. Twelve Jews were arrested. They denied their guilt but were sentenced to death. Five of them had already been hanged, when, in the midst of the execution, a Russian priest, carrying an image of the Virgin, appeared and with his hand on the image took oath that the Jews were innocent and that the accusation was merely a product of Polish vindictiveness. He proved that the Poles of the town themselves had supported the Austrians and that even a telephone connection with Lemberg could be found. The seven remaining Jews were then set free. But five had already been hanged.[18]

At Lemberg, in September, 1914, the Poles accused the Jews of firing on Russian troops; as a consequence a great many Jews were arrested, and nearly seventy were attacked and wounded; but an investigation proved them all innocent, and Drs. Rabner and Diamond, the Jews who had been taken as hostages, were released.[19]

[43]

At Kieltse and Radom the Poles plundered many Jewish shops and when the Russians returned after the German retreat the Poles denounced the Jews as German sympathizers. Here also those Jews who were arrested were found to be innocent and released after investigation.[20]

At Mariampol, near the East Prussia frontier, because of a similar accusation, the entire Jewish male population, with their Rabbi, Krovchinski, at their head, were compelled to work the roads for three days—September 22–24 (October 5–7), 1914 (the first two of these days falling on the Sukkoth holiday.)[21]

In this town, also, one Gershenovitz was sentenced to penal servitude for six years because he acted as Mayor during the German occu­pation, although the inquiry held by the Russians showed that he had been forced by the Germans to accept the office.[20]

At Jusefow the Jews were accused of poisoning the wells. Seventy-eight were killed outright, many Jewish women were violated and all the houses and shops plundered.[22]

In Drsukenihi a mill owner, Chekhofski, was accused of having given a signal for the German bombardment of the town by blowing his mill whistle. When the Russians reoccupied the town he was brought to trial before the Military Tribunal and the charge was proven to be groundless.[23]

These are only a few instances, taken at random, of Polish slanders. In not a single known case were the charges justified; on the contrary, their gross absurdity was demonstrated on numerous occasions before [44] military tribunals that could not possibly be charged with prejudice in favor of the Jewish side of the issue. A perfect illustration of this is furnished by the story of the villages of Groitsi and Nove-Miasto, near Warsaw.

The Case of Nove-Miasto

The Germans, in their first advance on Warsaw, in September–October, 1914, occupied these villages for a few days. When the Russian troops recaptured the towns the Poles at once denounced the Jews as having welcomed the German troops and having aided them in every possible way—whereas the Poles, according to their own account, had accepted the German rule passively, doing only whatever they were forced to do by the military authorities. They pointed out seven persons, five Jews and two Germans, who had demonstrated such devotion to the invaders as to merit trial for treason and the death penalty. One Jew, Goldberg, it was charged, had revealed to the Germans the hiding place of ten Russian soldiers, resulting in their capture; another Jew had shown them where they might requisition horses and food, and had acted as guide.

The case was brought to trial before the military guard, and there, under strict examination, it assumed an entirely different aspect. A priest, Zemberzhusky, testified that Jews and Poles had acted precisely alike toward the Germans; that their reception of the Germans expressed no joy, that all alike had complained of the invaders’ requisition and pillage, and that it was only due to the tactful conduct of the citizens that the town of Nove-Miasto was not entirely demolished. It was shown that not a single Russian soldier had been captured by the Germans and that the Goldberg charge [45] was entirely false. All the other charges were similarly disproved. It developed that they were based on two facts. In the preliminary investigation the trial officers, being ignorant of Polish, were compelled to employ interpreters. One of these interpreted the statement of a Polish witness to the effect that he had seen a certain Zilberberg walk the streets arm in arm with a German officer. The fact brought out in the new trial was that the witness had actually seen the German officer seize Zilberberg by the neck! In the second place, the story had been started in sheer malice by two notorious gangsters, whose evidence was unworthy of any consideration. All of the accused were therefore acquitted.[24]

The significance of this episode lies in the fact that the Colonel in command in this particular case happened to be a kindly man, who, being unwilling to see injustice done, went to the trouble to have the case carefully investigated. Hundreds of other cases based on equally groundless accusations came to court without the possibility of such a fair investigation.

Another case of this sort is reported from Suvalki. It was charged by the Poles that the Jews of Suvalki had met the Germans with bread and salt (the national Russian custom in welcoming guests). The facts were that practically the entire population of Suvalki had fled at the approach of the Germans. The Germans, however, had, with their usual thoroughness, made out in advance a list of the leading citizens of Suvalki who were to be appointed to the deputation that was “to welcome” the Germans. Only one Jew was on this list.

Not all the Poles were bitterly hostile to the Jews, as may be seen from the following story, reprinted from [46] the Polish paper, “Novo Gazeta,” in “Rasviet,” February 8 (21), 1915, p. 36:

“An army officer, a Pole, reports this: Where our detachment was stationed, I found a group of soldiers surrounding a muzhik, who was telling them that the Jews had cut the telegraph wires. The soldiers were furious and ready to take revenge on the miserable Jews. I approached the group and said to the muzhik: ‘I am glad to see that your patriotic impulses urge you to expose these Jew traitors. You must take me to them at once. You say you know the guilty ones. Show us how we can capture them and dispose of them.’

“The muzhik became confused at once. He stammered: ‘I didn’t—say anything about them. I didn’t see them myself. I didn’t see anything myself. People say so. Everybody says so.’

“I assumed a severe attitude and said to him: ‘You know these people perfectly well, but you don’t want to expose them. You are trying to shelter these traitors. You must take me to them at once!’ After more evasions, the muzhik broke down completely. Thereupon the soldiers turned upon him, and wanted to beat him, but I took him under my protection. He confessed completely to me and I sent him off and told him to beg his priest to preach on the following Sunday on the text ‘Love thy neighbor as thyself.’

“Another instance was this. In a Warsaw street car filled with passengers, I saw a Polish woman physician looking out at a Jewish automobile ambulance. ‘Look here,’ she cried, ‘These Jews also have motor ambulances. I think they must be stolen.’ I took it upon myself to ask her for an explanation of this. She was decent enough to admit that she knew nothing at all about it and that she had said these words without thinking.

“In these two cases it happened that I came out as a Pole defending the honor of Poland, because I believe that Poland does not require such outrageous falsifications and slanders for its regeneration. If they were not so painful to relate, I could give you a whole series of such incidents.”

Even the Polish clergy, usually anti-Semitic, felt compelled to protest against the excesses of their followers. Thus in January, 1915, the priests of Plotsk, headed by Archbishop Kovalsky, interceded on behalf of the Jews [47] with the Russian authorities who had made numerous arrests upon the denunciations of Polish agitators.

So outrageous was the attitude of the Poles that at a Conference of Progressive Deputies of the Duma held at Petrograd in January, 1915, resolutions were passed to extend no help whatever to the Polish Deputies in any of their nationalist projects in the Duma because of their attitude toward the Jews.

The Polish weekly, “Glos Polsky,” published in Petrograd, contains an interview with Professor Milyukov on the Polish question:

“Our point of view is that along the River Vistula live not only Poles, but that there also lives another people, the Jewish people, which has a right to be recognized....

“When the Polish question will be taken up in the legislative chambers, we shall demand that the fundamental act should guarantee the rights of the Jewish minority as well....”[25]

At several conferences of Russian, Polish and Jewish communal workers which took place in Petrograd and Moscow in January, 1915, the majority of the Russians expressed their solidarity with the Jews in this matter.[26]

Even the most reactionary Russians foresaw danger to Russia in the Polish campaign of vilification against the Jews. Thus the “True Russian” (anti-Semitic) leader, Orloff, after a visit to Poland, declared: “I have seen nothing bad on the part of the Jews, although the Poles made up all sorts of accusations against them. But in these Polish reports you feel prejudice, vindictiveness, hatred, nothing else.... The Jews are loyal and brave, and it is most inadvisable to pursue a policy which might convert six million subjects into enemies.”[27]

[48]

The Kuzhi Case

But the Russian military authorities, seeking a scapegoat for their own failures, eagerly seized upon the Polish stories, and gave them official standing and wide circulation. The notorious Kuzhi incident illustrates the methods used. The story, as first published in the military paper “Nash Viestnik,” the official organ of the northwestern army, on May 5 (18), 1915, in the official daily newspaper issued by the Russian government, the “Pravitelstvenny Viestnik,” May 6 (19), 1915, and elsewhere, ran as follows:

“On the night of April 28th, in Kuzhi, northwest of Shavli, the Germans attacked a detachment of one of our infantry regiments resting there. This disclosed the shockingly treacherous conduct of a part of the population—especially the Jewish part—towards our troops. The Jews had concealed German soldiers in their cellars before our troops arrived, and at a signal they set fire to Kuzhi on all sides. The Germans, leaping out of the cellars, rushed to the house which our regimental commander was occupying. At the same time two of the battalions, supported by cavalry, attacked our outposts and captured the village. The house in which the commander had his headquarters soon fell in. Colonel Vavilov ordered that the regimental colors be burned, and, refusing to surrender to the Germans, was killed. Our reinforcements then arrived, drove the Germans out of Kuzhi at the point of the bayonet, and saved the remnants of the burning standard. All the local inhabitants who had taken part in this terrible affair were brought before a court-martial and the ringleaders will be sent to Siberia. This sad incident again demonstrates the need of keeping constant guard, particularly over all those Jewish towns which have at any time been held by the enemy.”

This story, in all its circumstantial details, was spread broadcast throughout the Empire, in all the official and semi-official organs of the government, on the bulletin boards, wherever the Russian populace congregates. By military order it was brought to the attention of every [49] man in the army, down to the last private. Country editors were ordered to reprint the story under threat of prosecution. Not a hamlet in all Russia but shuddered at the monstrous treachery of the Jews. In Tashkent the clergy offered a prayer in the Cathedral, petitioning God to deliver the Russian army from the machinations of Jewish traitors. Even the Liberals, usually sympathetic toward the Jews, were silent, as no defense was possible in so black a case.

Then it occurred to someone to make an investigation. Three deputies of the Duma went to the spot in person and discovered that in the entire village of Kuzhi there were only six Jewish families—all but one living in miserable huts without cellar space; that the one cellar in a Jewish house was only nine by seven and too low for a man to stand upright in; that it could not possibly hide enough German soldiers to attack, much less annihilate, a Russian detachment; that the few Jews of the town had left it, with the permission of the military authorities, on April 27th, the day before the town had been attacked by the Germans, and were known to have spent the night of April 27–28 at another village, Minstok; and, finally, that no Jews had been tried, convicted or executed at Kuzhi; in brief, that the story was, from beginning to end, an absolute fabrication.

This Kuzhi story was branded as a lie by the Jewish Deputy Friedman in the Duma on July 19 (August 1), 1915. He was supported by the non-Jewish Deputy Kerensky, who denounced the fabrication in these words:

“I declare now from this rostrum that I personally went to the town of Kuzhi to verify the accusation that the Jewish population of Kuzhi had committed a treacherous assault on the Russian army, and I feel it my duty to reiterate that this is but an ignominious slander. There was no such case, and under local conditions there could be none.”

[50]

But the refutation of the lie was not spread throughout Russia. It has been consistently suppressed by the military censor, and to this day the great majority of the Russian people, in the absence of disproof, fully believe the story.

The Shavli Case

Another spy story widely circulated in the anti-Semitic press was that the Jews of Shavli had been expelled from Kurland because they were detected in the act of leading the German troops on to Shavli. This also was printed in all the military and semi-official newspapers of Russia and from there reprinted in the general press. The newspaper “Dehn” pointed out the absurdity of this and similar charges:[28]

“Accepting the story as it stands, without demanding the names of the Jews found guilty, or any other details, let us simply examine the map. Shavli is not in Kurland at all. It is in the province of Kovno, and is 50 versts from the nearest point in Kurland, and more than 50 versts from the nearest point inhabitated by Jews. The Germans, we know, moved to Shavli, not through Kurland, but from the opposite direction. The charge, if true, would therefore mean that the Jews of Kurland went 100 versts out of their way in an entirely strange territory in order to commit treason by communicating with Germans. This is obvious nonsense. Nor is it less obvious that this fiction has been manufactured out of whole cloth. And this is how it was manufactured: Reports reached the newspapers that the Jews of Kurland were being expelled. The anti-Semitic papers at once argued that if the Jews were being expelled they must have committed some treason, and since the line of the German advance was known to be in the general direction of Shavli, and since these people were too lazy to consult the map, they promptly decided that the expulsion must have been due to the fact that the Jews of Kurland had guided the Germans to Shavli.”

And so this preposterous story was started on its way.

[51]

Other Spy Stories

No story was too absurd to be given credibility and systematic circulation. It was reported, and seriously believed, that at a place unnamed and a time unknown some Jew had enclosed a million and half roubles in a coffin and shipped the coffin to Germany. The chief Rabbi and the Jewish community of Warsaw telegraphed to the “Novoe Vremya” and several other leading papers, protesting against this monstrous slander against the Jews at a time when their sons were shedding their blood freely on the battlefields. The “Novoe Vremya” declined to publish the telegram.[29]

The Jewish community of Petrograd appealed to the Grand Duke Nicholas, then Commander-in-Chief of the Russian armies, in these words:

“The entire Jewish people would cast out, with scorn and indignation, those base criminals who, forgetting duty and conscience, would, in this year of universal sacrifice, break their sacred vows of loyalty to the fatherland. Such treachery is alien to our faith and was never known to exist among Jews to any greater extent than among other peoples. And never yet, in the course of the centuries, no matter to what persecutions the Jews, under the influence of prejudice created by their devotion to their ancient faith and customs, may have been subjected, has any government denounced ALL of its subjects as traitors to their country. This is the first time in all history that such an attitude has been assumed by any government toward the Jews. At the very time that our sons are fighting in the ranks of the Russian [52] army for the honor and glory of Russia, we, their fathers, are held responsible for the acts of a few criminals and are being persecuted for their vile deeds, aimed at the betrayal of our own sons. Never has any man or any people been subjected to torment greater than this, to humiliation less bearable or more offensive to honor or self-respect.... Your Imperial Highness! In this sad hour of trial we long to implant in our people faith in a brighter future, we long to preserve that tie of loyalty towards our common country which is so essential for the welfare of all the peoples inhabiting Russia, and which was demonstrated so powerfully when the insolent enemy first threw down the gauntlet to Russia. We do not wish to admit discord, despair and sorrow where should reign only unity, harmony, hope. And we dare to appeal to your Imperial Highness in the hope that measures insulting to us will cease to be applied, that the stamp of outcast be removed from our faces and that we may be permitted, as loyal sons of our country, freed from all suspicion, to use our whole strength in the struggle with the common enemy.”

No reply was received to this appeal; on the contrary, the policy of fastening upon the Jews all the blame for Russian defeats was carried out consistently by the military machine. The “Russki Invalid,” the official journal of the War Department, in the spring of 1915, definitely accused the Jews of disloyalty to the State and of sympathy for Germany, and openly attributed Russian disaster to this cause.[30]

[53]

Military orders like the following were common:

ORDER No. 89.

Issued to the Soldiers of the Fortified Region, Fortress Novogeorgievsk, Nov. 27, 1914.

“The German newspapers print articles declaring that among the Russian Jews the Germans find reliable allies who, besides supplying them with food, are often the best and unpaid spies, ready to enter any service injurious to the cause of Russia, and that in German victory the Jews see their salvation from Imperial oppression and Polish persecution. Similar information continues to come in from the army.

In order to protect the army from the harmful activities of the Jewish population, the Commander-in-Chief has ordered that the forces of occupation take hostages from among the Jewish population, warning the inhabitants that in case of treacherous activities on the part of any one of the local inhabitants not only during the period of our occupation of a given inhabited point, but also after our leaving it, the hostages will be executed, which order is to be carried out in case of necessity.

Upon occupation of inhabited points, careful searches are to be made to find out whether there are any arrangements for wireless telegraphy, signaling, pigeon stations, underground telegraphs, and so forth, and the full penalty of the law is to be meted out to anyone connected with this.

Reference: Telegram by General Oranovsky of this year under No. 3432. Signed, Chief of the Fortified Region.

General of the Cavalry, Bobyr.”

[54]

This order was issued from the press at six o’clock in the evening, December 2, 1914, and immediately proved profitable to the dregs of the Russian soldiery, as was demonstrated at a court martial held in Lomza, where it was proven that three members of a signal corps had “planted” a telephone in the motion picture theater of a Jew named Eisenbiegel, and had then arrested him and demanded 5,000 roubles blackmail. In the course of the trial it developed that one of the men was responsible for the hanging of no less than seventeen innocent Jews as spies solely because they were unable or unwilling to pay the blackmail demanded by him.[31]

Even the loyalty of Jewish soldiers was officially questioned. Order No. 1193 of the General Staff, dated April 27–May 10, 1915, commands all the troops “To watch the Jewish soldiers—especially their readiness to surrender as prisoners—and in general, their entire conduct.”

But the publication and circulation of orders like these reacted disastrously upon the Russian arms. By branding the entire Jewish population as traitorous the military authorities encouraged the Poles to fabricate new slanders, the spread of which only served to heighten the distrust of the populations and to make the fighting area of Poland a quagmire for the Russian armies. The troops did not know whom to trust or distrust. Instead of fighting on friendly ground, welcomed and supported by the moral and economic resources of the civilian population, the Russians fought on ground undermined by hatred, dissension and distrust.

When they began to realize this state of affairs some of the Russian commanders made desperate efforts to check the spy mania.

[55]

General P. Kurlov issued the following order in the Baltic provinces on February 25, 1915:

ORDER No. 27

“Of late, more and more anonymous denunciations and reports concerning crimes and actions closely connected with the peculiar conditions of war times are coming in in the provinces given over to my supervision. Such reports not only lack confirmation in most cases, but investigations prove that they are caused in the majority of cases not by a patriotic desire to help the military authorities, but by personal reasons of revenge, not only not admissible in war time, but also particularly criminal. By distracting the attention of officials from their necessary duties, these reports promote disorder and excitement among the local population.

“I have asked the various Governors to order the police officials under their supervision not to institute any investigations on the basis of anonymous denunciations except in extraordinary cases (Article 300 of the Criminal Code), but to forward these denunciations to me and wait for orders.

“In the case of signed denunciations and reports, the police officials must first of all question the denunciator, warning him of the consequence of a false denunciation, and if any signs of crime should be established in the courses of the examination, he should be dealt with according to Articles 250 to 261 of the Criminal Code, or the Governors should impose penalties in their administrative capacity. I order the police officials [56] to strictly follow Article 254 of the Code when making an investigation. Witnesses found to bear false reports shall be subjected to criminal prosecution according to Article 940 of the Code.

“In view of the particularly criminal character of false denunciations in war time, I shall apply the most rigorous measures to those found guilty of this offense.

“I have asked the Governors to make this order public to all.”[32]

SUPPRESSION OF YIDDISH PRESS AND SPEECH

It appears also that the similarity of the Yiddish and German languages further laid the Jews open to distrust. The use of Yiddish, in conversation, in correspondence, over the telephone, in the theatre, etc., was prohibited by legal, military and civil authorities under penalty of heavy fine and imprisonment. In Lodz, Vilna, Riga, Warsaw, and other Jewish centers, the performance of plays in Yiddish was prohibited and theatres closed.

Letters from foreign countries to Russia, in any language except Yiddish were generally passed by the censor after scrutiny, but letters in Yiddish were as a rule not delivered at all.

In July, 1915, the commander of the Russian forces issued the following absolute order:

“On the basis of the power entrusted to me according to Paragraph 6, Article 415, Section 6, I prohibit postal and telegraph communications within the district occupied by the army entrusted to me, in the Jewish, German, and Hungarian languages.”[33]

[57]

By this order the Russian government not only branded the entire Jewish people as spies and traitors, but also prevented hundreds of thousands of Jewish soldiers at the front from communicating with relatives and friends, because many of the soldiers had been prevented by educational restrictions from learning to read and write Russian. To the Jewish soldier unable to read or write was thus denied even that scant comfort which his Russian comrades might derive from the stereotyped communications checked on the regulation postal card and mailed by field-post.

At the beginning of the war the military censors assumed command of the entire press of Russia. That they used their power with the utmost unfairness against the Jewish press was charged without contradiction in the Duma by Professor Milyukov, Deputies Bomash, Suchanov and others, who pointed out that if the aim of the censor was to suppress every truth and encourage every lie against the Jews, they could not possibly have pursued a more consistent policy. Deputy Bomash furnished the following concrete instances of perversion of facts by the censorship.

1. It systematically expunged or mutilated the names of Jews to whom the cross of St. George had been awarded.[34]

[58]

2. When the Mayor of Petrograd congratulated the Jewish community upon the heroic conduct of a lad of 13, named Kaufman, the censor suppressed the fact that Kaufman was a Jew, and that the community referred to was the Jewish community.

3. Stories in the Russian press of the valor of Jews in the French armies are either suppressed or the Jewish names cut out.

4. A news item referring to the fact that General Semenov, whom Jewish soldiers had saved from capture by the Germans, was treating Jews kindly was suppressed by the censor.

5. Letters of regimental commanders to the parents of Jewish hussars congratulating them on the valor of their sons, or notifying them of medals of honor bestowed upon them, were suppressed by the censor.

6. The military censorship also suppressed news of an absolutely non-military nature, whenever it might in any manner have been construed as friendly to Jews. Thus, a news item referring to the non-sectarian activities of the National Relief Committee, headed by the Princess Tatyana, daughter of the Czar, was suppressed. A news [59] item regarding the disapproval of the Council of Ministers of the policy of expelling Jews en masse and of wholesale charges of treachery was also suppressed.

7. Even the official declaration of Count Bobrinski, Military-Governor of Galicia, referring to the correctness of the conduct of the Jews of Galicia, was suppressed.

8. But—outrageously false items published in the notoriously anti-Semitic papers were generally passed by the censor without hesitation. The “Novoe Vremya,” the “Russkoe Znamya,” and other anti-Semitic organs, systematically published reports of wholesale Jewish desertions, treachery, spying, etc., without at any time producing an iota of evidence. Thus, “Russkoe Znamya,” declared that the loyalty of not a single Jewish soldier could be depended upon. The “Novoe Vremya” declared that the Jews were without exception embittered enemies of the Russian army, and that during the Japanese war 18,000 out of 27,000 soldiers voluntarily surrendered as prisoners to the Japanese. Stories without name, date or place to the effect that small Polish boys warned the Russian soldiers to take nothing from Jews because everything they would furnish was poisoned were passed by the censor, and made much of by the press. The notorious Kuzhi canard was not only passed by the censor and printed in the official and semi-official press of Russia, but the censors even hinted to that section of the press which hesitated to publish a tale so manifestly absurd that future relations with the censorship might be imperilled if the story were [60] not given proper publicity. Editors received a continuous stream of circulars forbidding the touching of questions which had absolutely no relation to the war.

9. When the great writers and publicists of Russia decided that it would be desirable, for the honor of Russia, to speak a good word for the Jews and thereby indirectly deprecate before the world the merciless governmental policy, the pamphlet containing their symposium was suppressed by the military censor. Even the preliminary letter of inquiry sent out by these eminent Russians, soliciting information as to the participation of Jews in the war, was suppressed. The Jewish weekly, the “Novy Voskhod,” was fined 2,000 roubles and ultimately suppressed because of the publication of this letter.

In spite of these suspensions, however, the six million Jews of Russia still continued, in a measure, to inform themselves as to the conduct of their sons in the field, and as to matters of Jewish interest in general, through the half dozen, or more, Jewish newspapers, which managed to struggle on in spite of the repeated fines and suspensions imposed by the censor. But on July 5, 1915, the entire Jewish press was suppressed. Lately several papers have been revived in new form, but today the Jews of Russia are practically in the dark. They have no effective means of communicating with one another or with the Russian public. They can neither prevent the instigation of calumnies nor refute them when spread abroad. They live in a constant state of terror lest some new Kuzhi slander set the country aflame against them.

[61]

WHOLESALE EXPULSIONS

This public official distrust of the Jewish population of Russia increased with the Russian reverses, and the assumption by the authorities that the loyalty of all the Jews was open to suspicion gave added impetus to the spy mania, set the Jews apart as a dangerous people and delivered them helpless into the hands of the Cossack soldiery and the hostile Poles. The atrocities committed upon the Jews in Poland and Galicia have already been referred to. But a more disastrous, though less spectacular, consequence of the governmental attitude towards the Jews was the systematic expulsion of the entire Jewish population from the war zone, an act which assumed the character of a merciless war by Russia upon its own population.

From the very beginning of the war there were individual cases of Jews, who, being suspected of bad faith, were ordered to leave a given locality. There were also sporadic expulsions, or rather a forced exodus, of the entire civilian population of localities which the authorities desired to clear for military operations. But it was in March, 1915, that the authorities began systematically to expel Jews from all the Polish provinces, even those not occupied by German troops, and from the governments of Kovno and Kurland, thus affecting about 30 per cent. of the entire Jewish population of the Empire. Even the Jewish deputy from the Kovno district, Friedman, was expelled, in spite of his constitutional privileges as a member of the Duma.

The first sufferers were the Jewish inhabitants of the smaller towns, because these were readily segregated. In a very brief space of time the region where the Jews constitute over eighty per cent. of the population of the [62] small towns was absolutely denuded of Jewish inhabitants.[35] It was only the rapid invasion of this territory by the Germans which prevented the complete expulsion of every one of the two million or more Jews who inhabited this area. And those who have remained in this territory for the present have been promised, by decree of the supreme military authorities of Russia, immediate expulsion as soon as the Russian troops regain a foothold here.[36]

The enforcement of the expulsion orders was carried out ruthlessly. The time generally allowed was twenty-four hours, rarely forty-eight hours. The Jewish inhabitants of the governments of Kurland and Kovno were given from five to twenty-four hours’ notice.[37]

The Jews of the city of Kovno were notified on the evening of May 3 (16) to leave not later than midnight of May 5 (18), 1915.

Cruelty of Officials

In a speech delivered in the Duma the non-Jewish deputy Dzubinsky declared:

“As a representative of our 5th Siberian division I was myself on the scene and can testify with what incredible cruelty the expulsion of the Jews from the Province of Radom took place. The whole population was driven out within a few hours during the night. At 11 o’clock the people were informed that they had to leave, with a threat that any one found at daybreak would be hanged. And so in the darkness of the night began the exodus of the Jews to the nearest town, Ilzha, thirty versts away. Old men, invalids and paralytics had to be carried on people’s arms because there were no vehicles.

“The police and the gendarmes treat the Jewish refugees precisely like criminals. At one station, for instance, the Jewish [63] Commission of Homel was not even allowed to approach the trains to render aid to the refugees or to give them food and water. In one case a train which was conveying the victims was completely sealed and when finally opened most of the inmates were found half dead, sixteen down with scarlet fever and one with typhus....

“In some places the Governors simply made sport of the innocent victims; among those who particularly distinguished themselves were the governors of Poltava, Minsk, and Ekaterinoslav ... who illegally took away the passports of the victims and substituted provisional certificates instructing them to appear at given places in one of five provinces at a given date. When they presented themselves at these designated places they were shuttled back and forth from point to point at the whim or caprice of local officials.

“In Poltava the Jewish Relief Committee was officially reprimanded by the governor for assuming the name ‘Committee for the Aid of Jewish Sufferers from the War,’ and ordered to rename itself ‘Committee to Aid the Expelled’ on the ground, as stated explicitly in the order, that the Jews had been expelled because they were politically unreliable—and, therefore, presumably, deserved no help.”[38]

No distinction of age, sex or physical condition was made. As most of the able-bodied young men were at the front, those affected by the expulsions were the persons least able to bear up under the suffering and privation entailed—old men and women, children, the sick from the hospitals, the insane from the asylums, even wounded and crippled Jewish soldiers—all were driven out en masse, without the slightest regard for human comfort or decency. Women in labor were given no consideration and many births occurred along the route. Mothers were separated from their children, entire families were broken up and dispersed all over Russia. The Jewish and liberal Russian press is filled with long lists of victims seeking their lost relatives. Where transportation was provided, the exiles were [64] packed in cattle-cars and forwarded to their destination on a way-bill, like so much freight. In many places thousands of them were forced for weeks at a time to stay in congested villages which were absolutely unable to afford them a roof and shelter, or to sleep in the freight cars or in the open fields. And tens of thousands were forced to tramp weary distances along the open road, or, in the fear of the soldiery, to take to the back roads, the woods and swamps, there to die of hunger and exposure.

The total number of Jews who have been expelled to date is unknown. Expulsions are still going on. At the beginning of June, 1915, at the deliberation of the Petrograd Central Committee for the Relief of Jewish War Sufferers, which was participated in by the most prominent provincial committees, it was calculated that the total number of homeless Jews ruined by the expulsion—in Poland and the northwestern district—is 600,000 at the least.[39] After the Kovno-Kurland expulsions there collected in the Vilna government alone some 200,000 exiles.[40] In Riga there gathered, by May 18 (31), some 9,600 families or 42,000 persons.[41] Up to August 6, 1915, there collected in the government of Volhynia upwards of 250,000 refugees.[42]

Hostages

There is evidence to indicate that the Russian government, overwhelmed by the consequences of the expulsion policy, has suggested to the military authorities the [65] advisability of repatriating the exiles; but these authorities have refused to consider the suggestion except on condition that the Jews voluntarily give hostages from among their own ranks, these hostages to include the Rabbi and other leading Jews. This proposal has been universally rejected by the Jews through their representative in the Duma, Deputy Friedman, in a letter to the President of the Council of Ministers:

“As a deputy from the province of Kovno, from which I, together with all other Jews, have now been expelled, I consider it my duty to call the attention of your excellency to the following:—

“According to the latest decrees of the authorities the Jews who have been expelled from their homes are to be allowed to return on condition that they give hostages. This monstrous condition, which the government aims to impose upon its own subjects, the Jewish people will never accept. They prefer to wander about homeless and to die of starvation rather than to submit to demands which insult their self-respect as citizens and Jews. They have honestly performed their duty toward their country and will continue to do so to the very end. No sacrifices frighten them and no persecutions will make them swerve from the path of honor. But neither will any persecutions force them to accept a lie, to give testimony, through base submission, that the monstrous accusations against them are true. When the insolent enemy threw down the gauntlet to Russia the Jews arose to shield their country with their breasts, and I had the honor to appear at the historic session of the Duma as their spokesman in the expression of this spontaneous, inspiring enthusiasm. The Jews gladly assumed all the sacrifices demanded of them by their country because of a feeling of duty to the land to which they are bound by century old, historic bonds, and also because of a sincere hope for a brighter future. And I may say with deep conviction that even now, after all that we have gone through, this sense of duty is as strong as ever. But with the very same deep conviction I consider it my right and my duty to declare that no privations will shake our firm conviction that as Russian subjects we cannot be made the victims of measures applicable only to enemies and traitors; that we consider ourselves and shall never [66] cease to consider ourselves above all suspicion of treason to our duty and our vows. If the authorities really desire to return the Jewish people to the places from which they were driven away by order of the authorities they must take cognizance of this feeling which I can testify under oath, on the basis of many conversations and observations, is universal among us. This permission to return under shameful conditions is only a new and senseless insult. So the entire Jewish population feels, and this feeling is shared by me, their representative.”

Misery of Refugees

This sudden uprooting of an entire people from the land in which it has dwelt for centuries has brought irretrievable disaster to the Jews of Poland and Russia. It has been estimated that nearly three of the six million Jews of Russia and Poland are now without means of support.

Overwhelming and incalculable as the economic loss may be, the moral losses far exceed them in intensity. Jewish communal life is disrupted. Many of the cities and towns from which the expulsions took place were centers of Jewish culture. Most of the Jewish colleges and schools have been closed and many of the buildings and synagogues have been destroyed. It is safe to say that these losses cannot be repaired for generations to come.

The demoralization and pauperization of the individual refugees is painfully noticeable everywhere. Beggary, which was practically unknown among the Jews, is now only too frequent.

The appalling misery of the refugees is fully described in the appended report of the Russian Jewish Committee for the Relief of War Sufferers (see p. 98). The Jews of the Empire living outside of the war zone, have assumed [67] a system of self-taxation which, added to their normal—or rather normally excessive—burden of taxation is practically impoverishing them. The small Jewish community of Moscow alone gives about 85,000 roubles a month, ranging from an average of 200 roubles per month imposed upon 265 manufacturers down to the 10 roubles per month imposed upon their poorest clerks. Other cities are contributing in proportion but they cannot possibly keep pace with the ever-growing need.

Unfair Administration of Relief

And in the midst of this catastrophe the old struggle between the Poles and Jews has continued with unabated ferocity. The local relief committees refused to accept Jews as representatives, denied Jews any help whatsoever and even drove them away, by intimidation and force, from the relief stations supported by their own people. Of seventy-one relief committees operating in Poland, fifty-two contained no Jewish members, although the Jews constituted nearly one-half of the urban population and thirteen to fourteen per cent. of the rural population in these places. In the other nineteen committees the Jewish membership constituted scarcely ten per cent. of the total, although the Jewish population ran from thirty-five to sixty-eight per cent. of the total population in the cities and from ten to fifteen per cent. in the rural districts.[43] And in most of these places the Jews had contributed the major part of the relief funds. Even institutions supported solely by Jewish contributions were expropriated by the Poles.

Thus “the magnificently equipped Hospital for the Wounded, in Warsaw, created at the expense of the [68] Jewish Kehillah, which had refitted the Roman Hotel for the purpose, has been running until now under the official name of the Warsaw Local Relief Committee. But this has turned out to be an anti-Semite organization without a single Jewish representative, its board being made up of rabid Judeophobes, who feel no scruples in the methods and means of their anti-Jewish policy. Private donations, the personal labor of Jews—all this has gone into Polish institutions, all this has disappeared in the Polish river-bed,” declares “Novy Voskhod,” Sept. 11 (24), 1914.

The present attitude of the Jews of Russia toward this problem is well reflected in a letter, published in a recent issue of “Evreyskaya Zhizn,”[44] from a Jew, the owner of a salt mine, who had been invited, among others, to contribute salt for the poorer people of Warsaw, without distinction of race or creed. He replied, in effect, that the proposal met with his deepest sympathy, but he took the liberty of inquiring as to who would have charge of the distribution of the salt. “Everybody knows,” he wrote, “the intolerant attitude of the Polish Relief Committee toward the Jews. This makes us doubt whether your high principle would be carried out conscientiously if administered by Polish hands. The Warsaw Committee is particularly distrusted, and it would be extremely unpleasant for me to feel that the necessaries that we contributed should be withheld from our own fellow Jews. On the other hand, we would welcome gladly every effort on the part of Russian organizations to undertake to cooperate with Poles and Jews in this matter to insure an equitable distribution.”

When the Central Citizens’ Committee of Warsaw was dissolved by the German governor of Poland, in [69] September, 1915, its accounts showed that it had distributed over eleven million roubles ($5,500,000) since the outbreak of the war, of which the Jews received scarcely 100,000, although they constitute one-sixth of the population and the funds had been gathered with the express understanding that the distribution be absolutely without discrimination between Poles and Jews. The Liquidation Commission which disposed of the balance on hand at the time of the dissolution of the Central Committee—some 1,290,000 roubles—allotted it all to Polish institutions. Although there are 300,000 Jews in Warsaw, the majority of them in dire need, not a rouble was offered for their relief.

Finally it must be noted that the occupation of Poland by the German forces has afforded little relief to the Jews, as the scarcity of food in Germany precludes the shipment of any considerable quantities of provisions to ameliorate the distress of the starving Jews of Poland.

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PROTESTS OF LIBERAL RUSSIA

The cruelty of the government’s policy toward the Jews has not received the support of the Russian people, as the numerous protests uttered in the Duma, in public assemblies and in the press clearly indicate. When it is remembered that those non-Jews who, in Russia, dare to utter a word in favor of the despised Jews, risk their position and prestige to a degree unparalleled in any other country, the following calendar of protests and manifestoes constitutes a body of evidence against the Russian government which must compel conviction.

These protests have been grouped, for convenience, into four classes:

THE VOICE OF THE DUMA

Early in the session of the Duma the Left groups proposed an interpellation of the Government with respect to its illegal acts against the Jews. After some debate the proposed questions were referred to the Committee on Interpellations, which reported them out, on August 30, 1915, in this form:

I. Do the president of the Council of Ministers and the Ministers of the Interior and Justice know of the illegal conduct of their administrative officers with respect to the following:

1. That officers of the prison administration received persons taken by the military authorities as hostages from the local Jewish population of Riga, Prushkov ... etc.?

2. That the prosecuting attorneys took no steps to obtain the immediate release of these [71] persons, accused of no crime and illegally imprisoned?

3. That the expelled were driven by agents of the police in Vilikomir, Zhagory and Shadov into freight cars inadequate for the accommodation of one-tenth of them, and that the remainder, including children, aged men and women, and invalids were compelled to follow afoot?

4. That the officers of the local governments took no steps to check the repeated robberies by the local population of the property left by the exiles?

5. That the officers of the Gendarmerie of Homel prohibited the supplying of food to the exiles, even though they were at the point of exhaustion from hunger and thirst?

6. That in Novozybkov individuals who sent telegrams appealing for help were arrested?

7. That the officers of the Gendarmerie, with armed threats, refused to admit to sealed cars persons who brought food to the expelled at the station of Bielitsa, on the Poliess railroad?

8. That the police officers locked the exiles in sealed cars for several days at a time?

9. That in the shipment of these exiles from Zolotonosh to Kovno and back some of them were kept in the cars ten days?

10. That the local government administration of the cities of Minsk, Samara and Rostov required the reprinting in the local paper of the story of Jewish treason in the village of Kuzhi, first published in “Nash Viestnik”?

11. That the local administration of Tashkent ordered prayer for the delivery of the army from the treachery of the Jews?

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II. If the illegal acts of the authorities are known to the indicated individuals what steps were taken by them towards the punishment of the guilty and the prevention of similar breaches of law in the future?

The significance of this interpellation cannot be overestimated, insofar as the facts implied in these questions are officially accepted by the great standing committee of the Duma as worthy of cognizance. Had the questions originally proposed by the Left groups been without foundation they would have been rejected without reference to the Committee on Interpellations; and had the Committee on Interpellations found, upon examination of the evidence underlying each question by both the Right and Left deputies on the Committee, that the evidence was defective or inadequate, the interpellation would never have been reported out in this form. The fact that it was so reported indicates that the evidence was incontrovertible, and was so accepted by the Liberals and reactionaries alike. The report of the Committee is dated August 30, 1915, but as the Duma was prorogued immediately afterwards, the Government’s answer to the interpellation is not known.

In the course of the debates on these and other questions affecting the Jews the expressed attitude of the representatives of the great bulk of the Russian population left no doubt of their absolute opposition to the Government on the Jewish question.[45]

Professor Milyukov, the leader of the Constitutional Democrats, declared on July 19 (August 1), 1915:

“The strongest factor in the disruption of our national unity was the government’s policy toward our alien subjects. The foul [73] play upon the obscure racial prejudices of the masses, with the customary weapon of this kind of strife—anti-Semitism and the persecution of all dissenting nationalities or religions—has been exercised with unparalleled effrontery. Under the mask of military precaution, measures worse than credible are taken against crimes that are imaginary.... At a time when nations are struggling for the liberties and rights of small peoples, such terrible deeds embitter our friends and evoke joy among our enemies.” (Loud applause from the left.)

Deputy Kerensky. “We are fighting this war in a territory occupied by non-Russian nationalities. But did not our government, this very year, cause these peoples to doubt the wisdom of the path they took a year ago, when they linked their destiny with ours?”

Deputy Tchkheidze. Aug. 3 (16), 1915: “It is well known to you that the Government régime has been based on Jewish oppression and that at all critical moments it aimed its blows first of all at the Jews, because they were in the line of least resistance....

“A year ago the war began and at once accusations of treachery against the Jews were started by the Government. To-day Russia and the whole world knows who is to blame for the condition in which Russia found herself. The guilty ones were not at all the Jews, as the whole country will confirm, but those who stuffed their pockets with the money which they made on Government orders for army supplies (shouts from the left: “That’s true!”) The guilty ones were those who, with the aid of men like Myasoyodyeff, Grotgus and other traitors, betrayed Russia....

“This is supposed to be a war for liberty, fraternity, and equality, but what justice is there in making a whole nation answer for the crimes of individuals, granting that there are any?

“In the name of what truth is the Kuzhi slander being published in the ‘Pravitelstvenny Viestnik?’

“In the name of what truth are the various periodical publications ordered to reprint this communication under penalty of a fine?

“What justice demands that a Jewish volunteer who has several times been wounded be expelled within twenty-four hours when he tries to find a place in Russia to recover from his wounds?

“In the name of what humanity is it forbidden to hand food to starving Jewish refugees cooped up in freight trains? In the name[74] of what brotherhood is one part of the army aroused against the Jewish soldiers who are in the trenches side by side with our own soldiers?

“We accuse the Germans of breaking the laws of warfare, of using poison gases and mutilating prisoners. Such acts can call forth only indignation and protest. Let these acts be a stain upon the ruling classes of Germany. But, gentlemen, in the name of what laws of humanity are orders issued to the Russian army to drive peaceful Jews ahead of the troops and to expose them to fire?

“In the name of what laws of humanity are Jewish-Russian subjects taken as hostages and put into prisons and tortured and shot?

“We denounced the Germans for having destroyed Louvain and the Cathedral of Rheims; but I ask you in the name of what ethical or esthetic principles is a Jewish woman who seeks refuge in the synagogue violated?”

Baron Rosen, former Russian Ambassador to the United States, also protested outspokenly against the continuation of the anti-Jewish policy of the Government in a speech before the Council of the Empire, Aug. 22 (Sept. 4), 1915. (See Appendix, p. 117.)

RESOLUTIONS OF CONSTITUTIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY

The leading political party of Russia—the Constitutional Democratic Party—officially voiced its sentiments on the Jewish question at a national convention of the Party, held at Petrograd on June 19–21 (O. S. June 6–8), 1915, at which the Central Committee of the Party submitted a comprehensive report which was adopted unanimously, and which, summarized in the form of a resolution, was ordered published. This resolution, after citing the loyalty and patriotism of the Jews at the outbreak of the war, continues:

[75]

“This intense spirit of patriotism manifested by the Jews in the hour of Russia’s danger seemed for a time to have broken down the rooted prejudices of the Government and to have cleared the way for the recognition in Russia, of that civic equality which is accorded the Jews throughout the civilized world. But this would have deprived our reactionaries, those champions of an outlived past, of their old and well-tested weapon of black demagoguery—anti-Semitism. And so we see that under the direct influence of these notorious Jew-baiters measures were early adopted by the Government to set the army and the people against the Jews. Every advantage was taken of the exigencies of war. Isolated cases of espionage, likely to occur among the border populations of all nations, were seized upon as a basis for universal accusations and furnished the occasion for the invention of incredible myths and rumors circulated exclusively to the injury of the Jews.... The Jews have been held collectively responsible for the acts of individuals among them—a policy which outrages the most elementary sense of justice, a policy which is no longer sanctioned by the laws of any civilized land, a monstrous survival of the remote past.... Needless to mention the spread of discord and hatred, the growth of mutual suspicion and distrust among the races inhabitating Russia which must of necessity follow such a policy....

“Not only in the name of brotherhood; not only in the name of that harmony so necessary where different nationalities are fated to live under the shelter of a common government; not [76] only for the sake of keeping alive among the Jewish people, now being driven to despair, some hope of a brighter future, and some faith in that progress of which they have ever been the valiant champions, but also for the sake of the attainment of that ideal of the Russian people—the elevation of our beloved Fatherland to the status of a truly enlightened empire—must we offer united opposition against the forces of reaction.... Our adversaries hope to continue, even after the war, to use the poisoned weapon of primitive race hatred which they have used until now. It is our task to demonstrate to the masses of the people that they are again being duped, that their base passions are now being aroused in order to distract their attention from their own vital interests. We must continue, as before, to point out, firmly and persistently, that there is only one path to a brighter future for Russia, the same path along which the entire civilized world has traveled, and that along this road there is only one solution of the Jewish question—a solution demanded by the most elementary principles of civilized government—and that is to grant them, as individuals, full civic rights, and as a people, the right to free racial and cultural self-development.”

A striking incident occurred during the debate upon this resolution. One of the leaders of the party, Maklakov, a brother of the former Minister of the Interior, advanced a plea in extenuation of the alleged Jewish treacheries.

“The Jews have suffered such cruel persecutions in Russia,” he remarked, “that they might well be excused even if these spy stories were found to be true.”

[77]

“We spurn this right to baseness,” cried out former deputy Vinaver, a Jew. “Our loyalty is not for sale. We are not newcomers here. Our ancestors have lived here for hundreds of years. We are patriots because we feel ourselves bound to Russia. We believe in Russia even more than you do.”

PROTESTS OF PUBLIC OFFICIALS, CITIES, ETC.

Various municipalities outside the Pale have petitioned the government to give equal rights to the Jews.

The Municipal Council of Smolensk, at its session of December 19, 1914 (January 1, 1915), passed a resolution, with only two dissenting votes, petitioning the government “to abolish all measures which restrict the rights of Russian subjects of the Jewish faith, and, in particular, to abolish the Pale of Settlement.” At this session Councillor P. V. Mikhailoff said:

“We are referring not only to those families of Jewish soldiers at the front, to families fleeing from devastated Poland, but even to the soldiers themselves who are placed hors de combat because of their wounds, after having valiantly served in our ranks. Thus, for example, a Jewish soldier wounded in the hand and in the breast, having parents in this city, obtained permission only with the utmost difficulty to stay here three months. At the end of this period he must go back to the Pale and live there without means or medical attention, although he is threatened with tuberculosis.... This is merely one case in thousands which prove to us the horrors of the situation in which Jewish soldiers and their families are placed because of their deprivation of civic rights. Those families whose members have shed their blood for Russia are ruined by the invasion of the enemy. They arrive here to find a refuge from starvation and death, from ruin and violation. We must remember that nearly a half million Jews are fighting side by side with our brave warriors against the common enemy. As to the civilian Jews, they have no less patriotism or enthusiasm than the other inhabitants.... His Majesty, [78] the Emperor, in passing through Lublin, Grodno, and Tiflis, has deigned to express his thanks to the Jews for their faithfulness to our common country. The conclusion from this is clear: There is no serious reason to maintain any longer those measures of restriction so futile and so pernicious and so malevolent.... But the Jewish question is not merely a question of abstract justice. The economic and moral development of our city life is seriously retarded by the restrictions placed upon one part of the population....”[46]

In August, 1914, a meeting of municipality, Zemstvo, Stock Exchange, and University officials and merchants, at Odessa, resolved that the country would benefit by the abolition of all repressive laws and the opening of educational institutions to all citizens.[47]

In August, 1914, the Moscow Conference of Mayors also forcibly condemned the expulsion policy of some governors and resolved to use its influence to ameliorate the position of the Jews.[48]

So also the Congress of Delegates from cities of Western Siberia petitioned for the abolition of all Jewish disabilities.[49]

Within the past few months the municipalities of Samara, Saratov, Ekaterinoslav and other important centers; the Siberian Municipal Conference, and the Conference of twenty Zemstvos held at Yaroslavl, all petitioned the government and the Duma to remove the disabilities affecting the Jews of Russia.

PROTESTS OF TRADE AND PROFESSIONAL ORGANIZATIONS

The Military-Industrial Committee, organized in May, 1915, to integrate the economic resources of the country on a war basis, met on August 25, 1915, and condemned [79] the incompetence of the government openly. In his presidential address P. P. Riabushinski deplored the tardiness of the government in calling upon the social forces of the country. “This leadership of the country has been attempted by persons incapable of leadership, and it is now evident to everybody that a new personnel is needed within the government.... We have observed the workings of the government departments from the very beginning of the war, and have come to the conclusion that these departments are unable to cope with the situation. The supply of war material is altogether unorganized, as the army well knows.... The government will from now on transfer to us more and more of its functions. But the longer this is deferred the less benefit will result.... This work cannot be done through a poorly organized government.... The State is a huge business enterprise, whose parts must work harmoniously.... The war has now changed from a struggle of will and spirit into a struggle of machinery. Therefore, the persons entrusted with the defense of the country must know the country.... It cannot be denied that Russia is at the present moment facing a great danger, and we fear that the time may come when our courage will sink.... (censored). Our army is suffering heroically.... (censored). We know that after a while, with the war continuing in the same poor fashion as at present, the government will be ready to meet us half-way, but we also know by experience that it will then be too late and even the very best man called by the government will be unable to accomplish anything.”

This address was met with thunderous applause. Another speaker, Prof. E. L. Zubashov, referring to the Jews, declared that: “The sons of the Jewish nation[80] are now fighting side by side with the Russians for their country. Unfortunately this country has until now been only a step-mother to them. Let us express the hope that it may now become a mother to them.” He therefore proposed a resolution favoring the abolition of all restrictive laws against the Jews. His proposal was met with prolonged applause and was accepted by the convention.[50]

At a meeting of the Free Economic Society—the foremost economic organization of Russia—on January 16, 1915, the following resolution was adopted unanimously:

“The Commission ... has taken into account the exceptionally difficult position in which the Jewish population finds itself, in view of the residence restrictions to which they are subject.

“While they are suffering all the terrors of war together with the rest of the population, the Jewish population, being mainly urban, has suffered particularly from the general disorganization of economic relations not only within the immediate region of military activities, but far beyond.

“Under these conditions it would be a great relief to the suffering population if measures were adopted which would make it easier for them to move about in search of work. In view of the size of our country and the unlimited economic resources of its regions, especially those of the interior, have hardly been touched by the miseries of war. There are regions in the interior of Russia where economic conditions have even improved somewhat, since they have assumed many of the industries abandoned in Poland, and since the commissary department placed large orders here.

“At the same time the Jewish population is even at this exceptional time artificially confined to the cities of Poland and the western provinces by force of existing legal limitations which increases the hardships of war for them. If in time of peace these restrictions, which are economically harmful and morally degrading, are recognized as a relic of barbarism that must be abolished, it[81] is all the more difficult to reconcile ourselves with them at the present time, when hundreds and thousands of Jews serve under the Russian banners on the battlefield.

“In view of these facts the Commission has decided to request the Council of the Free Economic Society to communicate with the government and members of the society who are members of the legislative bodies:—

“To immediately stop the functioning of all restrictive laws relating to the Settlement rights of Jews, and

“To abolish them immediately and permanently by legislative enactment.”[51]

Numerous commercial and technical associations have passed resolutions declaring that the main cause of Russia’s economic backwardness lay in the restrictions placed upon Jews, and that the sole means of combating German predominance over Russian industry and trade is through the abolition of these restrictions. Among these organizations are the national grain, lumber, fur and gold trades; the Chambers of Commerce of Moscow, Petrograd and the leading cities of Russia and Siberia, and the national Congress of Bourses; the Russo-American Chamber of Commerce, etc. Practically every national convention of every industry has petitioned the government to liberate the economic talents of the Jews by the removal of all legal restrictions.

PROTESTS OF RUSSIAN WRITERS AND PUBLICISTS

Just as the commercial and industrial elements of Russia demand equality for the Jews on economic grounds, so the intellectual elements of Russia demand it on broad human grounds.

The great manifesto issued at the beginning of the war by 225 of the leading publicists and writers of Russia, declares:

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“Russia, in the present great war, is straining all her physical and intellectual forces to an extraordinary degree. All the peoples of Russia are taking part in the war, sharing equally in all the labors. We believe that the blood of the fighters is not being shed in vain. We believe that after having borne the horrors of the war, the population will return with increased energy to the work of building for a better and brighter future. This we believe, and we hope that the relations between the different peoples that inhabit Russia will be built up in the future on the eternal foundations of wisdom and justice.

“But at this moment, so important in history, we see with sorrow and consternation that to the sufferings of one of the nationalities inhabiting Russia new distress and new vexations are added. The limitation of the right of education is now felt with particular pain by the Jewish youth. As the Western frontiers are closed the usual exodus to the foreign schools is checked, while in Russia itself the percentage limitations against the Jews in the schools are maintained in force. The Jews of the destroyed towns have no right to leave the Pale of Settlement, a measure which often leads to a disintegration and a division of members of families, wives and children of wounded soldiers not being allowed to visit their husbands and fathers, and being at the same time exposed to all sorts of chicanery. The sorely-tried Jewish nation which has given to the world such precious contributions in the domain of religion, of philosophy, of poetry; which has always shared the travails and trials of Russian life; which has been hurt so often by prejudice and insult; which more than once has proven its love for Russia, and its devotion to her cause, is now again exposed to unjust accusations and persecutions.

“The Russian Jews, who are industriously working with us in all spheres of labor and activity that are accessible to them, have given so many convincing proofs of their sincere desire to be with us, to render service to our cause ... that the limitation of their right of citizenship is not only a crying injustice, but also reacts injuriously upon the very interests of the State. The Russian Empire can, and must, draw its strength from the complete union of all the nationalities inhabiting Russia, and only by the placing of all citizens upon an equal footing will the power of Russia become indestructible.

“Russians, let us remember that the Russian Jew has no other country than Russia, and that nothing is dearer to a man than [83] the soil on which he is born. Let us understand that the prosperity and power of Russia are inseparable from the well-being and the liberty of all the nationalities which constitute its vast Empire. Let us understand this truth, act according to our intelligence and our conscience, and we may be certain that the ultimate disappearance of persecutions against the Jews and their complete emancipation will form one of the conditions of a truly constructive imperial régime.”

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AUSTRIA-HUNGARY

The total estimated Jewish population of Austria-Hungary is about 2,250,000, of which nearly one million were, at the beginning of the war, in the border province of Galicia, in the immediate area of hostilities.

Here, as elsewhere, the Jews manifested their keen loyalty by trooping to the colors even when they were normally exempt, as in the case of the students of the Budapest Rabbinical Seminary, many of whom volunteered, although not required to do so. The Government recognized this loyalty in many ways, particularly in the granting of special privileges with respect to the observances required by the Jewish religious ritual. Thus the Emperor, in his own name, sent 20,000 Tallithim (prayer shawls) for the soldiers in the field during the holidays. When, at Passover, it was discovered that the matzoths for the Jewish troops had been improperly prepared, the Government, at the instance of the Chief Rabbi of Vienna, authorized the wholesale distribution of potatoes to Orthodox Jews.

Hundreds of Jewish soldiers have been decorated on the field of battle, and many were given officers’ commissions.

GALICIA

It was the million Jews of Galicia who were made to feel the full burden of the war. Although their economic condition before the war was greatly inferior to that of the general population, their political condition was one of equality. But the Russian invasion of Galicia, in September, 1914, changed their status overnight. [85] The Russian Governor-General, Count Bobrinski, a notorious anti-Semite, found the political status of the Jews in Galicia most abhorrent to him. He at once proceeded to degrade them to the status of the Russian Jews, and, if possible, still lower. He proposed to his home Government that all Jewish landed property in Galicia be confiscated and the Jews be forbidden to own, lease or rent land; and this, he added, was an immediately imperative step, to be carried out even before the formal annexation of Galicia was announced!

On February 13, 1915, the Grand Duke Nicholas issued an order declaring that “in view of the increase of spying on the part of the Jews, it is decreed that:

1. No person of Jewish nationality may enter Galicia.

2. No persons of Jewish nationality may pass from one district of Galicia into another.

3. Infractions of this decree will be punished by a fine of three thousand roubles ($1,500) or by three months’ imprison­ment.”[52]

The spirit of these documents, communicated to the troops, produced a series of outrages against the Jewish population more horrible even than any perpetrated in Russia. As each town was invaded by the Russians the troops first sought the Jewish quarters, and here they let themselves loose in an orgy of pillage, sack and rapine.

In the town of Bohorodczany there appeared, in January, 1915, a detachment of Austro-Polish troops. They demanded food and quarters and were, of course, supplied. After a brief stay they departed. But the act of the Jews was reported to the Russian commander in Stanislau. He immediately sent a “punitive” expedition of four hundred Cossacks to the town. They set the [86] town on fire, routed out the Jewish women and girls from their places of concealment, assembled them in the square and there held an orgy under the open sky. After their lusts were satisfied they drove the victims under the crack of the whip, half naked and starving, along the roads to Stanislau. One woman, who had risen from childbirth only a few days before, died on the way. One of the physicians of Stanislau, Dr. B., testifies that he alone treated ten cases of women and girls who had been violated.[53]

In Szczerzec, Galicia, the Russian soldiers caught one Jacob Mischel, a town councillor, poured oil over him and burned him alive.[54]

In Dembica, Cossacks raided a synagogue to which the Jews had fled for refuge and prayer, robbed and imprisoned the men, and outraged the women. Those who escaped through the windows were caught by the guards below and men and women were knouted to death. Then the troops set fire to the synagogue.[55]

These are typical cases of outrages perpetrated against the Jewish population of Galicia. Scarcely a town in the line of invasion escaped. The Jewish population fled before the invaders in vast numbers.

There are about 175,000 Jewish refugees in Vienna; 70,000 of these are destitute. There are about 70,000 living in barracks in Bohemia; 8,000 of these are in Prague. There were about 52,000 in Budapest. All fugitives who have settled in Hungary, however, have been removed to Austria proper. Dr. J. Bloch of Vienna, estimates that the total number of Jewish refugees from Galicia is about half a million. The situation of these refugees [87] is somewhat better than that of the Jewish refugees in Russia, inasmuch as the Government has placed them in concentration camps, attends to their minimum wants and gives each one an allowance of 70 heller (14 cents) daily. With the rise in the prices of food, the daily allowance has risen to about 90 heller (18 cents) per capita. They are treated well by the population, and in many cases are provided with some work.

[89]

ROUMANIA

The future of Roumania is of interest to the Jews for two especial reasons: first, because the Jews of Roumania are deprived of their rights as citizens in contravention of a solemn promise made by Roumania to the Great Powers at the Berlin Congress in 1878; secondly, because it will no doubt be Roumania’s aim to win back from Austria-Hungary certain large territories, including Transylvania and Bukowina, in which the bulk of the population is of Roumanian descent, thus, if successful, incidentally, increasing the number of Jews under Roumanian rule from about 250,000 to more than one million.

During the present war Roumania has given evidence of its hostile attitude towards the Jews. Thousands of Jewish refugees who fled before the savagery of the Russian army which invaded Bukowina, sought refuge in Roumania. These were treated with great brutality by Roumanian officials in the border towns. At the beginning of July, 1915, the Government issued an order to the administrative authorities of all the districts bordering on Austria-Hungary to expel all the Jews from the localities near the frontier, and to send them to the interior of the country. The officials took advantage of this edict to expel not only the refugees, but also hundreds of Jewish citizens of Roumania who had been living in the border towns for generations. The order of expulsion was executed summarily, and the Jews were forced to leave within forty-eight and in some cases with all their goods in twenty-four hours. As a rule, they were not permitted to take their belongings with them, and even [90] under the most favorable circumstances they had perforce to leave them behind because they knew neither their destination nor their fate.

This action of the Government caused a great deal of adverse comment in the press. “Vitorul” the official organ of the Liberal Party, now in power, met these attacks, in its issue of July 12, 1915, as follows:

“Some of the newspapers pretend that the Ministry of Internal Affairs has given orders that the native-born Jews established in the towns bordering upon the northern frontier of Moldavia be sent into the interior of the country. This news is inexact. The Minister of Internal Affairs was not aiming at the Jews established in the towns near the frontier or in any other place when he issued his order of expulsion. The order given by the Minister of Internal Affairs concerns only the alien subjects of a foreign country, and the native-born Jews who, though not living in frontier towns go there on business, acting as cereal brokers. And the purpose of the order is to prevent such people from committing acts dangerous to the interests of the population of the state. The peaceful Jewish population living near the frontier is not the object of any hounding, as the irresponsible newspapers would have it.”

The Bucharest “Adeverul” (Truth), an independent organ, and one of the two newspapers in Bucharest which sympathize with the Jews, replied:

“In answer to the attacks of the Government organ upon the ‘irresponsible’ newspapers, we are in a position to publish a list of the ‘peaceful Jewish population’ which has been the subject of the most terrible persecutions by the authorities. We can give the names of the reserves, mobilized at the very moment, whose children have been driven from their homes. It is possible that the Minister of Internal Affairs did not mean to ‘aim,’ as the official organ says, at the Jews. If the Minister is innocent of the charge, we would like to know what punishment to inflict upon his subordinates who wilfully misrepresented his order.

“But it is not we who are irresponsible. It is the Government that tries to mislead the public with ambiguous statements. It says that the order referred only to the brokers, who may commit dangerous [91] acts. We know that the law punishes crimes and delinquencies which have been committed, but does not anticipate crimes that may be committed. Then again, the law provides strict punishment for each delinquency and not a general and preventive punishment, such as deportation. Why is it that those who have committed the infraction have not been arrested and peaceful people are being punished instead?

“Even the Government recognizes that this preventive punishment is applied to the alien and such Jews as are only doing business though not living in those places. It means that the suspicion rests equally upon the alien and the Roumanian Jew, because the Jew, although not an alien, is of another religion. The suspicion then falls upon all the native-born Jews. Thus we see, that even if the official organ’s public interpretation of the law be correct, it is still the Jews who will suffer. But we cannot accept the explanation. It is false.

“It is an absolute fact that not transient traders but people who are innocent, who are paying taxes in those localities have been expelled.”

It is idle to speculate as to what Roumania may do if she becomes involved in the war. But it is well to consider whether, if she does not become involved, it will be possible to bring to the attention of the belligerent powers at a future peace conference the question of the status of the Jews of Roumania. These are in the anomolous position of people virtually without a country. They are subjects of Roumania, pay taxes and support the Government. But even the native-born and those whose parents and grandparents were native-born subjects of Roumania, cannot become citizens, and are also discriminated against by the Government. In this respect, Roumania may be called “Little Russia.”

The situation of Roumania as a nation is exceptional. She was made an independent country by the European Powers, meeting at the Congress of Berlin, after the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–8. In a treaty which was [92] then signed by all the great Powers of Europe, the following articles were inserted:

XLIII. The High contracting parties recognize the independence of Roumania, subject to the conditions set forth in the two following articles.

XLIV. In Roumania the difference of religious creeds and confessions shall not be alleged against any person as a ground for exclusion or incapacity in matters relating to the enjoyment of civil and political rights, admission to public employments, functions and honors, or the exercise of the various professions and industries in any locality whatsoever.

“The freedom and outward exercise of all forms of worship shall be assured to all persons belonging to the Roumanian State, as well as to foreigners, and no hindrance shall be offered either to the hierarchical organizations of the different communions, or to their relations with their spiritual chiefs. The subjects and citizens of all the Powers, traders or others, shall be treated in Roumania, without distinction of creed, on a footing of perfect equality.”

Roumania having become an independent nation upon its recognition by these Powers, and upon the conditions set forth in the treaty of Berlin, it may be possible at the conclusion of the war that the violations of this treaty on the part of the Roumanian Government may be considered by the Powers whose honor is thus flaunted by an open violation of a treaty to which they solemnly became parties.

[93]

PALESTINE

The Jews of Palestine were among the earliest victims of the war. The greater part of them are dependent, wholly or in part, upon their co-religionists in Europe and America. With the outbreak of the war all the normal channels of communication were temporarily interrupted. Even had this not occurred the complete stagnation of trade in Europe would have made it impossible for the Jews, who were themselves in difficulties, to continue to afford material assistance.

The difficulties of the situation before Turkey became a belligerent are briefly set forth in the following extracts from a report, dated October 21, 1914, made by Mr. Maurice Wertheim, who was entrusted by Ambassador Morgenthau with the distribution of a fund of $50,000 contributed by American Jews.

The colonists themselves did not stand in actual need of assistance, as they are largely men of certain means and can help themselves. Furthermore, they are able to obtain their bank deposits in the following manner: the Anglo-Palestine Bank, with which most of the Jews in Palestine do business through their various branches in Jaffa, Jerusalem, Haifa, Safed, and Tiberias, etc., are registering or certifying for their depositors checks down to the smallest denominations. These checks are made payable to the drawer, endorsed by him, and the registration stamp of the bank is equivalent to a notice that the check will be cashed by the bank after the moratorium. With these checks the colonists are able to supply their immediate needs and harvest their crops.

The only pressing requirement of the colonists was to exchange some of these checks for gold in order to pay Government taxes and military exoneration fees, and this was arranged.

Further than this, the two great needs of the Jewish colonies, generally speaking, were: (a) to take care of Jewish laborers thrown out of employment by existing conditions, and (b) to secure[94] new markets for their products to take the place of those that had been affected by the war.

There are about 2,500 Jewish laborers in the colonies. It is impossible to determine the exact percentage of unemployed amongst them, but even if we assume that only half of them are out of employment, it is easily seen that the amount of money we were able to divert to this purpose will not go very far. I might say here that in dividing the fund amongst the various districts in Palestine, we allotted to the colonies a somewhat larger proportion than their population justified.

The opening up of new markets for Palestinian agricultural products (oranges, wine and almonds, are the chief articles of export), is probably the most pressing need of the colonist movement in Palestine. Colonists feel that the chief market for the oranges which in the past has been England, will be greatly interfered with, and if they are not able to dispose successfully of their products, their entire future and very existence will be threatened.

The situation in the larger centers of population is very bad. Almost no currency enters the country and foreign checks that do find their way there are not realizable. This naturally places in great want those who depend on the “Chaluka” contributions and also the large class who depend on money sent by relatives. Furthermore, the industries of manufacture of antiques and souvenirs are completely stopped, owing to want of customers, and there is no money to conduct industries such as building, carpentering, tailoring and shoemaking, in which large numbers of Jews are employed. I found that the better class of Jews had themselves organized temporary relief, but their possibilities of assistance are rapidly drawing to a close. People who had, a few weeks before my visit, contributed to the maintenance of soup kitchens, stood in need themselves upon my arrival. One Jewish hospital had already closed.

The food situation in Palestine was precarious, for while prices had not risen to any large extent, yet the source of supply was limited. The introduction of wheat from the East of the Jordan had been prohibited by the Government (which restriction through the efforts of the Ambassador we have endeavored to have lifted). In order to guard against possible shortage of food and also to offer food at the cheapest possible price, our Committee will purchase from time to time as large quantities of food as it can, have bread baked itself, and will sell same at cost, or possibly a little less.

[95]

When Turkey entered the war as an ally of Germany and Austria-Hungary the situation of the 50,000 Russian Jews, who constituted half of the Jewish population of Palestine, became precarious. As nationals of an enemy country, they became liable to any restrictions or deprivation of rights which military necessity or international animosity might dictate. Thus these thousands of Jews were to suffer because they technically bore the nationality of a country which had virtually exiled them.

Upon the intervention of the German and American Embassies, however, the Ottoman Government made special concessions to these Jews. Several weeks’ time was allowed for those who so desired to become Turkish subjects by naturalization. Upon the expiration of this period, those who had not availed themselves of this offer were ordered to leave. About 600 were forcibly expelled and about 7,000 others left voluntarily. Most of the fugitives took refuge in Egypt, whence a number emigrated to the United States. In the spring of 1915, however, the Council of Ministers decided that the deportations be discontinued.

The difficulties of the economic situation of the Jewish population were further increased by Turkey’s entrance in the war. The Government confiscated most of the crops, and a great many of the settlers were either drafted into the army or compelled to buy immunity.

In March, 1915, the American Jewish Relief Committee and the Provisional Zionist Committee were enabled, through the courtesy of the United States Government, to send a food ship to Palestine. Although considerable portions of these supplies were diverted by the Turkish Government into non-Jewish channels, the food question was to a great extent solved, and conditions [96] have been steadily improving. The present situation is briefly described in the following extracts from a report of the Provisional Executive Committee for General Zionist Affairs, dated August 10, 1915:

The economic situation has also shown some improvement. The arrival of the relief food ship “Vulcan” has been partly responsible for this result. After considerable discussion with the government authorities, the following ratio of distribution has been agreed upon; 55 per cent. for the Jews, 26 per cent. for the Mohammedans, and 19 per cent. for the Christians.

The sending of the relief ship has had the important effect of lowering considerably the prices of food. The gathering of the harvest is now in full swing. The crops are satisfactory, especially in Galilee, which is principally a corn growing country. Our farms, in particular, have proved an important factor in the present crisis by supplying the colonies and cities with grain at reasonable prices. There is reason to believe that Palestine will now be able to hold its own in the matter of food, without depending on further shipments from America. There is still some shortage felt in sugar and in some less important groceries, of which small quantities may still be procured from Egypt.

The economic prospects would be considerably brighter were it not for the locust which has swept over Palestine in large numbers. In corn-growing Galilee the danger is less palpable than elsewhere where plantations are the principal feature of agriculture. The fight against the plague has been taken up energetically and systematically.

The danger of a shortage in grain was another problem that needed careful consideration. While in normal times Palestine is in a position to export grain abroad, the outbreak of the war, owing to the heavy requisitions of the Government and the difficult communications with the North of Palestine and the Hauran, the granaries of the country, brought an alarming situation. To deal with it, a special committee was organized. A number of well-to-do Jews bought up quantities of grain and had them milled, offering the flour to the public at cheap prices. In this way the danger threatening the population from unscrupulous speculators was averted and the prices were kept down. Thus, when, shortly before Passover, the price of flour had soared up as high as 65 francs, [97] the action of the committee had the effect of reducing it to 48. The committee also supplied public institutions with cheap flour.

As another means of relief, public stores were opened by the committee for the sale of provisions. In spite of the fact that some of the goods were requisitioned by the government, the stores served a good purpose, helping, among other things, to circulate the checks of the Anglo-Palestine Company.

From the very beginning of the crisis, the Palestina Amt made it a rule that no workingmen were to be dismissed, as such action might subject them to the danger of starvation. To supply all the workingmen with employment, public works were undertaken, such as road building, canalization and water supply. Several builders who had been forced to discontinue their building operations were assisted with loans to resume them.

Finally, a Public Loan Association was organized to meet the needs of those who had formerly received remittances from abroad, and, owing to the discontinuation of these remittances consequent upon the outbreak of the war, found themselves in pitiable circumstances. Some 900 persons took advantage of the facilities offered by the Association.

According to the statistics compiled by the Palestina Amt and embodied in a separate report, some 8,000 Jews left the country during the crisis. Of these, 4,000 were from Jaffa, 2,000 from Jerusalem, 1,500 from the Judean colonies and 500 from the colonies in Galilee. The estimated number of Jews at present in Palestine is 88,100, of whom 13,500 are to be found in the colonies.

The requisitions and the war contributions levied upon the Jews during the war, amount to 152,805 francs.

[98]

APPENDIX

I.

REPORT OF THE RUSSIAN-JEWISH RELIEF
COMMITTEE

NOTE.—The following report was issued by the (Russian) Jewish Committee for the Relief of Sufferers from the War, to its members in Russia, in May, 1915, since when conditions in Russia and Poland have steadily grown worse. The authoritativeness of the report is guaranteed by the personnel of the committee, numbering among its membership the foremost Jews of Russia, among whom may be named: Baron A. de Gunzberg, H. Sliosberg, M. Ginsburg and B. Kamenka, chairman of the Executive Committee; M. A. Warschavsky, chairman of the Organizing Committee; and D. Feinberg, L. Bramson and M. Kreinin, Secretaries.

Terrible disaster has befallen the Jewish population of the Pale of Settlement and of Poland. Hunger and thirst and disease and death, and moral sufferings beyond the power of human pen to describe are the lot of hundred thousands of Jewish men, women and children whom the war has driven from their homes, whose houses and hearths have been plundered and destroyed. Hundreds of thousands of our unfortunate brethren are staring in hopeless despair into a future that seems to spell nothing but new tears and sufferings....

According to the data collected by the General Polish Relief Committee, in Poland, alone there are at least 200 towns and about 9,000 townlets and villages that have suffered from the war, the material damage amounting to the gigantic figure of over a milliard roubles ($500,000,000). Besides the terrible losses sustained by the rural population, the whole industrial production, amounting [99] to nearly 800 million roubles a year, has been ruined. About three million townspeople are destitute, and of these three million at least half, i. e., 1,500,000, are Jews. To this number of unfortunate victims we have to add the population of the provinces of Kovno and Grodno in the northwestern region of the Pale, the provinces of Bessarabia, Podolia and Volynia in the southern and southwestern regions. These provinces, bordering upon Germany and Austria, have a Jewish population of at least 500,000 people. Thus the total number of Jews that have, in one way or another, suffered immediately from the conditions of warfare equals over two million people, representing one-third, of the total Jewish population of Russia.

Besides, there are hundred thousands of destitute Jews in Galicia (within Russian occupation) looking forward to relief from this country.

To the utter ruin of their material welfare there are added the unspeakable sufferings that the population of the war area has to endure. In the most favorable of cases the inhabitants of the border places escape from the zone of fire, taking refuge in the inner parts of the country; while a large proportion of those unfortunate Jewish families have remained in the ruined places, facing the phantoms of starvation and disease that gather a rich harvest among them.

Such is the devotion and love of the Jews to their native places, to their own corner, that they prefer to stay in the devastated towns and townlets and villages, if only permitted to do so. And those who have fled from their homes take the first opportunity of returning, heedless of the terrible disasters lying in store for them. A vivid example, typical of many other instances, is given by the Jews in the villages of Vissiltsy, District [100] Busak, province Kielce. Our delegate found the place razed by hostile shells. The population—mostly Jews—for over three months had been huddling together in cellars, where they had taken refuge. They were not to leave their shelter by day; no food was to be cooked, no fire lighted at night—such were the stringent orders from military quarters. A humane military chief permitted them to crawl out of their dingy holes by night and feed out of the soldiers’ cauldron. But soon another chief took his place and the unfortunate Jews were left to starve in their cellars. Those that succumbed were buried in holes that the survivors dug for them in the very same cellars....

Infinitely tragic too is the fate of those Jews who, by rigorous orders of the military authorities at a notice of from three to twenty-four hours are expelled from whole provinces of Poland, their presence near the area of hostilities being considered “a danger to the safety of the Russian arms.” Leaving their homes and belongings, the fruit of years of hard toil, an open prey, the unfortunate exiles by the thousands wend their weary way to towns and villages, thirty or more miles distant, that have not yet come within the decrees of the military authorities. Old men, sick women, clasping little children in their arms, carrying bundles with some scanty belongings that they had snatched up in haste, fill the silent roads with the sound of their moans and sobs. Here an old man breaks down, breathing his last sigh in the middle of the road. There a woman kneels by the roadside staring in despair too deep for tears, at the child that lies dead in her arms.... Many are those who succumb on their way; indescribable are the sufferings of those who survive. Scarcely have they found shelter in a hospitable town or townlet when—alas! [101] too frequently—the prohibition of the authorities is a few days later extended also to these places, and again the Jewish population must start upon its weary pilgrimage....

The total number of refugees from the war zone and of exiles can scarcely be calculated with precision because large numbers have made their way to numerous small townlets throughout the Pale, thus frustrating systematic registration, while, at the same time, the progress of the war tends to swell the host of refugees daily.

Some idea of their number is given by the following approximate figures:

And yet these figures only show the number of refugees who have applied for assistance; hundreds of thousands of others are meanwhile living upon their savings and do not come under the registration. But they also will be at the end of their scant resources one of these days and will join the ranks of the destitute.... Thus, for the above-named places and for many other dozens of towns and townlets the number of refugees within their walls may be doubled without fear of exaggeration.

While numerous towns and townlets have, in generous hospitality, opened their gates to the unfortunate refugees and exiles from the war area, the native Jewish population of these places is itself suffering a severe economic crisis, an acute attack of unemployment, which as a matter [102] of fact, is further intensified by the influx of refugees eager to offer their services, for the smallest remuneration. Thus poverty and misery are growing in these places too, the burden of relief becoming too heavy for the local community to bear.

We have already stated that the industrial life of Poland and in a large part of the Pale has been laid waste as a consequence of the war. Hundreds of factories have been destroyed, hundreds others have had to stop work for want of capital, raw material, fuel and—first and foremost—for want of a market for their articles of production. Many thousands of workmen who were formerly employed by these factories have remained without bread.

Whole branches of trade have been shattered, burying the welfare of the artisans under their ruins. The tailors, weavers, bootmakers, builders, trades, normally sustaining a large percentage of Jews in Poland and in the Pale, are dead; the artisans are left to starve, unless something can be done to save them.

Commercial life also has been laid waste. The merchants—great and small—are ruined; hundreds of merchant’s clerks are thrown out of work and have to apply to public charity.

There is yet another class of sufferers whose wants and needs have to be attended to. About 300,000 Jews are fighting in the ranks of the Russian army. Their mothers, wives and children are receiving but scanty support (about 2 roubles a head) from the Government. About half of them, however, are not getting any Government aid at all, their marriages, although legally solemnized, not having been entered in the official marriage registers. (It is a well known fact that the uneducated Jews of Poland and in the Pale frequently omit to have [103] their marriages registered, failing to realize the full importance of this formality.) Rent and food having become considerably dearer with the outbreak of the war, the soldiers’ families often suffer acute want, which necessitates immediate help lest these people become charges on their community. Many of the soldiers will never return from the battlefields; others will come back as cripples, unfit to support themselves or their families. They will all want support of some kind or another....

It is a boundless sea of troubles that has to be coped with and the full weight of the task is falling upon Jewish shoulders. The gulf dividing the bulk of Russian society from Jewish life and needs and sorrows has not been bridged over by the horrors of war. Though now and again a voice of sympathy is heard from Russian quarters, here and there a Russian hand is extended to feed a starving Jewish child, both moral and material assistance offered by non-Jews to our stricken people is but infinitesimal as compared with the magnitude of the distress.

Nor do we now wish to dwell specifically on Polish-Jewish relations, it being too well known to what extent they have become pointed during the recent months, bearing in their train infinite, yea, unbearable sufferings for our Jewish brethren.

In order to unite the efforts of Jewish society towards the relief of the Jewish sufferers from the war, at the very outbreak of the European conflagration there was formed at Petrograd a General Jewish Relief Committee, with the sanction of the Russian authorities, to act as a center for the collection and distribution of funds to the destitute and needy Jews. At the very beginning of its activity the General Committee issued an appeal to the Jewish public calling it to its duty to the [104] unfortunate sufferers, just as the Jewish soldiers fighting and distinguishing themselves in the ranks of the Russian army are doing their duty by their mother country.

Jewish society at large has shown its usual responsiveness and material support has been forthcoming in as large a measure as individual means and circumstances would permit.

Committees, similar to the General Committee, working on the same lines and in close unity with it have since been organized in prominent centers of the stricken area and outside of it—e. g., in Warsaw, Moscow, Kiev, Odessa, Kharkov, and in addition the existing Jewish organizations, such as the Central Committee of the Jewish Colonization Association, the Society for the Promotion of Education in Russia, the Jewish Health Society, the Society for the Promotion of Trade and Industry among Russian Jews, etc., etc., are taking active part in the relief work. Representatives of the various committees and societies working in the war zone and outside it meet periodically in order to discuss new measures and schemes for the alleviation of the terrible distress.

The conditions and extent of distress in towns, townlets and villages of Poland and of the Pale are being ascertained through delegates of the General Relief Committee working actively and energetically towards the organization of various forms of relief in the several districts. In a number of places the local Jewish community has readily joined in the relief work, doing its utmost to meet the demand for food, shelter, clothing; the local philanthropic and communal Jewish institutions thus becoming valuable agencies of the General Relief Committee. On the whole, however—particularly as far as Poland is concerned:—the organization of assistance to the war sufferers is meeting with endless difficulties, [105] due largely to the fact that the suffering population is in such a state of frantic terror, that many Jews do not even dream of applying to anyone for assistance. In many instances the first terror has given way to complete apathy.

Often our representatives have to seek these people out in their hiding places, to rouse them from their lethargy, to exercise moral pressure on the more prominent members of the community, before anything can be done for the sufferers. This attitude of the people becomes intelligible when we consider the conditions that they live in under ordinary circumstances—their poverty, their lack of education, the contempt they are accustomed to meet with on the part of the non-Jewish population.

Similar conditions prevail in the Galician Provinces within Russian occupation:

“I found them huddling together in damp and dark cellars, half-naked, sick and starving”—these are the words of one of our representatives who visited some of the places that had witnessed all the horrors of the war. “They showed complete apathy, appeared to be in a trance of terror. Only a madman—he had become insane because of superhuman suffering—followed me into the street, shrieking for bread. I handed him a coin, but he threw it down and clamored for bread....”

The ever changing conditions of war, that open up new regions for relief work today, and close other districts tomorrow, that throw ever new crowds of sufferers upon public charity—these, to a large extent baffle all our efforts towards relief, destroying today what was organized yesterday. Add to this the peculiar circumstances of Jewish life in Russia, the unfavorable attitude of the authorities towards the Jewish population [106] in the war area—and the difficulties that the organization of relief has to cope with will stand out in their full significance.

Owing to these and other conditions the General Relief Committee up till now has had to concentrate largely on extending “first aid,” this term being here used to comprise feeding and sheltering of the sufferers. Distribution of food (at low rates or free of charge), of fuel, clothes, foot-wear; organization of feeding centres, amelioration of sheltering and housing conditions, of sanitation and hygiene among the war sufferers—are the chief forms relief has taken so far.

At the present moment there are being equipped by the General Relief Committee two so-called “sanitary and feeding expeditions” whose object it will be to offer medical assistance and provide free food to the sufferers in the war area of Poland, irrespective of religious denomination. (The money for this purpose has been received from London with the express condition that no distinction be made between Jews and non-Jews).

Moreover, insofar as this has been possible, efforts have been made to secure work for the refugees and for those who have lost their employment as a result of the war. Thus in Warsaw there has been opened a workshop where refugees are employed in manufacturing various articles of underclothing for distribution among the war sufferers. In Vilna there has been established a workshop for bootmakers who are filling Government orders for army boots. Similar workshops have been organized at Dvinsk, Fastov, etc. Further, there has been opened at Warsaw a labor-bureau which is obtaining work for a considerable number of artisans.

A large number of small merchants and artisans being in urgent need of credit to enable them to re-establish and [107] operate their business and to prevent them from lapsing into utter destitution, credit is being afforded them through the medium of the Jewish cooperative credit societies that are working throughout the Pale of Settlement and Poland. So far, by way of experiment, about 23,000 roubles have been invested in this operation; however, should this useful form of assistance be enlarged, considerable means will be required for the purpose.

At the present moment the General Relief Committee, working in close cooperation with the committees in Moscow, Kiev and Odessa, is extending relief to over 300 centres of population situated in the following provinces:

Some idea of the expenditures of the General Relief Committee in Petrograd is given by the following figures:

FOR GENERAL RELIEF

According to approximate estimates within the next months the General Jewish Relief Committee, working conjointly with the Jewish Committees in Moscow, Kiev [110] and Odessa, will require the following sums to satisfy the most urgent needs of the organizations now in full operation and yet to be started:

[Expressed in United States currency, the sum of $242,000 to $325,000 per month will be required, according to this early estimate, to satisfy the most urgent needs of the sufferers.]

As already pointed out, the sphere and extent of distress are ever increasing with the progress of the war. The Jewish relief organizations in Russia thus stand before the alarming problem: whence to obtain adequate [111] funds to satisfy the ever growing demand. This problem becomes the more urgent as new forms of relief must be devised as the time goes on. It will not do merely to feed and shelter the stricken population. Many of the sufferers are able and willing to work, if they but had the possibility of doing so.

The attention of the Jewish public will therefore have to be concentrated on a new problem: to help the ruined artisans to rehabilitate themselves, to rebuild their shattered homes and to restore their ruined business by means of cheap credit provided for them. The solution of this problem will, however, require infinitely larger means, which Russian Jewry is unable to raise....

II.

SPEECH OF DEPUTY FRIEDMAN
IN THE DUMA

(August 2, 1915)

(Translated from Petrograd “Retch,” of August 3, 1915, and
published in the New York “Times,” September 23, 1915)

In spite of their oppressed condition, in spite of their status of outlawry, the Jews have risen to the exalted mood of the nation and in the course of the last year have participated in the war in a noteworthy manner. They fell short of the others in no respect. They mobilized their entire enrollment, but, indeed, with this difference, that they have also sent their only sons into the war. The newspapers at the beginning of the war had a remarkable number of Jewish volunteers to record. Gentlemen, those were volunteers who were entitled through their educational qualifications to the rank [112] of officers. They knew that they would not receive this rank; and nevertheless they entered the war.

The Jewish youth, which, as a result of the restrictions as to admission to the high schools of the country, had been forced to study abroad, returned home when war was declared, or entered the armies of the allied nations. A large number of Jewish students fell at the defense of Liege and also at other points on the western front.

The Zionist youths, when they were confronted with the dilemma of accepting Turkish sovereignty or being compelled to emigrate from Palestine, preferred to go to Alexandria and there to join the English army.

The Jews built hospitals, contributed money, and participated in the war in every respect just as did the other citizens. Many Jews received marks of distinction for their conduct at the front.

Before me lies the letter of a Jew who returned from the United States of America:

“I risked my life,” he writes, “and if, nevertheless, I came as far as Archangel, it was only because I loved my fatherland more than my life or that American freedom which I was permitted to enjoy. I became a soldier, and lost my left arm almost to the shoulder. I was brought into the governmental district of Courland. Scarcely had I reached Riga when I met at the station my mother and my relatives, who had just arrived there, and who on that same day were compelled to leave their hearth and home at the order of the military authorities. Tell the gentlemen who sit on the benches of the Right that I do not mourn my lost arm, but that I do mourn deeply the self-respect that was not denied to me in alien lands but is now lost to me.”

Such was the sentiment of the Jews that found expression in numerous appeals and manifestations in the [113] press, and finally also in this House. Surely these sentiments should have been taken into account. One should have a right to assume that the Government would adopt measures for the amelioration of the fate of the Jews who found themselves in the very centre of the war-like occurrences. Likewise, one should have taken into account the sentiments of hundreds of thousands of Jews who shed their blood on the field of battle.

Instead of that, however, we see that from the beginning of the war the measures of reprisals against the Jewish populace were not only not weakened but, on the contrary, made much stronger. Banished were Jewish men and women whose husbands, children, and brothers, were shedding their blood for the fatherland. A wounded soldier named Alexander Roskhov, who had been shot in the eye, came to Charkof for further treatment. On his passport were the words, “To be sent to a settlement.” The private soldier Godlewski, one of whose legs had been amputated, and who found himself at Rostof on the Don for recuperation, they tried to send to his native village in the Government of Kalisch, already under German occupation; and it was only due to the activities of the Rural League that he was permitted to stay. An apothecary’s helper, who likewise had been wounded on the battlefield, was not allowed to remain in Petrograd for his cure, and it was only by virtue of special intercession that he was later allowed to sojourn two months more at Petrograd, with the notice, however, that at the expiration of this period no further extension of his sojourn would be granted.

In a long war lucky events alternate with unlucky ones, and in any case it is naturally useful to have scapegoats in reserve. For this purpose there exists the old firm; the Jew. Scarcely has the enemy reached our [114] frontiers when the rumor is spread that Jewish gold is flowing over to the Germans, and that, too, in aeroplanes, in coffins, and—in the entrails of geese!

Scarcely had the enemy pressed further, than there appeared again beyond dispute the eternal Jew “on the white horse,” perhaps the same one who once rode on the white horse through the city in order to provoke a pogrom. The Jews have set up telephones, have destroyed the telegraph lines. The legend grew, and with the eager support of the powers of Government and the agitation in official circles, assumed ever greater proportions. A series of unprecedented, unheard of, cruel measures was adopted against the Jews. These measures, which were carried out before the eyes of the entire population, suggested to the people and to the army the recognition of the fact that the Jews were treated as enemies by the Government, and that the Jewish population was outside the law.

In the first place these measures consisted of the complete transplanting of the Jewish population from many districts, to the very last man. These compulsory migrations took place in the Kingdom of Poland and in many other territories. All told, about a half million persons have been doomed to a state of beggary and vagabondage. Anyone who has seen with his own eyes how these expulsions take place, will never forget them as long as he lives. The exiling took place within twenty-four hours, sometimes within two days. Women, old men, and children, and sometimes invalids, were banished. Even the feebleminded were taken from the lunatic asylums and the Jews were forced to take these with them. In Mohilnitse, 5,000 persons were expelled within twenty-four hours. Their way led to Warsaw through Kalwayra. Meantime they were forced to [115] travel across fields through the Government of Lublin, and were deprived of the possibility of taking along their inventories. Many were obliged to travel on foot. When they reached Lublin, the Jewish Committee there had provided bread and food for them; but they were not allowed to tarry, and they had to travel on at once.

On the way an accident occurred; a six-year-old child was killed by a fall. The parents were not permitted to bury the child.

I saw also the refugees of the Government of Kovno. Persons who only yesterday were still accounted wealthy were beggars the next day. Among the refugees I met Jewish women and girls, who had worked together with Russian women, had sewed garments with them and collected contributions with them, and who were now forced to encamp on the railway embankment. I saw families of reservists. I saw among the exiles wounded soldiers wearing the Cross of St. George. It is said that Jewish soldiers in marching through the Polish cities were forced to witness the expulsion of their wives and children. The Jews were loaded in freight cars like cattle. The bills of lading were worded as follows: “Four hundred and fifty Jews, en route to ——.”

There were cases in which the Governors refused outright to take in the Jews at all. I myself was in Vilna at the very time when a whole trainload of Jews was stalled for four days in Novo-Wilejsk station. Those were Jews who had been sent from the Government of Kovno to the Government of Poltawa, but the Governor there would not receive them and sent them back to Kovno, whence they were again reshipped to Poltawa. Imagine, at a time when every railway car is needed for the transportation of munitions, when from all sides [116] are heard complaints about the lack of means of transportation, the Government permits itself to do such a thing! At one station there stood 110 freight cars containing Jewish exiles.

Another measure which likewise is unprecedented in the entire history of the civilized world, is the introduction of the so-called system of “Hostages,” and, indeed, hostages were taken not from the enemy, but from the country’s own subjects, its own citizens. Hostages were taken in Radom, Kieltse, Lomscha, Kovno, Riga, Lublin, etc. The hostages were held under the most rigorous régime, and at present there are still under arrest in Poltava Jewish hostages from the Governments of Kieltse and Radom.

Some time ago, in commenting upon the procedure against the Jews, the leader of the Opposition, even before the outbreak of the war, used the expression that we were approaching the times of Ferdinand and Isabella. I now assert that we have already surpassed that era. No Jewish blood was shed in defence of Spain, but ours flowed the moment the Jews helped defend the Fatherland.

Yes, we are beyond the pale of the laws, we are oppressed, we have a hard life, but we know the source of that evil; it comes from those benches (pointing to the boxes of the Ministers). We are being oppressed by the Russian Government, not by the Russian people. Why, then, is it surprising if we wish to unite our destinies, not with that of the Russian Government, but with that of the Russian people? When three years ago there was pending here the Cholm law proposal, did the thought ever occur at the time to the sponsors of the bill that in a short time they would have to scrape and bow before free autonomous Poland? We likewise [117] hope that the time is not distant when we can be citizens of the Russian State with full equality of privileges with the free Russian people.

Before the face of the entire country, before the entire civilized world, I declare that the calumnies against the Jews are the most repulsive lies and chimeras of persons who will have to be responsible for their crimes. [Applause on Left.]

It depends upon you, gentlemen of the Imperial Duma, to speak the word of encouragement, to perform the action that can deliver the Jewish people from the terrible plight in which it is at present, and that can lead them back into the ranks of the Russian citizens who are defending their Fatherland. [Cries of “Right.”]

I do not know if the Imperial Duma will so act, but if it does so act it will be fulfilling an obligation of honor and an act of wise statesmanship that is necessary for the profit and for the greatness of the Fatherland. [Applause on the Left.]

III.

ABSTRACT OF SPEECH OF BARON R. R. ROSEN
IN THE COUNCIL OF THE EMPIRE[59]

August 22 (September 4), 1915

(Translation from “Retch,” No. 231, August 23 (September 5), 1915)

Baron Rosen began with the statement that while the question of supplies for the army and navy was paramount, there was nevertheless another side to it, and that was the question of the domestic policy of the [118] Empire. He reminded his hearers that in May, 1913, he had warned the Council of the Empire of the catastrophe imminent in Europe, but that his statement had been met with ridicule and skepticism. The result of such an attitude is now obvious to all. In this great conflict, it has become clear that neither side will be able to crush the other, as was expected at the outset of this war. But even as it is, this war of extermination of the white race must, in the end, be decided in favor of one of the two parties at conflict. He thought that certain intangible elements entering into the question would be of great importance in the settlement of this war. Putting aside the political, economic and psychological questions that led to this conflict, he thought that the ultimate issue was the decision of the world to battle against the dictum of Germany that “might is greater than right and right is created only by might.” Under the circumstances, it would seem that the sympathies of the entire world should be on the side of the allies. But in reality this is not the case; and for this there are several reasons.

“It is undoubtedly within our power to do away with one of the factors militating against us in the public opinion of neutral countries. In the struggle that we, together with the most civilized nations of Europe, are waging against the Pan-Germanism, imperialism and absolutism, and for right and justice, for the liberty and independence of the weaker nations, we shall achieve the full sympathy of the civilized world only when we shall have put our inner front—if I may use that expression—on a level with the political ideology of our valiant allies; for instance, in the conduct of our polity with reference to the borderlands, and the so-called alien races composing its population.”

[119]

After stating that there were two diametrically opposed political systems, one current among the Allies and the other among the Germans, Baron Rosen continued:

“To the maximum injury of the true interests of Russia, we have adopted and have carried out unswervingly the true German system of politics with reference to our borderlands and the so-called foreign races and foreign faiths, a policy which has been made even more perfect by the admixture of medieval religious intolerance.

“It may be retorted that the fate of a campaign is decided by military power and not by the greater or lesser sympathy of neutral countries for the policy of a given state. The German Government does not think so; for otherwise it would not spend countless millions for pan-German propaganda in all the countries of the world, even the most remote. But we, on the other hand, not only fail to oppose anything to this propaganda, but by the course of our domestic policies we place in the hands of this propaganda powerful arguments for arousing against us public opinion of such countries as the United States, the only great neutral power, and of Sweden, our neighbor.

“It is inconceivable that the framers of our policy should fail to realize that the propaganda directed against us, conducted under official auspices and equipped with the amplest resources, will scarcely cause our own interests and the interests of our Allies one-tenth of the harm which is caused to these interests by our attitude towards the Jewish population of Russia and our systematic violation of the legal conscience of the Finnish population—an attitude which smacks of the dark times of medievalism.

“The question now is, why did not the Government find it possible to put an end to this problem decisively [120] and forever, as it has finally, and, alas, with such delay, settled the question of the autonomy of Poland? This may be explained only by the fact that the Government hesitated to break with the traditional policy so dear to the militant nationalism.

“Accordingly the Duma and the Council are in duty bound to come to the aid of the Government in this regard and take upon themselves the initiative of introducing a bill for the abolition of all laws restricting the rights of the Jews and for the abrogation of the law of July 17 (30) concerning Finland. The passage of these measures would undoubtedly lighten the heavy task now confronting the Government in the sphere of international relations and it would be met by our valiant allies with the liveliest satisfaction.

“We must remember that this great European war is not only a struggle of interests, but is also a struggle of ideas and principles. In the battle against German militarism, Russia has placed herself on the side of right and freedom, and for the triumph of the idea for which we are now fighting, it is necessary that in Russia, too, there should be no longer any people without rights or any people oppressed.”