This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Piotrus (talk | contribs) at 21:31, 27 May 2007 (expand a little from Controversies of the Polish-Soviet War, where several other related items are discussed in detail). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.
Revision as of 21:31, 27 May 2007 by Piotrus (talk | contribs) (expand a little from Controversies of the Polish-Soviet War, where several other related items are discussed in detail)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)Pinsk massacre was the murder of 35 Jewish civilians by Polish Army in Pinsk in 1919.
On April 5th, some seventy-five Jewish civilian participant of a Zionistic meeting discussing American food relief were taken hostage by Polish soldiers, acting on a suspicion that the Jews were discussing how to support Bolsheviks (at that time the entire region was witnessing the begining of the Polish-Soviet War).
A Polish officer on the scence, major Łuczyński, after hearing reports that Jewish inhabitants of the city are preparing to riot, panicked and instead of carrying the proper investigation ordered the execution hostages. Within an hour 35 of them were shot by Polish soldiers
The Poles attempted to cover the crime claiming that the victims were a group of communist insurgents preparing an uprising. Later, the Polish Group Commander General Antoni Listowski claimed that the the Polish troops were attacked by the Jewish population. Łuczyński was never punished for the crime, and instead he was promoted to the rank of general soon.
In Western press of the time, the massacre was referred to as Polish Pogrom at Pinsk and was noticed by wider public opinion, resulting in an American mission being send to Poland to investigate the Pinsk massacre and other real and alleged atrocities. The American mission led by in the Henry Morgenthau, Sr. published the Morgenthau Report on October 3, 1919. According to the findings of this Anglo-American Investigating Commission, a total of about 300 Jews lost their lives in this and related incidents; however the commission also found out that the Polish military and civil authorities did do their best to prevent the incidents and their recurrence in the future; the excesses were of political rather than anti-Semitic nature and that the term pogrom was inapplicable to the conditions existing within a war zone, particulary as Poles also died at the hand of Jews, significant portion of which supported the Soviets and formed militias to fight their Polish equivalents and regular army.
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See also
Notes
- Joanna Beata Michlic, Poland's Threatening Other: The Image of the Jew from 1880 to the Present, University of Nebraska Press, 2006, ISBN 0803232403Google Print, p.118
- Template:En icon Tadeusz Piotrowski (1997). Poland's Holocaust: Ethnic Strife, Collaboration with Occupying Forces and Genocide... McFarland & Company. pp. p. 41-42. ISBN 0-7864-0371-3.
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