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MASSACRE On April 5th, some seventy-five Jewish civilians were participating in a possibly , 1972, Page 47-48 Norman Davies notes that "the nature of the illegal meeting, variously described as a Bolshevik cell, an assembly of the local co-operative society, and a meeting of the Committee for American Relief, was never clarified". The meeting was terminated and its participants were taken prisoner by Polish soldiers, who believed that the Jews were having a meeting in support of the Bolshevik s (at that time the entire region was witnessing the beginning of the Polish-Soviet War and Bolshevik forces were near the city). A Polish lieutenant, after hearing reports that Jewish inhabitants of the town were preparing to riot, panicked and, instead of carrying out a proper investigation, ordered the execution of the prisoners in order to cow any Bolshevik supporters into submission. Within an hour of the arrest, thirty-five of the REACTIONS Polish army The Polish Group Commander General (Polish parliament), but representatives of the Polish army denied any wrongdoing. International In the Western press of the time, the Massacre was referred to as the ''Polish Pogrom at Pinsk'',See e.g. David Engel, "Poles, Jews, and Historical Objectivity", '' Slavic Review '', Vol. 46, No. 3/4 (Autumn - Winter, 1987), pp. 568-580 and was noticed by wider public opinion. Upon a request of Polish authorities to president Wilson, an American mission was sent to Poland to investigate nature of the alleged atrocities. Czerniakiewicz, p. 587 The mission, led by Henry Morgenthau, Sr. , published the Morgenthau Report on October 3 , 1919 . 1 According to the findings of this commission, a total of about 300 Jews lost their lives in This And Related Incidents . The commission also severely criticized the actions of Major Łuczyński and his superiors with regards to handling of the events in Pinsk. However the Morgenthau 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; according to Morgenthau the excesses were "political as well as Anti-Semitic in character". 2 Commemoration In 1926, Kibbutz Gevat (Gvat) was established by emigrants from Pinsk to the British Mandate Of Palestine in commemoration of the Pinsk massacre victims. {Link without Title} NOTES BILBIOGRAPHY |
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