History of the Jews in Russia and Poland, Volume 3 [of 3]: From the Accession of Nicholas II until the Present DayDubnow, Simon
History
History of the Jews in Russia and Poland, Volume 3 [of 3]: From the Accession of Nicholas II until the Present Day
Dubnow, Simon
Jews -- Poland -- History; Jews -- Russia -- History; Poland -- History; Russia -- History
The anti-Semitic movement in Poland, which began shortly after the
revolution of 1905, assumed extraordinary dimensions in 1910-1911, when
the boycott became a fierce economic pogrom, reaching its culmination
in 1912, during the election campaign to the fourth Imperial Duma. The
Jewish electors of Warsaw formed a majority, and were, therefore, in a
position to send a Jewish deputy to the Duma. Yet out of consideration
for the national susceptibilities of the Poles who insisted on
sending as a representative of the Polish capital one of their "own,"
a Christian, the Jews were willing to accept a Polish candidate,
provided the latter was not an anti-Semite. When, however, the Polish
election committee, disregarding the feelings of the Jews, nominated
the anti-Semitic candidate Kukhazhevski, the Jews gave their votes to
the Polish Socialistic nominee Yaghello, who carried the election.
This attitude of the Jews aroused a storm of indignation among the
higher classes of Polish society. An anti-Jewish campaign, marked by
extraordinary bitterness, was set in motion, and in the press and on
the streets the Jews were nicknamed "Beilises," an echo of the ritual
murder legend which had given rise to such horrors in ancient Catholic
Poland. The economic boycott was carried on with incredible fury, and
in a number of towns and villages the cowardly enemies of the Jews,
being afraid of attacking them openly, set fire to Jewish houses, with
the result that in many cases entire families were consumed in the
flames.
The _furor Polonicus_ assumed more and more dangerous forms, so that
at the beginning of the World War, in 1914, almost the entire Polish
nation, from the "progressive anti-Semites" down to the clericals,
were up in arms against the Jews. From this armed camp came the
defiant war cry: "On the banks of the Vistula there is no room for two
nationalities," thus sentencing to death the two millions of Polish
Jewry who consider themselves a part of the Jewish, and not of the
Polish nation. Out of this soil of national hatred crawled forth the
snake of the terrible "military libel," which during the first year of
the war drenched Polish Jewry in rivers of blood. Over the bleeding
body of the Jewish people Polish and Russian anti-Semitism joined
hands. Horrors upon horrors were perpetrated before which the ancient
annals of Jewish martyrdom fade into insignificance.
* * * * *
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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