Accounts of People Killed in the Bialystock Pogrom
1906 - 1907
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Please note that this document contains descriptions of disturbing events.
In 1906, the U.S. Government sent immigration inspector Philip Cowen on an undercover mission to the Pale of Settlement in Russia (St. Petersburg, Kief, and Odessa) to discover the cause of increased Jewish immigration from Russia to the United States.
His findings revealed appalling and unremitting persecution of Russian Jews. Since 1882, the May Laws forced Jews out of their homes and required them all to live in the Pale of Settlement. Crowded into this small area of Russia, the Jews struggled to find jobs and pay rising rent prices.
Most tragic of all is Cowen’s description of the 637 pogroms—targeted attacks on Jews—committed against the Russian Jews. Entire Jewish cities were ransacked and destroyed while hundreds of Jews were brutally murdered.
This is one section of
Cowen’s report. It includes extracts from an investigation into deaths during the
Bialystock Pogrom of 1906, and lists individuals who died and how they were killed.
Additional sections of the report use poignant pictures and narration, to tell about difficult living conditions and economic hardship for Jews in Russia, and describe other pogroms. To escape such persecution, Jews sought to immigrate to America. But by accompanying Jewish immigrants on their journey to escape Russia, Cowen found out that Jewish persecution did not end with their departure. Jews were repeatedly charged double or triple the cost of passports and boat tickets to America.
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EXHIBIT 11
Inquiry into the Deaths during the Pogrom at Bialystick, June 1-5, 1906.
Extract from Investigation made by David Feinberg of St Petersburg and Sigmund Frumkin of Warsaw.
1 Abram Gringaus.[underlined] Earnings 8 roubles a week. Shot in the door of his house at command of the Pristav of the Third District. After that his body was searched and sixteen roubles were taken out of his pockets by the soldiers. The wife, who wished to shelter the body of her husband, they wished to shoot. He leaves wife and one child, without any means whatever.
2 Leib Masur.[underlined] Earning 5 to 6 roubles a week. Killed in the factory. His right eye was knocked out, his right hand broken, he was wounded in the side and nails were driven into his face. He leaves a widowed mother. Till he became self-sustaining the mother earned her living by selling milk.
3 Jacob Surawitsch.[underlined] On June 1st the Pristav of the Second District came into the factory where he worked with a patrol. Surawitsch had hid himself in the fire room. The Pristav came in and said "Here in this factory are many such rooms, and there must be lots of Jews hid in here" and demanded that they search the place. As they came to the place where S was lying, the Pristav asked for matches. He lit one and saw Surawitsch and dragged him out by the feet. He called to him "Why did you bombard the city the whole night long?" and gave him two blows, after which he commanded them to shoot him, which the soldiers did. The Pristav directed one of the soldiers to see
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that he did not return to life, and he stood over him with his rifle while the man was in the agony of death for several hours. He leaves a wife and boy of three years without any means of support. This information was given by M. Mankowsky, the owner of the factory.
4 Itzko Tschemnik. [underlined] 28 years. Leather dealer. Killed in the lot back of his factory, from which he ran away. His head was smashed in and he was disemboweled. His earnings were 15 roubles monthly. Leaves a wife and two children [strikethrough, “two children”] three children and also a father 70 years of age.
5 Channa Ginzburg. [underlined] She was at home when the pogrom began. On June 2nd Police Commissioner Baidak came in [strikethrough] with soldiers and broke into their place. [A line of ‘x’s removes a sentence] Baidak commanded that they should shoot, and a soldier did so. The bullet went between one arm of Itska, hit her daughter-in-law in the back and wounded the sister of her stepdaughter in the shoulder. In this room as a neighbor named Hinda Kustowtsch, whose husband was three times wounded in the Russo-Japanese war and has not yet returned from the Far East. She ran out with her five-year-old boy and the soldier shot [strikethrough] killed the latter with three shots. Then Baidak went to old man Ginzburg, searched him, took from him 111 roubles, a single watch of his son,s, and went away. The soldiers remained. After some minutes he came back again with an innocent face, asked [A line of ‘x’s removes a sentence] "What has happened here?" As the owner told him that he himself had commanded that they should shout, he shouted "You Jewish snoot, in case you tell anyone about the story, I will rip up your belly with a knife. If not today, then tomorrow will it happen".
6 Mordko Lewin. [underlined] Was killed at the depot as he returned from Rowno on the 2nd of June. Hooligans tore out his tongue and killed him in the presence of the officer of the day, Martynow. Then they tied a rope around his neck and pulled him along till the blood streamed from his eyes and nose. As one of the eyewitnesses turned to Martynow and bade him for relief in the matter t that officer shouted at him "Please do not interfere for a Jew unless you want the same thing to happen to you". He leaves a wife and eight children. The oldest is twelve years. Witnesses to this case , Mr Karpowitz, cashier of express freight, and Messrs. Jurzik and Pogriditzky, who are in his office.
7 Mowscha Brnasky. [underlined] He was tramped under foot by a gendarme in the presence of the station master and the commandant. He leaves behind a wife and five children.
8 Rachil Kleinbord. [underlined] Her grocery store was robbed and her home plundered. She begged the Hooligans to leave a little of the money that they had taken. Then a policeman shot her. Her husband was wounded and they had two children. This family has escaped from a pogrom in Odessa.
9 Jacob Grabowsky, [underlined] killed in the sawmill of Sabludowsky. He had
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He had hidden during the pogrom in the house of his wife's parents. Their house was set on fire and those who sought to escape were shot. The first one killed was his father-in_law Abram Katz in the presence of the Pristav of the second district, Kastetzky. Jacob then ran from the house with two children in his arms. The officer bade him to leave back the children. But he begged him to let them go. A shot killed the child and the father. After that he was still abused by the soldiers. A peasant took the wounded child out of his hands, one wounded child, and the mother the other.
10 Slata Schlachter. [underlined] With 16 neighbors they hid themselves in the cellar on Saturday night. In the morning she went down to look after the household, and as she looked into the street a policeman at the command of an officer shot her. Fearful that they would be discovered, xxxx xxxxx [deletion marked with ‘x’] the others pulled up the steps leading to the garret and after some time a watchman opened the door and permitted some soldiers to enter under the lead of a police officer. They piled up barrels and so got up to the garret. The first shot wounded the elder Schlachter and killed his son Chaim. The other killed the ten-year daughter of a neighbor named Xx x [deletion marked with ‘x’] Zivka. The hooligans then chopped a foot off this child and wanted to kill the rest of the people, but finally the soldiers had pity on them, prevented this and led them out into the fields.
[Bottom margin, 53 handwritten]This primary source comes from the Records of the Immigration and Naturalization Service.
National Archives Identifier:
602984Full Citation: Cowen Report - European Investigation Entry No. 9; 1906 - 1907; File No. 51411/056; Subject and Policy Files, 1893 - 1957; Records of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, Record Group 85; National Archives Building, Washington, DC. [Online Version, https://www.docsteach.org/documents/document/killed-bialystock-pogrom, May 8, 2024]