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On July
25-27, Ukrainians under German patronage rioted against the Jews
again. The pogroms were organized by Ukrainian nationalist circles
with German encouragement. Among the Jews of Lvov, rumors had spread
that the Ukrainians were planning a pogrom. As July 25 approached,
an unusual bustle was noticed among the Ukrainian police in the
city. Jews tried not to step outside. Early in the morning of July
25, groups of peasants from nearby villages began to flow into Lvov.
They assembled on the premises of police stations, set out from
there to the street accompanied by Ukrainian policemen, and
assaulted any Jew whom they encountered with clubs, knives, and
axes. Groups of Jews were taken to the Jewish cemetery and murdered
brutally. A roundup of Jews from their homes, coupled with looting,
began in the afternoon. The proportion of Jewish intellectuals was
high. Ukrainian police circulated in groups of five and consulted
prepared lists. Some 2,000 people were murdered in approximately
three days. The pogrom was known as the “Petliura Days,” in
commemoration of Simon (Semyon) Petliura, the Ukrainian premier who
had organized massive pogroms against Jews in 1919 and was murdered
in exile by a Jew in 1926. |
