(August 2, 1915)
(Translated from Petrograd “Retch,” of August 3, 1915, and
published in the New York “Times,” September 23, 1915)
In spite of their oppressed condition, in spite of their status of
outlawry, the Jews have risen to the exalted mood of the nation
and in the course of the last year have participated in the war in
a noteworthy manner. They fell short of the others in no respect.
They mobilized their entire enrollment, but, indeed, with this
difference, that =they have also sent their only sons into the war.=
The newspapers at the beginning of the war had a remarkable number of
Jewish volunteers to record. =Gentlemen, those were volunteers who
were entitled through their educational qualifications to the rank
of officers. They knew that they would not receive this rank; and
nevertheless they entered the war.=
The Jewish youth, which, as a result of the restrictions as to
admission to the high schools of the country, had been forced to study
abroad, returned home when war was declared, or entered the armies
of the allied nations. A large number of Jewish students fell at the
defense of Liege and also at other points on the western front.
The Zionist youths, when they were confronted with the dilemma of
accepting Turkish sovereignty or being compelled to emigrate from
Palestine, preferred to go to Alexandria and there to join the English
army.
The Jews built hospitals, contributed money, and participated in the
war in every respect just as did the other citizens. Many Jews received
marks of distinction for their conduct at the front.
Before me lies the letter of a Jew who returned from the United States
of America:
“I risked my life,” he writes, “and if, nevertheless, I came as far
as Archangel, it was only because I loved my fatherland more than my
life or that American freedom which I was permitted to enjoy. I became
a soldier, and lost my left arm almost to the shoulder. I was brought
into the governmental district of Courland. =Scarcely had I reached
Riga when I met at the station my mother and my relatives, who had
just arrived there, and who on that same day were compelled to leave
their hearth and home at the order of the military authorities. Tell
the gentlemen who sit on the benches of the Right that I do not mourn
my lost arm, but that I do mourn deeply the self-respect that was not
denied to me in alien lands but is now lost to me.”=
Such was the sentiment of the Jews that found expression in numerous
appeals and manifestations in the press, and finally also in this
House. Surely these sentiments should have been taken into account. One
should have a right to assume that the Government would adopt measures
for the amelioration of the fate of the Jews who found themselves in
the very centre of the war-like occurrences. Likewise, one should have
taken into account the sentiments of hundreds of thousands of Jews who
shed their blood on the field of battle.
Instead of that, however, we see that from the beginning of the war
the measures of reprisals against the Jewish populace were not only
not weakened but, on the contrary, made much stronger. =Banished were
Jewish men and women whose husbands, children, and brothers, were
shedding their blood for the fatherland.= A wounded soldier named
Alexander Roskhov, who had been shot in the eye, came to Charkof for
further treatment. On his passport were the words, “To be sent to a
settlement.” The private soldier Godlewski, one of whose legs had been
amputated, and who found himself at Rostof on the Don for recuperation,
they tried to send to his native village in the Government of Kalisch,
already under German occupation; and it was only due to the activities
of the Rural League that he was permitted to stay. An apothecary’s
helper, who likewise had been wounded on the battlefield, was not
allowed to remain in Petrograd for his cure, and it was only by virtue
of special intercession that he was later allowed to sojourn two months
more at Petrograd, with the notice, however, that at the expiration of
this period no further extension of his sojourn would be granted.
In a long war lucky events alternate with unlucky ones, and in any case
it is naturally useful to have scapegoats in reserve. For this purpose
there exists the old firm; the Jew. Scarcely has the enemy reached our
frontiers when the rumor is spread that Jewish gold is flowing over
to the Germans, and that, too, in aeroplanes, in coffins, and—in the
entrails of geese!
Scarcely had the enemy pressed further, than there appeared again
beyond dispute the eternal Jew “on the white horse,” perhaps the same
one who once rode on the white horse through the city in order to
provoke a pogrom. The Jews have set up telephones, have destroyed the
telegraph lines. The legend grew, and with the eager support of the
powers of Government and the agitation in official circles, assumed
ever greater proportions. A series of unprecedented, unheard of, cruel
measures was adopted against the Jews. These measures, which were
carried out before the eyes of the entire population, suggested to the
people and to the army the recognition of the fact that the Jews were
treated as enemies by the Government, and that the Jewish population
was outside the law.
In the first place these measures consisted of the complete
transplanting of the Jewish population from many districts, to the very
last man. These compulsory migrations took place in the Kingdom of
Poland and in many other territories. =All told, about a half million
persons have been doomed to a state of beggary and vagabondage. Anyone
who has seen with his own eyes how these expulsions take place, will
never forget them as long as he lives. The exiling took place within
twenty-four hours, sometimes within two days. Women, old men, and
children, and sometimes invalids, were banished. Even the feebleminded
were taken from the lunatic asylums and the Jews were forced to take
these with them.= In Mohilnitse, 5,000 persons were expelled within
twenty-four hours. Their way led to Warsaw through Kalwayra. Meantime
they were forced to travel across fields through the Government of
Lublin, and were deprived of the possibility of taking along their
inventories. Many were obliged to travel on foot. When they reached
Lublin, the Jewish Committee there had provided bread and food for
them; but they were not allowed to tarry, and they had to travel on at
once.
On the way an accident occurred; a six-year-old child was killed by a
fall. The parents were not permitted to bury the child.
I saw also the refugees of the Government of Kovno. Persons who only
yesterday were still accounted wealthy were beggars the next day. Among
the refugees I met Jewish women and girls, who had worked together with
Russian women, had sewed garments with them and collected contributions
with them, and who were now forced to encamp on the railway embankment.
=I saw families of reservists. I saw among the exiles wounded soldiers
wearing the Cross of St. George. It is said that Jewish soldiers in
marching through the Polish cities were forced to witness the expulsion
of their wives and children. The Jews were loaded in freight cars like
cattle. The bills of lading were worded as follows: “Four hundred and
fifty Jews, en route to ——.”=
There were cases in which the Governors refused outright to take in
the Jews at all. I myself was in Vilna at the very time when a whole
trainload of Jews was stalled for four days in Novo-Wilejsk station.
Those were Jews who had been sent from the Government of Kovno to
the Government of Poltawa, but the Governor there would not receive
them and sent them back to Kovno, whence they were again reshipped to
Poltawa. Imagine, at a time when every railway car is needed for the
transportation of munitions, when from all sides are heard complaints
about the lack of means of transportation, the Government permits
itself to do such a thing! At one station there stood 110 freight cars
containing Jewish exiles.
Another measure which likewise is unprecedented in the entire history
of the civilized world, is the introduction of the so-called system of
“Hostages,” and, indeed, hostages were taken not from the enemy, but
from the country’s own subjects, its own citizens. Hostages were taken
in Radom, Kieltse, Lomscha, Kovno, Riga, Lublin, etc. The hostages were
held under the most rigorous régime, and at present there are still
under arrest in Poltava Jewish hostages from the Governments of Kieltse
and Radom.
Some time ago, in commenting upon the procedure against the Jews, the
leader of the Opposition, even before the outbreak of the war, used
the expression that we were approaching the times of Ferdinand and
Isabella. I now assert that we have already surpassed that era. No
Jewish blood was shed in defence of Spain, but ours flowed the moment
the Jews helped defend the Fatherland.
Yes, we are beyond the pale of the laws, we are oppressed, we have a
hard life, but we know the source of that evil; it comes from those
benches (pointing to the boxes of the Ministers). =We are being
oppressed by the Russian Government, not by the Russian people.= Why,
then, is it surprising if we wish to unite our destinies, not with that
of the Russian Government, but with that of the Russian people? When
three years ago there was pending here the Cholm law proposal, did the
thought ever occur at the time to the sponsors of the bill that in a
short time they would have to scrape and bow before free autonomous
Poland? We likewise hope that the time is not distant when we can be
citizens of the Russian State with full equality of privileges with the
free Russian people.
Before the face of the entire country, before the entire civilized
world, I declare that the calumnies against the Jews are the most
repulsive lies and chimeras of persons who will have to be responsible
for their crimes. [Applause on Left.]
It depends upon you, gentlemen of the Imperial Duma, to speak the word
of encouragement, to perform the action that can deliver the Jewish
people from the terrible plight in which it is at present, and that can
lead them back into the ranks of the Russian citizens who are defending
their Fatherland. [Cries of “Right.”]
I do not know if the Imperial Duma will so act, but if it does so
act it will be fulfilling an obligation of honor and an act of wise
statesmanship that is necessary for the profit and for the greatness of
the Fatherland. [Applause on the Left.]