The Kielce Pogrom: A Blood Libel Massacre of Holocaust Survivors

Those who are unaware what "Kielce Pogrom" means, it refers to a violent massacre of Jews in the southeastern Polish town of Kielce on July 4, 1946. "Pogrom" is a Russian word that means to demolish violently. Onto the Article Review:

    This article talks about what happened during the Kielce Pogrom and how a mob of Polish soldiers, police officers, and civilians murdered 42 Jews and injured over 40. That incident was named the worst outburst anti-Jewish violence in Poland. It also talks about how the incident made a local history of anti-Semitism, along with falsely accusing Jews of performing rituals using the blood of Christian children. The Kielce massacre convinced many Polish Jews that they had no future in Poland after the Holocaust and spurring them to leave the country. The article mentions in 1939 there were approximately 24,000 Jewish inhabitants in Kielce or one-third of the town's population. Almost all of them were murdered during the Holocaust. By the summer of 1946, about 200 Holocaust survivors had returned to or settled in Kielce.

     During the Pogrom a nine- year old non-Jewish boy left his home in Kielce, on July 1, 1946, without informing his parents. When the boy returned the 3^rd of July he reported to his parents and the police in an effort to avoid punishment for wandering off, that he had been kidnapped and hidden in the basement of the local Jewish Committee building on 7 Planty Street. The Committee building sheltered up to 180 Jews, and housed various Jewish institutions operating in Kielce at the time. Because the boy tried to escape punishment, Polish soldiers and policemen entered the building and called upon the Jewish residents to surrender any weapons. After an unidentified individual fired a shot, officials and civilians fired upon the Jews inside the building, killing some of them. Outside, the angry crowd viciously beat Jews fleeing the shooting, or driven onto the street by the attackers, killing some of them. By day's end, civilians, soldiers and police had killed 42 Jews and injured 40 others. Two non-Jewish Poles died as well, killed either by Jewish residents inside the building or by fellow non-Jewish Poles for offering aid to the Jewish victims. Then three days after the pogrom, surviving Jews and local residents buried the victims in a mass grave in the Jewish cemetery. Government authorities ordered military units and local residents to attend the funeral as a sign of respect for the victims. 

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. "Holocaust History." The Kielce Pogrom: A Blood Libel Massacre of Holocaust Survivors. N.p., 11 May 2012. Web. 15 Jan. 2013. <http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10007941>.