4. The Pshitik pogrom

Phshitik was the site of one of the four major Polish pogroms in the period 1935–37. The pogrom took place on 9 March 1936. Witnessing rising tensions between Jews and Poles, and anticipating trouble, some Jews had formed an armed self-defence group three months earlier. During the pogrom, violence was visited on both Jews and Poles at an annual fair in the town square and near a bridge on the other side of the nearby Radomka River. Two Jews and one Pole were killed and dozens of people were seriously injured. At the subsequent trial, thirty-nine Poles were sentenced to prison terms ranging from six months to one year and eleven Jews were sentenced to prison terms ranging from six months to eight years, the longest prison term going to a Jew who fired a revolver from the window of his house, killing a Pole. No Poles were sentenced for beating two Jews to death. Leshchinsky recounts the worst attacks on Jews and the outrage of Polish Jewry regarding the trial’s outcome, and he praises Jewish self-defence efforts. He describes the trial proceedings in detail, concluding that the court was strongly biased against the Jewish defendants, essentially viewing the events of 9 March as a Jewish pogrom against Poles. 5 June, 19 June, 24 June, and 1 July 1936.