Guide to the Papers of Shalom Schwarzbard (1886-1938) , 1891-1958 (bulk 1920-1937) RG 85

Processed by YIVO staff and revised by Stanislav Pejša

YIVO Institute for Jewish Research
15 West 16th Street
New York, NY 10011
Email: archives@yivo.cjh.org
URL: http://www.yivo.org

Machine-readable finding aid was created by Shaindel Fogelman as Word for Mac document in January 2004. Electronic finding aid was converted to EAD 2002 by Stanislav Pejša in March 2004. In 2012 the EAD finding aid was migrated to Archon and customized for display in the online Guide to the YIVO Archives. Description is in English.

Collection Overview

Title: Guide to the Papers of Shalom Schwarzbard (1886-1938) , 1891-1958 (bulk 1920-1937) RG 85

Predominant Dates:bulk 1920-1937

ID: RG 85 FA

Creator: Schwarzbard, Shalom (1886-1938)

Extent: 1.6 Linear Feet

Arrangement: The collection is arranged in three topical series.

Languages: Yiddish, French, English, German, Russian, Polish, Hebrew, Danish

Abstract

Shalom Schwarzbard was a Russian Jewish revolutionary and activist in the Jewish self-defence movement. In May 1926 in Paris Shalom Schwarzbard assassinated the exiled Ukrainian leader, Symon Petliura, whom Shalom Schwarzbard held responsible for pogroms against Jews in the years 1918-1920. The trial of Shalom Schwarzbard that followed drew worldwide attention. The collection consists of correspondence, manuscripts of Shalom Schwarzbard's autobiographical works, personal documents, poems, and newspaper clippings. Materials in this collection mostly relate to Shalom Schwarzbard's writings and his efforts on behalf of the Jewish war victims and Jewish war veterans of the First World War.

Scope and Contents of the Materials

The collection contains correspondence of Shalom Schwarzbard which covers roughly the period of 1920-1936. A great deal of correspondence deals with matters of Jewish self-defense, and the veterans' movement. Among Shalom Schwarzbard's correspondents one can find Élie Eberlin, World Organization of Jewish Self-Defence, or World Organization of Jewish Invalids. Some letters express encouragement and support for Shalom Schwarzbard's act of assassination of the former Ukrainian leader, Symon Petliura. Another portion of the correspondence includes various publishers and newspapers that were offering collaboration or were willing to publish Shalom Schwarzbard's pieces. The manuscripts of Shalom Schwarzbard's autobiographical texts seem to have been mostly written at the prison La Santé in Paris, France, where Shalom Schwarzbard awaited his trial. Shalom Schwarzbard's writings are mostly in Yiddish, but for some texts there is also a French translation.

Historical Note

Shalom Schwarzbard was born on August 18, 1886 in Izmail, Bessarabia, then part of the Russian Empire. The family soon moved to Balta, where his father Yitskhok Schwarzbard opened a small grocery store. Shalom Schwarzbard later learned the watchmaker's craft there.

In the early 1900s Shalom Schwarzbard became active in the radical socialist movement in Russia and was a member of the Jewish self-defense units during the pogroms of 1905-1907. Shortly thereafter, Shalom Schwarzbard left Russia. He travelled through Lemberg (Lwów, now L'viv, Ukraine), Budapest, Vienna, Italy, and ended up in Paris, France in 1910, where he worked at various watchmaker workshops.

After the outbreak of the First World War, Shalom Schwarzbard joined the French Foreign Legion. In March 1916, he was seriously injured and later was awarded the Croix de Guerre . In 1917 Shalom Schwarzbard returned to Russia and joined the Red Guard in Odessa.

During the civil war of 1918-1920, while Ukrainian forces defended national independence of the Ukraine against the Bolshevik armies and Polish territorial claims, chaos and lawlessness were rampant in the Ukraine. The pogroms that took place in the Ukraine during this time shocked the public with their brutality and and the number of their victims. According to conservative estimates 50,000 Jews fell victim to these massacres. This wave of violence was perceived as the gravest since the uprising of Bohdan Khmel´nyts´kyi in 1648-1649.

Victims and their relatives, as well as public figures concerned with this wave of violence held Symon Petliura responsible for the atrocities committed in the Ukraine. A Ukrainian nationalist and journalist, Symon Petliura, became Minister of War ( holovny ataman ) in the Ukrainian Central Rada , and later President of the Directorate. Although the central Ukrainian government functioned under conditions of civil war, in the eyes of the victims of the pogroms and their relatives, Symon Petliura did little to stop the pogroms. As the commander of the Ukrainian army, he was therefore perceived as the ultimate perpetrator of the atrocities.

In 1920 Shalom Schwarzbard returned to Paris, where he made his living as a watchmaker. In 1925 he was awarded French citizenship. After seeking unsuccessfully to call attention to these crimes committed against the Jewish population in Ukraine in his writing, on May 25, 1926, Shalom Schwarzbard took justice into his own hands and assassinated the former Ukrainian leader, Symon Petliura, in Paris.

Both Shalom Schwarzbard and Symon Petliura immediately became public symbols. While Shalom Schwarzbard was called a Jewish national hero and appeals were made to Jews all over the world to contribute financially to his defense, Symon Petliura suddenly became a martyr of the Ukrainian émigré community and his death unified the hitherto divided Ukrainian exiles. Many Ukrainian emigrés believed that Shalom Schwarzbard was a Bolshevik agent who carried out the assassination under orders from Moscow.

Shalom Schwarzbard took responsibility for the assassination which he considered to be an act of justice. In his defense of Shalom Schwarzbard, at the trial that followed, Henri Torrès concentrated on presenting the story of the pogroms and demonstrating Symon Petliura's responsibility for them. A great number of publicly recognized personalities, such as Henri Bergson, Romain Rolland, Albert Einstein, and Alexander Kerensky volunteered to testify on Shalom Schwarzbard's behalf, and the former Prime Minister of Hungary Mihaly Károlyi prepared an analysis of the Jewish problem in Central and Eastern Europe for the defense. In the end, the court acquitted Shalom Schwarzbard, who was released from the prison La Santé after almost a year and half.

After his release, Shalom Schwarzbard attended many meetings and gatherings around the world at the invitation of various Jewish organizations where he spoke about Jewish self-defense and the pogroms in the Ukraine. He also became active in the organizations of the veterans and victims of the First World War.

Shalom Schwarzbard was the author of several mostly autobiographical works Milkhome bilder (Pictures from the War), Fun tifen obgrund (From the Abyss), In krig mit zikh aleyn (In War with Myself) and his memoirs In'm loyf fun yorn (In the Course of Years). He also published poetry under the title Troymen un verlekhkayt (Dreams and Reality).

Shalom Schwarzbard died in Cape Town, South Africa on March 3, 1938.

Subject/Index Terms

Administrative Information

Access Restrictions: Open to researchers.

Use Restrictions:

There may be some restrictions on the use of the collection. For more information, contact

Chief Archivist

YIVO Institute for Jewish Research

Center for Jewish History

15 West 16th Street

New York, NY 10011

Separated Materials: The photos related to this collection are part of the YIVO Photo and Film Archive (folder 650).

Original/Copies Note: This collection has been microfilmed and is available on four Microfilm reels MK 470.69 to MK 470.72.

Related Materials: The Shalom Schwarzbard collection is part of the Elias Tcherikower Archive RG 80-89 which holds further material relating to the trial of Shalom Schwarzbard, especially in folders 411-509 of the Mizrakh yidisher historisher arkhiv (Archives for the History of East European Jews) collection RG 80, which contain material of the Shalom Schwarzbard Defense Committee.

Preferred Citation: Published citations should take the following form:Identification of item, date (if known); YIVO Archives, Shalom Schwarzbard Papers, RG 85, folder number.

Finding Aid Revision History: In 2004 Stanislav Pejša revised the inventory in Yiddish prepared by Zosa Szajkowski. The arrangement of folders in the container list follows the Yiddish alphabetical order.

Box and Folder Listing

Browse by Series:

Series 1: Series I: Correspondence, 1920-1939,
Series 2: Series II: Manuscripts, n.d., 1926-1934,
Series 3: Series III: Personal papers and varia, 1891-1958,
All

Series I: Correspondence 1920-1939

The correspondence consists of letters between Shalom Schwarzbard and individuals and organizations. The series contains letters of encouragements, support, and gratitude to Shalom Schwarzbard for his act. Invitations and notices announcing Shalom Schwarzbard's speeches, as well as letters of various political and cultural organizations that were involved in fostering Jewish self-defense, are included in this series. Other significant portions of letters come from Jewish newspapers and magazines, mostly in France or in New York. This correspondence deals with translation and copyrights for Shalom Schwarzbard's memoirs, requests for articles and offers of collaboration.

The series also contains letters of once leading personalities of the radical socialist or anarchist movement, such as Boris Yelensky , who was Secretary Treasurer of the Shalom Schwarzbard Arrangement Committee in Chicago that was preparing Shalom Schwarzbard's tour in the United States and Canada in 1934, Moshe Rogers, a secretary of that committee, Marc Jarblum , and Rudolf Rocker . There are many letters of Shalom Schwarzbard's friend Jacob Blumstein-Sela in years 1929-1930. The letters are both in French and Hebrew. The correspondence with family members is also part of this series in the folder Family and family friends and is also both in French and Yiddish. Many of these letters were written during the period when Shalom Schwarzbard awaited his trail at the prison La Santé .

There are relatively few materials directly related to Shalom Schwarzbard's trial or his act. Among the exceptions are letters written by Elie Dobkovsky who participated in the trial with Shalom Schwarzbard and in his long letter tried to explain why he witnessed against him, and Shalom Schwarzbard's letters to J.M. Zalkind written from the prison.

Several letters that are in the folder labelled Unidentified correspondence were eventually identified; however, they remained in their original location.

Language of Material: This series is mostly in Yiddish , French , Russian , English , Hebrew , and German .

Arrangement: Arranged according to Yiddish alphabetical order.

Folder 876: א (A, Id, O) Agudah Ateres Tsion (Paris, France) Unzer Tsayt (then Kishinev, Romania; now Chisinau, Moldova) Urdang, Morris (Paris, France) Jewish National Workers' Alliance (New York, N.Y., Philadelphia, Penn.; Atlanta, Ga.) Yidishe anarkhistishe grupe (Buenos Aires, Argentina) Yidishe ratsyonalistishe gezelshaft (Buenos Aires, Argentina) Yidishe tsaytung (Buenos Aires, Argentina) Yidisher studentn fareyn / Association des étudiants juifs de Nancy (Nancy, France) Yidisher klub for frayer diskusye [Jewish Club for Free Discussion] (Paris, France) Izgur, ? (Los Angeles, Calif.) Ikht, Yitzkhok (Manchester, England) Amalgamated Cooperative Houses (New York, N.Y.) French Embassy (Moscow, Soviet Union) American Consular Service (Paris, France) Astor (Niagara Falls, N.Y.) Ostroff, Israel Axer, A. (Zürich, Switzerland) Workers' Circle Friendly Society (London, England) Workmen's Circle / Arbeter Ring (Albany, N.Y.; Los Angeles, Calif.; Portland, Or.; Seattle, Wash.) Aronson, ? 1924-1937
Folder 877: ב (B) Boston, Mrs. ? (Hackney, England) Barondess, Joseph (New York, N.Y.) Bartkowski, Fiszel (ód, Poland) ?, Boris (Paris, France) Brzustowski, Ch. J. (ód, Poland) Bibliotekn [Libraries] (Paris, France) Bycher kooperativ [Cooperative Books] (Warszawa, Poland) Beirach, Salomon (Beyrok, Shlomo) (Bronx, N.Y.) Birnbaum, Julius (Denver, Colo.) Bloumenthal, Hersch (Paris, France) 1927-1935
Folder 878: ב Blurstein, Jacob (Tel Aviv, Palestine) Blaustein-Sela, Jacob 1928-1935
Folder 879: ב (Bl, Br) Blekman, ? (Los Angeles, Calif.) Berenbaum, Dani (Denver, Colo.) Betsal'el (Academy) Brown, S. (London, England) Brotman, A.G. (London, England) Braverman, Kayla (San Francisco, Calif.) Brupbacher, Paulette (Zürich, Switzerland) 1929-1939
Folder 880: ג (G) Gabbai, Jacques A. (Cairo, Egypt) Goldblatt, B. (San Francisco, Calif.) Goldenberg, S. (Paris, France) Golub, A. (London, England) Gorelik, Anatoli (Remedios de Escalada, Argentina) together with Bianchi, Alberto and others (Buenos Aires, Argentina) Grossman, Vladimir (Paris, France; New York, N.Y.) Grünberg, Chaim (then Lwów, Poland ; now L’viv, Ukraine) 1923-1928
Folder 881: ד (D, Jew) Dobkovsky, Elie (Paris?, France) Davydoff (Roscoff, France) Dave, Victor (Montrouge, France) Dubnow-Fund (Paris, France) Durand, Bernard (Paris, France) Jewish Agency for Palestine (Jarusalem, Palestine, now Israel) The Jewish World (Philadelphia, Pa.) The Jewish Times (London, England) Jewish Theological Seminary of America (New York, N.Y.) Jewish National and University Library (Jerusalem, Palestine) Diamondstein, B. (London, England) 1922-1935
Folder 882: וו ,ה (H, V, W) Hochstein, Léon (Antwerp, Belgium) Hassid, Victor (Tunis, Tunisia) Hoykhboym, Yakov (Nancy, France) HIAS (Paris, France) Haynt [Today] (Warszawa, Poland) Hermant, ? Herscovici, H. (Paris, France) Union des jeunesses juives (Paris, France) Immigration and Naturalization Service (New York, N.Y.) Di Vokh / La Semaine [The Week] (Nancy, France) Volski, B. (Paris, France) Weill-Goudchaux, Serge (Paris, France) Weinberg, Arthur Weinberg, B. (London, England) Weissman, A. (Paris, France) Williams, W.N. (Highgate, England) Wyler, Veit (Zürich, Switzerland) Vinograd, D. (Warsaw, Poland) 1927-1936
Folder 883: י ,ט ,ז (Z, T, Y, J) Zolgin, Bessie Zalkind, J.M. (Shalom Schwarzbard's letters from the Prison de la Santé , Paris, France) Der Tog [The Day] (New York, N.Y.) Torrès, Henri (Paris, France) Tuzman (Tussman), Malka Twersky, Moshe Tigel, Z. Tedesko, G. A. La Terre Retrouvée [Rediscovered Land] Trommer, Lazarus (Glendale, N.Y.) Tsharney, ? (Philadelphia, Penn.) Tchizev Initiative Committee Tcherikower, Elias Yanowski, M.D. (Vincennes, France) Jacobsohn, Hans (Berlin-Schöneberg, Germany) Jarblum, M. [Marc?] (Paris, France) Juedische Kultur-Varwaltung (Talinn, Estonia) Javetz, V. L. (London, England) Jevdikov Jakton (Tallinn, Estonia) 1926-1937
Folder 884: YIVO Institute for Jewish Research (Wilno, Poland) 1929-1930
Folder 885: מ ,ל (L, M) Landau, S. R. (Vienna, Austria) Loss, Raphael (Paris, France) Liberman, M. (London, England) Ligue internationale contre l'antisémitisme (Paris, France) Levant Fair (Tel-Aviv, Palestina) Lévy, ? (Paris, France) Modern Press (New York, N.Y.) Moses, David (Tel-Aviv, Palestine; Cairo, Egypt) Mayor of Berchères-la-Maingot Malobrodsky, L. (then Kisinev, Romania; now Chisinau, Moldova) Der Moment [The Moment] The Jewish Morning Journal (New York, N.Y.) Maslan, Aaron L. (Seattle, Wash.) Matzkain, ? Murro, Moses (Jarusalem, Palestine; Chicago, Ill.) Meiman, Moshe (Paris, France) ?, Miriam (Winnipeg, Man.) 1920-1934
Folder 886: Family ( Mishpokhe ) and family friends Schwarzbard, Anna (wife) ?, Louise ?, Georgette ?, Benjamin (brother-in-law) Schwarzbard, Ferdinand (brother Froike/Ephraim) Fouchs, A.(Paris, France) Schwarzbard, Salomon (Vichy, France) ?, Masha (sister?)(Ratnitsa?, Moldavian ASSR) Khaskin, D. 1922-1934
Folder 887: צ ,פ ,ף ,ע ,ס ,נ (N, S, E, P, F, Z, Ch) Niborsky, S. (Nancy, France) Neye Presse (Paris, France) Nettlau, Max? (Vienna, Austria) Sochachewsky, Boris (Ben-A) (London, England) Samuel, ? (Paris, France) Soffer, Elie (Paris, France) Stock - Publishing House (Paris, France) Sinder, H. (Paris, France) Sleptsova, Mariia Nikolaevna (Reval (Tallinn), Estonia) Eberlin, Élie (Paris, France; Zürich, Switzerland) Abraham, ? (London, England) Edelson, Joseph E. (Chicago, Ill.) Elprin, A. (San Francisco, Calif.) Encyclopaedia Judaica – Verlag Eschkol (Berlin, Germany) Efroykin, Israel (Paris, France) Eckmann, Max (Pavillons-sous-Bois, France) Polishuck, Esther Polishuck, Itzchak Pomerantz (London, England) Pann, A. [Abel?] (Zagreb, Croatia) Papir, Joseph Isadore (Baltimore, Md.) Parizer bleter / Les Feuilles Parisiennes (Paris, France) Parizer Haynt / La Journée Parisienne (Paris, France) Prylucki, Noakh (Vésinet, France; Warsaw, Poland) Faiboushiak, D. (Antwerp, Belgium) Fayer, Shmuel (Detroit. Mich.) Philippe, Mrs. Filler, A. (Los Angeles, Calif.) Flegg, Maurice (Paris, France) Fédération de sociétés juives de France (Paris, France) Federation of Polish Jews in France (Paris, France) Friedberg, Harry (Kansas City, Mo.) Frydman, Ben-Zion (Paris, France) Freie Arbeiter Stimme [Free Workers' Voice] (New York, N.Y.) F.?, Maurice (Paris, France) Di Tsukunft / The Future (New York, N.Y.) Zukerman, William (London, England) Zwebner, Abraham Haim (Jarusalem, Palestine) Citrinbaum, Rebecca (Geneva, Switzerland) Ceshinsky, Morris (Chicago, Ill.) Connel, Zvi (Tel-Aviv, Palestine) 1928-1937
Folder 888: ר ,ק (K, R) Kagan, ? (Paris, France) Kahan, Ab. (Paris, France) Kalmanovich, Zelig (Paris, France) Comité des délégations juives (Paris, France) Cohn, Michael A. (Brooklyn, N.Y.) Capitanchik, J. (London, England) Korn, M. Tsentraler kultur-rat (Paris, France) Ligue juive d'enseignement (Paris, France) Keen, M.D. (New York, N.Y.) Kessary, Ouri (Paris, France) Klasser, Oyzer (Winnipeg, Man.) Club de la jeunesse juive (Paris, France) Kessel, Joseph (Paris, France) Keren Hayesod (Paris, France) Jewish National Fund - Keren kayemet le-Yi´sra'el (Jerusalem, Palestine) Robinson, H. (London, England) Robinfien (Chicago, Ill.) Rogooland, Celia (Denver, Colo.) Rosenberg, A. (Glowno, Poland) Rotenberg, Isaack (South Haven, Mich ) Razsviet (Paris, France) Rocker, Rudolf (Berlin-Neukölln, Germany; Neunkirchen, Germany) ?, Rivka (New York, N.Y.) Rubchinsky, W. (London, England) Rubins, Feygl (Paris, France) Rubenstein, Harry H. (Denver, Colo.) Raisin, Max (Paterson, N.J.) Reischer, M (Metz, France) Les Revues (Paris, France) 1923-1936
Folder 889: ש ,ר (R, Sch, Sh) Rogers, Moshe (Bronx, N.Y.) Yelensky, Boris and Bessie (Chicago, Ill.) Schwartz, Désiré (Paris, France) Schwarzbard, Anna Statman, Chaim (Mexico City, Mexico) Stein, David (New York, N.Y.) Stern, Hannah? (Paris, France, Zürich, Switzerland) Brupbacher?, Paulette (Zürich, Switzerland) Schneider, ? (Paris, France) Sherman, Max (Los Angeles, Calif.) 1927-1936
Folder 890: Unidentified letters n.d., 1929, 1932, 1935: ?, Jaakov (Paris, France)
Gita and Perl
Chodorov (Paris, France)
Hakohen, Yehoshua Ben David
(Pittsburgh, Penn.)
Gold, M.?, David (ship Cap Arcona)
?, Genia and ?, Leon (Paris, France)
M.
Letter from an uncle
Polishuck, Esther (?)
Davydoff ?
Gold, ?
Pomerantz (?) (London, England)
Kohn, Etl (Boston, Mass.)
?,? (Berlin, Germany)

Browse by Series:

Series 1: Series I: Correspondence, 1920-1939,
Series 2: Series II: Manuscripts, n.d., 1926-1934,
Series 3: Series III: Personal papers and varia, 1891-1958,
All