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

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

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.

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.

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.

Assassination, Association des anciens combattants et engagés volontaires juifs dans l'armée française, Barondess, Joseph, 1867-1928, Documents - Memoirs, Documents - Personal correspondence, Documents - Poems, Eberlin, Élie, Housing, Cooperative, Jewish learning and scholarship, Jewish National Workers' Alliance (U.S.), Jewish newspapers, Jewish War Veterans of the United States of America, Kalmanovitch, Zelig, 1885-1944, Keren kayemet le-Yi´sra'el, Persecutions, Petliura, Symon Vasyl´ovych, 1879-1926, Rogers, Moshe, Schwarzbard, Anna, Schwarzbard, Shalom, Soviet Union, Trials (Assassination), Writers, Jewish, Yelensky, Boris, Yivo Institute for Jewish Research, Zionism

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.