Lwów pogrom (1918)

The Lwów pogrom (pogrom lwowski, Lemberger Pogrom) was a pogrom perpetrated by Polish soldiers and civilians against the Jewish population of the city of Lwów (since 1945, Lviv, Ukraine). It happened on 21–23 November 1918, during the Polish–Ukrainian War that followed World War I. During three days of unrest in the city, an estimated 52–150 Jewish residents were killed, and hundreds were injured. Non-Jewish casualties were also reported. They were mainly Ukrainian, and they might have outnumbered the Jewish fatalities. The total number of victims was reported to be 340. It is estimated that over a thousand people, including some soldiers, were arrested by Polish authorities during and after the pogrom. The 1918 Lwów events were widely publicized in the international press. US President Woodrow Wilson appointed a commission, led by Henry Morgenthau, Sr., to investigate violence against the Jewish population in Poland. The Morgenthau Report was published in October 1919. The Jewish population of Lwów had already been a victim to the Russian military pogrom on 27 September 1914, which took 30–50 Jewish lives. After the First World War, on 1 November 1918, the Ukrainian National Council proclaimed the West Ukrainian People's Republic, with Lviv as its capital. A week later, the Regency Council of the Kingdom of Poland declared Poland's independence, and they formed a Polish government on 14 November 1918. The consequent Battle of Lwów lasted until 21 November 1918. Galicia's Jews were caught in the post-World War I Polish-Ukrainian conflict, and they fell victim to a rising wave of pogroms across the region, fuelled by post-World War I lawlessness. In early 1918, a wave of pogroms swept Polish-inhabited towns of western Galicia. The pogroms were largely made up of demobilized army soldiers and deserters. Throughout the 1918–1919 Polish-Ukrainian conflict, the warring forces used Jews as a scapegoat against their frustrations.