Damaged scroll describing an anti-Jewish pogrom and memorializing those killed
Extent and Medium
overall: Height: 20.875 inches (53.023 cm) | Width: 31.250 inches (79.375 cm)
Creator(s)
- Peter Ehrenthal (Compiler)
Biographical History
The Katz Ehrenthal Collection is a collection of more than 900 objects depicting Jews and antisemitic and anti-Jewish propaganda from the medieval to the modern era, in Europe, Russia, and the United States. The collection was amassed by Peter Ehrenthal, a Romanian Holocaust survivor, to document the pervasive history of anti-Jewish hatred in Western art, politics and popular culture. It includes crude folk art as well as pieces created by Europe's finest craftsmen, prints and periodical illustrations, posters, paintings, decorative art, and toys and everyday household items decorated with depictions of stereotypical Jewish figures.
Archival History
The scroll was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2016 by the Katz Family.
Acquisition
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of the Katz Family
Funding Note: The cataloging of this artifact has been supported by a grant from the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany.
Scope and Content
Vellum scroll with an eyewitness account and remembrance of those lost in a 1918 massacre in Novhorod-Siversʹkyi, Russia, (now Ukraine.) Written soon after the pogrom, it curses the perpetrators, recounts the events, and records a prayer for the dead and the names of the men, women, and children who were murdered. It is the only known eyewitness account of this event. On April 6, 1918, as Red Army troops retreated from the German Army, they attacked the Jews of Novhorod-Siversʹkyi, and 88 were killed. Hostility toward Jews was widespread in the Russian Empire, and the military was notoriously antisemitic. Anti-Jewish pogroms, outbreaks of mass violence, erupted frequently in the early 20th century, causing immense suffering. These scrolls were a traditional way to express community remembrance and to honor victims of pogroms. The practice of recording the names of the dead was done following the Holocaust in memorial books known as Yizkor books, created through the collective efforts of survivors to remember and preserve what was lost. The document is one of more than 900 items in the Katz Ehrenthal Collection of antisemitic artifacts and visual materials.
Conditions Governing Access
No restrictions on access
Conditions Governing Reproduction
No restrictions on use
Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements
Large section of yellowed vellum with four long and one half length column of Hebrew inscribed in black ink. The first column has a 1.000 x .375 inch cut out rectangle. This section includes a curse and the name is cut out. The top edge is jagged and torn.
front, handwritten, black ink : Hebrew text [My eyes are crying. I do not have anymore eyes to cry, because of the catastrophe that befell our town Novared Swersk, [Novhorod-Siversʹkyi] and for our people that fell under the sword of the .... (erased but seems to indicate 'bolsheviks'), their names and their memory should be blotted! (the criminals). On this day I wrote in the book of remembrance for generations to come. After the Death and Martyrdom, seventh day of the month of Jyar in the year , All Jewish blood shouts from the ground' (1918). Then follows a prayer for the dead, El Maleh Rahamim, and the names of the martyrs. First column, the names of the men of the community, then the names of the youngsters, followed by the names of the women. It mentions a poor man who slept in the Synagogue over Sabbath and was killed, but they know not his name.]
Subjects
- Pogroms--Russia--Novhorod-Siversʹkyi--20th century--Sources.
- Massacres--Russia--Novhorod-Siversʹkyi---20th century.
- Prayers for the dead--Texts.
- Antisemitism--Russia--History--20th century.
- Jews--Persecutions--Russia--History--20th century.
- Memorial rites and ceremonies--Texts.
Genre
- Object
- Information Forms