In the Midst of Civilized Europe: The Pogroms of 1918–1921 and the Onset of the Holocaust

by Jeffrey Veidlinger

FINALIST FOR THE NATIONAL JEWISH BOOK AWARD * SHORTLISTED FOR THE LIONEL GELBER PRIZE

“The mass killings of Jews from 1918 to 1921 are a bridge between local pogroms and the extermination of the Holocaust. No history of that Jewish catastrophe comes close to the virtuosity of research, clarity of prose, and power of analysis of this extraordinary book. As the horror of events yields to empathetic understanding, the reader is grateful to Veidlinger for reminding us what history can do.”
―Timothy Snyder, author of Bloodlands

Between 1918 and 1921, over a hundred thousand Jews were murdered in Ukraine by peasants, townsmen, and soldiers who blamed the Jews for the turmoil of the Russian Revolution. In hundreds of separate incidents, ordinary people robbed their Jewish neighbors with impunity, burned down their houses, ripped apart their Torah scrolls, sexually assaulted them, and killed them. Largely forgotten today, these pogroms―ethnic riots―dominated headlines and international affairs in their time. Aid workers warned that six million Jews were in danger of complete extermination. Twenty years later, these dire predictions would come true.

Drawing upon long-neglected archival materials, including thousands of newly discovered witness testimonies, trial records, and official orders, acclaimed historian Jeffrey Veidlinger shows for the first time how this wave of genocidal violence created the conditions for the Holocaust. Through stories of survivors, perpetrators, aid workers, and governmental officials, he explains how so many different groups of people came to the same that killing Jews was an acceptable response to their various problems. In riveting prose, In the Midst of Civilized Europe repositions the pogroms as a defining moment of the twentieth century.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Holocaust, World War II, Jewish, Ukraine, Religion

480 pages, Hardcover

First published October 26, 2021

Reviews

[Gerhard · Rating 3 out of 5]

Der Autor zeigt auf, dass nach dem 1. Weltkrieg auf dem umkämpften Gebiet der Ukraine Judenprogrome stattfanden, es gab sie auch bereits 1905. Seiner Meinung nach sind dies bereits Vorläufer für den Holocaust. Das Gebiet der Ukraine war mit seinen Grenzen umkämpft. Nach anfangs Deutschen Truppen gingen Rotarmisten, die Weiße Garde, Bolschewiken, Tscheka, Bauernsöldner gegeneinander und gegen die Juden. Das Buch beruht zum Großteil auf einer Menge von Zeugenaussagen und ist so detaillreich geschrieben, dass ich den Überblick verloren habe.

[Joe Stack · Rating 3 out of 5]

As well written as this book is, it is a difficult to read because of the eye witness accounts of the blatant cruelty of the progroms covered by the author. It is not for the faint of heart. The demeaning horrors and murders of the pogroms are nearly incomprehensible, but because the pogroms did happen the violence is not incomprehensible. People knew better, but as stated by the author, “during the pogroms of 1918-1921 ‘ordinary men’ and ‘neighbors’ became killers.” The pogroms were carried out by townsfolk, peasants, and disciplined soldiers.

An example of what the author reveals is a pogrom that occurred in the city of Fastiv. “ . . . violence spread from storefronts and houses into the open. . . . groups of Cossacks openly went around the city stopping Jews on the street. Sometimes they would simply ask, ‘Are you a Jew?’ and shoot them in the forehead. But much more often they would first search them, even strip them naked, and then shoot them in that state right there on the street.” This pogrom lasted about 5 days. 1,036 to 1,800 Jews were killed. If the pogrom’s aftermath is considered, the death toll from disease resulting from dead bodies lying in hospitals, homes, and other buildings for 10-12 days is estimated over 8,000. Fastiv was not unusual.

This is a well documented account of a chaotic period. Jews and non-Jews would celebrate when the group they supported achieved control, but the Jews were blamed for whatever faction was victorious or lost. While quite a few ethnic and religious groups were targets of discrimination and violence during the years covered in this history, “Jewish civilians alone were singled out for persecution by virtually everyone. The Bolsheviks despised them as bourgeois nationalists; the bourgeois nationalists branded them Bolsheviks; Ukrainians saw them as agents of Russia; Russians suspected them of being German sympathizers; and the Poles doubted their loyalty to the newly founded Polish Republic. . . . Regardless of one’s political inclination, there was always a Jew to blame.” When the Bolshevik’s consolidated power or the Bolshevik army advanced, the Jews were blamed. When either the Bolshevik’s or the White Army retreated, the Jews were blamed. Jews were targeted because they were “bourgeois speculators” and they were also targeted for being Bolsheviks, the opposite of being “bourgeois.”

In many instances, pogrom participants did not need any reason to attack Jews. They just went along with it.

These pogroms occurred during the Russian Revolution and while statesmen were negotiating the Versailles Treaty. The author does a fine job in drawing back the curtain to these events to reveal what was happening in Eastern Europe.

Besides being a thorough accounting of the Ukrainian pogroms, the author takes the reader to the roots of the Holocaust. Read nothing else but the last four chapters (Part V: Aftermath, 1921-1941), to learn about the cause and effect of events that lead to a rise in anti-Semitism in Europe & the U.S., restrictions of Jewish immigration, and to the systemic horrors of the Holocaust. It is with these chapters (which deserve a 5 star rating) where the author successfully supports his conclusion that the Holocaust was built upon the Ukrainian pogroms.

Anthony Burgess’ novel, “A Clockwork Orange,” depicts a dystopian and violent future. While the violence in this novel and the movie based on it is fictional, for Jews (and other ethnic and religious groups) in the Ukraine region from 1918-1921, “A Clockwork Orange” was their reality.

This book is a cautionary tale. It is what can happen when people become inured to violence lowering the constraints to the dark side of human behavior.

[Liam Ostermann · Rating 1 out of 5]

I am giving this book one star because I had such high hopes for it and none of those hopes have been met. Before going any further let me be clear that his account of the pogroms in, what must be called 'Ukraine' with caveats (way too many and complicated for this review), is as horrifying as any tale of revolting anti-Semitic violence. But what this book does not provide is provide any real historical context for understanding what happened. All the author has is an agenda - that what happened between 1918-1923 was both a foretaste, forerunner and a contributory factor in how the Nazi Holocaust developed in the territories of the Soviet Union and Poland.

The problem is that while the author is an expert of Jewish theatre and Shtetl life he really has no understanding of the complexities of the history of anti-Semitism in Eastern, or any other part of Europe, nor the complexities of the differences between Jewish life in the kingdom of Galicia as part of the Austro-Hungarian empire and Imperial Russia. His understanding of various problems that the dissolution of the Hapsburg and Romanov empires caused or the effect of WWI over the vast territories is almost limitless in its superficiality.

One of the results is that he is sloppy with his sources - he talks about the vast number of Jewish refugees pouring out of Russia in 1923 and says the fear of these 'foriegn' Jews inspired Hitler's and other right wing German anti-Semites - but Hitler's aversion, if we are to believe 'Mein Kampf', with 'alien' Jews went back to his days in Vienna. In any case the entire chapter is confusing as Veidlinger quotes documents and first hand reports of conditions and circumstances of Jewish refugees in 1919 to support his conclusions for what post 1923 refuges suffered and had an affect on. You can't just shift from 1919 to 1923 - during that time the city of Kiev (as it was then known) changed hands some thirteen times. If you do not pay rigid attention to timelines when dealing with the shifting political scene you are just talking unsubstantiated or even worse, constructing artificial, story lines and explanations.

Other egregious and annoying reductionist simplicity's are his account of the Russo-Soviet War and of Jewish famine relief efforts, and the difficulties they had, without any mention of the whole context of famine relief in the same years.

What happened post WWI in Eastern Europe to Jewish communities was horrifying, but placing it in the midst of a simplistic account of pogroms under Imperial Russia, what happened during WWI, and then force feed a explanation of how the Holocaust happened you end up with plenty of horror stories but no understanding.

I am delighted that the post WWI pogroms have been brought back into public memory but this book fails on every level to really engage with or understand the situation in which they happened. Be assured, understanding, context, etc. is not to excuse or justify. Making you cry over ancient horrors may be cathartic for some readers but it doesn't provide anything more then glib sloganeering which is antithetical to discovering real truths.

[Jessica McGee · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked up this book after reading Thistlefoot. That probably seems odd, but if you have read Thistlefoot, you are aware that the Ukrainian pogroms in the early 1900s play a major role. I finished that book feeling frustrated and sad that I had never heard of the pogroms in Europe. This brings me to why I purchased this book. I don't regret reading it, but it is the most heartbreaking book I've read. So much pain, suffering, and death. And that was all before WWII. I'm disappointed that in 12 years of public school and 4 years of college, I am just now at 42 years old learning this part of history. These stories deserve to be remembered, and this book does an excellent job of burning images into your mind so you won't ever forget.

[Steven Z. · Rating 5 out of 5]

According to Webster’s dictionary a “pogrom” is an organized massacre of a particular ethnic group, in particular that of Jewish people in Russia or eastern Europe in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It is a Russian word meaning to “wreak havoc, to demolish violently.” Historically, the term refers to violent attacks by local non-Jewish populations on Jews in the Russian Empire and in other countries. The first such incident to be labeled a pogrom is believed to be anti-Jewish rioting in Odessa in 1821. As a descriptive term, “pogrom” came into common usage with extensive anti-Jewish riots that swept the southern and western provinces of the Russian Empire in 1881–1884, following the assassination of Tsar Alexander II.

One of the most impactful pogroms took place in Kishinev located in the southwest corner of Imperial Russia in April 1903. It resulted in the death of 49 Jews, an untold number of Jewish women were raped, and 1,500 Jewish homes were damaged. This sudden rush of hoodlum violence — prompted by accusatory rumors of Jewish ritual murder — quickly became a talisman of imperial Russian brutality against its Jews. More than that, the incident brought the word pogrom to the world stage and set off reverberations that changed the course of Jewish history for the next century.

Pogroms in Russia and Eastern Europe at the end of the 19th and early 20th century became the impetus for Jewish immigration to the United States. Between 1880 and 1924 over 2,000,000 Jews immigrated to the United States to escape persecution and poverty. My own grandparents left their small village north of Kyiv in 1905 on arriving at Ellis Island and settling in the New York area.

For those who have difficulty imagining what a pogrom is or looks like I refer them to the film “The Fixer” based on the novel of the same name by Bernard Malamud. THE FIXER was based on an infamous case known as the “Beilis case” or the “Beilis trial” of 1913, in which the mutilated corpse of a Christian boy was found in a cave outside Kiev in 1911, and it became the cause célèbre for myriad virulent antisemitic groups to propagate widespread persecution of Jews. A Jewish laborer named Menahem Mendel Beilis (Yacov Bok in the film and novel) was arrested on ludicrous trumped-up charges for ritualistically extracting the child’s blood to be used in Passover matzos and it led to his imprisonment and torture –a prelude to further pogroms and the coming Bolshevik Revolution. In a highly publicized trial akin to the Russian version of the Dreyfus affair, Beilis was ultimately acquitted by an all-Christian jury.

The latest use of the term pogrom has sparked controversy when it was applied to the devastating actions of Hamas terrorists perpetrated on October 7, 2024, against Israel. The end result was 1,180 people killed, of which 797 were civilians, including 36 children and 379 security forces. A further, 3,400 civilians and soldiers were wounded, and 251 civilians and soldiers were taken captive (74 later died in captivity or were confirmed dead). Hamas’ savagery fits the definition of the term “pogrom” with all the elements of violence, sexual attack, and antisemitism.

In his latest book IN THE MIDST OF CIVILIZED EUROPE: THE POGROMS OF 1918-1921 AND THE ONSET OF THE HOLOCAUST Jeffrey Veidlinger tackles the pogrom-like violence in western Belorussia (Belarus) and Poland's Galicia province (now West Ukraine), that resulted in the murder of over a hundred thousand Jews between 1918 and 1921. According to Veidlinger, apart from murders, “approximately 600,000 Jewish refugees were forced to flee across international borders, and millions more were displaced internally. About two-thirds of all Jewish houses and over half of all Jewish businesses in the region were looted or destroyed. The pogroms traumatized the affected communities for at least a generation and set off alarm bells around the world.”

The perpetrators of pogroms organized locally, sometimes with government and police encouragement. They raped, murdered their Jewish victims, and looted their property. During the civil war that followed the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution, Ukrainian nationalists, Polish officials, and Red Army soldiers perpetrated these massacres blaming the Jews for the turmoil and destruction of World War I and the ensuing Russian Revolution. At the time reports of this violence were published in the press and many warned that the Jews were in danger of extermination – a prediction that would come to fruition in the Nazi imposed Holocaust between 1939-1945.

Veidlinger relies on long-neglected materials that include recently discovered eyewitness accounts, trial records, and government orders concluding that the genocidal violence created the conditions for the Holocaust. He explains how and why so many groups believed that the murder of Jews was a suitable reaction to their perceived problems, allowing “pogroms” to be seen as one of the defining moments of the 20th century.

The development of pogroms as a threat to the existence of Jews came to a stage. First, the reaction to the assassination of Alexander II which Russian newspapers and right-wing Christians blamed the Jews. Next is the results of the Russo-Japanese war which set off a wave of pogroms as the Russian people could not accept defeat. The situation was further exacerbated by the 1905 Revolution allowing the Black Hundreds and individuals within the Tsarist police to unleash devastating pogroms. It took until 1906 for the pogroms to subside. The pogroms unleashed between 1903-1906 helped model behavioral patterns that were further refined with each wave of unrest. Tensions were heightened with the appearance of THE PROTOCOLS OF THE ELDERS OF ZION, first circulated by the Black Hundreds in 1903 it would be widely disseminated across Russia (and Europe) accusing the Jews of a global conspiracy to take control of world finances and manipulate government leaders. The next stage in the development and implementation of pogroms was a result of World War I where Jews were accused of financing the German war machine and supporting Russia’s arch enemy, Germany. Rumors of Jewish betrayal throughout the war led to their removal by Russian troops from front line areas leading to thousands of Jews imprisoned and others becoming refugees forced out of their homes and sent to other parts of the empire or forced to emigrate elsewhere when possible to eradicate what was perceived as a world Jewish revolutionary movement.

One of Veidlinger’s most important themes revolves around what happened to Jews in Ukraine during World War II, having its roots in what happened to Jews in the same geographic area in the post-World War I era. The massacres established violence against Jews as an acceptable response to the excesses of Bolshevism due to the unrelenting exposure to bloodshed which habituated local populations to bloodshed and barbarism. When the Germans arrived in 1941 they found a decades-old killing ground where the mass murder of innocent Jews was an acceptable reality.

Veidlinger correctly points out how Jews could not escape victimhood as after the Treaty of Brest Litovsk was signed in March 1918 by the Bolsheviks and Germans, the Jews would once again found themselves as victims. As the Germans occupied Ukraine the Bolsheviks accused them of collaboration with the enemy as well as being members of the bourgeois class. The Germans accused them of being Bolshevik sympathizers and engaging in violent attacks against German officials. The Jews were victims of attacks from both sides further reinforcing the concept that it was acceptable to beat up and kill Jews. Things grew worse when the Bolsheviks created the “Extraordinary Commission for Combating Counter-Revolution, Profiteering and Corruption” (Cheka) under Felix Dzerzhinsky which employed torture and terror to root out the opposition. Interestingly, with so many Bolshevik leaders with Jewish backgrounds it was easy to spread lies pertaining to them by opposition to the new Soviet regime. The remnants of the central powers, the White Army, the Black Hundreds all developed strong rationalizations to unleash further pogroms.

With the collapse of the German and Austro-Hungarian empire the nationalist goals of the Poles for their own nation ensued. Joseph Pilsudski, a Polish military figure and statesman called for a multi-ethnic Polish state and became the first Chief of State for the new country. However, for Jews the situation was complex as they once again were caught in the middle of divergent forces and soon became victims of pogramatic violence as Poles, Ukranians, and others fought for control of cities within the new Ukrainian and Polish republics. Violence in Lviv set a new pattern as soldiers deliberately targeted Jews in their homes and businesses with no apparent military objective. This seemed different as now soldiers were added to gangs of ruffians and local discontented types who openly attacked Jews. This spread across Poland and Galicia resulting in over 130 pogroms against Jews by soldiers with the general population participating in the violence as crowds cheered them on. Once again Jews were caught in the middle as a Ukrainian Republic had been proclaimed that seemed to be more tolerant of Jews when compared to the new Polish state.

The author does an excellent job exploring in insightful detail four of the 85 attacks on Jewish life and property between January and March 1919. The four include pogroms in Ovruch, two in Zhytomyr, and Proskuriv. What set them apart from previous pogroms was that they were not necessarily an unprompted spree committed spontaneously by unruly soldiers rampaging through civilian neighborhoods, but part of a protracted reign of terror perpetrated by officers, or leaders who achieved some military control acting under the authority of the state military. They became a watershed for Jews because the Ukrainian government when it came to pass was predicated on the principle of minority rights and national autonomy and their lack of action showed they could not protect them. For Jews targeted for supporting Bolsheviks it betrayed the trust Jews had in their government.

The problem that emerges in all four pogroms is that the high minded ideals of the Ukrainian cabinet and intellectual elites were not shared by the rest of the military leadership. Instead, the officers and soldiers, many of whom had been poisoned by the anti-Semitic rhetoric of the Imperial Russian army which they had served and by prejudices learned in their villages, continued to view Jews as speculators stealing the wealth of the Ukrainian people, as enemies of the church, and the agents of Bolshevism. It was a belief system that reverberated throughout the region to the detriment and of the well-being of Jews. This would continue in the battles for Kyiv, Fastiv and other areas as the White army with their Cossacks entered the picture.

Fastiv is another example of the horrors Jews faced in September and October 1919 as the White army entered the fray resulting in the death of over 8000 Jews, some the result of outright murder and the rest the effects of hunger, exposure and the lack of any medical care. The Whites wanted to eradicate the Jewish population anywhere they could find them. The Whites were made up of former Tsarist officers and soldiers, along with the Cossacks just enhanced the terror Jews faced under the leadership of Anton Denikin, a former peasant and disgruntled Tsarist officer. The former Tsarist officers saw the Jews as the progenitors of Bolshevism and as an internal enemy whose perfidy had led to Russia’s defeat in the Great War. Their goal was to restore the Tsarist empire sans Jews.

As previously mentioned the Jews were once again caught in the crossfire between the Red army, the White army, the Ukrainian People’s Republic, and the new Polish nation. With the settlement at the Versailles conference unclear when it came to borders and the fate of Ukraine, it left an opening for these disparate elements to continue to fight and for Jews who grew confused as to whom to support as the political situation was a minefield. The battlefield consisted of Whites fighting Reds, the Red Army fighting Poland, Poland fighting the Ukrainian People’s Republic, and sorted warlords seizing property and randomly killing Jews as opportunities presented themselves. Throughout Ukraine and border areas with the new nation of Poland, government control of territory was always tenuous giving anti-Semites the perfect opportunity to engage in pogroms. Fueled by conspiracy theories and past learning under the Tsar and the fact that Bolshevik leaders had Jewish backgrounds the plight of Jews seemed preordained. As Veidlinger describes the many pogroms with its executions, shootings, rapes, seizures of property, and outright torture physically and psychologically one has to wonder how depraved the perpetrators of these atrocities were.

Veidlinger sums up the plight of the Jews very clearly: “Jewish civilians were singled out for persecution by virtually everyone. The Bolsheviks despised them as bourgeois nationalist; the bourgeois nationalists branded them Bolsheviks; Ukrainians saw them as agents of Russia; Russians suspected them of being German sympathizers; and Poles doubted their loyalty to the newly founded Polish Republic. Dispersed in urban pockets and insufficiently concentrated in any one contiguous territory, Jews were unable to make a credible claim to sovereignty, no party trusted them. Regardless of one’s political inclination, there was always a Jew to blame.”

The concept of scapegoating stands out. If one follows the plight of Jews in Europe since the Middle Ages , the Jew was the perfect target. No matter what century we are speaking about pogroms would draw local people, at times the victim’s neighbors in what the author describes as a “carnivalesque atmosphere” of inebriated singing and dancing. The perpetrators were often young peasants who had suffered greatly during World War I, who lacked any guidance from their elders who also participated in the bloodshed.

As the Nazis rose to power and consolidated their rule in Germany in the 1930s the situation for Jews grew untenable. The Nazi invasion of Poland and the Soviet Union created an invitation for “liberated peoples” to take out their frustrations against Jews. The Nazis encouraged anti-Semitism in the Ukraine taking advantage of its previous history of persecuting Jews. In 1941, Reinhard Heydrich, head of the Reich Security Main Office, told subordinates “not to hinder attempts of local anti-communist and anti-Jewish circles to the newly occupies territories to engage in cleansing activities. On the contrary, they should be carried out and intensified, if necessary, and channeled in the right direction, but without leaving a trace.” Heydrich would organize the Wannsee Conference where the decision labeled the ‘Final Solution” was reached.
Pogroms broke out throughout the Ukraine in 1941 as the Nazis were aided by those who had participated in the horrors that took place between 1918 and 1921, and the Ukrainian Auxiliary Police. The Germans would incite the Ukrainians by equating Jews with Bolsheviks, drawing upon the same language which peasants and Cossack militias had massacred Jews twenty years earlier. The most deadly massacre took place in Kyiv on September 26, 1941, when Jews were marched to an open meadow, part of the Babyn Yar system were 33, 771 Jews were killed over thirty-six hours. By the spring of 1942, the genocide of the Jews of Ukraine was complete, with over 500,000 Jews, , one-third of the prewar population murdered. The pogroms Veidlinger describes in his deeply researched monograph had been mostly spontaneous and scattered, but once the Nazis crossed into Poland, the Ukraine, and the Soviet Union the Holocaust became increasingly systematic. The intellectual preparation lingered from twenty years before, became a reality. The precedent of1918-1921 came to fruition. The script of twenty years before was reenacted.

In the end Veidlinger’s scholarly presentation concluded that few of the perpetrators of the Holocaust were punished when compared to their victims. Some higher ups escaped, some were convicted, and many lesser accomplices had been sentenced to death by tribunals or vigilantes, but the reality is clear, as Veidlinger states, “the value of Jewish life had been debased.”

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a really important and enlightening book about the history of antisemitic pogroms in Ukraine, from Czarist Times to the massacres carried out by Hitler's Einsatzgruppen following the Nazi invasion of the USSR in June 1941.
The author contends that all the conditions which made the Holocaust possible already existed by the time of the German invasion and that, as a consequence, the Nazis simply took advantage of this to facilitate an act of Genocide. This is very persuasive for a number of reasons, which Veidlinger explains in exhaustive detail.
These includes the social divisions of Ukraine where peasants in the countryside were largely Orthodox Christian, whereas the towns and cities were inhabitated by a mixed population of Christians and Jews. Rivalries clearly reached crisis point at times of economic downturn when farmers bringing their produce to market blamed merchants for lower incomes. Traditional antisemitic religious bigotry simply added to the resentment, feeding into explosions of shocking violence.
He also explores the impact of the Bolshevik revolution and the subsequent civil war where the illogical accusations of Jews being both Bolsheviks and capitalist exploiters made the cycle of violence worse.
Veidlinger focuses on the involvement of a number of nationalist politicians and power-crazed warlords to illustrate the influence of individuals on the continuation of these pogroms.
Finally, this book goes a long way towards both explaining and dismantling Vladimir Putin's justification for invading Ukraine this year.
An excellent study of a disturbingly familiar Eastern European phenomenon.

[Steve · Rating 5 out of 5]

A True Horror Story

Perhaps this was not the best time to read this book. But it brings to light a good number of things which I knew a little bit about. But it places it in the 20th century and not the 19th.

This covers the years of 1918-1921 and the likely 100,000 men, women and children killed in the Ukraine Pograms.this happened 20 years before the Holocaust. There seem to be no good guys here: Ukrainians, Russians, Poles and later Germans - all mercilessly killed, raped, and stole.

It is not a pretty tale. The only heroes are those who somehow survived. Other than that there are no good guys. And the amazing thing was it was so personal and so widespread.

The book reads like a thriller. And it is scarier than a Stephen King novel. Tom Waits music is perfect background for reading this history of horrors.

[Michael Lewyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a blow-by-blow account of pointless savagery: after World War I, Ukraine collapsed into anarchy, and a wide variety of armies rampaged through Ukranian towns and massacred Jews, including Polish soldiers, soldiers from the short-lived Ukrainian Republic, militias ran by warlords, and White (anti-Communist) Russians. The name "pogrom" is somewhat misleading: prewar Russian pogroms usually involved theft, property damage, and some violence, but postwar massacres often were, like Nazi atrocities a couple of decades later, focused on killing and raping as many Jews as possible.

Bolshevik armies were somewhat more lenient; instead of massacring jews, they merely stole property and killed a few rich Jews here and there.. This leniency did not help Jews, because when everyone else's atrocities drove Jews into Bolshevik arms, non-Jews responded by blaming Jews for Bolshevism, giving them another excuse to murder and rape Jews.

[Brian · Rating 4 out of 5]

A bleak, disturbing account of the pogroms in Ukraine and Poland between 1918 and 1920 when Jews in towns and cities such as Ovruch, Zhytomyr, Cherkasy and Tetiiv were robbed, beaten, tortured, raped and killed by their neighbours in outpourings of religious hatred that shock and appal. The figures are modest, about 3,000 killed in Tetiiv, for example, but paradoxically are all the more shocking for that. The Jews were attacked by Ukrainian nationalists for being communists and by communists for being nationalists, there was no escape. It's rare one feels like cheering on the soviet secret police but, although they weren't immune from communal hatreds, they seem to have been the only body willing to put a stop to the killing. Of course, once the Nazis came to power in Germany, the pogroms restarted, in Lviv in 1941 for example, and then, of course, the industrial scale murder of the Holocaust commenced.

[Evan · Rating 5 out of 5]

real downer. antisemitism here mirrors right wing rhetoric of today.

[Laurie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I just finished this exhaustive and devastating review of the political turmoil in Ukraine following the first World War, with Jews as the ever-present target of unrest. Hitler had to look no further than the escalating violence against Ukrainian Jews from 1919-1921 for his blueprint to "the final solution." The anti-Semitic rhetoric was fully formed and violence against the Jews - theft, robbery, humiliation, sexual assault, beatings, mutilations and murder - had been normalized. Ukraine was the perfect location to launch the Holocaust, with the eager participation of Ukrainian citizens. I am still reeling - nauseated, perplexed, and left wondering how to feel about this country marred by violence and hatred.

[Hans Luiten · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hoewel soms wel erg veel details, toch een sterk boek. Veidlinger schetst hoe er in Oost-Europa al na de Eerste Wereldoorlog een “kleine Holocaust” plaatsvond, die gedeeltelijk de weg baande voor de moorden in de Tweede Wereldoorlog. Ik kende de verhalen van onder meer Isaac Babel, maar wist niet dat de pogroms in deze jaren maar liefst ruim 100.000-300.000 mensen de dood injoeg en 600.000 mensen uit hun dorp of stad verjoeg

[Alex Rupert · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jeffry Veidlinger’s book, “In the Midst of Civilized Europe: The Pogroms of 1918-1921 and the Onset of the Holocaust,” provides an insightful look into the pogroms of post-World War One Ukraine and the rise of anti-Semitism in the region. Veidlinger’s book covers a period of history that provides the context of anti-Semitism that ended in the Holocaust. As Veidlinger mentioned, 1.4 million Jews died during the Holocaust in Ukraine, or about a quarter of all Jewish victims. A substantial number of Jews died in Ukraine and it is important to understand the historical narrative that culminated in their death.
Veidlinger’s main argument seems to be that the pogroms established a normalcy surrounding violence towards Jews in Ukraine. Specifically, in combination with the fascist and anti-semitic rhetoric of Nazi Germany, the Holocaust in Ukraine was an extension of the violence of the pogroms. Veidlinger makes some statements towards the end of the last section of his book that drive this point forward. The holocaust in Ukraine, seems, in part, to stem from a plethora of newly introduced anti-semitic outside stimuli. Veidlinger mentions the introduction of Nazi racial ideology, colonial expansion, and the idea of “Judeo-Bolshevism.” In addition, as Veidlinger points out, due to the desire for an independent Ukraine, many Ukrainians of that time were vehemently anti-Bolshevik. The anti-Bolshevism combined with the idea of Jewishness being inherently tied to Bolshevism,caused many Jews to become the targets violence. One idea that Veidlinger supposes, that I found extremely intriguing, was that the Nazi’s were aware and exploited the history of anti-Jewish sentiment, stemming from the pogroms, in Ukraine. In summation, Veidlinger’s argument is that, all these newly introduced anti-semitic factors seem to have been intensifying the anti-Semitic sentiment stemming from the pogroms. To back this up, Veidlinger mentions that many people of the time thought of the Holocaust in Ukraine as an extension of the pogroms. Specifically, he states, stemming from eyewitness testimonies, that “at least in the minds of the victims, the violence they experienced in 1941 is directly connected to the bloodshed they experienced in 1918.” (328)
The book is split into five sections that explore the chronological narrative of the time before the pogroms through to their aftermath. In the first section of the book, War and Revolution, Veidlinger covers the period between 1881 and 1918. In this section, he sets the historical stage for the future pogroms. He begins by briefly describing the late imperial period of Russia and the pogrom-like anti-semitic outbursts of the time. One example that he uses is the anti-Jewish riots during Easter off 1881. He then goes on to describe the revolutionary period of 1917 and the anti-Semitic outbursts that happen then. He also examines the Central Rada, the Hetmantate, and the directory. This first section provides a historical background of anti-Jewish violence in Ukraine for the next section. The next section provides four pogrom case studies. The third section of the book describes the power vacuum that occurred between March and August of 1919 and the multi-faceted scramble for power within the country. The fourth section of the book describes the victory of the Bolsheviks within Ukraine and ensuing anti-Semitic pogroms. Specifically, in this section, he uses the case study of Tetiiv pogrom. The last section of the book illustrates the historical narrative leading up to the Holocaust.
In terms of methodology, Veidlinger seems to pull from eyewitness accounts in order to illustrate pogrom case studies within the book. The case studies appear, primarily, in the second section of the book titled, “The Ukrainian People’s Republic.” The first pogrom that Veidlinger examines is the Ovruch Pogrom. According to Veidlinger, the Ovruch Pogrom lasted for around three weeks spanning from December to January, 1918, which resulted in the death of fifty-eight to eighty Jews in Ovruch. He will provide historical narrative and background and then will introduce a pogrom case-study backed up with testimonies from those there.
Veidlinger’s book is very well written, however, probably for the already initiated. He introduces many names, places, and events rather quickly and it can be confusing for people who are unfamiliar with Ukrainian history. Specifically, the book is dense. You will forget the names of people and places and will often find yourself backtracking for context. Accessibility is something that the history of the pogroms and the onset of the Holocaust need. The pogroms are often overshadowed by the vastly larger holocaust. However, it is important to understand the conditions that led to a significant rise in anti-Semitism and the Holocaust. It becomes sometimes hard to understand the historical narrative in this book due to the massive amount of information being provided. However, the history of the pogroms and the period leading up to the Holocaust is messy and confusing. It would be a hard job to simplify them to the point of accessible understanding. In summation, Veidlinger produced a dense and sometimes confusing, but well-written narrative of one history's most tragic chain of events while providing a historical overview of Ukraine.

[Karen · Rating 5 out of 5]

The history and information is chilling. It is happening again, today.
The title of the book is inaccurate. These pogroms did not take place in the midst of civilized Europe. That is happening today. These pogroms took place in Ukraine, Russia, Poland - the old Pale of Settlement, in a political environment after WW I, in which power changed hands over and over again. Who ever heard of Ukraine trying to be independent of Russia? Of Russia trying to subdue it? Then it was Petliura and later Bandera. And the Jews? They were to blame for everything - for the Bolsheviks, against the Bolsheviks for the Whites, for a Ukrainian state, against a Ukrainian state, for Polish independence and against Polish independence. Young peasants and Cossacks carried out many of these pogroms, not necessarily with the support of their parents who remember the peaceful norm before the Great War. Local priests fanned the flames of economic rivalry with time tested religious resentment that motivated violence. Always, the Jews deserved what was coming to them.

In Ukraine it was peasants and gangs. The Russian army, fed by tsarist antisemitism, were responsible for other pogroms. And the Poles, who resented having Jews remaining in their country, did their best to drive and wipe them out - and this was BEFORE Hitler.

The pogroms took place in the cities that did it all over again for the Nazis. The Nazis did not have to scratch hard to reinvigorate the horror and torture. The first mass killings of the Holocaust were vast escalations of a known phenomenon. (p. 355) The looting, the running, the raping, the hacking, the mutilation, the beatings, the burning of Jews in their homes and synagogues, destroying homes and property, murdering at close range with bullets, plundering, leaving violated Jewish bodies strewn around, hunting survivors for sport. Tens of thousands of Jews were killed and maimed, lives and businesses ruined, not even 20 years before the Holocaust. And, when Nazis invaded Ukraine in 1941, locals were given a free hand to deal with the Jewish question. Locals were not to be hindered in their cleansing activities

p. 10
...What happened to the Jews in Ukraine during the Second World War has roots in what happened to the Jews in the same region only two decades earlier. The pogroms established violence against the Jews as an acceptable response to the excess of the Bolshevism. The unremitting exposure to bloodshed during that formative period of conflict and state-building had inured the population to barbarism and brutality. When the Germans arrived, riled up with anti-Bolshevik hatred and antisemitic ideology, they found a decades-old killing ground where the mass murder of innocent Jews was seared into collective memory, where the unimaginable had already become reality.
p 25
...it is safe to say that taken as a whole, the pogroms of 1918-1921 were the largest catastrophe to befall the Jewish people to date. They were also only the beginning.

Even though most Jews fleeing eastern Europe at this time were anti-Bolshevik, the US passed a law that reduced the flow of immigrants from these areas (Eastern Gallicia, Russia and Ukraine, Bessarabia and Romania at 1/10 of the previous quota, based on 1899 population and not current population. Reducing the number of immigrants from these regions would effectively ban almost all Jews from entering the US, and that America would be closed to the tens of thousands of European Jews desperate to flee the rise of fascism. (p. 330).

October 7, 2023 was a pogrom in Israel. There still is no end.

I also find it mildly amusing that the horrible Ukraine - which fought Russia for independence after the Russian revolution, to defend its "democracy" while it carried out pogroms against the Jews, are still at this battle today. Very interesting discussion about how the back and forth of Russian control, vs. Polish control of Ukraine during the inter-war years affected Ukrainians and Jews and the ultimate conflagration initiated by Hitler.

[Hannah May Book Reviews]

Title: In The Midst of Civilised Europe
Author: Jeffrey Veidlinger
Publisher: Picador
Pages: 480
Genre: Non Fiction/Historical


Synopsis:
Between 1918 and 1921, over a hundred thousand Jews were murdered in Ukraine. Aid workers worried that 6 million Jews were in danger of extermination and 20 years later, their predictions came true. Jeffrey Veidlinger draws upon long-neglected archival materials to show for the first time, how the wave of genocidal violence created the conditions for the Holocaust. Through his research, he explains how so many different groups of people came to the same devastating conclusion, that killing Jews was an acceptable response to their various problems.

Review:
Thank you Anne at Random Things Tours for my spot on the book tour!

I have always been interested by the events of the Holocaust, it is an important piece of history that should never be forgotten, so when I was given the opportunity to learn more about the events leading up to this period of time, I snapped the opportunity up, I was especially intrigued that there was the mention of forgotten history, which meant there would be opportunities for me to find out something new. Non-fiction isn’t my usual genre, but when it comes to history, I am always intrigued.

I really enjoyed that the author used a range of media in this piece of work, there were pictures, maps, photos, and document evidence which definitely had me interested. I found parts of this read to be shocking and gut-wrenching, I was in disbelief that these events actually happened.
There were some parts of this book that went over my head a little, this wasn’t the authors’ fault, it was just a very intellectual read and after some busy days trying to read, my brain did struggle to comprehend some of the information.

What this book did, was highlight the ugly side of humanity, it really was disturbing at times reading about some of the horrific events that took place. It was also very evident that the author really did know his history, the book was well researched and informative, there were so many things I wasn’t aware of, so thank you to the author for bringing these to light for me!

[Book Club of One · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received a Free digital version of this book via NetGalley.

In this depressingly thorough descent into the butchery of Russian revolution era Ukraine and Poland, Jeffrey Veidlinger's In the Midst of Civilized Europe: The Pogroms of 1918–1921 and the Onset of the Holocaust documents and contextualizes the turmoil and savagery of civil war as various everyday people aided and abetted by various armed factions turned on their Jewish neighbors to rob, destroy, assault, and murder them.

Already, during World War I, the Pale of Jewish Settlement was a battle ground between the Tsars Russian forces and the German Empire. Some towns and villages traded hands multiple times with Russians often more savage and destructive, looting and killing and destroying as they passed through.

With this recent history, Veidlinger begins and then moves chronologically through the hundreds of separate incidents in the Ukraine and Poland with a particular focus on the larger pogroms. At the center of many of the pogroms and latter violence against Jews is the conflating of bolshevism and Judaism. Unfortunately a still a common trope of anti-semitism. Veidlinger derives much of the narrative through the voices of the surviving victims, trial records and official orders.

In talking to "The Times of Israel" Veidlinger spoke to the weight of writing this book. "It’s terrifying and horrifying... It takes a toll on you to write that testimony. I’m sure it takes a toll on the reader… It was difficult for me to hear, and probably difficult for them to tell.”*

A book that highlights the importance of historical research, the need to look back on past events and both acknowledge what has occurred and hold the perpetrators accountable.

* Rich Tenorio. "20 years before the Holocaust, pogroms killed 100,000 Jews – then were forgotten." The Times of Israel 21 December 2021, 3:58 am https://www.timesofisrael.com/20-year...

[Schvenn · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was extremely eye opening! The first quarter gets quite dull because there are few things in this world more boring than 19th century Russian politics and the fact that Kyev for example, changed hands from the Reds, to the Whites to the Bolsheviks 13 times in 3 years got very, very monotonous.

What is not monotonous though, and somehow manages to still shock and amaze me, is how the local populations would regularly turn on the Jewish population with eager willingness to terrorize, pillage, rape and murder their life long neighbours, at the drop of a hat. This is the true origin of the massacres that the Nazis would soon turn into an efficient enterprise of death.

While a large percentage of the German people were originally at least "somewhat" unwilling to persecute and participate in attempted genocide, the people of the Ukraine and Poland, if this book is to be entirely believed, made them look tame by comparison. The pure bloodlust and eager participation of a large portion of the population in these countries is in many ways, worse than the Nazis. The difference being that, in Germany the violence was officially state sanctioned and as such, turned into an extremely organized "industry" of extermination; whereas, the pogroms that pre-dated the Nazi regime were just as egregious, but without any level of organization and far more passionate in their hate and torture.

It is the multiple generations of Europeans that grew up in this environment that paved the way for the Nazi genocidal machine. This is a definite must read for anyone interested in learning about how the atrocities of WWII took place and how so called "civilized" peoples can turn into wretched, hateful monsters. There are so many lessons to be learned from this history.

[Dropbear123 · Rating 4 out of 5]

(Read on Kindle) 4/5. Worth reading if interested in the Russian Civil War era Ukraine or in the history of antisemitism.

350-60 pages plus another 100 or so pages of notes and extras. Decent but not great in terms of writing style. Clearly well researched with lots of notes and sources. Chronological order starting in pre-revolutionary Tsarist Russia for context and background. The bulk of the book covers Ukraine after the Russian revolution and the antisemitic violence, but there is some stuff on Poland as well. Since it is chronological the bulk of the book is about violence by local Ukrainian peasants or warlords, it takes quite a while to get to White Russian army in Ukraine. The book is quite in-depth but still covers the individual stories quite well with a lot of chapters focused on specific pogroms. A lot of time is spent on what motivated the violence. There is a bit about 1922-41 as well for the impact/legacy of the violence including the assassination of Petliura and the experience of Soviet rule to try and explain why the locals were so willing to collaborate with the Nazis in antisemitic attacks after the invasion of the USSR.

[Phillip Ramm · Rating 4 out of 5]

Readers might not realise that violence against Jews wasn’t limited to the Middle Ages and to the Holocaust, but was flaring up in bursts all the way in between. This book catalogues the interminable pogroms in the region of Ukraine leading up to, during, and after WWI, including during the Russian Civil War when cities like Kyiv were tossed back and forth between invading forces. As the violence and pillaging in each city is described, it might seem repetitive, but it more of a Rhythm of Awful that pounds through, as the instigators of the pogroms swing between Left and Right (White and Red!). It is fascinating and horrifying how all instigators blame the victims! Like the Spanish Inquisition, the Armenian massacre, and the Shoah, it also seems like stealing all the victims’ possessions was a major factor in incentivising the perpetrators who might have been good but jealous neighbours a short time before!
And considering what is going on in 2024-25 in Palestine/Israel, it is particularly ironic. Just switch one enthno-cultural group for another, and that’s because nothing has really changed in human nature. We were brutes, are brutes and always will be brutes.

[Scott Martin · Rating 4 out of 5]

(Audiobook) This work looks at the actions of various nations/peoples (Poles, Russians (White and Reds)) towards the Jews in Eastern Europe in the years immediately following World War I. For the author, it is during this time that the foundations of the Holocaust appeared. The atrocities committed against the Jews were not all that different from what happened in the 1940s, except without the camps. It is a tough read at times, but the author does a good job in supporting and defending that thesis, covering the timeframe from the end of World War I to World War II and the German actions in Eastern Europe.

This work goes a long way in explaining how the Germans has success in the East vs the West. While the Holocaust was the brainchild of the Nazis, the antisemitism of the East made those efforts that much easier. The rating is the same for audiobook as hard copy/e-copy.

[Pam · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a very informative and interesting book. I don't ever remember hearing in about some of the events that took place during the time of this book. The time period of these events and the loss of life was insightful. For anyone that wants to learn more about the pogroms that led up to the Holocaust this is the book for you to read. The way that the Ukrainian and Polish citizens reacted and their participation in them gives a better understand of how Hitler was able to do what he did. It shows that proproganda can influnece the way that people think and reacted. There is much in history that hasn't been written about except in the academic world and this book is written for everyone to learn from. There was so much information that sometimes my head reeled. To think about everything we have lost because of genocides .

[Charlie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was very lucky to have studied under Dr. Veidlinger at University of Michigan. He has since become a mentor and friend. This is the first publication of his that I have read post-graduation and it was so nice to hear his voice in his writing. I was able to read it in his cadence which really helped me retain the information. For those who do not know him personally, I highly recommend watching his TedTalks. A great man, a great book, and an undoubtable pro of this topic.

Also a great title which is used throughout the piece as a truly emotional statement about the world surrounding the terrible atrocities of pogroms.

[Kayla Johnston · Rating 5 out of 5]

Professor of History and Judaic Studies, Jeffery Veidlinger, recreates the painful history of antisemitic pogroms initiated by multiple groups within and around the Ukrainian territory in the years following the Russian Revolution in this book. His work is an important contribution to the study of antisemitic violence that predated, and in many ways predicted, the mass murder of European Jews during the Holocaust. Veidlinger’s book adds an important element of deeper understanding for those interested in Modern Eastern European, Ukrainian, and Jewish histories, particularly in the study of antisemitism and the Holocaust. Additionally, this book would be of interest to those studying intrastate and ethnic violence in twentieth-century Europe.

Veidlinger makes the compelling case that contrary to the common understanding that Adolph Hitler’s mass execution of European Jews came seemingly out of nowhere, the roots for justification of mass violence and extermination of the Jews predates the Holocaust by twenty years. According to Veidlinger, the “range of participants, the number of victims, and the depths of depravity,” of the 1918-1921 pogroms “help to explain how that next wave of anti-Jewish violence became possible” (4,9).

Veidlinger reconstructs the 1918-1921 Ukrainian pogroms by utilizing newspaper clippings, published memoirs detailing personal accounts of the events, thousands of pages of first-hand testimonies, military orders, lists of victims, and reports gathered by multiple investigative commissions set up at the time with the purpose of building a foundation for future criminal litigations and for the sake of posterity. Veidlinger also includes a handful of psychological studies, particularly towards the end chapters in the second part of the book, that gives some explanation as to why otherwise normal, peaceful people resort to participating in mob violence. In addition, in the last section of the book, the author uses immigration statistics to show how the movement of Jews from Ukraine across the world sparked antisemitic attitudes within European populations.

The book is broken into five parts; each section covers a different time period and highlights the various groups who initiated and participated in the pogroms. The first section gives a background of antisemitic attitudes in the Russian Empire before it fell to revolutionaries and describes the 1917 Revolution in the same context. In this section, the author also introduces the Ukrainian Central Rada and the recognition of the Jewish people as an “equal part of the general populations” of the newly formed Ukrainian People’s Republic (60).

Part two focuses on three pogroms where, for the first time, Ukrainian soldiers under the Directory initiated attacks on Jews in Ovruch, Proskuriv, and twice in Zhytomyr, despite the government’s promise of protecting Jewish rights. Cossacks in the White Army also took part in anti-Jewish violence, often with the help of Directory Generals. During these pogroms, we see acquaintances and even employees of local Jews demonstrating a willingness to take part in the destruction and pillaging of Jewish homes and businesses.

Parts three and four introduce new and old perpetrators of pogroms, including Polish soldiers, Ukrainian Nationalists, White Army Cossacks, Red Army Bolsheviks, Warlords with more motivation for loot and blood rather than political ideology, and peasants from rural areas. These sections show a correlation between increased antisemitic propaganda and increased levels of violence against Jews and show how the Jews were seen as enemies by nearly everyone and for every reason. The pogroms show a systematic increase in brutality as they begin with theft and destruction of property to large-scale murder of Jewish men, women, and children and the total destruction of whole communities by arson.

The final section details the mass migration of Ukrainian Jews into Europe and the rise of nationalist right-wing reactions throughout Europe; and highlighted further divisions between Ukrainians and Jews, namely the impact of Soviet collectivization on Ukrainian peasants and “Muscovite Colonialism,” which were seen as a Jewish-led conspiracy to attack, punish, and dominate Ukrainian peasants. The section concludes with a chapter on the German-led, Ukrainian nationalist backed, invasion of eastern Ukraine resulting in the Babyn Yar massacre early in World War II, which demonstrated “the mass murder of children, of which this was the earliest instances, marked a key moment in the evolution of violence into genocide” (369).

Throughout the book, Veidlingler masterfully captures the horrific violence that the Jewish community faced for many years prior to the Holocaust. This accounting of the 1918-1921 pogroms is an important contribution to the historical memory of Jewish diasporas around the world, and for anyone who wants to understand history or human behavior more generally. However, the contents of the text may be missing an important element of the story. The investigatory nature of the bodies charged with collecting testimony likely would have caused those who participated in the pogroms, particularly Ukrainian peasants, to either lie about their motivations or avoid making statements altogether. Furthermore, there is a chance that the personal accounts of traumatic events could contain inaccuracies. That being said, this book sets a solid foundation for further study of pogroms in Eastern Europe prior to the mass extermination of the Jews during World War II.

[Dan Rheingans · Rating 5 out of 5]

Powerful yet depressing look at the programs committed against Jews in Ukraine in 1919-1921. Learned a lot of history here and definitely picked up some discussion topics to add to the Holocaust course I teach. Veidlinger does an excellent job at weaving a complex tale together in a region many Americans know little about. I was struck by just how malleable anti-Semitisch was during this period in this region. Jews really couldn’t catch a break. Also was shocked at how many times Kiev changes hands during the conflict. What a mess! Really glad I picked this one up on a whim. Excellent contribution to historiography.

[Alfie Mosse · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really an amazing book. Dr. Veidlinger uses a variety of primary sources, attainable narrative writing style, and historical analysis to paint of picture of the context of the multiple pogroms of 1918-1921. In his analysis he develops a narrative that makes it clear that Hitler was handed all the tools and rhetoric he needed to implement the final solution. While this does not lesson or release anyone from the atrocities of WWII, it does spread around more culpability and serves as a cautionary tale of how our actions and rhetoric can have unintended and terrible consequences.

[Denise Sanchez · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was hard to read because it was just so depressing. But, it was also necessary. Few people realize just how much violence was perpetrated on European Jews before Hitler came to power.

The only thing I wish the book had was a pronunciation guide and/or an addendum with key figures. It’s hard for me to remember names when I can’t pronounce them, so I had to write out my own cheat-sheet.

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

Didn’t finish it, it’s the second of two books I’ve started on a similar topic. The author doesn’t really ‘author’ the book just journalistically reports a number of chronological events. The events are shocking and historically relevant but lack any explanation or assessment, there is no common theme or thread to the book, to draw the reader. I gave up. Three stars for the geography lesson on the Ukraine.

[Micebyliz]

I didn't realize there was so much i did not know. It's awful. These are places close to where my grandparents came from and so i feel intensely close to not existing. I am sure there are people who would rather i did not. I remember being in a pool where a woman was expressing her thoughts about the end of time and what would happen. It was so evil i could hardly speak but i must have said something because i always speak up..but i remember feelings of anger rushing up my throat. I walked away and tried to breathe.
This book is so timely with the war in Ukraine still raging. I have only started reading but my jaw is set.
Finished. I learned a lot but none of it surprised me. i'm reading for information and history so the emotional impact is less heavy or frightening. What really galls me are the crowds of people who laugh and cheer at the cruelty--much as they do now, in fact--and think nothing of it.

[Grant · Rating 5 out of 5]

Veidlinger provides a comprehensive study of the series of deadly pogroms that swept what had been the southeastern reaches of the Russian Empire in the wake of the Russian Revolution. He does an excellent job of sorting out the various factions and their ever-shifting alliances as well as conveying the depth of horror suffered by the people of the region. Of especial note, he traces the emergence of the notion that the Jews should be eradicated as a people to this time and place.

[Virginia · Rating 5 out of 5]

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
In the Midst of Civilized Europe brings the past to life with rich detail and fascinating insights, offering a deeper understanding into this pivotal time. The well-researched narrative and engaging storytelling make it a must-read for anyone interested in history and its lasting impact on the present.