In the Midst of Civilized Europe

Jeffrey Veidlinger is a professor of history and Judaic studies at the University of Michigan. His books, which include The Moscow State Yiddish Theater and In the Shadow of the Shtetl, have won a National Jewish Book Award, the Barnard Hewitt Award for Theatre Scholarship, two Canadian Jewish Book Awards, and the J. I. Segal Award. He lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

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 BloodlandsBetween 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 conclusion: 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.

Introduction: ¿Will a Slaughter of Jews Be Next European Horror?¿A Note on Sources, Numbers, Dates, and Place-NamesPart I: War and Revolution, March 1881¿December 19181. The Last Years of the Russian Empire2. The Revolutions of 19173. The Central Rada of Ukraine4. From the Hetmanate to the DirectoryPart II: The Ukrainian People¿s Republic, December 1918¿March 19195. The Ovruch Pogro6. The Zhytomyr Pogrom7. The Proskuriv Pogrom8. The Second Zhytomyr PogromPart III: Power Vacuum, March 1919¿August 19199. The Entente10. Warlords11. Months and Days12. Poland and Ukraine on the World StagePart IV: The Triumph of Bolshevism, August 1919¿March 192113. The Volunteer Army14. The Tetiiv Pogrom15. The Polish-Soviet WarPart V: Aftermath, 1921¿194116. Refugees17. The Schwarzbard Trial18. The Interwar in Ukraine19. The Onset of the HolocaustNotesAcknowledgmentsIndex