The Schwartzbard trial was a sensational 1927 French murder trial in which
Sholom Schwartzbard
Samuel "Sholem" Schwarzbard (russian: Самуил Исаакович Шварцбурд, ''Samuil Isaakovich Shvartsburd'', yi, שלום שװאַרצבאָרד, french: Samuel 'Sholem' Schwarzbard; 18 August 1886 – 3 March 1938) was a Jewis ...
was accused of murdering the
Ukrainian
Ukrainian may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to Ukraine
* Something relating to Ukrainians, an East Slavic people from Eastern Europe
* Something relating to demographics of Ukraine in terms of demography and population of Ukraine
* So ...
immigrant and head of the Ukrainian government-in-exile
Symon Petliura
Symon Vasylyovych Petliura ( uk, Си́мон Васи́льович Петлю́ра; – May 25, 1926) was a Ukrainian politician and journalist. He became the Supreme Commander of the Ukrainian Army and the President of the Ukrainian People' ...
. While the defendant fully admitted to killing Petliura, in the end the trial turned on accusations of Petliura's responsibility for the massive 1919–1920
pogroms in Ukraine
Antisemitism in Ukraine has been a historical issue in the country, particularly in the twentieth century. The history of the Jewish community of the region dates back to the era when ancient Greek colonies existed in it. A third of the ...
during which Schwartzbard had lost all 15 members of his family. Schwartzbard was acquitted. During the trial, prosecution alleged that Schwartzbard was a
Soviet
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...
agent and assassinated Petliura on Soviet orders. This view is still widely held, especially in Ukraine, but is far from universal.
Assassination
In 1919, fighting in southern Ukraine as part of the Bolshevik Revolutionary Insurgent Army of Ukraine (RIAU), led by
Grigori Kotovsky,
Sholom Schwartzbard
Samuel "Sholem" Schwarzbard (russian: Самуил Исаакович Шварцбурд, ''Samuil Isaakovich Shvartsburd'', yi, שלום שװאַרצבאָרד, french: Samuel 'Sholem' Schwarzbard; 18 August 1886 – 3 March 1938) was a Jewis ...
was told that he had lost 15 members of his family in
pogroms
A pogrom () is a violent riot incited with the aim of massacring or expelling an ethnic or religious group, particularly Jews. The term entered the English language from Russian to describe 19th- and 20th-century attacks on Jews in the Russian ...
that had taken place in
Odesa
Odesa (also spelled Odessa) is the third most populous city and municipality in Ukraine and a major seaport and transport hub located in the south-west of the country, on the northwestern shore of the Black Sea. The city is also the administrative ...
, Ukraine that year. He held
Symon Petliura
Symon Vasylyovych Petliura ( uk, Си́мон Васи́льович Петлю́ра; – May 25, 1926) was a Ukrainian politician and journalist. He became the Supreme Commander of the Ukrainian Army and the President of the Ukrainian People' ...
, who was the head of the Directorate of the
Ukrainian National Republic
The Ukrainian People's Republic (UPR), or Ukrainian National Republic (UNR), was a country in Eastern Europe that existed between 1917 and 1920. It was declared following the February Revolution in Russia by the First Universal. In March 1 ...
, responsible for their deaths.
According to his autobiography, after hearing the news that Petliura had relocated to
Paris
Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...
in 1924, Schwartzbard became distraught and started plotting Petliura's assassination. A picture of Petliura with
Józef Piłsudski
), Vilna Governorate, Russian Empire (now Lithuania)
, death_date =
, death_place = Warsaw, Poland
, constituency =
, party = None (formerly PPS)
, spouse =
, children = Wan ...
was published in ''Encyclopédie Larousse'' and enabled Schwartzbard to recognize him.
On 25 May 1926, at 14:12, by the Gilbert bookstore, he approached Petliura, who was walking on the Rue Racine near
boulevard Saint-Michel
Boulevard Saint-Michel () is one of the two major streets in the Latin Quarter of Paris, the other being Boulevard Saint-Germain. It is a tree-lined boulevard which runs south from the Pont Saint-Michel on the Seine and Place Saint-Michel, cross ...
in the
Latin Quarter, Paris
The Latin Quarter of Paris (french: Quartier latin, ) is an area in the 5th and the 6th arrondissements of Paris. It is situated on the left bank of the Seine, around the Sorbonne.
Known for its student life, lively atmosphere, and bistros ...
, and asked him in Ukrainian, "Are you Mr. Petliura?" Petliura did not answer but raised his cane. Schwartzbard pulled out a gun and shot him five times and, after Petliura fell to the pavement, shot him twice more. When the police came and asked if he had done the deed, he reportedly said, "I have killed a great assassin".
[''Time'' magazine](_blank)
It is reported
[Makhno did not allow Schwartzbard to Shoot Petliura (in Ukrainian)](_blank)
/ref> that he had planned to assassinate Petliura at a gathering of Ukrainian emigrants marking Petliura's birthday, but the attempt was foiled by the anarchist
Anarchism is a political philosophy and movement that is skeptical of all justifications for authority and seeks to abolish the institutions it claims maintain unnecessary coercion and hierarchy, typically including, though not neces ...
Nestor Makhno
Nestor Ivanovych Makhno, The surname "Makhno" ( uk, Махно́) was itself a corruption of Nestor's father's surname "Mikhnenko" ( uk, Міхненко). ( 1888 – 25 July 1934), also known as Bat'ko Makhno ("Father Makhno"),; According to ...
, who was also at the function. Schwartzbard had told Makhno that he was terminally sick, was about to die and would take Petliura with him.
The French secret service had been keeping an eye out on Schwartzbard since he had surfaced in the French capital and had noted his meetings with known Bolsheviks. During the trial, the German special services also alleged to their French counterparts that Schwartzbard had assassinated Petliura on the orders of Galip, an emissary of the Union of Ukrainian Citizens. Galip had received orders from Christian Rakovsky
Christian Georgievich Rakovsky (russian: Христиа́н Гео́ргиевич Рако́вский; bg, Кръстьо Георги́ев Рако́вски; – September 11, 1941) was a Bulgarian-born socialist revolutionary, a Bolshevi ...
, an ethnic Bulgarian and a Soviet ambassador to France (1925–27), a former revolutionary leader from Romania and a former prime minister of the Ukrainian SSR. The act was according to the prosecution consolidated by Mikhail Volodin, who arrived in France on 8 August 1925 and who had been in close contact with Schwartzbard.
The trial
Schwartzbard turned himself in to a nearby gendarme and was arrested at the site of the assassination. Lawyers César Campinchi
César Campinchi (May 4, 1882 in Calcatoggio, Corse-du-Sud – February 22, 1941 in Marseille, Bouches-du-Rhône) was a lawyer and French statesman in the beginning of the 20th century.
Campinchi was president of the '' Association générale ...
and Henri Torres
Henri is an Estonian, Finnish, French, German and Luxembourgish form of the masculine given name Henry.
People with this given name
; French noblemen
:'' See the 'List of rulers named Henry' for Kings of France named Henri.''
* Henri I de Montm ...
led the prosecution and the defense, respectively. After only 35 minutes of deliberation, the jury acquitted Schwartzbard.[
]
The lawyers
For the defense, Henri Torres, grandson of Isaiah Levaillant
Isaiah ( or ; he, , ''Yəšaʿyāhū'', "God is Salvation"), also known as Isaias, was the 8th-century BC Israelite prophet after whom the Book of Isaiah is named.
Within the text of the Book of Isaiah, Isaiah himself is referred to as "th ...
, the man who founded the "League for the Defense of Human and Civil Rights" during the Dreyfus Affair
The Dreyfus affair (french: affaire Dreyfus, ) was a political scandal that divided the French Third Republic from 1894 until its resolution in 1906. "L'Affaire", as it is known in French, has come to symbolise modern injustice in the Francop ...
.
Torres was a renowned French left-wing jurist who had previously defended anarchists such as Buenaventura Durruti
José Buenaventura Durruti Dumange (14 July 1896 – 20 November 1936) was a Spanish insurrectionary, anarcho-syndicalist militant involved with the CNT and FAI in the periods before and during the Spanish Civil War. Durruti played an in ...
and Ernesto Bonomini Ernesto, form of the name Ernest in several Romance languages, may refer to:
* ''Ernesto'' (novel) (1953), an unfinished autobiographical novel by Umberto Saba, published posthumously in 1975
** ''Ernesto'' (film), a 1979 Italian drama loosely ba ...
and also represented the Soviet consulate in France.
For the prosecution there was the Public Court Commission that was preparing the claim. It was consisting of several Ukrainian statesmen such as Oleksander Shulhyn
Oleksander Yakovych Shulhyn ( uk, Олександр Шульгин; russian: Александр Шульгин; french: Alexandre Choulguine) was a prominent political, public, scientific and cultural figure of Ukraine and the Ukrainian governmen ...
(former Minister of Foreign Affairs
A foreign affairs minister or minister of foreign affairs (less commonly minister for foreign affairs) is generally a cabinet minister in charge of a state's foreign policy and relations. The formal title of the top official varies between cou ...
, at that time professor at the Ukrainian Free University
The Ukrainian Free University ( ua, Український Вільний Університет, german: Ukrainische Freie Universität, la, Universitas Libera Ukrainensis) is a private graduate university located in Munich, Germany.
History
...
), M.Shulhina, Vyacheslav Prokopovych
Vyacheslav (Viacheslav) Kostyantynovych Prokopovych ( uk, В'ячеслав Костянтинович Прокопович) (1881, Kiev – 1942, Bessancourt) was a Ukrainian politician and historian.
Starting in 1905, he was a politician of the ...
, М.Shumytsky, І.Tokarzhevsky, and L.Chykalenko. The Commission gathered around 70 witness reports including L.Martyniuk, Lieutenant Colonel Butakov, M.Shadrin, Colonels Dekhtiarov and Zorenko, and many others. Explanation letters were sent by Generals Mykhailo Omelianovych-Pavlenko
Mykhailo Omelianovych-Pavlenko ( uk, Михайло Омелянович Павленко; 8 December 1878 – 29 May 1952) was the Supreme Commander of the Ukrainian Galician Army (UHA) and of the Army of the Ukrainian People's Republic. Lat ...
, Vsevolod Petrov, A.Cherniavsky.
The French people were represented by Public prosecutor Reynaud. In the civil suit Madame Olga Petliura (nee
Nee or NEE may refer to:
Names
* Née (lit. "born"), a woman's family name at birth before the adoption of another surname usually after marriage
**The male equivalent "né" is used to indicate what a man was originally known as before the adopt ...
Bilska) and her brother-in-law Oskar were represented by Albert Wilm and Cesare Campinchi (who was the chief prosecution lawyer). Assisting them was Czeslaw Poznansky, an attorney from Poland.
Schwartzbard
Schwartzbard was charged with violations of Articles 295, 296, 297, 298 and 302 of the French Penal Code
French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to France
** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents
** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with France ...
(all of which pertained to premeditated murder and provided for the death penalty
Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the state-sanctioned practice of deliberately killing a person as a punishment for an actual or supposed crime, usually following an authorized, rule-governed process to conclude that t ...
). The defendant pleaded not guilty to the charges.
Questioned by the prosecutor, Schwartzbard started his testimony poorly. He lied and gave confusing answers to why he had been previously imprisoned in Russia (1906), Vienna (1908) and Budapest (1909). He lied about his age, place of birth and the fact that he had been charged with burglary in Austria twice. He also lied about his service in the Red Army
The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army (Russian: Рабо́че-крестья́нская Кра́сная армия),) often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and, after ...
, stating that he fought on the side of Alexander Kerensky
Alexander Fyodorovich Kerensky, ; Reforms of Russian orthography, original spelling: ( – 11 June 1970) was a Russian lawyer and revolutionary who led the Russian Provisional Government and the short-lived Russian Republic for three months ...
rather than have led a battalion under Kotovsky.
Witness for the prosecution
Several former Ukrainian officers testified for the prosecution, including Pavlo Shandruk
Pavlo Feofanovich Shandruk ( uk, Павло Шандрук, pl, Pawło Szandruk, February 28, 1889 in Volhynia – February 15, 1979 in Trenton, New Jersey) was a general in the army of the Ukrainian National Republic, a colonel of the Pol ...
, General Mykola Shapoval, and Oleksandr Shulhin
Oleksander Yakovych Shulhyn ( uk, Олександр Шульгин; russian: Александр Шульгин; french: Alexandre Choulguine) was a prominent political, public, scientific and cultural figure of Ukraine and the Ukrainian governmen ...
. Over 200 documents were produced that asserted Petlura and his government attempted to stop antisemitic aggression. A 20-page testimony was read by E. Dobkovsky that Mikhail Volodin was an agent of the State Political Directorate
The State Political Directorate (also translated as the State Political Administration) (GPU) was the intelligence service and secret police of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (RSFSR) from February 6, 1922, to December 29, 1922, ...
(GPU) with access to large sums of money and that he had approached Dobkovsky and told him that he had helped in the assassination.
Witnesses for the defense
A notable witness for the defense was Haia Greenberg (aged 29) who survived the Proskuriv
Khmelnytskyi ( uk, Хмельни́цький, Khmelnytskyi, ), until 1954 Proskuriv ( uk, Проску́рів, links=no ), is a city in western Ukraine, the administrative center for Khmelnytskyi Oblast (region) and Khmelnytskyi Raion (distr ...
pogroms where she had worked as a nurse for the Danish Red Cross
The International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement is a Humanitarianism, humanitarian movement with approximately 97 million Volunteering, volunteers, members and staff worldwide. It was founded to protect human life and health, to ensure re ...
. She never said Petliura personally participated in the event, but named other soldiers, who said they were directed by Petliura. Torres, however, decided not to call on most of the other 80 witnesses he had prepared for Schwartzbard's defense. Instead, he took a calculated risk and delivered only a short speech.
Outcome
The acquittal set Schwartzbard free but awarded damages of one franc each to Mme. Petliura, widow of the slain General, and to M. Petliura, his brother.
''Time
Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, to ...
'' reported that the outcome of the trial gripped all Europe and was regarded by the Jews as establishing proof of the horrors perpetrated against their co-religionists in Ukraine under the dictatorship of Simon Petliura; radical opinion rejoiced, but the conservatives saw justice flouted and the decorum of the French courts immeasurably impaired.
French press
The French press published detailed accounts and comments relating to the court proceedings. Divergent assessments of the assassination committed by Schwartzbard coincided with the political sympathies and antipathies of the particular newspapers, which fell into three groups:
# Those that approved of Schwartzbard stressed the pogroms of the Jewish population and, from the very outset, treated the victim of the assassination as a defendant (the most conspicuous example being the communist newspaper ''L'Humanité
''L'Humanité'' (; ), is a French daily newspaper. It was previously an organ of the French Communist Party, and maintains links to the party. Its slogan is "In an ideal world, ''L'Humanité'' would not exist."
History and profile
Pre-World Wa ...
'')
# Papers restricted themselves to an exact observation of the court trial but refused to print commentaries or did so very cautiously (''Le Temps
''Le Temps'' (literally "The Time") is a Swiss French-language daily newspaper published in Berliner format in Geneva by Le Temps SA. It is the sole nationwide French-language non-specialised daily newspaper of Switzerland. Since 2021, it has b ...
'', ''L'Ere Nouvelle'' or ''Le Petit Parisien
''Le Petit Parisien'' was a prominent French newspaper during the French Third Republic. It was published between 1876 and 1944, and its circulation was over two million after the First World War.
Publishing
Despite its name, the paper was circu ...
'')
# Papers portrayed Schwartzbard's crime in an unambiguously negative light and treated the assassin predominantly as a Bolshevik agent (also centrist publications but especially the right-wing ''L'Intransigeant
''L'Intransigeant'' was a French newspaper founded in July 1880 by Henri Rochefort. Initially representing the left-wing opposition, it moved towards the right during the Boulanger affair (Rochefort supported Boulanger) and became a major right-wi ...
'', ''L'Écho de Paris
''L'Écho de Paris'' was a daily newspaper in Paris from 1884 to 1944.
The paper's editorial stance was initially conservative and nationalistic, but it later became close to the French Social Party. Its writers included Octave Mirbeau, Henri d ...
'' and ''L'Action Française
''L'Action Tunisienne'' (sometimes abbreviated to L'Action) is a former Tunisian Francophone newspaper founded by Habib Bourguiba and published from November 1, 1932 to March 19, 1988. Working for the Destour party, at first, it later became ...
''). The French governing circles, headed by Quai d'Orsay
The Quai d'Orsay ( , ) is a quay in the 7th arrondissement of Paris. It is part of the left bank of the Seine opposite the Place de la Concorde. The Quai becomes the Quai Anatole-France east of the Palais Bourbon, and the Quai Branly west of th ...
, were not interested in granting the case further publicity, which could cause the already-tense relations with the Soviet Union to deteriorate, which the latter threatened to sever.
Aftermath
According to a defected KGB operative Peter Deriabin
Peter Sergeyevich Deriabin (Russian language, Russian: Петр Сергеевич Дерябин; 1921 – 20 August 1992) was a KGB officer who defected to the United States in 1954. After his defection, he worked for the Central Intelligence A ...
, the assassination of Petliura was a special operation by the GPU
A graphics processing unit (GPU) is a specialized electronic circuit designed to manipulate and alter memory to accelerate the creation of images in a frame buffer intended for output to a display device. GPUs are used in embedded systems, mobi ...
, and Schwartzbard was an NKVD
The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (russian: Наро́дный комиссариа́т вну́тренних дел, Naródnyy komissariát vnútrennikh del, ), abbreviated NKVD ( ), was the interior ministry of the Soviet Union.
...
agent and acted on the order from a former chairman of the Soviet Ukrainian government and then- Soviet Ambassador to France, Christian Rakovsky
Christian Georgievich Rakovsky (russian: Христиа́н Гео́ргиевич Рако́вский; bg, Кръстьо Георги́ев Рако́вски; – September 11, 1941) was a Bulgarian-born socialist revolutionary, a Bolshevi ...
.[''Famous Assassinations in World History: An Encyclopedia'', Michael Newton, two volumes, ABC-CLIO, 2014, pages 418-420]UNP requests Chernomyrdin to hand over archive documents about the assassination of Petliura
Newsru.ua, May 22, 2009["Convenient" assassination]
"Tyzhden.ua", June 15, 2011 Mykola Riabchuk
Mykola Riabchuk ( uk, Рябчук Микола Юрійович; born September 27, 1953, in Lutsk) - Ukrainian public intellectual, journalist, political analyst, literary critic, translator and writer. Riabchuk is known for his analytical art ...
wrote: "In fact, the trial turned into an ostentatious demonstration of retribution against Ukraine's demonized 'nationalism and separatism'; no Lubianka could ever have come up with anything better."[Petlyura]
at ukemonde.com.
After the Schwartzbard trial, Henri Torres
Henri is an Estonian, Finnish, French, German and Luxembourgish form of the masculine given name Henry.
People with this given name
; French noblemen
:'' See the 'List of rulers named Henry' for Kings of France named Henri.''
* Henri I de Montm ...
was recognized as one of France's leading trial lawyers and remained active in political affairs.
After his acquittal in 1928, Schwartzbard decided to immigrate to the British Mandate of Palestine British Mandate of Palestine or Palestine Mandate most often refers to:
* Mandate for Palestine: a League of Nations mandate under which the British controlled an area which included Mandatory Palestine and the Emirate of Transjordan.
* Mandatory P ...
. The British authorities however, refused him a visa. In 1933, he traveled the United States where he re-enacted his role in the murder on film. In 1937, Schwartzbard traveled to South Africa
South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...
, where he died in Cape Town on 3 March 1938. In 1967, his remains were disinterred and transported to Israel, where he was reinterred.
See also
* Soghomon Tehlirian
Soghomon Tehlirian ( hy, Սողոմոն Թեհլիրեան; April 2, 1896 – May 23, 1960) was an Armenian revolutionary and soldier who assassinated Talaat Pasha, the former Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire, in Berlin on March 15, 1921. He ...
, an Armenian who in 1921 assassinated the former Ottoman Grand Vizier and was acquitted on very similar grounds.
References
Sources
*
* ''Encyclopedia of Ukraine''
** Vol 6, pp. 2029–30. Paris–New York 1970.
** Vol. 3, 4. "Petliura, Symon", "Schwartzbard Trial", "Pogroms". Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1993.
*
* Dokument Sudovoyi Pomylky (Paris: ''Natsionalistychne Vydavnytstvo v Evropi'', 1958); "L'Assassinat de l'Hetman Petlioura."
* "L'Assassinat de l"Hetman Petlioura", ''Le Figaro'', May 26, May 27, June 3, 1926.
''Time'' magazine coverage
Further reading
*
{{refend
20th-century trials
Antisemitism in France
Jewish French history
20th-century scandals
Deaths by firearm in France
Jews and Judaism in the Soviet Union
Ukrainian murder victims
Ukrainian politicians before 1991
French Third Republic
Trials in France
1927 in France
Anti-Ukrainian sentiment
1927 murders in France
1927 in Judaism