George Matulaitis Journal

On the 23rd still others came to demand that I hold services of thanks- giving for the liberation of Vilnius. In the evening two Jewish representatives came in: Rabbi Rubenstein and Dr. Schabad. We spoke in Russian. They had started to speak Polish, but seeing that this was not easy for them, I asked them to speak in Russian or German, since, I added, I do not despise any language. They gladly took up Russian. They told me that the Legionnaires had arrested a large number of Jews, had beaten and tortured many of them, and had looted many stores. During the house searches they had confiscated many people’s money and so on. They begged me to intercede for at least two well-known Jewish activists: Leo Joffe and Samuel Tscharny (Niger). I promised to do so. When Major Í witalski was here, I asked that they be released. He wrote down the names and told me that it would be done. On my own I sent Fathers Kukta and Vaitkevi ius to the train station, where the detained people were being held to intercede for them as well. On the following day, the 22nd, General Í mig = y-Rydz, without my even asking, told me that those two Jews had been released and returned home. 1 I was happy. I felt sorry for the Jews. I had not seen how they had been beaten and tortured, but whenever I could, I put in a good word for them. I asked the priests to calm and soothe the angry crowds. As had been reported, the bodies of the fallen Bolsheviks, mostly Jews, lay in the streets for several days without burial. The people who passed by the dead bodies profaned them in various ways. The people have become terribly brutal. I am afraid that there will be problems. The Jews are sitting tight in their homes and keeping out of sight. In some places the Jewish Bolsheviks fired at the Legionnaires from their houses, and that is why there is so much anger. In any case, the treatment of the Jews has been inhuman. The Lithuanians have also complained that they have been harassed during the house searches. I promised the Rabbi and Dr. Schabad that I would defend and intercede for the Jews wherever and however I could, and I have done so. 252 1 Subsequent events showed this to be false.