On closer examination,
it was found that many non-Jewish business people (for instance,
Ignaschewski in Lublin, a very rich Pole) were withholding whole bags
full of gold and silver coins, for which they were punished rather
severely; but this was not proved against a single Jew.
Furthermore, the Jews were, among other things, accused of having
smuggled in a coffin 1,500,000 rubles in gold into Germany; and the
protest against the accusation entered by the representatives and
ministers of the Jewish congregation at Warsaw was printed in Russian
papers, but not in a single Polish one.
All these things were preparations for pogroms; but many others were
made. The anti-Semites printed a proclamation in Yiddish in which the
Jews were called upon to revolt against Russia; they took care that this
proclamation was put into the pockets of the unsuspecting Jews in the
streets of the different towns; those who had distributed the papers
denounced the party concerned to the police. Everybody upon whom the
proclamation was found was shot.
At last the Jews were, as in the Middle Ages, both in word and writing
accused of having poisoned the wells. If some Cossacks or other Russian
soldiers died, the Poles accused the Jews of having caused their death.
The chief accusation was, however, the accusation of espionage, which
obtained general credence and was used both when Austrian troops came to
some town or village and when Russian troops expelled the Austrians.
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