Skargi mniejszości żydowskiej na arenie międzynarodowej na zachowanie się żołnierzy polskich podczas wyzwolenia Wilna w kwietniu 1919 r.

Abstract

In the middle of April 1919 Polish commander Józef Piłsudski decided to start a military operation to take Vilnius from Soviet hands. This fully successful operation was one of the first operations of the newly created Polish Army. Vilnius was liberated on April 21st 1919. During the fights 28 Polish soldiers and 60 Jewish civilians were killed. Jewish minority, the biggest in Vilnius, has written complaints to western Allies on illegal behavior of Polish Army during the fights. These complaints resulted with sending few international commissions to Vilnius. The documents referring to this question can be found in Jewish Scientific Institute in New York (YIVO). The most important are reports of Henry Morgenthau Commission from USA and Stuart Samuel Commission from GB. There are important differences in these reports. They show how complicated the national relations were in Vilnius at this time. The analysis of reports and Polish documents gives us an opportunity of full reconstruction of Vilnius events in 1919.