Kielce, July 4 1946

Of the 3.3 million Jews living in Poland at the beginning of the Second World War, most of them (between 2.9 and 3 million) perished in the Holocaust - at Auschwitz, Treblinka, other camps, and in the ghettos. These facts are relatively well known. Less well known is the pogrom that took place in Kielce after the end of the war, in which Jewish survivors of the Holocaust were attacked by local townspeople, and some 40 of them killed. The incident led to much of the remnant of Polish Jewry fleeing the country. There is an account here:

In a short while, a crowd of angry Poles had gathered outside the Jewish house in the belief that more than a dozen Christian children were being held captive there to use their blood for making matzot, according to the ancient story - or, according to a newer belief, for infusions for wounded Soviet soldiers. To this plot was added another rumor - the Christian children being held captive there were no longer alive.

Among the first to gather outside the Jewish house were groups of women who began chanting anti-Semitic slogans and inciting those who joined them. About an hour later, at around 11 A.M., two army vehicles pulled up outside the building and soldiers with automatic weapons jumped out. In just a few minutes more, the shriek of bullets could be heard being fired directly through the windows into the building. Police forces also came to the site, broke into the building and ordered the Jews to turn over the weapons they held for self defense. Then the police started destroying the apartments inside.

Anyone who tried to put up a fight was murdered. Jews were tossed through the windows and into the streets, and the mob broke into the building and went wild... The behavior of the policemen merely egged on the crowd, and they began stoning the building and shouting that the Jews were murdering Polish children. The Jews trapped inside were left to the mercy of the mob and beaten with planks and iron rods. Those who were pulled outside were dragged to a nearby square and killed.

Read the whole thing. (Thanks: SdeW.)