PARIS IS THRILLED

Evening Star, Issue 19774, 26 January 1928, Page 12

PARIS IS THRILLED

SENSATIONAL MURDER TRIAL Sensation-loving Pans has recently been treated to the most titillating of thrills—a spectacular murder trial. .When we acid that international politics and rampant race hatreds were thrown in by way of good measure, it will he realised that the dish was seasoned highly enough even for the jaded taste of the boulevardier. Emotion domi'nated the scene from start to finish. Such cold abstractions as law and reason found no place in the crowded courtroom. Theatrical display and the appeal to sheer feeling were everywhere present in the trial of Samuel Schwartzbard, a young Jewish watchmaker for shooting down General Simon Pctlura, the Ukrainian army chicltain, on the streets of the French capital come htteen months ago. The events that led to the killing were intensely dramatic. Paris, indeed, has had no such sensational case since the trial of Maoarne Caillaux for shooting Calmette, editor of the ‘Figaro,’ just before the war. The evidence obtained from witness after witness has brought home to the world at large the horrors of the (rightful Jewish massacres in the Ukraine some years ago, massacres for which Petlura is said to have been responsible, and for which he paid with his life. The jury, intensely moved by the heartbreaking details of these tragedies as told at first hand by those who had been through them, followed th© dictates of its heart rather than of its head in rendering its verdict. As the Brooklyn ‘Eagle’ aptly puts it, “because mass murder had been dono in Petlura s name, it refused to condemn the man who killed him.” , In the ‘ American Hebrew, of ryew York, we find this moving description of some of the scenes in the French court during the progress of this remarkable case; — “ On the opening day of the trial, with the court room crowded to capacity, Schwartzbard told his story of the slaying. A hush fell upon those present, including patriarchal-looking Jews from Central and Eastern Europe, Slavs, and flappers. He told of how he had followed General Petlura, pistol in pocket, waiting for the moment when he might kill the man lie considered the persecutor of his people. 44 Many who watched him tell the story commented that Schwartzbard seemed more like a clerk than a murderer. As he proceeded with the story, the president of the court warned that there should be no manifestations from the spectators, as these might cause an upflaring of racial feeling inimical to justice.” The details of the shooting of Petlura, as given in his slayer’s own words, are thus recorded for us by the ‘Jewish Tribune,’ of New York; — “He described how ho had tracked his \ ylatiau and the photograph he carried

about to make certain when ho met the right man. He drew a swift, graphic picture of their encounter on the fatal clay, and, with his head thrown back, his faco alive and transparent with boyish exultation, he told of the pursuit’s close. ‘ Here’s my chance, T thought. “Arc you Pctlura?” I asked him. Ho did not answer, simply lifting his heavy cane. 1 knew it was he! I shot once, twice, three, four, live times! He fell, the crowd rushed in on me. My only worry was whether it was really Petlura. I might have killed the wrong man. When a policeman told mo it was Petlura I threw my arms about his neck’ in_ joy.’ “When he spoke again it was of the alleged outrages ho had avenged. Ho told of streets where corpses were piled upon corpses as on a battlefield. He told of waxen, bloodless hands outstretched in imploration. He showed his listeners lighted houses where interrupted feasts were never eaten, and where blazing fireplaces consumed the hands that lighted them. Ho told of wideopen mouths that could never speak, and glaring eyes Mint could never see. Rocking and swaying in the manner of Jews at prayer, he closed his eyes, tautened his lips, and grimly uttered word by word.” Turning once more to the account of the trial in the ‘ American Hebrew,’ wo learn that;—■

“Memories of a nurse who attended the wounded in a three-day program at Proskuroff were recounted at the trial in the ghostly whispers nurses use to .soothe patients at midnight. Haia Greenberg, twenty-nine, with curly bobbed hair and a blue coat suit that gave her the appearance of an American stenographer, was the nurse. She recalled her experiences so vividly that the spectators almost felt they were with her in the home of her grandparents in Proskuroff, instead of in a well-lighted Paris court room. As in tremulous voice she painted a picture of the scene, the Jewish clockmakor who claims to have acted as the avenger of his people sobbed audibly. “ Miss Greenberg, who served in the Ukrainian Ited Gross at Proskuroff, described the streets as being littered with the dead and wounded of all ages and both sexes. ‘ I shall never forget the reddened slow-sleds, filled with the hacked bodies going to the cemetery to deposit their sad burden in a common pit,’ she murmured. They brought the wounded to the hospital—armless and legless men, mutilated babies and young women, whose screams became faint as their wounds overcame them. “ Gradually, as Miss Greenberg spoke, the pace of her narrative quickened. ‘Oh, no, no!’ she cried, her shoulders beginning to shake convulsively, ‘ I cannot go on; they are before my eyes.’ “The witness made a gesture of brushing away the picture. Handkerchiefs made white patches among the spectators. There was an ..epidemic of coughing and clearing of throats. Miss Greenberg, suddenly switching

from grief to fury, shrilled: ‘Pctlura was responsible! Even Ukrainian officers said so. His soldiers killed our people, shouting his name. One regiment had a band, and it played while knives fell on the heads of innocent babies. Petlura could have stopped it, but he would not listen to our pleas.’ “The first witness called by the Ukrainians was Prince Tokury, a former ambassador of General Petlura. Admitting the massacre which had wiped out 50,000 Jews in a period of three days, the witness tried to weave a web of evidence which would prove beyond the evidence of ■ the opposing faction that Petlura was innocent of their instigation. “ A massively-built Slav, General Shapovnl, who had served under Petlura, took the stand to declare that the. regular troops had never participated in massacres of Jews, and that Pellura condemned such tactics. ‘Petlura was not. anti-Semitic,’the Ukrainian said. ‘He. was a humanitarian —a friend of the Jews.’ “‘He lies! He lies!’ chorused a score of voices in a score of different tongues, while the reporters of the international Presses lowered their heads and scribbled hastily. “ Wild demonstrations followed the announcement of the verdict. The French are traditionally an emotional people, and the taking of the law into his own hands by this young Jew appnrentiy captured their imagination. The verdict, which came after four and a-half hours of summing up, with Henri Torres, counsel for the defence, taking less than a third of that time, was returned in thirty-two minutes. The president of the jury, in trembling voice, but smiling, announced the acquittal, which was greeted with a howl of approval by the jammed courtroom. Most of 800 spectators, who had passed the afternoon herded together in a courtroom intended for less than 300, screamed and cheered, laughed and cried. There were cries of ‘Long live France!’ ‘Long live the French jury!’ And there were less loud but none the less deeply-felt shouts of protest from the Ukrainians. Three squads of special guards stepped in quicklv, and broke up a dozen fist fights "which started in the corridors.”