On the evening of 26 November 1932, some
students, who were members of the Lutyko-Venedia Association, which functioned
at the Academy of Veterinary Medicine, arranged a party at the Koloński restaurant on ul. Trybunalska, 10 (now vul. Shevska). These
parties used to be merry meetings of the members of academic associations, who
drank beer and sang songs together. After the meeting, a part of the young men
went to the Adria café on ul.
Szajnochy, 5 (now vul. Bankivska). Another group, headed by Witold Wawrzynowicz
and Tadeusz Winiecki went to the coffeehouse Royal on ul. Rutowskiego, 28 (vul. Teatralna, now pl.
Osmomysla,11). When Wawrzynowicz left the Royal
and was walking along ul. Legionów (now prosp.
Svobody), he was attacked by an unknown man, who hit him in the face. The
offender began to run away, and the students followed him in pursuit, towards
the pl. Gołuchowskiego (now pl.
Torhova), where the persecutors were hampered by a group of people of Jewish
origin. A fight started between them and the pursuers.
In the meantime the group of young people,
who had agreed to spend the rest of the evening at the Adria café, decided to
leave the facility and to move to the restaurant Eldorado (ul. Szajnochy, 2, now vul. Kopernika, 4). Leaving the Adria,
the students noticed on the street a group of Jews, who started singing. These
were Mojżesz Katz, a baker, Nechemiasz Schmer, Szymon Keller, a printer, Izrael
Tune, a waiter, and Stefania Surówka, a registered prostitute. There was a
short exchange of replicas between the passers-by and the students, and then
they came to blows. Grodkowski was stabbed. When help came, it was decided to
take the wounded man to the hospital, but before arriving there he died in the
ambulance (the death was caused by the loss of blood from the right axillary
artery, which was cut). After Grodkowski was stabbed, Katz began to flee. He
was stopped by Nowik, a policeman on point duty, to whom he shouted:
"Please search me if I have a knife!". No knife was found. According
to the testimony of Stefania Surówka, it was Izrael Tune who had a knife;
however, the main accused was Mojżesz Katz, whom the police also suspected of
beating another member of the Lutyko-Venedia Association (Tadeusz Winiecki, a
student) on that fateful evening.
In spite of the fact that both the head of
the Brotherhood of the Academy of Veterinary Medicine, Władysław Borowiak, and
the head of the Lutyko-Venedia Association, made an appeal to their colleagues
calling for restraint, it ended up in an unrest with an anti-Semitic coloring.
During the following days, students broke up windows in Jewish shops and beat
passers-by who were taken for Jews. The victims of the attacks were also
Christians, including Zdzisław Deszberg, a City Savings Bank official, and Aleksander
Hulimka, an estate owner. A group of youngsters stopped to beat the latter with
sticks only when he testified that he was a Christian.
On Monday, November 28, the rectors of all
Lviv educational institutions suspended classes. They called on young people to
stay calm and did not allow to organize an all-university rally, fearing an
outbreak of scandals and disorder.
On November 29, at the Lychakivskyi
cemetery, the funeral of Jan Grodkowski was held. According to official
figures, it was attended by 15,000 people, but the national press overestimated
these statistics (Kurier Lwowski
informed that the ceremony was attended by 40,000 people). The student's body
was placed in the reception hall of the Veterinary Students' House on ul.
Stalmacha (now vul. Basarab, 1). The solemn procession with the coffin, which
was accompanied by academic associations with flags, went along ul. Szewczenki (now vul. Dniprovska) and ul.
Piotra i Pawła (now vul. Mechnikova)
streets to the cemetery. Some wrangles were caused by the Rector of the Jan
Kazimierz University, Father Adam Gerstmann, who turned up with the rector's
chain. After the funeral, the young people, who were returning from the
cemetery, were divided into two groups: one part of them went to ul. Akademicka
(now prosp. Shevchenka), while another group went to ul. Kopernika. On
Akademicka street a group of 200-300 students cried out anti-Semitic slogans.
Jews, who happened to pass there, were beaten by the gathered.
On November 30, at about noon, nearly 1,200
students assembled at the Jan Kazimierz University; they were addressed by
Czesław Rojek and Adam Macieliński (both were the heads of the Academic Reading
Room in different years). The latter called on the students to stay in their
dormitories in the evening, persuading them that they could be attacked by
armed groups of Jews on the streets. In the afternoon, police patrols stopped
violations of public order, which burst out throughout the city. On the same
day, Adolf Wille on ul. Kochanowskiego (now vul. Levytskoho), Josenberg Locher
on ul. Szewczenki (now vul. Dniprovska), Ignacy Mandel on ul. Zielona (vul. Zelena), and Jakub Bochin on
ul. Łyczakowska (vul. Lychakivska) were
beaten by student groups. On ul. Leona Sapiehi (vul. Bandery) street some young
people forced the Jews to close their shops. In the evening, around 22.15,
Mojżesz Segal, who, after getting off the tram, tried to hide in the basement
of his house, was attacked and beaten.
On the same day, a joint appeal for the
preservation of peace was addressed to the university youth by the Archbishop
of Lviv Bołesław Twardowski, the auxiliary bishop Franciszek Lisowski, and the
Armenian Catholic Metropolitan, Archbishop Józef Teodorowicz. Three days later,
on December 3, the Lviv Academic Committee issued a proclamation calling for
calm. On the night of December 3 / December 4 it was quiet in the city, there
were no incidents or acts of vandalism registered.
In general, during the unrest 90 students
of Lviv educational institutions were detained by the police. 13 of them were
sentenced to arrest, while 43 were released after administrative punishment.
Many students were punished with a fine. When some young people were under
arrest, others distributed leaflets of the following content:
We
remind our colleagues that we shall not allow the case of the murder of Grodkowski
of blessed memory to be artificially removed from the agenda of Polish public
opinion. It is the duty of every one of our colleagues to remember the Jewish
question and, according to his or her ability, to solve it daily, investing in
it as much effort and self-sacrifice as possible. Not all of our detained
colleagues have been released from prison, and this fact forces us to draw all
our attention to this matter, in order to express our solidarity with the imprisoned
colleagues if necessary.
Finally, the case of Grodkowski ended in
court. The trial took place in the summer of 1933. For participating in the
fight, the fatal injury to the student of the Academy of Veterinary Medicine
and inflicting injuries to his colleagues Mojżesz Katz was sentenced to 4 years
of imprisonment. Izrael Tune and Nechemiasz Schmer were acquitted for lack of
evidence.
