Objects

In the archive, we also find certificates of Gina Szwarc's activities. One of them is a temporary card issued by the Association de la Presse Judiciaire de Paris [Paris Judicial Press Association], valid from 18 to 31 October 1927, for the "affaire Schwarcbart " [Szwarcbard case], with a photograph of Gina Szwarc on the reverse. The card was issued in the name of Mme Szwarc, representing the "Głos Polski" [Polish Voice] daily newspaper in Łódź. Gina Szwarc was following the trial of Szalom Szwarcbard (Samuel Schwartzbard), who on 25 May 1926 shot in Paris Symon Petlura, the Commander-in-Chief (ataman) of the army of the Ukrainian People's Republic. Both the act itself and the trial, which took place on 18-26 October 1927, were widely reported in the world press and aroused a great deal of emotion. Szwarcbard committed the murder in revenge for numerous pogroms against Jews in Ukraine in 1918-1920 (in one of them, in Proskuriv, Khmelnytskyi Oblast, members of his family were killed), blaming Petlura for these acts of violence. Szwarcbard's defence counsel was Henri Torrès (his son George became the husband of Tereska Szwarc during the war). After a trial that became a grand indictment of the pogroms in Ukraine, the court acquitted Szwarcbard, exonerating him of all charges.

Renata Piątkowska