The Plunder: The 1898 Anti-Jewish Riots in Habsburg Galicia by Daniel Unowsky (review)

In 1898 the Austro-Hungarian province of Galicia experienced one of the most significant outbreaks of rioting and violence in Imperial history. Catholic Poles in the west of the province ransacked Jewish-owned businesses and attacked many of their Jewish neighbors. Up to now this period has received scant attention from historians, but Daniel Unowsky's book, The Plunder, attempts to remedy that neglect.

This is a concise text, but one that is well organized and tries to show the violence of 1898 in the larger context of Habsburg history. In chapter 1, Unowsky defines Galicia at the turn of the century, both the Jewish and non-Jewish communities, and looks at how recent developments in Catholic anti-Semitism shaped the social and political situation on the eve of the 1898 riots. He then details the history of the conflict itself and follows that description with a chapter dedicated to those who perpetrated the violence as well as to the victims. After the end of the riots, the Austro-Hungarian court system turned its attention to reestablishing the rule of law in Galicia and assigning responsibility to individuals involved in the violence. Chapter 4 of this book examines the trials and the public reaction to this assessment. The final chapter shows how politicians interpreted these events based on their own biases and the origins of the people whom they represented.

Unowsky notes that, while the topic of anti-Semitic violence in Galicia at the turn of the century has been heavily examined by historians, the riots in Galicia have been overshadowed by far more deadly incidents in the Russian Empire. That the 1898 riots did not result in fatalities and that Catholics soon resumed their patronage of Jewish-owned businesses have long been used as a pretext for ignoring the events. Also, those who study Habsburg history have made far more of the conflict between German and Czech speakers in Bohemia than they have of the Galician riots. This is quite possibly a result of the response to the events, both in the judicial system and in the press. Soon after violence abated, the narrative among conservative Polish Catholics was that the Jews had brought this upon themselves. The rioters and their supporters justified their actions by saying that Jews were the oppressors and that it was only natural for young Catholic farmers who were struggling to get ahead to take out their aggressions on the source of their problems. All of the events in Galicia happened in the context of growing anti-Semitism throughout the Empire, seen in the rise of bigoted publications like Kikeriki, the election of politicians such as Karl Lueger, and the general rise of nationalism.

In many respects national identity is at the heart of this story. As Unowsky writes, the vast majority of the anti-Semitic violence perpetrated in 1898 was carried out by Poles, despite the ethnic diversity of Galicia. The most serious riot in the more heavily Ukrainian region of Eastern Galicia happened in the town of Bursztyń, but even in this case many of the participants were Polish guest workers from Western Galicia. Unowsky draws the logical conclusion that Poles were not inherently more anti-Semitic than Ukrainians but that they were more economically integrated with Jews and that there were more politicians using anti-Semitism to win the votes of Polish-speaking Catholics (111). Looking backwards in their histories, Poles were more politically empowered than Ukrainians, and this meant that they were more likely to be in a position to protest their conditions. In this case, that protest transformed to ethnic violence.

All of this was contrary to the official positions of the Imperial government in Vienna, but the state showed far more interest in quelling the immediate problem of rioting than in stemming the spread of anti-Semitism. This is consistent with what many contemporary scholars have observed about Austro-Hungarian politics. Imperial or national identities may...