April 6-7 1903 Kishineff Pogram

April 6-7 1903 Kishineff Pogram

“Houdini’s appearance in Moscow coincided with a notorious pogrom.  After many violent outburst of anti-Semitism in Russia since the late nineteenth century,  April 1903 brought a massacre of the Jewish community in Kishinev, a city of about 150,000.

Jews there were accused of murdering a Christian boy and using his blood to prepare matzoh.  Peasants from the countryside and toughs from nearby towns joined in.

Over two days of murder, gang rape, looting, and torture,  crying “kill the Jew” they and citizens of Kishinev destroyed seven hundred houses, killed forty-seven Jews, and wounded about six hundred.