pogrom

pogrom A term originally used for officially initiated anti-Semitic popular attacks against Jews in Russia from 1881. With many rioters being brought in by train, the assaults were carried out by well-organized groups of hooligans who looted Jewish properties and murdered entire Jewish communities. After a temporary pause, pogroms reached a new peak in 1903, again encouraged by officials eager to please the anti-Semitic Tsar Nicholas II, and there was another outbreak of pogroms by lawless bands during the Russian Revolution of 1905. As sporadic pogroms became the norm, Jews endured harassment, were banned from trading on Sundays, and were denied the possession of agricultural property in their principal area of settlement, Pale. Many Jews responded by large-scale emigration to Palestine, Western Europe, and especially the USA, which received 750,000 Russian Jews (1900–10). More generally, the term has been used to describe organized massacres of Jews throughout the twentieth century, especially in the Nazi concentration camps during the Holocaust.