18th century
Massacre of Praga
4 novembre 1794·Varsovie (Praga)
The toll is reproduced exactly as the source states it — never rounded, never added to another. Tolls overlap from one event to the next.
Suvorov's troops massacre the suburb, the Jewish regiment of Berek Joselewicz annihilated
At the end of the Kościuszko Insurrection, Souvorov's troops stormed the suburb of Praga, on the right bank of the Vistula, and massacred the population following its capture; Warsaw capitulated the next day. The suburb had a large Jewish population, and the light cavalry regiment raised among the city's Jews by Berek Joselewicz — the first regular Jewish military formation in Europe since Antiquity — was almost entirely destroyed there. Its commander, wounded, survived and would later fall while serving under the uniform of the Duchy of Warsaw. The death toll runs into the thousands, though Polish, Russian, and Jewish accounts do not agree on the figure.
- Period :
- 18th century
- Type :
- Massacre
- Region :
- Central and Eastern Europe
- Country :
- Pologne
Simon Doubnov, *Histoire des Juifs de Russie et de Pologne* ; *Encyclopaedia Judaica*, article « Berek Joselewicz » ; Gershon David Hundert, *Jews in Poland-Lithuania in the Eighteenth Century*.