Newspaper graphic, 1882
The trading city of Brody has been a border town since the first partition of Poland-Lithuania in 1772. Previously located in the heart of the Polish-Lithuanian state, it is now on the periphery and the place where people arrive who travel from the Russian Empire to the Austro-Hungarian Empire – or vice versa, the last stop in Austro-Hungary before crossing into the Tsarist Empire. In 1881, Tsar Alexander II is assassinated. The murder is used as an excuse for antisemitic slanders. During the time of the pogroms, the number of emigrants increases significantly, even though people do not necessarily come from the towns where the pogroms are taking place. Many of them pass through the border town of Brody. The number of emigrants decreases over the course of the year, only to rise massively again in the spring of 1882. At that time, the press and aid organizations recognize the emigrants as refugees from the pogroms and discuss in various countries – such as Austro-Hungary, the German Empire, France, and the USA – how best to assist them. Meanwhile, the religious historian Moritz Friedländer travels several times to Brody in 1881 and 1882 for the Vienna office of the Alliance Israélite Universelle to organize the emigration of refugees to the USA. He records his impressions in his book ‘Five Weeks in Brody’ in 1882. He vividly describes the many people trying to organize their onward travel early in the morning. The discussion about the migrants from the Russian Empire does not only take place among aid organizations and in politics, but also gains attention from the public through books, such as those by Friedländer, or via the press. The object is a page from the ‘Allgemeine Illustrirte Zeitung’ No. 48 from the year 1882.
