1. Letter From Amelia Platts (nee Webster) to Harriet Webster
Boulevard No. 6
Saturday Nov. 5. 1905
Dear Aunt Harriet,
Yesterday I locked the apartment and came here with the children at 8 a.m. & after the long walk - the streets then were quiet - & excitement, fainted when I got here, with relief and joy. What we have gone through! When I feel stronger will write and tell you all. Theo at first signal went to ................. I was protected by, & protected myself & a Jewish family, for the hooligans made for the Jews. I am too excited to write about all the horrors yet, but here we are as safe as anywhere, for there are no Jews living here. There was not much firing in the night, & this morning things seemed to be calming down - Thank God!
Fancy, no troops have been out & the hooligans allowed to roam about and pillage at will - they always made for the Jews, their houses and shops. The Jews were prepared and armed, fortunately & at every street about ten young men of a band of “Self Protectionists” to translate literally, have saved themselves. The hatred between the Russians and Jews has burst out again & fearful slaughter is still going on in the outskirts of the town. My house 32 Bol. Arnoutskaia is a Jewish house and inhabited by Jews, & I took two families into my apartment - we were 24 with the children. On the other hand our band of young Jews were bricks, nobody was allowed to pass except the Red Cross, & when bands of hooligans came to rob, they were told to go & if they didn’t, they fired, one lot of 100 fortunately had no pistols, only knives, & our 10 wounded over fifty and killed several, so you can imagine the noise. For half an hour they never stopped firing, the next door to us, so imagine the horrible din of firearms - revolvers - & the yells of the wounded! and then the horns of the Red Cross Carriages arriving to give assistance! It’s too horrible. I still tremble when I think of it. Also a bomb was thrown at our house, but it did not explode! No police anywhere to be seen, the Governor says let the mob settle it among themselves, whether we are to have a Constitution or not! the beast - I feel as if I could shoot him myself!
Will write p.c. tomorrow.
Much love to all, we are so happy to be all together.
Yours, Amelia
(Theo = Theodore Platts, Amelia’s husband)
Link to Harriet Webster
2. Letter From Amelia Platts (nee Webster) to W.H. Webster
Odessa,
Nov 7th 05
What a dreadful time we have been going through: I don’t know how to begin to write. Certainly I can give you but a faint idea at best. No-one can, nor ever will be able to realise all the horrors who has not lived through it personally. The horrors of St. Bartholomew’s massacre have been repeated. I shudder as I think and write. How can I tell you everything; Odessa is coming a bit to life today, but like a man mortally wounded. Last week when we came home from work on the Sunday, we little thought what a reign of terror we had entered upon. This week has seemed a month, & one feels decidedly older and sobered. One’s hair rises in horror at such atrocities perpetrated in a so-called Christian country. God’s curse will rest upon the land & especially those famous people in authority. Sympathy with them has gone forever. Can you wonder Kaulbars & other ‘heroes’ like him failed in the war, if they sat with their hands folded & permitted things, as they have allowed wholesale slaughter & devastation here. Possibly the Japanese might not be quite so much admired - it was easy to fight such a rotten system. Russia is behind the least civilised land in the world, at any rate the leaders have not a spark of humanity & deserve the bombs which are promised them. These days have turned the greatest sympathisers into deadly enemies of the system, that is, any who have any love for their fellow creatures. If you know how complicated it all is, how vile have been the means for the end effected, you would hold up your hands in holy horror and righteous anger. Many people have seen fingers & toes, hands and feet, and various other members lying in those Jewish parts. Children out and quartered before their parents’ eyes. Women dreadfully mutilated before death. Do you wonder that they who have seen & heard & helped & been in the Hospitals & temporary Red Cross rooms all over the town - given by different households - are mad with rage. Too busy with the wounded as yet, but ominously thundering.
Friday 21/3 At 7.00 a.m. all my refugees left and we locked up the apartments and walked down to the Boulevard, three children, 3 servants and myself. We walked down the Pousachkinskaia and got to our present destination without being molested. Of course we had no parcels for then we should have been stopped and searched. Oh the joy of seeing Mama & Marie & hearing no firing, it seemed like a Haven of Refuge. There we found a crowd of refugees too; the landlord, his wife & six children. I again fainted and had to be put to bed - the strain had been too much for me - so when I had done all I could I collapsed. Since then Moses has told me how I kept all his folks up; they were amazed at my moral strength and courage. I talked with the Berticks all the afternoon. We kept hearing shots (very distant) & fearful reports, but felt so safe, away from all the horrors, but though it may sound selfish, I allowed myself to enjoy pleasant conversation to forget the horrors I had been through. I had no housekeeping to worry me either, & so gave myself up to being entertained, which Monsieur Georges Bertick managed to do very well - a charming young fellow of 23, so fresh and young & not yet blase or spoiled in any way.. He and his parents are wonderful conversationalists.
Saturday 22/4 We heard nothing but rumours of every kind, one more horrible than the other. In tha afternoon about 4 the town was put under Martial Law.
Sunday 23/5 We ventured for a walk on the Boulevard with young Bertick then he ordered their carriage & we drove through the town. The devastation of the poor Jewish shops was awful. On Monday the Berticks left as people circulated freely in the streets.
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The above was in an envelope addressed to:
W.H. Webster Esq.,
81 Warwick Terrace,
Batley,
Yorks.
Dated Dec-12-1905 from Blundellands, Liverpool, dated on back Batley 5.30 am. 13-12-05
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