Jews in Kuty — formerly part of Poland, now Ukraine — strove to live peacefully with their Polish and Ukrainian neighbors using various methods to counter rising anti-Semitism, but it grew and gradually poisoned the long-lasting peaceful relations between old neighbours. With the establishment in 1918 of the Polish Republic, of which Kuty was then a part, Polish anti-Semitism passed from words to deeds.

“Kittever Heros” from the Yizkor book of that town recounts how three young men organized a self-defence team to repel attackers and take away “their appetite for messing with the Jews.” It was “woe to the ‘sheigets’ [gentile youths] who fell into the hands of one of the team” after committing acts of hate, whether it was beating Jews or spreading anti-Semitic propaganda.

The town is referred to as Kittev in the book, but it is the practice of the Yizkor Book Project to use a town’s current name. It became part of Ukraine in 1991.

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