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European Tragedies The Radovs, not unlike other Russian and Ashkenazi Jews generally, were subjected to the difficulties of ordinary life - poverty, starvation, disease, conflicts - and were especially vulnerable to discrimination, typically labeled anti-Semitism. In Russia, this occurred with a special vengeance, under the name of Pogroms, which were organized raids against Jewish villages and Jewish populations by gangs commissioned by the army, nobility or royal family of Russia. Pogroms had a long history, dating back to what might be viewed as practice pogroms, first initiated by the Crusaders intent on killing supporters of the Islamic governments that ruled the so-called, "Holy Land" (Israel). While in route to those Quixotic conquests, they practiced killing by slaughtering Jews in eastern and central Europe. Matters worsened during wartime, and ultimately with the death camps. A number of the Radovs recall specific incidents, a few of which are very briefly excerpted below:
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