In the 17th century, Poland held one-third of the world’s Jewish population and was considered the center of Jewish life. Meanwhile, Poland’s serfs were engaged in a revolution that gave rise to one of the most sadistic pogroms in Jewish history — led by a Ukranian nationalist, who, right up until the Holocaust, was considered the worst villain in modern Jewish history. He was so evil that Jews nicknamed him “Chmiel the Wicked.''
