The publication of Jan Gross’s book "Neighbors," on the Polish massacre of Jews in Jedwabne, 1941, is the source of much debate and consternation in the Polish and international media. Professor Gross contributed to Project Syndicate the following brief summary of his findings:
On July 10, 1941 all of the Jews in the small town of Jedwabne were killed. That massacre was unlike any other killing in Poland during World War II that we knew about until recently. On that ominous day sixty years ago, the Jewish inhabitants of Jedwabne were murdered all over town, the majority herded and burned alive in a large barn by their Polish neighbors.
In September 1939, when the second world war began, Hitler and Stalin divided Poland between them. Their occupation regimes were ruthless; many people were imprisoned; scores were deported or killed.
Jedwabne, with 2,500 inhabitants (1,500 of them Jewish), was located in the Soviet zone, near the demarcation line that separated the two zones of occupation. When Nazi Germany attacked the Soviet Union on June 21, 1941, German troops entered Jedwabne the next day. Scores of Jews were killed in the town immediately; in the surrounding area, as everywhere else on the Eastern Front, special detachments of German police (the so-called Einsatzgruppen ) carried out mass executions of defenseless Jews.
The murders could not have taken place without German permission. It was most likely encouraged by gendarmes at the scene. But it was the inhabitants of Jedwabne and surrounding hamlets who did the killing. A group of perpetrators, 22 in all, were later put on trial in Poland in May of 1949, for assisting the Germans in their plan to exterminate the Jews.
Rev. Stanislaw Musial, a prominent figure in the Vatican and the Polish Catholic Church, contributed to Project Syndicate the following commentary on the import of Professor Gross’s research, both in Poland and internationally:
CRACOW: Fifty-nine years after the massacre of Jews in Jedwabne, a history of this tragic event by Professor Jan Gross appeared in Poland. It shocked Polish opinion like no other book in the last half century. Why? Professor Gross demonstrated that the Jedwabne massacre of its Jews was perpetrated not by Germans assisted by Poles, but by Poles assisted – probably to some small extent – by Germans.
Why did this truth so shock the Poles? Before the Gross book appeared Poles willingly admitted to many sins against the Jews committed during the German occupation. Some Poles blackmailed Jews, some exploited them materially, some denounced Jews to the Gestapo, some, in isolated episodes, murdered Jews. But few Poles were ready to admit that they collaborated with the Germans in the extermination of the Jews.
In this respect Poles considered themselves better than the rest of Europe. Now the evidence from Jedwabne, and of murders committed in the neighboring towns of Wasosz and Radzilow, prove conclusively that collaboration did take place, though limited to a certain geographical area.
The shock produced by Professor Gross’s book was the more painful because, for 200 years, Poles had seen themselves as victims of violence committed by others. They never victimized anyone. Or so they believed until Professor Gross stripped bare the events at Jedwabne.
Given the history of anti-Semitism in Poland, especially during the inter-war years, when after 100 years of partition Poland regained its independence and sought to create an ethnically unified state, the crime of Jedwabne should not surprise anyone. After all, during the German occupation many Poles believed that Poland had two enemies: an external one—the Germans, and an internal one—the Jews. We owe to Hitler’s limitless contempt for the Poles that he did not try deliberately, through promises and rewards, to secure mass collaboration by Poles in the extermination of the Jews. But for Hitler’s false pride and stupidity, perhaps we would have several dozen more Jedwabnes.
After the truth about Jedwabne became known, Polish opinion split in two. Those on the political right and the nationalistically minded either denied Polish participation in the Jedwabne murders or tried to diminish it by arguing that only bandits or asocial elements took part. Or they looked for “mitigating” circumstances, pointing to the presumed wrongs inflicted by Jews on Poles during the brief Soviet occupation of Jedwabne.
The opposite camp, numerically smaller, is situated more to the political left. It accepts Professor Gross’s findings and expresses sorrow for what happened in Jedwabne. In bringing the truth to light about the massacre in Jedwabne, it sees a chance to cleanse Polish memory of occupation as well as a helpful stimulus in fighting against anti-Semitism in today’s Poland. An honest reckoning of conscience and a commitment to make amends, these people say, can only help Poland build its democracy and improve its image.
As to the Catholic Church, on July 10, 1941 the clergy in Jedwabne did nothing to prevent believers from participating in the massacre. Today, the Church’s attitude toward Jedwabne is ambiguous. The local bishop from Lomza, Stanislaw Stefanek, views the whole matter as a conspiracy against Poland. The primate of Poland, Jozef Glemp, did not deny that Poles took part in the crime, but requested that Jews also apologize to Poles for, allegedly, victimizing Poles during the Soviet occupation.
The Episcopate decided, however, to apologize to the Jews for Jedwabne. Without waiting for the 60th anniversary of the Jedwabne and unwilling to apologize for the crime on the site of the massacre together with the President of Poland, the Church organized a mass of penance on May 27th in the Church of All Saints in Warsaw (a church near the Warsaw Ghetto during the War). Although only one-third of the Episcopate participated in this ceremony, this act of contrition is valuable. No one has ever seen Polish bishops on their knees begging forgiveness for sins committed against Jews.
Does it make sense to remember the events of 60 years ago in Jedwabne, a small town whose name was not known to Poles before Gross’s book was published? To even ask such a question is tantamount to doubting whether it makes sense to remember the Holocaust. Ignorance of the past “bears fruit” by making it easier to repeat past mistakes in the present. Humanity is a system of interconnected vessels where knowledge of the past shapes the present and the future. In addition, it makes sense to speak about Jedwabne not only in Poland but everywhere because this crime reveals a new dark aspect of what a human being can do.
For the Jedwabne massacre was not committed behind barbed wire in an extermination camp, but in a small, poor, typical little town, where everyone knew each other, met each other daily, and lived side-by-side for years, indeed centuries. Jedwabne reveals another side of the Holocaust: it was murder of neighbors committed by neighbors. It also offers an example how crime can incubate in an everyday life poisoned by ant-Semitism.
During the ceremony in Warsaw on May 27th, Bishop Stanislaw Gadecki in his invocation to the liturgy mentioned Jedwabne alongside Auschwitz and other places of mass extermination. Rightly so, because Jedwabne is a new name of the Holocaust.
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On July 10, 1941 all of the Jews in the small town of Jedwabne were killed. That massacre was unlike any other killing in Poland during World War II that we knew about until recently. On that ominous day sixty years ago, the Jewish inhabitants of Jedwabne were murdered all over town, the majority herded and burned alive in a large barn by their Polish neighbors.
In September 1939, when the second world war began, Hitler and Stalin divided Poland between them. Their occupation regimes were ruthless; many people were imprisoned; scores were deported or killed.
Jedwabne, with 2,500 inhabitants (1,500 of them Jewish), was located in the Soviet zone, near the demarcation line that separated the two zones of occupation. When Nazi Germany attacked the Soviet Union on June 21, 1941, German troops entered Jedwabne the next day. Scores of Jews were killed in the town immediately; in the surrounding area, as everywhere else on the Eastern Front, special detachments of German police (the so-called Einsatzgruppen ) carried out mass executions of defenseless Jews.
The murders could not have taken place without German permission. It was most likely encouraged by gendarmes at the scene. But it was the inhabitants of Jedwabne and surrounding hamlets who did the killing. A group of perpetrators, 22 in all, were later put on trial in Poland in May of 1949, for assisting the Germans in their plan to exterminate the Jews.
Rev. Stanislaw Musial, a prominent figure in the Vatican and the Polish Catholic Church, contributed to Project Syndicate the following commentary on the import of Professor Gross’s research, both in Poland and internationally:
CRACOW: Fifty-nine years after the massacre of Jews in Jedwabne, a history of this tragic event by Professor Jan Gross appeared in Poland. It shocked Polish opinion like no other book in the last half century. Why? Professor Gross demonstrated that the Jedwabne massacre of its Jews was perpetrated not by Germans assisted by Poles, but by Poles assisted – probably to some small extent – by Germans.
Why did this truth so shock the Poles? Before the Gross book appeared Poles willingly admitted to many sins against the Jews committed during the German occupation. Some Poles blackmailed Jews, some exploited them materially, some denounced Jews to the Gestapo, some, in isolated episodes, murdered Jews. But few Poles were ready to admit that they collaborated with the Germans in the extermination of the Jews.
In this respect Poles considered themselves better than the rest of Europe. Now the evidence from Jedwabne, and of murders committed in the neighboring towns of Wasosz and Radzilow, prove conclusively that collaboration did take place, though limited to a certain geographical area.
The shock produced by Professor Gross’s book was the more painful because, for 200 years, Poles had seen themselves as victims of violence committed by others. They never victimized anyone. Or so they believed until Professor Gross stripped bare the events at Jedwabne.
Given the history of anti-Semitism in Poland, especially during the inter-war years, when after 100 years of partition Poland regained its independence and sought to create an ethnically unified state, the crime of Jedwabne should not surprise anyone. After all, during the German occupation many Poles believed that Poland had two enemies: an external one—the Germans, and an internal one—the Jews. We owe to Hitler’s limitless contempt for the Poles that he did not try deliberately, through promises and rewards, to secure mass collaboration by Poles in the extermination of the Jews. But for Hitler’s false pride and stupidity, perhaps we would have several dozen more Jedwabnes.
After the truth about Jedwabne became known, Polish opinion split in two. Those on the political right and the nationalistically minded either denied Polish participation in the Jedwabne murders or tried to diminish it by arguing that only bandits or asocial elements took part. Or they looked for “mitigating” circumstances, pointing to the presumed wrongs inflicted by Jews on Poles during the brief Soviet occupation of Jedwabne.
The opposite camp, numerically smaller, is situated more to the political left. It accepts Professor Gross’s findings and expresses sorrow for what happened in Jedwabne. In bringing the truth to light about the massacre in Jedwabne, it sees a chance to cleanse Polish memory of occupation as well as a helpful stimulus in fighting against anti-Semitism in today’s Poland. An honest reckoning of conscience and a commitment to make amends, these people say, can only help Poland build its democracy and improve its image.
As to the Catholic Church, on July 10, 1941 the clergy in Jedwabne did nothing to prevent believers from participating in the massacre. Today, the Church’s attitude toward Jedwabne is ambiguous. The local bishop from Lomza, Stanislaw Stefanek, views the whole matter as a conspiracy against Poland. The primate of Poland, Jozef Glemp, did not deny that Poles took part in the crime, but requested that Jews also apologize to Poles for, allegedly, victimizing Poles during the Soviet occupation.
The Episcopate decided, however, to apologize to the Jews for Jedwabne. Without waiting for the 60th anniversary of the Jedwabne and unwilling to apologize for the crime on the site of the massacre together with the President of Poland, the Church organized a mass of penance on May 27th in the Church of All Saints in Warsaw (a church near the Warsaw Ghetto during the War). Although only one-third of the Episcopate participated in this ceremony, this act of contrition is valuable. No one has ever seen Polish bishops on their knees begging forgiveness for sins committed against Jews.
Does it make sense to remember the events of 60 years ago in Jedwabne, a small town whose name was not known to Poles before Gross’s book was published? To even ask such a question is tantamount to doubting whether it makes sense to remember the Holocaust. Ignorance of the past “bears fruit” by making it easier to repeat past mistakes in the present. Humanity is a system of interconnected vessels where knowledge of the past shapes the present and the future. In addition, it makes sense to speak about Jedwabne not only in Poland but everywhere because this crime reveals a new dark aspect of what a human being can do.
For the Jedwabne massacre was not committed behind barbed wire in an extermination camp, but in a small, poor, typical little town, where everyone knew each other, met each other daily, and lived side-by-side for years, indeed centuries. Jedwabne reveals another side of the Holocaust: it was murder of neighbors committed by neighbors. It also offers an example how crime can incubate in an everyday life poisoned by ant-Semitism.
During the ceremony in Warsaw on May 27th, Bishop Stanislaw Gadecki in his invocation to the liturgy mentioned Jedwabne alongside Auschwitz and other places of mass extermination. Rightly so, because Jedwabne is a new name of the Holocaust.