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The Jedwabne pogrom (or Jedwabne massacre) was the mass murder of hundreds of Jewish residents of Jedwabne in German Nazi occupied Poland by local Polish people that took place on July 10, 1941, during World War II, triggered by Jewish collaboration with Russia in the massacre of a number of local Polish residents.

Soon after the war ended, the communist authorities of the People's Republic of Poland arrested and interrogated a number of possible suspects from or around the town of Jedwabne and put them on trial. Out of twenty two defendants, twelve were convicted of a crime of treason to the Polish nation. Responsibility for the massacre sensu largo, according to international law, had been laid at the feet of the German occupiers while the responsibility sensu stricto ascribed to approximately 40 ethnic Polish men, many of whom weren’t found. The Jedwabne pogrom received widespread attention over half a century later, with the publication of two books by Polish-born American sociologist and historian Jan T. Gross. Consequently, the Polish Institute of National Remembrance conducted its own investigation on the basis of archival materials and other evidence, and in 2004 issued its final conclusions confirming many, but not all of Gross's statements. There was insufficient evidence to charge those possibly responsible who might have still been alive during the investigation of 2004.

Many people in Poland were shocked by the exposure of details about the Jedwabne mass murder of their Jewish co-citizens committed not by the Germans as originally believed, but by a (relatively small) number of Poles. The Jedwabne pogrom drastically contrasted with the known and well-documented rescue of Jews by Poles during the Holocaust, and thus perpetually challenged Polish popular national beliefs regarding Polish–Jewish relations during World War II. The degree of Nazi German participation remains the subject of debate among Jewish and Polish historians extending beyond the court ruling.

Background

The start of World War II in Europe began with the Nazi German invasion of Poland. Likewise, on September 17, 1939, the Soviet Red Army invaded the eastern regions of Poland while in secret agreement with Germany. The area of Jedwabne was originally invaded by the Germans who crushed Polish resistance formed by local students of the Polish military schools. The town was transferred to the Russians in accordance with the September 28, 1939, German–Soviet Boundary Treaty. In total, the Soviets took over 52.1% of territory of Poland (circa 200,000 km²), with over 13,700,000 inhabitants composed of 5,1 million ethnic Poles (ca. 38%), 37% Ukrainians, 14.5% Belarusians, 8.4% Jews, 0.9% Russians and 0.6% Germans. There were also 336,000 refugees who arrived from Polish areas already occupied by Germany, most of them Polish Jews numbering at around 198,000. The Soviet secret police accompanying Red Army routinely massacred Polish prisoners of war, spreading terror throughout the region. Waves of expulsions, mock trials and prison executions continued until June 20–21, 1941. Altogether, the Soviet NKVD was responsible for the mass deportation of up to 1.5 million ethnic Poles to Siberia in less than two years, with some of the local people, including some Jews, collaborating with them. There were also instances of Jewish Communists denouncing ethnic Poles to the Soviet NKVD. As soon as the Soviets entered Jedwabne, Polish administration was dismantled. All city jobs were passed on to those Jews who declared allegiance with them, and who subsequently formed an armed militia overlooking local deportations.

Circumstances surrounding the massacre

Following Nazi Germany's attack on the Soviet Union in June 1941, German forces quickly overran the territory of Poland occupied by the Soviets since their joint invasion of Poland on account of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. A number of people collaborating with the Soviets before Operation Barbarossa were killed by local people in the Jedwabne area during the first days of German occupation. The small town of Wizna near Jedwabne saw several dozen Jewish men shot by the invading Germans under Hauptsturmfuehrer Schaper, as did other neighboring towns. The Nazis distributed propaganda in the area revealing crimes committed by Soviet Union in Eastern Poland such as the 1940 Katyn massacre of 25,700 Poles and claimed that Jews sided with them and might be partly responsible. In parallel, the SS organized special Einsatzgruppen ("task forces") to murder Jews in these areas and a few massacres were carried out. The guidelines for such massacres were formulated by Reinhard Heydrich, who ordered his officers to induce anti-Jewish incidents on territories newly occupied by the German forces. Local communities were encouraged to commit anti-Jewish pogroms and robberies with total impunity.

A month later, on the morning of July 10, 1941, by the order of the Polish-speaking German mayor Karolak and the town's German gendarmerie, a group of Polish men from around Jedwabne and neighboring settlements was assembled, which then rounded up the local Jews as well as those seeking refuge from nearby towns and villages such as Wizna and Kolno. The defenseless Jews were taken to the square in the centre of Jedwabne, where they were ordered to pluck grass, attacked and beaten. A group of Jewish men were forced to demolish a statue of Lenin that had been put up earlier by the Soviets and then carry it out of town while singing Soviet songs. The local rabbi was forced to lead this procession of about 40 people. The group was taken to a pre-emptied barn, killed and buried along with fragments of the monument, while most of the remaining Jews, estimated at around 250 to 400, including many women and children, were led to the same barn later that day, locked inside and burned alive using kerosene from the former Soviet supplies (or German gasoline, by different accounts) in the presence of eight German gendarmes, who shot those who tried to escape. The remains of both groups were buried in two mass graves in the barn. Exhumations led to the discovery not only of the charred bodies of the victims in two mass graves, but also of the bust of Lenin (previously assumed to be buried at a Jewish cemetery) as well as bullets that according to a 2000 statement by Leon Kieres, the chief of the IPN, could have been fired from 1941 Walther P38 type pistols. Some sources claim that a movie made by Germans during the massacre was shown in cinemas in Warsaw to document the alleged spontaneous hatred of local people towards the Jews. No trace of such movie has been found.

1949–1950 trials

In 1949 and 1950 a number of local Poles were put on trial in Poland, accused of collaboration with the Nazis in committing the crime. One person was condemned to death (his sentence was commuted to imprisonment), nine were imprisoned and 12 were acquitted.

Records show that the use of extreme physical torture during pre-trial interrogations conducted by the Security Office (UB) resulted in some individuals admitting to made-up crimes, which were later renounced by them before the courts. Among those who (at trial) retracted their earlier statements given during prolonged beatings by the security service were Józef Chrzanowski, Marian Żyluk, Czesław Laudański, Wincenty Gościcki, Roman and Jan Zawadzki, Aleksander and Franciszek Łojewski, Eugeniusz Śliwecki, Stanisław Sielawa and several other local men pronounced innocent and released by the courts without recompense. Out of 22 indicted for the crime at the time, almost half were wrongfully accused.

The unlawful interrogation methods were confirmed by the Stalinist minister of public security Stanisław Radkiewicz, who admitted in an internal memo that the "fixing" of the investigation included beatings, the complete omission of circumstances and evidence, and the rephrasing of testimonies to aid prosecution in a way that did not reflect reality.

Controversy and investigation

Until 1997–2000 it was generally assumed that the Jedwabne massacre was an atrocity committed by an Einsatzgruppe. This version of events was challenged by two revisionist documentary films: Where is my older brother, Cain? by Agnieszka Arnold and Neighbours. They were followed by a detailed study of the events in the book Neighbors, by Polish-Jewish-American sociologist and historian Jan T. Gross, whose description of the massacre was based – for the most part – on the deposition of Shmuel Wasserstein (Szmul Waszerstajn, aka Stanisław Całka) drafted in April 1945 by a Polish Jewish office in Warsaw. Wasserstein, a Polish-Jewish resident of Radziłów who arrived in Jedwabne barely a day before the massacre, survived by hiding three kilometers away from the epicenter, at the house of Aleksander Wyrzykowski, Polish Righteous among the Nations. According to local sources, he learned only after the war about the alleged scenario of the events in Jedwabne from a Jewish woman connected to the NKVD. Gross concluded that, contrary to Stalinist proclamations, the Jews in Jedwabne had been rounded up and killed by mobs of their own Polish neighbors without any supervision or assistance from an Einsatzgruppe or other German force. He referred to the number of victims (1,600) presented on a memorial stone in Jedwabne erected by communist authorities, later removed and deposited in the Polish Army Museum in Białystok. In his book Gross stated that the massacre could have been a provocation, considering that two main local leaders inspiring the mob to murder, Zygmunt Laudański and Karol Bardoń, were the NKVD agents prior to German occupation.

The publication of Neighbors in Poland inspired widespread controversy upon its release in 2000. The accuracy of Gross's findings was put under scrutiny with regard to a number of controversial details. Questions about Gross's methodology were debated by Polish and Polish-American scholars, including Tomasz Strzembosz and Iwo Cyprian Pogonowski who questioned his conclusions.

Following an intensive investigation, the Polish State Commission for the Prosecution of Crimes against the Polish Nation (Institute of National Remembrance, IPN) released a series of reports in 2002–2004 supporting Gross's accounts of Polish participation in the pogrom, although IPN estimated its final death toll at around 340 rather than the 1,600 suggested by Gross, while confirming the Nazi German presence. Since then, other unofficial estimates have been presented also, in the range of 200 to 1000.

There is a controversy related to the extent of German involvement in the massacre. The IPN study informed that there were 68 Gestapo as well as numerous German policemen present in Jedwabne arriving from different regional posts, as reported by witness Natalia Gąsiorowska, who was providing a meal. Some scholars noted that the German involvement is not certain; while many witnesses claim to have seen German soldiers that day in Jedwabne, not all had witnessed them at that time. As contemporary court records show, the active involvement of gentile Poles is certain, but the question of extent and nature of possible German participation has not been settled. The IPN concluded that the crime in a broader sense must be ascribed to the Germans, whilst in a stricter sense to gentile Poles, estimated at about 40 men from Jedwabne and nearby settlements. Jan T. Gross himself praised the conduct of the IPN investigation.

In 2001 the President of Poland, Aleksander Kwaśniewski, officially apologized to the Jewish people for the crime on behalf of Poland. This caused a certain amount of criticism, as some still believed Jedwabne to be solely a German crime, while others argued that the whole nation should not have to bear responsibility for the crimes performed by some. At that time of the apology the IPN investigation was not yet completed. The commemoration service on the 60th anniversary of the pogrom was overshadowed by the boycott of the service by the majority of the citizens of Jedwabne. When the service began, the priest of Jedwabne started to chime the church bells as a sign of protest. The mayor of Jedwabne at the time of the Jedwabne debate, Krzysztof Godlewski, emigrated to the USA due to these incidents.

Notes

1. ^ Tomasz Strzembosz, "Inny obraz sąsiadów", Rzeczpospolita, article stored by the Internet Archive
2. Marci Shore. Conversing with Ghosts: Jedwabne, Zydokomuna, and Totalitarianism. Kritika: Explorations in Russian and Eurasian History, Volume 6, Number 2, Spring 2005:345-374
3. Joanna Michlic. Coming to Terms with the "Dark Past": The Polish Debate about the Jedwabne Massacre. Jerusalem, SICSA, 2002. ACTA no. 22.
4. http://www.ipn.gov.pl/ftp/pdf/jedwabne_postanowienie.pdf
5. Laurence Weinbaum, Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, Penitence and Prejudice: The Roman Catholic Church and Jedwabne Jewish Political Studies Review 14:3-4. Fall 2002.
6. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Bibliographies. Poles: Introduction
7. http://wiez.free.ngo.pl/jedwabne/article/01.html
8. ^ Contested memories By Joshua D. Zimmerman, Rutgers University Press - Publisher; page 67-68
9. Antisemitism By Richard S. Levy, ABC-CLIO - Publisher; page 366
10. Kitchen, Martin (1990). A World in Flames: A Short History of the Second World War. Longman. p. 74. ISBN 0582034086. The joint invasion of Poland was celebrated with a parade by the Wehrmacht and the Red Army in Brest Litovsk {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
11. Raack, Richard (1995). Stalin's Drive to the West, 1938-1945. Stanford University Press. p. 58. ISBN 0804724156. The generals of the two invading armies went over the details of the prearranged line that would mark the two zones of conquest for Germany and Soviet Russia, subsequently to be rearranged one more time in Moscow. The military parade that followed was recorded by Nazi cameras and celebrated in the German newsreel: German and Soviet generals cheek by jowl in military homage to each other's armies and victories. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
12. ^ Template:Pl icon The 90th session of the Senate of the Republic of Poland. Stenograph, part 2.2. A Report by Leon Kieres, president of the Institute of National Remembrance, for the period from July 1, 2000 to June 30, 2001. Donald Tusk presiding.
13. Template:Pl icon Elżbieta Trela-Mazur (1997). Włodzimierz Bonusiak, Stanisław Jan Ciesielski, Zygmunt Mańkowski, Mikołaj Iwanow (ed.). Sowietyzacja oświaty w Małopolsce Wschodniej pod radziecką okupacją 1939-1941 (Sovietization of education in eastern Lesser Poland during the Soviet occupation 1939-1941). Kielce: Wyższa Szkoła Pedagogiczna im. Jana Kochanowskiego. p. 294. ISBN 83-7133-100-2. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameters: |chapterurl= and |coauthors= (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: editors list (link), also in Wrocławskie Studia Wschodnie, Wrocław, 1997
14. Sanford, p. 23; Template:Pl icon Olszyna-Wilczyński Józef Konstanty, Encyklopedia PWN. Retrieved 14 November 2006.
15. Template:Pl icon Śledztwo w sprawie zabójstwa w dniu 22 września 1939 r. w okolicach miejscowości Sopoćkinie generała brygady Wojska Polskiego Józefa Olszyny-Wilczyńskiego i jego adiutanta kapitana Mieczysława Strzemskiego przez żołnierzy b. Związku Radzieckiego. (S 6/02/Zk) Polish Institute of National Remembrance. Internet Archive, 16.10.03. Retrieved 16 July 2007.
16. Jerzy Jan Lerski, Piotr Wróbel, Richard J. Kozicki, Historical Dictionary of Poland, 966-1945, Greenwood Publishing Group, 1996, ISBN 0313260079, Google Print, 538
17. Iwo Cyprian Pogonowski, "Jedwabne: The Politics of Apology", presented at the Panel Jedwabne – A Scientific Analysis, Polish Institute of Arts and Sciences in America, Inc., June 8, 2002, Georgetown University, Washington DC.
18. Prof. Iwo Cyprian Pogonowski, "Jedwabne: The Politics of Apology", presented at the Panel Jedwabne – A Scientific Analysis, Polish Institute of Arts and Sciences in America, Inc., June 8, 2002, Georgetown University, Washington DC.
19. Jerzy Lukowski, Hubert Zawadzki, A Concise History of Poland, page 261.
20. Christopher R. Browning, Jurgen Matthaus, The Origins of the Final Solution, page 262 Publisher University of Nebraska Press, 2007. ISBN 0803259794
21. Michael C. Steinlauf. Bondage to the Dead. Syracuse University Press, p. 30.
22. Paweł Machcewicz, "Płomienie nienawiści", Polityka 43 (2373), October 26, 2002, p. 71-73 The Findings
23. Joanna Michlic, Antony Polonsky, The Neighbors Respond. Princeton University Press – Publisher. Chapter Official Statements, page 135 and "Memories and Methodologies," page 334.
24. Gross, Neighbours p. 17-18 (Polish edition)
25. Michlic, Polonsky, ibidem. "Memories and Methodologies," page 306.
26. Gross, "Neighbors ..."
27. ^ Marek Jan Chodakiewicz, Research before conclusion: the problems of shock therapy in Jedwabne
28. Template:Pl icon Stanisław Musiał, S.J, "Jedwabne, that's the new name of the Holocaust" (Jedwabne to nowe imię Holokaustu) by staff editor of "Tygodnik Powszechny", Rzeczpospolita 10.07.2001 Nr 159. Also in "The Debate about Neighbors by Jan T. Gross" by Princeton University Press. Institute for Historical Review; May/June 2001. Issue: Volume 20 number 3, page 41, ISSN: 0195-6752. Reprinted from The Journal of Historical Review, PO Box 2739, Newport Beach, CA 92659, USA.
29. The inscription on the memorial stone raised in the place of the barn at Jedwabne and removed in 2001 read: "Place of torture and execution of the Jewish population. The Gestapo and Nazi gendarmerie burned 1600 people alive on 10 July 1941." (Template:Lang-pl).
30. Gross, Neighbours p. 78-79 (Polish edition)
31. Joshua D. Zimmerman. Contested Memories: Poles and Jews during the Holocaust and its Aftermath. Rutgers University Press, 2003.
32. The Politics of Apology and Contrition by Iwo Cyprian Pogonowski, 2002
33. Komunikat dot. postanowienia o umorzeniu śledztwa w sprawie zabójstwa obywateli polskich narodowości żydowskiej w Jedwabnem w dniu 10 lipca 1941 r. (A communiqué regarding the decision to stop investigation of the murder of Polish citizens of Jewish nationality in Jedwabne on 10 July 1941) from 30 June 2003
34. Insight Into Tragedy. The Warsaw Voice, 17 July 2003.
35. Joanna B. Michlic and Antony Polonsky. Letter to the Editor. History. January 2008, Vol. 93 Issue 309.
36. ^ Findings of Investigation S 1/00/Zn into the Murder of Polish Citizens of Jewish Origin in the Town of Jedwabne on 10 July 1941, pursuant to Article 1 Point 1 of the Decree of 31 August 1944. In: Antony Polonsky & Joanna B. Michlic, eds. The Neighbors Respond: The Controversy over the Jedwabne Massacre in Poland. Princeton University Press, 2003.
37. ^ Elżbieta Południk, Andrzej Kaczyński, Wyniki śledztwa w sprawie Jedwabnego - Jednak sąsiedzi, Rzeczpospolita, 10 June 2002
38. Poland's Kwasniewski apologizes for Jedwabne pogrom.
39. Stadt der Geister, Spiegel, 1 May 2006

See also

• Anti-Jewish violence in Poland, 1944–1946
• History of the Jews in Poland
• Kielce pogrom
• Rescue of Jews by Poles during the Holocaust
• Soviet invasion of Poland
• Tykocin pogrom
• Wąsosz pogrom

References

• Chodakiewicz, Marek Jan (2005). "The Massacre in Jedwabne, July 10, 1941: Before, During, After". Columbia University Press and East European Monographs. ISBN 0-88033-554-8.
• Gross, Jan Tomasz (2001). "Neighbors: The Destruction of the Jewish Community in Jedwabne, Poland". Princeton University Press. ISBN 0-14-200240-2.
• Gross, Jan Tomasz (2003). "Wokół Sąsiadów. Polemiki i wyjaśnienia" (in Polish). Sejny: Pogranicze. ISBN 8386872489.
• Polonsky, A., & Michlic, J. B. (2004). The neighbors respond: the controversy over the Jedwabne Massacre in Poland. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press. isbn 0-691-11306-8
• Stola, Dariusz. (2003). Jedwabne: Revisiting the Evidence and Nature of the Crime. Holocaust and Genocide Studies. 17 (1):139–152.

Further reading

• Grünberg, S. (2005). The Legacy of Jedwabne. Spencer, NY: LogTV, LTD.
• Zimmerman, J. D. (2003). Contested memories: Poles and Jews during the Holocaust and its aftermath. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press. ISBN 0813531586
• Thou Shalt Not Kill. Poles on Jedwabne, Więź.

External links

• Jedwabne - the Findings of the Historians by Pawel Machcewicz from IPN
• The Jedwabne Tragedy
• The Tragic Events of the Holocaust in Radzilow and Jedwabne
• Joanna Michlic, The Polish Debate about the Jedwabne Massacre
• Adam Michnik, Poles and the Jews: How Deep the Guilt?, New York Times, 17 March 2001
• "Burning Alive" by Andrzej Kaczyński, published May 5, 2000 in the Polish newspaper "Rzeczpospolita"
• Yedwabne: History and Memorial Book. Museum of Jewish Heritage.

53°17′20″N 22°18′34″E / 53.288792°N 22.309542°E / 53.288792; 22.309542

• 1941 in Poland
• History of Poland (1939–1945)
• Holocaust anti-Jewish pogroms
• Jewish Polish history
• Massacres in Poland
• The Holocaust in Poland
• World War II crimes in Poland