In his book Neighbors, Jan Gross tells readers about the small Polish town of Jedwabne, where in July 1941--a year before the Nazi killing mechanism started its mass murder of Jews--the ethnic Polish half of the town’s citizenry brutally and willingly murdered the Jewish half. With that controversial conclusion, Gross has forced Poles to ask whether their popular perception of their history during World War II as martyrs and victims is incomplete. "[I]n order to reclaim its own past, Poland will have to tell its past to itself anew," the author writes. The demand represents no small undertaking.
Over the span of centuries, outside forces have invaded Polish territory: Prussians, Russians, and Austrians attempted at various times to dominate Poland and subdue the Polish spirit. Yet the Poles are known for fighting against all odds--one Pole, Tadeusz Kosciuszko, even has a statue in Boston for fighting in the American Revolution. Poles themselves have sometimes called their country "the Christ of all nations"--a reference to their sacrifices in the face of persecution. It is not surprising that in Poland, the history of World War II stresses the suffering and persecution of Poles.
Now, Gross’ slim volume is calling into question the role of Christian Poles in one eastern town--Jedwabne--and some Poles have questioned the manner in which Gross explains the massacre and the methodology he uses to prove his point.
Questions as to whether the book was researched in a scholarly and systematic way have also provided fodder for debate--taking up countless pages in Polish newspapers. The sources, some claim, are faulty, incomplete, and based too much on the testimony of survivors; others say the book does not give enough context for the tragedy.
Gross writes that he was unable to find German documentation for the pogrom at Jedwabne, and his sources include documentation from Polish court trials conducted in 1949 and the testimonies of contemporaries and witnesses. A Polish Jew who survived, Szmul Wasersztajn, gave his testimony before the Jewish Historical Commission in April 1945. Wasersztajn is one of the book's principal sources, and Gross makes it clear that he thinks that the testimony must be taken literally. Wasersztajn submitted his testimony a few years after the events, presumably at the earliest opportunity that he could, and his account thus cannot be dismissed as a fuzzy memory of things that happened decades earlier.
Historians are, generally speaking, wary of accepting survivors' testimonies as the sole basis for a study. Yet Gross asserts that the key testimony of Wasersztajn, and the accounts of other survivors of the atrocity, should be accepted because "what has reached us was written only while the authors were still alive--what actually happened to the Jewish community during the Holocaust can only be more tragic than the existing representation of events based on surviving evidence."
Gross did not use only Wasersztajn’s testimony, citing the statements of surviving (Christian) Poles and court documents as well. Most mainstream historians have accepted that there is no discrediting the ultimate facts of what occurred at Jedwabne--and similarly horrific pogroms in 1941 in two other Polish villages--and Gross makes the case convincingly, though not without some minor problems.
A SINGLE DAY IN HISTORY
Context throughout the book is lacking, although it was not Gross' intention to provide a comprehensive history of Polish-Jewish relations or of Poland during the Second World War. Nonetheless, there are some points that are raised--and then dropped--without having been given due attention. The brief discussion of Polish collective responsibility, which is limited to a couple of pages, is one such example. Interesting points on the nature of Holocaust studies are introduced without enough explanation.
In short, the book is a valid source, but perhaps not one for the uninitiated in the history of World War II. Gross states both that "had Jedwabne not been occupied by the Germans, the Jews of Jedwabne would not have been murdered by their neighbors," but then also that "the direct participation of the Germans was limited, pretty much, to their taking pictures." Readers may not remember the horrific setting for the war in the east, while incorrectly blaming Poles for the death of Jews in the Holocaust. Some background of the complexities, ambiguities, and confusion of the wartime experience would have greatly helped the uninformed reader.
Barring extremist ranting on either side of the debate, much of the controversy associated with this book is connected to present-day political implications. When President Aleksander Kwasniewski apologized for the tragedy at the commemorative event at Jedwabne on 10 July 2001, was he saying that all Poles are guilty? While the crime was committed by individuals, the apology was made on behalf of the nation, and whereas Germans have spent decades grappling with the question of collective guilt for the Nazi terror, the idea is relatively foreign to Poles. The mayor of Jedwabne had wanted to make a local apology for the crime there. Instead, the president represented the nation.
Clearly the book is scholarly enough and well-researched enough for the president’s apology to be warranted. Gross acknowledges in the book that individual, criminal Poles did wrong under a criminal regime. As a result, the worthy contributions of other Poles should shine all the more brightly. One can only hope that other nations will also examine their own pasts, instead of pointing fingers.
Andrea Mrozek, now based in Canada, is a former TOL intern and CER editorial assistant.
This review first appeared in TOL, 10 July 2001.
Moving on:
- Archived articles about Jewish communities in Central and Eastern Europe
- More on Jedwabne from the TOL archives, available with a subscription to TOL:
A Start to the Healing
The Polish president gives a heartfelt apology for the Jedwabne massacre.
In Their Own Words, 17 July 2001
Building a Better World
The Israeli Ambassador to Poland responds to the Polish president’s apology for the Jedwabne massacre.
In Their Own Words, 17 July 2001
Apologies Partially Accepted
Our Take, 16 July 2001
Tomasz Krzyanowski: Victims and Oppressors
Polish self-awareness hasn’t been the same since the Jedwabne massacre came to light.
In Focus, 10 July 2001 - Return to CER front page
