Difference between revisions 952019348 and 952153210 on enwiki

{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2020}}
{{short description|1941 massacre of Jews in Poland}}

{{Infobox civilian attack
| title         = Jedwabne pogrom
| partof        = [[World War II]] and [[the Holocaust]]
| image         = A-438 Mogiła-pomnik, na cmentarzu żydowskim, 1941 Jedwabne.jpg
| image_size    = 
(contracted; show full)er of hundreds of their Jewish neighbors. Although responsibility for instigating this 'pogrom' has not been fully established, scholars have documented at least a German police presence in the town at the time of the killings."<ref>[https://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005183 "Pogroms"]. ''Holocaust Encyclopedia''. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.</ref>}}{{vague|date=April 2020}}

==Background==
===Jedwabne===
[[File:Jedwabne 
Synagogue (cropped).jpg|thumb|upright=1.3|left|The [[Jedwabne synagogue]] was burned down in an accident in 1913.]]
The Jewish community in [[Jedwabne]] was established in the 17th or 18th century.{{sfn|Baker|Tzinovitz|1980|p=5}} In 1921 it had a population of 1,222, including 757 [[Jew]]s and 465 [[Christians|Christian]]s (442 [[Catholic]]s and 23 [[Protestant]]s).{{sfn|Crago|2012|p=900}} According to those who lived there in June 1941, the population at the time included 700 to 1,400 Jews.<ref>{{harvnb|Crago|2012|p=900}}; [http://www.yivoencyclopedia.org/printarticle.aspx?id=466 "Jedwabne"]. YIVO Encyclopedia.</ref> The region supported the right-wing [[National Party (Poland)|National Party]] of the [[National Democracy]] movement,{{sfn|Gross|2001|p=18}} which sought to counter what it said was Jewish economic competition against Catholics, and opposed the Polish socialist government of [[Józef Piłsudski]] and his successors.{{sfn|Gross|2001|p=39}} 

During the nearby [[Radziłów pogrom#Pre-WWII|Radziłów pogrom of 1933]], organized by National Democracy's far-right faction, the [[Camp of Great Poland]] (OWP), one Jew was killed by the pogromists and four pogromists were killed by the Polish police. The OWP referred to the violence as a "revolution" against the Polish state, which it saw as a protector of Jews. It was banned in 1934 for anti-state and racist activities.{{sfn|Bikont|2015|p=9}}

According to [[Anna Bikont]], Poland's government at this time was hostile to the Polish nationalist movement, because of the latter's attacks on Jews as well as its opposition to the Polish state; the government felt responsible for Jews and tried to protect them.{{sfn|Bikont|2015|p=31}} Prewar Polish-Jewish relations in the town were relatively good. At their most tense, when a Jewish woman was killed in Jedwabne and a Polish peasant in another town was killed a few days later, a rumor began that the Jedwabne Jews had taken revenge. The Jews anticipated a pogrom, but the local priest and rabbi stepped in, addressing the matter together.{{sfn|Gross|2001|p=39}}

===World War II===
{{main|Invasion of Poland|Soviet invasion of Poland}}
[[European Theatre of World War II|World War II in Europe]] began on 1 September 1939 with the invasion of Poland by [[Nazi Germany]]. Later that month, the Soviet [[Red Army]] invaded the [[Kresy|eastern regions of Poland]] under the [[Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact]].{{sfn|Kitchen|1990|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=QAStAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA74 74]}} The Germans transferred the area around Jedwabne to the Soviets in accordance with the [[German–Soviet Boundary and Friendship Treaty|German–Soviet Boundary Treaty]] of 28 September 1939.{{sfn|Tec|1993|p=17}} There were reports that Jews had welcomed the Soviets as an alternative to Nazi Germany; this "strengthened the widely held stereotype of [[Judaeo-communism]] which had been promoted by right-wing parties before the war", write [[Jerzy Lukowski]] and Hubert Zawadzki, providing a backdrop to the pogroms in Jedwabne and elsewhere. Following Germany's [[Operation Barbarossa|invasion of the Soviet Union]] on 22 June 1941, German forces again overran Jedwabne and other parts of Poland that had been occupied by the Soviets.<!--add source for 22 June-->{{sfn|Lukowski|Zawadzki|2019|p=334}}

===Pogroms===
{{further|Pogrom|Wąsosz pogrom|Radziłów pogrom}}
After the German occupation, Polish villagers participated in massacres of Jews in 23 localities of the [[Łomża]] and [[Białystok]] areas of the [[Podlasie]] region, with varying degrees of German involvement. Generally smaller massacres took place at [[Bielsk Podlaski]] (the village of Pilki), [[Choroszcz]], [[Czyżew]], [[Goniądz]], [[Grajewo]], [[Jasionówka]], [[Kleszczele]], [[Knyszyn]], [[Kolno]], [[Kuźnica, Podlaskie Voivodeship|Kuźnica]], [[Narewka]], [[Piątnica]], [[Radziłów]], [[Rajgród]], [[Sokoły, Wysokie Mazowieckie County|Sokoły]], [[Stawiski]], [[Suchowola]], [[Szczuczyn]], [[Trzcianne]], [[Tykocin]], [[Wasilków]], [[Wąsosz]], and [[Wizna]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.polin.pl/en/news/2016/07/09/pogrom-in-jedwabne-course-of-events |title=Pogrom in Jedwabne: Course of Events|publisher=POLIN, Museum of the History of Polish Jews}}</ref> On 5 July 1941, during the [[Wąsosz pogrom]], Polish residents knifed and beat to death about 150–250 Jews. Two days later, during the [[Radziłów pogrom]], local Poles are reported to have murdered 800 Jews, 500 of whom were burned in a barn. The murders took place after the Gestapo had arrived in the towns.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.polin.pl/en/news/2016/07/09/timeline-of-pogroms-in-the-former-soviet-occupation-zone-summer|title=Timeline of pogroms in the former Soviet occupation zone – summer of 1941|publisher=POLIN, Museum of the History of Polish Jews}}</ref> In the days before the Jedwabne massacre, the town's Jewish population increased as refugees arrived from nearby Radziłów and Wizna. In Wizna, the town's Polish "civil head" (''wójt'') had ordered the Jewish community's expulsion; 230–240 Jews fled to Jedwabne.{{sfn|Crago|2012|p=900}}

==Jedwabne pogrom==
===10 July 1941===
On the morning of 10 July 1941, according to Poland's [[Institute of National Remembrance]] (IPN) investigation, Polish men from nearby villages began arriving in Jedwabne "with the intention of participating in the premeditated murder of the Jewish inhabitants of the town".{{sfn|Ignatiew|2002}} The town's Jews were forced out of their homes and taken to the market square, where they were ordered to weed the area by pulling up grass from between the cobblestones. While doing this, they were beaten and made to dance or perform exercises by residents from Jedwabne and nearby.<ref>{{harvnb|Ignatiew|2002}}; for exercises, see {{harvnb|Persak|2011|p=412}}.</ref> Eighteen-year-old Szmul Wassersztajn, a Jewish resident, deposited a witnesssynagogue 2.jpg|thumb|upright=1.3|The [[Jedwabne synagogue]] was burned down in an accident in 1913.]]
The Jewish community in [[Jedwabne]] was established in the 17th or 18th century.{{sfn|Baker|Tzinovitz|1980|p=5}} In 1937, 60 percent of the population were ethnic Poles and 40 percent Jewish. In 1939 the total population was around 2,720 to 2,800.{{sfn|Cienciala|2003|p=52}} (At the time about 10 percent of the population of Poland—35 million—was Jewish; it was the largest Jewish population in the world.){{sfn|Cienciala|2003|p=55}}

The region supported the right-wing [[National Party (Poland)|National Party]] of the [[National Democracy]] movement,{{sfn|Gross|2001|p=18}} which sought to counter what it said was Jewish economic competition against Catholics, and opposed the Polish socialist government of [[Józef Piłsudski]] and his successors.{{sfn|Gross|2001|p=39}} Prewar Polish-Jewish relations in the town were relatively good before 1939.{{sfn|Cienciala|2003|pp=53–54}} At their most tense, when a Jewish woman was killed in Jedwabne and a Polish peasant in another town was killed a few days later, a rumor began that the Jedwabne Jews had taken revenge. The Jews anticipated a pogrom, but the local priest and rabbi stepped in, addressing the matter together.{{sfn|Gross|2001|p=39}}

===World War II===
{{main|Invasion of Poland|Soviet invasion of Poland|Soviet repressions of Polish citizens (1939–1946)}}
[[European Theatre of World War II|World War II in Europe]] began on 1 September 1939 with the invasion of Poland by [[Nazi Germany]]. Later that month, the Soviet [[Red Army]] invaded the [[Kresy|eastern regions of Poland]] under the [[Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact]].{{sfn|Kitchen|1990|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=QAStAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA74 74]}} The Germans transferred the area around Jedwabne to the Soviets in accordance with the [[German–Soviet Boundary and Friendship Treaty|German–Soviet Boundary Treaty]] of 28 September 1939.{{sfn|Tec|1993|p=17}} [[Anna M. Cienciala]] writes that most of the Jews understandably welcomed the Soviets as a "lesser evil than the Germans". The business and [[Orthodox Jew|Orthodox communities]] did not support the [[Marxism|Marxist]] ideology of the Soviets, and the latter, suspicious of the Jewish intelligentsia, arrested leaders of the socialist [[General Jewish Labour Bund|Jewish Bund]]. She notes that "NKVD documents on the situation in Jedwabne and in the Lomza-Bialystok region in general, show that few Jews were involved as agents and informers, fewer in fact than Poles."{{sfn|Cienciala|2003|p=58}}

But young Jews did accept roles within the Soviet administration and militia, and according to Cienciala, it was widely known that communist Jews helped the Soviet [[NKVD]] find and arrest Polish officials [[Forced settlements in the Soviet Union|to be deported]]. (Twenty percent of those deported in 1940–1941 were Jews.){{sfn|Cienciala|2003|p=56}} The betrayal felt by ethnic Poles provided a backdrop to the pogroms in Jedwabne and elsewhere.{{sfn|Cienciala|2003|pp=56–57, 59}} Following Germany's [[Operation Barbarossa|invasion of the Soviet Union]] on 22 June 1941, German forces again overran Jedwabne and other parts of Poland that had been occupied by the Soviets.{{sfn|Matthäus|2004|p=244}} [[Christopher Browning]] writes: "Criminal orders from above and violent impulses from below created a climate of unmitigated violence.{{sfn|Browning|2004|p=259}}

===Pogroms===
{{further|Wąsosz pogrom|Radziłów pogrom}}
After the German occupation, Polish villagers participated in [[pogrom]]s against Jews in 23 localities of the [[Łomża]] and [[Białystok]] areas of the [[Podlasie]] region, with varying degrees of German involvement. Generally smaller attacks took place at [[Bielsk Podlaski]] (the village of Pilki), [[Choroszcz]], [[Czyżew]], [[Goniądz]], [[Grajewo]], [[Jasionówka]], [[Kleszczele]], [[Knyszyn]], [[Kolno]], [[Kuźnica, Podlaskie Voivodeship|Kuźnica]], [[Narewka]], [[Piątnica]], [[Radziłów]], [[Rajgród]], [[Sokoły, Wysokie Mazowieckie County|Sokoły]], [[Stawiski]], [[Suchowola]], [[Szczuczyn]], [[Trzcianne]], [[Tykocin]], [[Wasilków]], [[Wąsosz]], and [[Wizna]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.polin.pl/en/news/2016/07/09/pogrom-in-jedwabne-course-of-events |title=Pogrom in Jedwabne: Course of Events|publisher=POLIN, Museum of the History of Polish Jews}}</ref> On 5 July 1941, during the [[Wąsosz pogrom]], Polish residents knifed and beat to death about 150–250 Jews. Two days later, during the [[Radziłów pogrom]], local Poles are reported to have murdered 800 Jews, 500 of whom were burned in a barn. The murders took place after the Gestapo had arrived in the towns.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.polin.pl/en/news/2016/07/09/timeline-of-pogroms-in-the-former-soviet-occupation-zone-summer|title=Timeline of pogroms in the former Soviet occupation zone – summer of 1941|publisher=POLIN, Museum of the History of Polish Jews}}</ref> In the days before the Jedwabne massacre, the town's Jewish population increased as refugees arrived from nearby Radziłów and Wizna. In Wizna, the town's Polish "civil head" (''wójt'') had ordered the Jewish community's expulsion; 230–240 Jews fled to Jedwabne.{{sfn|Crago|2012|p=900}}

==Jedwabne pogrom==
===10 July 1941===
On the morning of 10 July 1941, according to Poland's [[Institute of National Remembrance]] (IPN) investigation, Polish men from nearby villages began arriving in Jedwabne "with the intention of participating in the premeditated murder of the Jewish inhabitants of the town".{{sfn|Ignatiew|2002}} The town's Jews were forced out of their homes and taken to the market square, where they were ordered to weed the area by pulling up grass from between the cobblestones. While doing this, they were beaten and made to dance or perform exercises by residents from Jedwabne and nearby.<ref>{{harvnb|Ignatiew|2002}}; for exercises, see {{harvnb|Persak|2011|p=412}}.</ref> Eighteen-year-old Szmul Wassersztajn, a Jewish resident, deposited a statement in [[Yiddish]] with the [[Jewish Historical Institute]] in [[Białystok]] on 5 April 1945:

[[File:Jedwabne pogrom map.jpg|thumb|upright=1.3|alt=diagram|Jedwabne crime scene, compiled from Polish court documents{{citation needed|date=April 2020}}]]
(contracted; show full)edwabne's remaining Jews, around 300 men, women, children and infants, were then locked inside the barn, which was set on fire, probably using [[kerosene]] from former Soviet supplies.{{sfn|Ignatiew|2002}} This group was buried in the barn near the first group. The 2001 exhumation found a mass grave within the barn's foundations and another close to the foundations.{{sfn|Musial|2003|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=a_49GjK8ovMC&pg=PA325 325]}} 

===Role of the German police and others===

The extent to which the Germans were involved in the Jedwabne progrom became a key point of contention. According to various accounts, Persak writes, the Germans had set up a ''[[Feldgendarmerie#Operations|Feldgendarmerie]]'' in Jedwabne, staffed by eight or eleven military police.{{sfn|Persak|2011|pp=411–412}} The police reportedly set up a "collaborationist civilian town council" led by a former mayor, Marian Karolak. Karolak established a local police force, whose members included Eugeniusz Kalinowsk and Jerzy Laudanski. The town council is reported to have included Eugeniusz (contracted; show full)
*{{cite book |last1=Bikont |first1=Anna |author-link=Anna Bikont |translator = Alissa Valles |title=The Crime and the Silence: Confronting the Massacre of Jews in Wartime Jedwabne |date=2015 |orig-year=2004 |publisher=Farrar, Strauss and Giroux |location=New York |isbn=978-0-374-17879-6 |ref=harv}}
<!--
* {{cite book | last = Browning | first = Christopher R. | authorlink = Christopher Browning | title = The Origins of the Final Solution: The Evolution of Nazi Jewish Policy, September 1939 – March 1942 | year = 2004 | publisher = University of Nebraska Press and Yad Vashem| location = Lincoln and Jerusalem | isbn = 0-8032-1327-1 | ref = harv | url = https://archive.org/details/originsoffinalso00brow}}--><!--
* {{cite book |last1=Cesarani |first1=David |authorlink1=David Cesarani |title=Final Solution: The Fate of the Jews 1933–1949 |date=2016 |publisher=St. Martin's Press |location=New York |ref=harv}}-->⏎
* {{cite book | last = Browning | first = Christopher R. | authorlink = Christopher Browning | title = The Origins of the Final Solution: The Evolution of Nazi Jewish Policy, September 1939&nbsp;– March 1942 | year = 2004 | publisher=University of Nebraska Press and Yad Vashem |location=Lincoln |isbn=978-0803259799 | ref = harv | url = https://archive.org/details/originsoffinalso00brow}}
* {{cite journal |last1=Cienciala |first1=Anna M. |authorlink1=Anna M. Cienciala |title=The Jedwabne Massacre: Update and Review |journal=The Polish Review |date=2003 |volume=48 |issue=1 |pages=49–72 |jstor=25779370 |ref=harv}}
* {{cite journal |last1=Chodakiewicz |first1=Marek Jan |authorlink = Marek Jan Chodakiewicz |title=Research Before Conclusion: The Problems of Shock Therapy in Jedwabne |journal=Glaukopis |location= |date=2001 |volume= |issue=|pages= |doi= |url=https://www.iwp.edu/wp-content/uploads/2002/01/MJ-Chodakiewicz-Shock-Therapy-Jedwabne-Feb-2001.pdf |ref=harv}}
(contracted; show full)-last=Machcewicz |editor1-first=Paweł |editor2-last=Persak |editor2-first=Krzysztof |editor1-link=Paweł Machcewicz |title=Wokół Jedwabnego |date=2002 |publisher=Instytut Pamięci Narodowej |location=Warsaw |isbn=978-8389078087 |oclc=470327322|url=https://www.academia.edu/30085727/_Wok%C3%B3%C5%82_Jedwabnego_Jedwabne_and_Beyond_Vol._1_Studia_Studies_eds._Pawe%C5%82_Machcewicz_Krzysztof_Persak_Warszawa_IPN_2002_526_pp |volume=1: ''Studia''; 2: ''Dokumenty'' |ref=harv}}

* {{cite book |last=Matthäus |first=Jürgen |authorlink=Jürgen Matthäus |editor-last=Browning |editor-first=Christopher |editorlink=Christopher Browning |year=2004 |chapter=Operation Barbarossa and the Onset of the Holocaust, June–December 1941 |title=The Origins of the Final Solution: The Evolution of Nazi Jewish Policy, September 1939&nbsp;– March 1942 |location=Lincoln |publisher=University of Nebraska Press |pages=244–308 |isbn=978-0803259799 |url=https://archive.org/details/originsoffinalso00brow/page/244 |ref=harv}}⏎
* {{cite journal |last1=Michlic |first1=Joanna B. |author1-link=Joanna Michlic |title=Coming to Terms with the 'Dark Past': The Polish Debate about the Jedwabne Massacre |journal=Vidal Sassoon International Center for the Study of Antisemitism, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem |location=Jerusalem |date=2002 |volume= |issue=|pages= |doi= |url=https://archive.jpr.org.uk/object-879 |ref=harv}}
* {{cite journal|last1=Michlic|first1=Joanna B.|author1-link=Joanna Michlic|last2=Polonsky|first2=Antony|title=Letter to the Editor|journal=History|date=January 2008|volume=93|issue=309|pages=154–158|doi=10.1111/j.1468-229x.2008.00415.x|ref=harv}}
(contracted; show full)[[Category:1941 in Judaism]]
[[Category:1941 in Poland]]
[[Category:Controversies in Poland]]
[[Category:Holocaust massacres and pogroms in Poland]]
[[Category:July 1941 events]]
[[Category:Mass murder in 1941]]
[[Category:Poland in World War II]]
[[Category:World War II crimes in Poland]]-->