Difference between revisions 952313649 and 952325133 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)n 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 Wasersztajn, a Jewish resident, deposited a statement in [[Yiddish]] with the [[Jewish Historical Institute|Central Jewish Historical Commission]] in [[Białystok]] (the goal of which was to collect statements from Holocaust survivors) 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}}]]
{{quote|The other brutality was when the murderers ordered every Jew to dig a hole and bury all previously murdered Jews, and then those were killed and in turn buried by others. It is impossible to represent all the brutalities of the hooligans, and it is difficult to find in our history of suffering something similar.{{pb}} Beards of old Jews were burned, newborn babies were killed at their mothers' breasts, people were beaten murderously and forced to sing and dance. In the end they proceeded to the main action—the burning. The entire town was surrounded by guards so that nobody could escape; then Jews were ordered to line up in a column, four in a row, and the ninety-year-old rabbi and the ''shochet'' [Kosher butcher] were put in front, they were given a red banner, and all were ordered to sing and were chased into the barn. Hooligans bestially beat them up on the way. Near the gate a few hooligans were standing, playing various instruments in order to drown the screams of horrified victims. Some tried to defend themselves, but they were defenseless. Bloodied and wounded, they were pushed into the barn. Then the barn was doused with kerosene and lit, and the bandits went around to search Jewish homes, to look for the remaining sick and children.<ref>{{harvnb|Wasersztajn|1945}}, quoted in {{harvnb|Gross|2001|pp=19–20}}.</ref>}}Between the German occupation and mid-September 1941,{{sfn|Kosmala|Verbeeck|2011|p=5}} Polish villagers participated in [[pogrom]]s against Jews in 23 locations in the [[Łomża]] and [[Białystok]] areas of the [[Podlasie]] region, northeast Poland. 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]], [[Rajgród]], [[Sokoły, Wysokie Mazowieckie County|Sokoły]], [[Stawiski]], [[Suchowola]], [[Szczuczyn]], [[Trzcianne]], [[Tykocin]], [[Wasilków]], 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, 30&nbsp;km from Jedwabne, local Poles are reported to have murdered 800 Jews, 500 of whom were burned in a barn, during the [[Radziłów pogrom]]. The murders took place after the Gestapo had arrived in the towns.{{sfn|Zbikowski|2011|p=41ff}}<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===
[[File:Jedwabne pogrom map.jpg|thumb|upright=1.3|alt=diagram|Jedwabne crime scene, compiled from Polish court documents{{citation needed|date=April 2020}}]]
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> 

Around 40–50 Jewish men were forced to demolish a statue of [[Vladimir Lenin|Lenin]] in a nearby square and carry part of the statue on a wooden stretcher to the market square, then to a nearby barn,{{sfn|Ignatiew|2002}} while singing communist songs. The local [[rabbi]], Awigdor Białostocki, and the kosher butcher, Mendel Nornberg, led the procession.{{sfn|Persak|2011|p=412}} The group was taken to the barn, where they were made to dig a pit and throw the statue in. They were then killed and buried in th(contracted; show full)ld us when the Germans first entered their town, they had herded all the Jews into a barn and set it ablaze. Anyone who tried to get out was cut down by machine-gun fire."<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/?id=PsAY9uwZkmEC&printsec=frontcover |title=The Warriors: My Life As A Jewish Soviet Partisan|last=Zissman|first=Harold|date=2005|publisher=Syracuse University Press|isbn=9780815608394|language=en}}</ref>{{third-party inline|date=April 2020}}-->

===Survivors===
[[File:
SchoolJewish children and their teachers, Jedwabne, 19338.jpg|thumb|upright=1.3|Jewish children with their schoolteachers, [[Jedwabne]], 1933, including three boys who survived the war by hiding on [[Antonina Wyrzykowska]]'s farm. Back row, second left: Szmul Wasersztajn (a witness); third, Mosze Olszewicz; and fourth, Jankiel Kubrzański.{{sfn|Bikont|2015|p=246}}]]

(contracted; show full)ael's [[Righteous Among the Nations|Righteous among the Nations]] medal by [[Yad Vashem]].<ref>[http://db.yadvashem.org/righteous/family.html?language=en&itemId=4035463 "Wyrzykowski Aleksander & Wyrzykowska Antonina (Karwowska)"]. The Righteous Among Nations database. Yad Vashem.</ref> Antonina Wyrzykowska was later awarded the Commander's Cross of the [[Order of Polonia Restituta]] by Poland's President [[Lech Kaczyński]].{{citation needed|date=April 2020}}

==
Criminal inquiries and monument==Inquiries and monument==
===Testimony===
Szmul Wasersztajn, a Jewish resident who was 18 at the time of the pogrom, testified in [[Yiddish]] to the [[Jewish Historical Institute|Central Jewish Historical Commission]] in [[Białystok]] (established to collect statements from Holocaust survivors) on 5 April 1945:

{{quote|The other brutality was when the murderers ordered every Jew to dig a hole and bury all previously murdered Jews, and then those were killed and in turn buried by others. It is impossible to represent all the brutalities of the hooligans, and it is difficult to find in our history of suffering something similar.{{pb}} Beards of old Jews were burned, newborn babies were killed at their mothers' breasts, people were beaten murderously and forced to sing and dance. In the end they proceeded to the main action—the burning. The entire town was surrounded by guards so that nobody could escape; then Jews were ordered to line up in a column, four in a row, and the ninety-year-old rabbi and the ''shochet'' [Kosher butcher] were put in front, they were given a red banner, and all were ordered to sing and were chased into the barn. Hooligans bestially beat them up on the way. Near the gate a few hooligans were standing, playing various instruments in order to drown the screams of horrified victims. Some tried to defend themselves, but they were defenseless. Bloodied and wounded, they were pushed into the barn. Then the barn was doused with kerosene and lit, and the bandits went around to search Jewish homes, to look for the remaining sick and children.<ref>{{harvnb|Wasersztajn|1945}}, quoted in {{harvnb|Gross|2001|pp=19–20}}.</ref>}}

In December 1946 a former Jedwabne resident whose family died during the pogrom, wrote to the [[Central Committee of Jews in Poland]]⏎

===1949–1950 trials===
{{seealso|People's Republic of Poland}}
After the war, in 1949 and 1950, 22<!--or 23?--> suspects from the town and vicinity were put on trial in Poland, accused of collaborating with the Germans during the pogrom. None of the defendants had a higher education and three were illiterate.{{sfn|Shore|2005}}{{page needed|date=April 2020}} Twelve were convicted of [[treason]] against Poland and one was condemned to death.<ref name="Tomasz Strzembosz">{{cite news(contracted; show full)
* {{cite book| last = Gross | first = Jan T. | authorlink = Jan Tomasz Gross | title = Neighbors: The Destruction of the Jewish Community in Jedwabne, Poland | url = https://archive.org/details/neighbors00jant | url-access = registration | publisher = Princeton University Press| location = Princeton and Oxford |year = 2001 | isbn = 978-0-14-200240-7 |ref=harv}}

* {{cite journal |last1=Gross |first1=Jan T. |title=A Response |journal=Slavic Review |date=Autumn 2002 |volume=61 |issue=3 |pages=483–489 |jstor=3090298 |ref=harv}}⏎
* {{cite book |last=Gross |first=Jan |editor1-last=Polonsky |editor1-first=Antony |editor1-link=Antony Polonsky|editor2-last=Michlic |editor2-first=Joanna B. |editor2-link=Joanna Michlic |title=The Neighbors Respond: The Controversy over the Jedwabne Massacre in Poland |publisher=Princeton University Press | location=Princeton |isbn=978-0-691-11306-7 | pages=344–370 | year=2003 |chapter=Critical Remarks Indeed |ref=harv}}
(contracted; show full)
* {{cite book |last=Kitchen |first=Martin |title=A World in Flames: A Short History of the Second World War |year=1990 |publisher=Longman |location= |isbn=978-0-582-03408-2 |ref=harv}}
⏎
* {{cite book |last1=Kosmala |first1=Beate |authorlink1= | last2=Verbeeck |first2=Georgi |authorlink2= |editor1-last=Kosmala |editor1-first=Beate |editor2-last=Verbeeck |editor2-first=Georgi |editor1-link= |editor2-link= |title=Facing the Catastrophe: Jews and Non-Jews in Europe During World War II |date=2011 |publisher=Berg |location=Oxford and New York|isbn=978-1-84520-471-6 |pages=1–12 |chapter=Introduction|ref=harv}}<!--
* {{cite book |last=Longerich |first=Peter |authorlink=Peter Longerich |year=2010 |title=Holocaust: The Nazi Persecution and Murder of the Jews |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-280436-5 |location=Oxford |ref=harv}}-->
* {{cite book |last1=Lukowski |first1=Jerzy |last2=Zawadzki|first2=Hubert |year=2019 |title=A Concise History of Poland |publisher=Cambridge University Press |edition=Third |location=Cambridge|isbn=978-1-108-42436-3 |ref=harv}}⏎
* {{cite book |editor1-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(contracted; show full)
* {{cite journal | last1=Wróbel| first1=Piotr | title=The Massacre in Jedwabne, July 10, 1941: Before, During, and After| journal=The Sarmatian Review| volume=26| issue=3| url=http://www.ruf.rice.edu/~sarmatia/906/263wrobel.html |pages=1238–1241| year=2006b| ref=harv}}

{{refend}}

==Further reading==
{{Refbegin}}
{{Commons category-inline}}
* Darewicz, Krzysztof (10 March 2001). "We Trusted Each Other: Jedwabne Rabbi Jacob Baker". Trans. Peter K. Gessner. ''Rzeczpospolita''.
* {{cite book | first = Jan T. | last = Gross | title = Sąsiedzi: Historia zagłady żydowskiego miasteczka | language = Polish | year = 2000 | publisher = Pogranicze | location = Sejny | isbn = 978-83-86872-13-8 }}
* {{cite book | last = Gross | first = Jan T. | authorlink =| title = Wokół Sąsiadów. Polemiki i wyjaśnienia | publisher = Pogranicze | language = Polish | location = Sejny | year = 2003 | isbn = 978-83-86872-48-0 }}
* Grünberg, Slawomir (2005). ''The Legacy of Jedwabne''. Spencer, New York: LogTV (documentary)
* {{cite book |title=Poland 1939–1945. Casualties and the Victims of Repressions under the Nazi and the Soviet Occupations |trans-title=Polska 1939–1945. Straty osobowe i ofiary represji pod dwiema okupacjami |last1=Materski |first1=Wojciech |last2=Szarota |first2=Tomasz |author-link2=Tomasz Szarota |year=2009 |publisher=[[Institute of National Remembrance]] |isbn=978-83-7629-067-6* {{cite book |last1=Zbikowski |first1=Andrzej |authorlink1= |editor1-last=Kosmala |editor1-first=Beate |editor2-last=Verbeeck |editor2-first=Georgi |editor1-link= |editor2-link= |title=Facing the Catastrophe: Jews and Non-Jews in Europe During World War II |date=2011 |publisher=Berg |location=Oxford and New York|isbn=978-1-84520-471-6 |pages=41–72 |chapter=Pogroms and Massacres during the Summer of 1941 in the Łomża and Białystok District: The Case of Radziłów |ref=harv}}
{{refend}}

==Further reading==
{{Refbegin}}
{{Commons category-inline}}
* [https://www.polin.pl/en/search?text=Jedwabne Jedwabne], POLIN, Museum of the History of Polish Jews.
* Darewicz, Krzysztof (10 March 2001). "We Trusted Each Other: Jedwabne Rabbi Jacob Baker". Trans. Peter K. Gessner. ''Rzeczpospolita''.
* {{cite book | first = Jan T. | last = Gross | title = Sąsiedzi: Historia zagłady żydowskiego miasteczka | language = Polish | year = 2000 | publisher = Pogranicze | location = Sejny | isbn = 978-83-86872-13-8 |ref=none}}
* {{cite book | last = Gross | first = Jan T. | authorlink =| title = Wokół Sąsiadów. Polemiki i wyjaśnienia | publisher = Pogranicze | language = Polish | location = Sejny | year = 2003 | isbn = 978-83-86872-48-0 }}
* {{cite journal |last1=Gross |first1=Jan T. |title=A Response |journal=Slavic Review |date=Autumn 2002 |volume=61 |issue=3 |pages=483–489 |jstor=3090298 |ref=none}}
* Grünberg, Slawomir (2005). ''The Legacy of Jedwabne''. Spencer, New York: LogTV (documentary).
* {{cite book |last1=Lukowski |first1=Jerzy |last2=Zawadzki|first2=Hubert |year=2019 |title=A Concise History of Poland |publisher=Cambridge University Press |edition=Third |location=Cambridge|isbn=978-1-108-42436-3 |ref=none}}
* {{cite book |title=Poland 1939–1945. Casualties and the Victims of Repressions under the Nazi and the Soviet Occupations |trans-title=Polska 1939–1945. Straty osobowe i ofiary represji pod dwiema okupacjami |last1=Materski |first1=Wojciech |last2=Szarota |first2=Tomasz |author-link2=Tomasz Szarota |year=2009 |publisher=[[Institute of National Remembrance]] |isbn=978-83-7629-067-6|ref=none}}
{{Refend}}

<!--{{Holocaust Poland}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Jedwabne pogrom}}
[[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]]-->