Difference between revisions 952616833 and 952751572 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)

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}}
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}}.[[Catholic Church|Catholics]], and opposed the Polish socialist government of [[Józef Piłsudski]] and his successors.{{sfn|Gross|2001|p=39}} Prewar Polish-Jewish relations in Jedwabne were relatively good before 1939.{{sfn|Cienciala|2003|pp=53–54}} At their most tense, when a Jewish woman was killed in the town in 1934 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]] [Soviet secret police] 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 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}}
Between 1935 and 1937, before World War II—as [[antisemitism]] increased in Germany and across [[eastern Europe]]—there were anti-Jewish [[pogrom]]s in about 100 towns in Poland.<ref>{{harvnb|Pohl|2019|pp=20, 32}}; {{harvnb|Gilbert|2004|pp=20–22}}; {{cite news |title=Anti-Semitic rioting spreads in Poland |work=The New York Times |date=16 May 1937 |page=30 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1937/05/16/archives/antisemitic-rioting-spreads-in-poland-building-is-bombed-in.html}}.</ref> [[Martin Gilbert]] writes that "Jews were attacked in the streets, and Jewish houses and shops were broken up and looted."{{sfn|Gilbert|2004|p=20}} Cardinal [[August Hlond]], [[Primate of Poland]], spoke out against the violence in a pastoral letter on 29 February 1936, in which he also stated: "It is true that the Jews are committing frauds, practicing usury, and dealing in white slavery", and that their effect on Catholic youth was "generally evil". Nevertheless, he wrote, to hate and assault them was not permissable.<ref>{{harvnb|Heller|1994|p=113}}; {{harvnb|Gilbert|2004|pp=20–21}}.</ref> There were more pogroms between April and June 1938, beginning in [[Dąbrowa Tarnowska]] on 15 April, one month after [[Anschluss]], Germany's annexation of Austria.{{sfn|Gilbert|2004|p=22}}

Between the German occupation of Poland in June 1941 and mid-September that year,{{sfn|Kosmala|Verbeeck|2011|p=5}} Polish villagers participated in pogroms against Jews in 23 locations in the [[Łomża]] and [[Białystok]] areas of the [[Podlasie]] region, northeast Poland.<ref name=Polinpogroms/> On 5 July 1941, during the [[Wąsosz pogrom]], Polish residents knifed and beat to death about 150–250 Jews. During the [[Radziłów pogrom]] 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. 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> 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 name=Polinpogroms>{{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> 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===
(contracted; show full)
* {{cite book |last1=Crago |first1=Laura |editor1-last=Megargee | editor1-first=Geoffrey P. |editor2-last=Dean |editor2-first=Martin |title=Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos, 1933–1945 |title-link=Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos, 1933–1945 | date=2012 |publisher=United States Holocaust Memorial Museum |location=Bloomington and Indianapolis |volume=IIA |isbn= 978-0-253-35328-3 |pages=899–902 |ref=harv |chapter=Jedwabne}}

: {{cite book |last=Gilbert |first=Martin |authorlink=Martin Gilbert |year=2004 |orig-year=1982 |title=The Routledge Atlas of the Holocaust |edition=Third |location=London |publisher=Routledge |isbn=0-415-28145-8 |ref=harv }}⏎
* {{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 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}}
* {{cite book|last=Heller |first=Celia Stopnicka |authorlink=Celia Stopnicka Heller |title = On the Edge of Destruction: Jews of Poland Between the Two World Wars|publisher = Wayne State University Press|location=Detroit |year=1994 |isbn=0-8143-2494-0 |ref=harv}}⏎
* {{cite journal |last1=Holc |first1=Janine P. |title=Working through Jan Gross's ''Neighbors'' |journal=Slavic Review |date=Autumn 2002 |volume=61 |issue=3 |page=454 |jstor=3090294 |ref=harv}}
* {{cite journal |last1=Holc |first1=Janine P. |title=''The Massacre in Jedwabne, July 10, 1941: Before, During, After''. By Marek Jan Chodakiewicz |journal=Slavic Review |date=Spring 2008 |volume=67 |issue=1 |pages=202–203 |doi=10.2307/27652785 |ref=harv}}
(contracted; show full)
* {{cite book |last1=Pinchuk |first1=Ben-Cion |editor1-last=Zimmerman |editor1-first=Joshua D. |editor1-link=Joshua D. Zimmerman |title=Contested Memories: Poles and Jews during the Holocaust and Its Aftermath |date=2003 |publisher=Rutgers University Press |location=New Brunswick |isbn=978-0813531588 |pages=61–68 |ref=harv |chapter=Facing Hitler and Stalin: On the Subject of Jewish 'Collaboration' in Soviet-Occupied Eastern Poland, 1939–1941}}-->

* {{cite book |last1=Pohl |first1=Dieter |editor1-last=Bajohr |editor1-first=Frank |editor2-last=Pohl |editor2-first=Dieter |title=Right-Wing Politics and the Rise of Antisemitism in Europe 1935–1941 |date=2019 |publisher=Wallstein Verlag |location=Göttingen |pages=19–38 |isbn=9783835333475| chapter=Right-wing Politics and Antisemitism in Europe, 1935–1940: A Survey |ref=harv}}⏎
* {{cite journal|last=Polak|first=Joseph A. |title=Exhuming Their Neighbors: A Halakhic Inquiry|journal=Tradition: A Journal of Orthodox Jewish Thought|volume=35|number=4|date=Winter 2001|pages=23–43|jstor=23262406|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]]-->