Difference between revisions 953320095 and 953541762 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)ility 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 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 of Jedwabne was around 2,720 to 2,800.{{sfn|Cienciala|2003|p=52}} (AtIn the time about 101931 census, 9.8 percent of Poland's population, ofr 35 million was,114,000, said they were Jewish; it was the largest Jewish population in the world outside the United States.){{sefn|Cienciala[[Antony Polonsky]] (2002): "According to the Polish census of 1931, 3,114,000 people declared they were of the 'Mosaic persuasion,' making up 9.8 percent of the population. In 1921, there were 4.5 million Jews in the United States out of a total population of 115 million."{{sfn|Polonsky|20031|p=55405}}}}

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 [[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(contracted; show full)[[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 "According to [[NKVD]] [(Soviet secret police]) documents on the situation inabout Jedwabne and in the Lomza-Bialystok region in general, show that surrounding area, "few Jews were involved as agents and informers, fewer in fact than Poles.", she writes.{{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 Ge(contracted; show full)

===Survivors===
[[File:School children and their teachers, Jedwabne, 1933.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
, from second left: Szmul Wasersztajn (who gave a statement in 1945); third, Mosze Olszewicz;, and fourth, Jankiel Kubrzański.{{sfn|Bikont|2015|p=246}}]]

Between 100 and 125 Jews who escaped the pogrom lived in an open ghetto in Jedwabne before being transferred to the Łomża ghetto in November 1942. Several escaped to other towns.{{sfn|Chodakiewicz|2005|p=88}} In November 1942, when the Germans began putting ghetto inmates on trains to the [[Auschwitz concentration camp]] for extermination, seven of them—Moshe Olszewicz, his wife, Lea, and his brother, Dov; Lea and Jacob Kubran; Józef Grądowski; and Szmul Wase(contracted; show full)
{{Main|Neighbors: The Destruction of the Jewish Community in Jedwabne, Poland}}
[[File:Jan Tomasz Gross.png|thumb|[[Jan T. Gross]], 2019]]
[[Jan T. Gross]]'s book ''Sąsiedzi: Historia zagłady żydowskiego miasteczka'' ("Neighbors: The Story of the Annihilation of a Jewish Town") caused a "moral earthquake" when it was published in Poland in May 2000, according to [[Piotr Wróbel]].{{sfn|Wróbel|2006a|p=387}} 
[[Adam Michnik]], editor-in-chief of the Polish newspaper ''[[Gazeta Wyborcza]]'', wrote in March 2001 that the book "was a terrible shock. It is difficult to describe the extent of this shock."<ref name=Michnik17March2001>{{cite news |last1=Michnik |first1=Adam |authorlink1=Adam Michnik |title=Poles and the Jews: How Deep the Guilt? |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2001/03/17/arts/poles-and-the-jews-how-deep-the-guilt.html |work=The New York Times |date=17 March 2001 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20200425220118/https://www.nytimes.com/2001/03/17/arts/poles-and-the-jews-how-deep-the-guilt.html |archivedate=25 April 2020|url-status=live}}</ref> The book appeared in English, German and Hebrew within the year. In English it was published in April 2001 by [[Princeton University Press]] as ''Neighbors: The Destruction of the Jewish Community in Jedwabne, Poland''.{{sfn|Stola|2003|p=139}}

Writing that "one day, in July 1941, half of the population of a small East European town murdered the other half—some 1,600 men, women and children", Gross concluded that the Jedwabne Jews had been rounded up and killed by a mob of their own Polish neighbors.{{sfn|Gross|2001|p=7}} This ran contrary to Poland's official account that they had been killed by Germans.<ref name=Kauffmann19Dec2002>{{cite news|first=Sylvie |last=Kauffmann |url=https://www.theguardian.com/education/2002/dec/19/highereducation.news |title=Poland faces up to the horror of its own role in the Holocaust|newspaper=The Guardian |date= 19 December 2002}}</ref> Political scientist Michael Shafir writes that the pogrom had been "subjected to confinement in the Communist 'black hole of history'".{{sfn|Shafir|2012|p=23}} While Gross recognized that no "sustained organizing activity" could have taken place without the Germans' consent,{{sfn|Gross|2001|p=47}} he concluded that the massacre had been carried out entirely by Poles from Jedwabne and the surrounding area, and that the Germans had not coerced them.{{sfn|Kuhiwczak|2002|p=202}}

Gross's sources were Szmul Wasersztajn's 1945 witness statement from the [[Jewish Historical Institute]]; witness statements and other trial records from the 1949–1950 trials; the ''Yedwabne: History and Memorial Book'' (1980), written by Jedwabne residents who had moved to the United States;<ref>{{harvnb|Holc|2002|p=3}}; {{harvnb|Musial|2003|pp=304, 316}}.</ref> and interviews from the 1990s conducted by Gross and a filmmaker.{{sfn|Wróbel|2006a|p=391}} While several Polish historians praised Gross for having drawn attention to the pogrom, others criticized him for relying too heavily on witness accounts, which they argued were not reliable, and—where conflicting accounts existed—for choosing those that showed the Poles in the worst possible light.<ref>{{harvnb|Chodakiewicz|2001}}; Writing that "one day, in July 1941, half of the population of a small East European town murdered the other half—some 1,600 men, women and children", Gross concluded that the Jedwabne Jews had been rounded up and killed by a mob of their own Polish neighbors.{{sfn|Gross|2001|p=7}} While recognizing that no "sustained organizing activity" could have taken place without the Germans' consent,{{sfn|Gross|2001|p=47}} he concluded that the massacre had been carried out entirely by Poles from Jedwabne and the surrounding area, and that the Germans had not coerced them.{{sfn|Kuhiwczak|2002|p=202}} This ran contrary to Poland's official account.<ref name=Kauffmann19Dec2002>{{cite news|first=Sylvie |last=Kauffmann |url=https://www.theguardian.com/education/2002/dec/19/highereducation.news |title=Poland faces up to the horror of its own role in the Holocaust|newspaper=The Guardian |date= 19 December 2002}}</ref><!--Political scientist Michael Shafir writes that the pogrom had been "subjected to confinement in the Communist 'black hole of history'".{{sfn|Shafir|2012|p=23}}-->

[[Adam Michnik]], editor-in-chief of the Polish newspaper ''[[Gazeta Wyborcza]]'', wrote in March 2001 that the book "was a terrible shock. It is difficult to describe the extent of this shock."<ref name=Michnik17March2001>{{cite news |last1=Michnik |first1=Adam |authorlink1=Adam Michnik |title=Poles and the Jews: How Deep the Guilt? |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2001/03/17/arts/poles-and-the-jews-how-deep-the-guilt.html |work=The New York Times |date=17 March 2001 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20200425220118/https://www.nytimes.com/2001/03/17/arts/poles-and-the-jews-how-deep-the-guilt.html |archivedate=25 April 2020|url-status=live}}</ref> The book appeared in English, German and Hebrew within the year. In English it was published in April 2001 by [[Princeton University Press]] as ''Neighbors: The Destruction of the Jewish Community in Jedwabne, Poland''.{{sfn|Stola|2003|p=139}}

Gross's sources were Szmul Wasersztajn's 1945 witness statement from the [[Jewish Historical Institute]]; witness statements from the 1949–1950 trials; letters of appeal from the accused to the Ministry of Justice and the president;{{u|Kuhiwczak|2002|p=201}} the ''Yedwabne: History and Memorial Book'' (1980), written by Jedwabne residents who had moved to the United States;<ref>{{harvnb|Holc|2002|p=3}}; {{harvnb|Musial|2003|pp=304, 316}}.</ref> and interviews from the 1990s conducted by Gross and a filmmaker.{{sfn|Wróbel|2006a|p=391}} While several Polish historians praised Gross for having drawn attention to the pogrom, others criticized him for relying too heavily on witness accounts, which they argued were not reliable, and—where conflicting accounts existed—for choosing those that showed the Poles in the worst possible light.<ref>{{harvnb|Musial|2003|pp=323–324; 334}}; for not reliable, also see {{harvnb|Wróbel|2006a|p=391}}.</ref> He was also criticized for having failed to examine the pogrom within the context of German actions during the early stages of [[the Holocaust]].{{sfn|Rossino|2003}} According to [[Dan Stone (historian)|Dan Stone]], "some historians sought to dispute the fundamentals of Gross's findings by massive attention to minute details, burying the wider picture under a pile of supposed inaccuracies&(contracted; show full)
* {{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}}
* {{cite book| first = Marek Jan | last = Chodakiewicz | authorlink = book| first = Marek Jan | last = Chodakiewicz | authorlink=Marek Jan Chodakiewicz| title=The Massacre in Jedwabne, July 10, 1941: Before, During, After | publisher=East European Monographs, distributed by Columbia University Press |location=Boulder, CO| year=2005 | isbn=978-0-88033-554-6 |ref=harv}}
(contracted; show full)
* {{cite journal |last1=Kuhiwczak |first1=Piotr |title=Buried in Translation |journal=The Cambridge Quarterly |date=2002 |volume=31 |issue=3 |pages=199–211 |jstor=42967803 
|doi=10.1093/camqtly/31.3.199 |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}}-->
(contracted; show full)
* {{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}}
* {{cite journal |last1=Polonsky |first1=Ant
hony |author-link=Anthony Polonsky |title=What made the massacre at Jedwabne possible? |journal=The Polish Review |date=2001 |volume=46 |issue=4 |pages=403–417 |doi=x |jstor=jstor=25779291 |ref=harv}}
* {{cite book |editor1-first=Antony |editor1-last=Polonsky |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 |date=2003 |publisher=Princeton University Press |location=Princeton and Oxford |isbn=0-691-11306-8|ref=harv}}
* {{cite book |editor1-last=Polonsky |editor1-first=Antony |editor2-last=Michlic |editor2-first=Joanna B. |editor1-link=Antony Polonsky |editor2-link=Joanna Michlic |title=The Neighbors Respond: The Controversy over the Jedwabne Massacre in Poland |date=2003 |publisher=Princeton University Press |location=Princeton and Oxford |isbn=0-691-11306-8 |pages=451–458 |chapter=Chronology |ref=harv}}<!--
* {{cite book |last=Raack |first=Richard |author-link= |title=Stalin's Drive to the West, 1938–1945: The Origins of the Cold War |year=1995 |publisher=Stanford University Press |location=Stanford |isbn=978-0-8047-2415-9 |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]]-->