The Neighbors Respond

Antony Polonsky is Albert Abramson Professor of Holocaust Studies at Brandeis University and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. His books include The Great Powers and the Polish Question. Joanna B. Michlic is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the International Institute of Holocaust Research at Yad Vashem, Jerusalem, and the author of Minority as an Enemy (forthcoming).

Neighbors--Jan Gross's stunning account of the brutal mass murder of the Jews of Jedwabne by their Polish neighbors--was met with international critical acclaim and was a finalist for the National Book Award in the United States. It has also been, from the moment of its publication, the occasion of intense controversy and painful reckoning. This book captures some of the most important voices in the ensuing debate, including those of residents of Jedwabne itself as well as those of journalists, intellectuals, politicians, Catholic clergy, and historians both within and well beyond Poland's borders.Antony Polonsky and Joanna Michlic introduce the debate, focusing particularly on how Neighbors rubbed against difficult old and new issues of Polish social memory and national identity. The editors then present a variety of Polish voices grappling with the role of the massacre and of Polish-Jewish relations in Polish history. They include samples of the various strategies used by Polish intellectuals and political elites as they have attempted to deal with their country's dark past, to overcome the legacy of the Holocaust, and to respond to Gross's book.The Neighbors Respond makes the debate over Neighbors available to an English-speaking audience--and is an excellent tool for bringing the discussion into the classroom. It constitutes an engrossing contribution to modern Jewish history, to our understanding of Polish modern history and identity, and to our bank of Holocaust memory.

Jan Gross's revelations about the Jedwabne massacre have shaken Polish public opinion such as no other issue since the fall of communism. Now English-speaking readers will be able to sample the richness and complexity of that discussion. -- Brian Porter, University of Michigan There was a wide range of responses to Jan Gross's Neighbors around the world, for the good reason that the book frankly astonished us when we learned what happened in a tiny Polish village during the Holocaust. Polish citizens murdered their innocent Jewish neighbors in the cold light of day. Reactions to the book in Poland have varied, but in addition to positive accolades, many journalists, clergy, and 'experts' disputed the book's findings and attacked its author. Until this incredibly important volume, most non-Polish speakers have not been able to follow the interesting debates that ensued. This book provides a wealth of information and translates many key Polish reviews and reactions to Neighbors. The editors' scholarship is first-class from beginning to end. There simply is no comparable book. -- Robert Gellately, Earl R. Beck Professor of History, Florida State University

PREFACE xiii INTRODUCTION 1 PART I: THE INITIAL REPORTING INTRODUCTION 47 Andrzej Kaczynski "Burnt Offering," Rzeczpospolita, 5 May 2000 50 Gabriela Szczesna "The Blood of Jedwabne," Kontakty, 7 May 2000 60 Maria Kaczynska "In Memory and Admonition," Gazeta Wspolczesna, 11 July 2000 64 PART II: THE MORAL DEBATE INTRODUCTION 69 Zofia Kossak-Szczucka "Prophecies Are Being Fulfilled," Prawda, May 1942 72 Joanna Tokarska-Bakir "Obsessed with Innocence," Gazeta Wyborcza, 13-14 January 2001 75 Jan Nowak-Jezioranski "A Need for Compensation," Rzeczpospolita, 26 January 2001 87 Antoni Macierewicz "The Revolution of Nihilism," Glos, 3 February 2001 93 Hanna Swida-Ziemba "The Shortsightedness of the 'Cultured,'" Gazeta Wyborcza, 6 April 2001 103 Jerzy Slawomir Mac "Homo Jedvabicus," Wprost, 22 July 2001 114 PART III: OFFICIAL STATEMENTS INTRODUCTION 121 Living in Truth: Special Statement by Prime Minister Jerzy Buzek regarding the Slaughter of Jews in Jedwabne in 1941, April 2001 125 Address Delivered by Wladyslaw Bartoszewski, Polish Minister of Foreign Affairs, Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., 5 April 2001 126 Address by President of Poland Aleksander Kwasniewski at the Ceremonies in Jedwabne Marking the Sixtieth Anniversary of the Jedwabne Tragedy on 10 July 2001 130 Findings of Investigation S 1/00/Zn into the Murder of Polish Citizens of Jewish Origin in the Town of Jedwabne on 10 July 1941, pursuant to Article 1 Point 1 of the Decree of 31 August 1944 133 "Jedwabne-Let Us Be Silent in the Face of This Crime: Piotr Lipinski Talks with Professor Andrzej Rzeplinski," Gazeta Wyborcza, 22 July 2002 137 PART IV: THE DEBATE IN THE CATHOLIC CHURCH INTRODUCTION 147 "A Poor Christian Looks at Jedwabne: Adam Boniecki and Michal Okonski Talk with Archbishop Henryk Muszynski," Tygodnik Powszechny, 25 March 2001 155 Interview with the Primate of Poland, Cardinal Jozef Glemp, on the Murder of Jews in Jedwabne, 15 May 2001 166 Rev. Stanislaw Musial, "We Ask You to Help Us Be Better," Gazeta Wyborcza, 23 May 2001 173 PART V: VOICES OF THE INHABITANTS OF JEDWABNE INTRODUCTION 181 "We Are Different People: A Discussion about Jedwabne in Jedwabne," Wiez, April 2001 186 Marta Kurkowska-Budzan, "My Jedwabne" 200 PART VI: MEMORIES AND METHODOLOGIES: THE HISTORICAL DEBATE INTRODUCTION 209 Tomasz Strzembosz "Collaboration Passed Over in Silence," Rzeczpospolita, 27 January 2001 220 Jerzy Jedlicki "How to Grapple with the Perplexing Legacy," Polityka, 10 February 2001 237 "A Roundtable Discussion: Jedwabne-Crime and Memory," Rzeczpospolita, 3 March 2001 247 Anna Bikont "We of Jedwabne," Gazeta Wyborcza, 23 March 2001 267 Bogdan Musial "The Pogrom in Jedwabne: Critical Remarks about Jan T. Gross's Neighbors" 304 Jan Gross "Critical Remarks Indeed" 344 "Jedwabne without Stereotypes: Agnieszka Sabor and Marek Zajac Talk with Professor Tomasz Szarota," Tygodnik Powszechny, 28 April 2002 371 Dariusz Stola "Jedwabne: How Was It Possible?" 386 PART VII: THE DISCUSSION OUTSIDE POLAND INTRODUCTION 403 David Engel "Introduction to the Hebrew Edition of Neighbors" 408 Israel Gutman "Do the Poor Poles Really Look at the Ghetto? Introduction to Hebrew Edition of Neighbors" 414 Istvan Deak "Heroes and Victims" (Extracts), New York Review of Books, 31 May 2001 421 Richard Lukas "Jedwabne and the Selling of the Holocaust," Polish American Journal, May 2001 430 Adam Michnik "Poles and the Jews: How Deep the Guilt?" New York Times, 17 March 2001 434 Leon Wieseltier and Adam Michnik "Washington Diarist: Righteous" and an Exchange of Letters, New Republic, 9, 17, and 24 April 2001 440 CHRONOLOGY 451 EXPLANATORY NOTES 459 INDEX 471