On July 10, 1941, in the Polish town of Jedwabne, Poles murdered their Jewish neighbors – more than 1,600 men, women, and children. They led them through the streets, abused them, beat them, raped their women and forced them into a large granary. The Poles later set the barn on fire and the Jews, their neighbors, were burned alive. Only seven survived.
This is how the massacre of the Jews of Jedwabne by their Polish neighbors is described in "Neighbors," the important book by researcher Jan T. Gross, published in 2001 and translated into Hebrew. The Jews of this town had long lived in the neighborhood with their future murderers, knew them by their first names, and knew their families. Their children studied with them in the same class at school; their parents shopped in their stores and used their services. But these neighborly relations did not shield Gitele Nadolny, the young daughter of the Jewish teacher in the town and one of the victims of the terrible massacre, who was brutally raped and murdered and her body mutilated by her Polish neighbors.
The massacre of the Jews of Jedwabne is one of the biggest public scandals of post-World War II Poland. For many decades it was said that the Jews of the town were murdered by the Germans, and so it was written on the monument at the site of the massacre. Only in the early 2000s, thanks to this book by Gross, did the Polish government officially admit that the murderers were not Germans, rather, Poles – the neighbors of the Jewish victims.
How easy and simple it is to erase the past. How quickly a terrible stain can be erased, distorted, painted in other, faded, gray, hazy colors that blur the terrible stain. Above all, do not paint it in black and white. And the main guideline: do everything in order to let the mind rest a little, to be quiet, to resolve the annoying discomfort, to reduce the terrible dissonance between truth and lies, between fact and fiction.
The governments of Israel and Poland recently signed an agreement to resume Israeli high school trips to Poland. One of the conditions of the agreement for the renewal of the trips is a visit to one of several Polish national heritage sites that tell the story of the Polish victims during the war who were murdered by the Germans, some also for trying to save Jews from death.
It was not and will not be disputed there were Poles who were murdered by Germans during the Holocaust for the crime of hiding Jews. This was the punishment of those who risked their lives to save a soul in Israel. But these were only a few. Many more Poles collaborated, robbed property, blackmailed, beat, humiliated, raped, and burned Jews alive. Visiting sites that would tell only half the truth and refrain from recounting this terrible fact as well constitutes surrender to and cooperation with a horrible distortion of the past.
The State of Israel must not lend a hand to this. The price will be unbearably heavy. And it is already heavy enough.
In memory of 1,600 Jews of Jedwabne – men, women, and children who were burned alive. And in memory of the six million.
On July 10, 1941, in the Polish town of Jedwabne, Poles murdered their Jewish neighbors – more than 1,600 men, women, and children. They led them through the streets, abused them, beat them, raped their women and forced them into a large granary. The Poles later set the barn on fire and the Jews, their neighbors, were burned alive. Only seven survived.
This is how the massacre of the Jews of Jedwabne by their Polish neighbors is described in "Neighbors," the important book by researcher Jan T. Gross, published in 2001 and translated into Hebrew. The Jews of this town had long lived in the neighborhood with their future murderers, knew them by their first names, and knew their families. Their children studied with them in the same class at school; their parents shopped in their stores and used their services. But these neighborly relations did not shield Gitele Nadolny, the young daughter of the Jewish teacher in the town and one of the victims of the terrible massacre, who was brutally raped and murdered and her body mutilated by her Polish neighbors.
The massacre of the Jews of Jedwabne is one of the biggest public scandals of post-World War II Poland. For many decades it was said that the Jews of the town were murdered by the Germans, and so it was written on the monument at the site of the massacre. Only in the early 2000s, thanks to this book by Gross, did the Polish government officially admit that the murderers were not Germans, rather, Poles – the neighbors of the Jewish victims.
How easy and simple it is to erase the past. How quickly a terrible stain can be erased, distorted, painted in other, faded, gray, hazy colors that blur the terrible stain. Above all, do not paint it in black and white. And the main guideline: do everything in order to let the mind rest a little, to be quiet, to resolve the annoying discomfort, to reduce the terrible dissonance between truth and lies, between fact and fiction.
The governments of Israel and Poland recently signed an agreement to resume Israeli high school trips to Poland. One of the conditions of the agreement for the renewal of the trips is a visit to one of several Polish national heritage sites that tell the story of the Polish victims during the war who were murdered by the Germans, some also for trying to save Jews from death.
It was not and will not be disputed there were Poles who were murdered by Germans during the Holocaust for the crime of hiding Jews. This was the punishment of those who risked their lives to save a soul in Israel. But these were only a few. Many more Poles collaborated, robbed property, blackmailed, beat, humiliated, raped, and burned Jews alive. Visiting sites that would tell only half the truth and refrain from recounting this terrible fact as well constitutes surrender to and cooperation with a horrible distortion of the past.
The State of Israel must not lend a hand to this. The price will be unbearably heavy. And it is already heavy enough.
In memory of 1,600 Jews of Jedwabne – men, women, and children who were burned alive. And in memory of the six million.