Yesterday, July 10, was the fifty-ninth anniversary of the extermination of the
Jedwabne Jews. Many visited the site of the mass murder and burial of about 1,600 people,
although no one officially announced the commemoration. This case represents one of the
blackest pages in the contemporary history not only of the region but also of Poland.
The local Jewish community of Jedwabne, consisting of some 1,600 people, was ruthlessly
exterminated on July 10, 1941. A commemorative boulder was placed at the site of the
killing and mass burial of the victims in the 1960s. It states that the Gestapo carried
out the murder.
For several months, publications have been appearing that state unequivocally that the
German occupation forces were only observers, and that the then mayor of Jedwabne at the
time and his aides initiated the pogrom, with perpetrators coming from the ranks of those
living in the town or nearby.
Recently, an account by one of the Jewish survivors was published along with documents
from the 1949 Łomża trial of the Jedwabne murderers. From these sources, it transpires
that in July 1941, men, women and even children were dragged from their homes and killed
with clubs, axes and knives. Most of them, over a thousand, were herded into a barn
outside of town and burned alive there.
Yesterday, about 20 people from Jedwabne and nearby villages came to the site of the
massacre and the grave. Some brought memorial candles.
"We've been coming here for three years now and we light small candles", says
an elderly woman from Jedwabne who was eight years old on July 10, 1941. "The girls I
played with as a child and their parents are buried here. They all died in the barn".
The woman states that she knows how the tragedy occurred, for she was standing about
twenty meters from the blazing barn. Earlier on, she saw how people were dragged out of
their homes in town. She also saw the murderers, but will not say who they were. She
refuses to give her own name or to agree to meet a reporter for an interview.
"Let the truth be found by those whose duty it is. I'm scared," she says,
breaking off and wiping her eyes.
"There are no words for this", says 74-year-old Leon Dziedzic from
Przestrzele. Several days after the crime, he was picked by the Germans to gather up the
remains of the murdered Jews.
"We used rakes to push the piles of corpses into a great ditch dug along the north
wall of the barn. I recognized people I knew", he says.
Jedwabne mayor Krzysztof Godlewski and the town and district council chairman Stanisław
Michałowski came to the monument yesterday before noon. They brought a mourning wreath
with a ribbon decorated with the words: "For the murdered Jedwabne residents of
Jewish nationality - in memory and admonition - society." They placed it at the foot
of the boulder.
"If it is confirmed that the truth is different from what is inscribed on the plaque,
then it should be changed", said Godlewski, surprised by the presence of the group of
local residents, journalists and a crew from Polish national television.
In the Mayor's opinion, recent publications on the murder have a sensational tone and
should not be given full credence.
"An investigation should be conducted and the truth should be established, one which
all will adhere to," said Godlewski. "We cannot allow the new monument to divide
people. This monument should unify and not divide. It should be a warning for the
future."
"We've been stuck with the reputation of a criminal town," added council
chairman Michałowski. "This is unfair. As in every community, various sorts of
people lived here. It's necessary to differentiate the criminals from the normal people -
this was just as much a tragedy for the latter as for those murdered."
As Krystyna Michalczyk-Kondratowicz, regional prosecutor in Łomża informed us
yesterday, the case has provoked interest from the Main Commission for the
Investigation of Crimes against the Polish Nation, now being transformed into the Institute of National Remembrance.
"The former head of the commission, professor Kulesza, has asked us to question one
of the witnesses. Two weeks ago, one of my prosecutors questioned that person,"
Kondratowicz said. "I don't know what stage the present case is at, however. Most
likely, the investigation hasn't started because of the reorganization of the
Institute."
Yesterday we were unable to contact the Institute of National Remembrance.