A discussion of Neighbors, organized by Professor Jerzy Jedlicki, was held at the Historical Institute of the Polish Academy of Sciences on November 24, the day before Jan T. Gross's polemical article was printed in Gazeta Wyborcza. I delivered the introductory remarks. After sketching the history of falsification and the road to the truth about Jedwabne, I shared four observations with the audience of almost 150:
I participated in an earlier meeting held on May 19 in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs
palace on Foksal street. There were a dozen or more people there, including Professors
Jerzy Holzer, Tomasz Strzembosz, Jerzy Tomaszewski, and Feliks Tych. Almost all of them
had something to say about the "Jedwabne affair." It is significant that, in his
polemic with me, Gross summarizes only one set of remarks, those of Waldemar Monkiewicz,
while passing over all the others in silence. I had already familiarized myself with Neighbors.
I have in my hand the official minutes of that meeting. Those minutes contain a summary of
my remarks: "The time has come to begin speaking openly about these events...
Professor Tomasz Szarota stated that the worst way for the Polish authorities and public
opinion to react would be any possible attempt at undercutting in a basic way the
credibility of the account presented in Professor Gross's book or at redirecting the
discussion towards a search for alleged instigators or beneficiaries of an 'anti-Polish
campaign'."
The name of Waldemar Monkiewicz appears frequently in the polemic with me. This man has
published several texts (I know of five) on the crime in Jedwabne. Gross says, "I did
not come upon Monkiewicz's texts before writing 'Neighbors'-not that I regret this."
Whether Gross likes it or not, Monkiewicz's texts are part of the "literature"
on the subject, and it is the duty of a researcher to become familiar with that literature
first, and only then to pronounce his verdict, even if that verdict is one of
disqualification. Monkiewicz consistently insists that the crime in Jedwabne was carried
out by the Germans with only minimal involvement by the local Polish population. Gross, on
the other hand, states that nothing certain can be said about German participation,
rejecting any information about the presence there on that day of any more than a dozen or
so ethnic Germans, and charges the conscience of the Polish population of Jedwabne with
the crime. My position is completely unequivocal: I think that, in terms of the
perpetrators, Gross is right, not Monkiewicz.
Gross writes, "Szarota should already have been aware that Monkiewicz had nothing to
say about what happened in Jedwabne, and was only presenting his own deductions."
Somewhat earlier, he chided me-deservedly so in this instance: "Szarota erroneously
identifies Monkiewicz as the prosecutor at the 1949 Łomża trial." Indeed, I made a
mistake. I repeated this information from an article titled ...Aby żyć [To
Survive], by Danuta and Aleksander Wroniszewski, in the Łomża weekly Kontakty (July 10,
1988).
The only reason that I refer to Monkiewicz is that he writes about the activities of the two [German] police battalions, no. 309 and no. 316, in the Białystok region, about the [German] Kommando Bialystok that committed murder in the region, and about its commander, the Warsaw Gestapo functionary Wolfgang Birkner. Reserve Police Battalion no. 309 was commanded by Major Weiss. In Christopher R. Browning's book "Ordinary Men," recently published in Poland, we learn that "After entering Białystok on June 27, Major Weiss ordered his battalion to comb the Jewish district and apprehend all the men... The operation began like a pogrom. Jews were beaten and humiliated, their beards were set alight, and they were shot at as the police led them to the town square or the synagogue... The pacification, which began as a pogrom, quickly turned into a more systematic mass execution. The Jews were crowded into the town square and then forced to the park, lined up against a wall, and shot. The murdering went on until dusk. The entrance to the synagogue, in which at least 700 Jews were shut up, was doused with gasoline... It is assumed that between 2,000 and 2,200 Jews died that day." There is not a word in Jan T. Gross's book about the crime committed by German hands in Białystok thirteen days before the crime in Jedwabne, although the analogy of burning Jews in a synagogue and in a barn (as in Jedwabne and Radziłów) ought to occur to a researcher.
* * *
Let us now take up Wolfgang Birkner. Although I gave his SS rank, Hauptsturmführer
(the equivalent of captain) in the interview by Jacek Żakowski, he is still "someone
called Birkner"-as if he were a figment of the imagination of Waldemar Monkiewicz -
for my polemical adversary Gross. In The Warsaw Ring of Death Władysław
Bartoszewski identifies Birkner as a functionary of the Warsaw Gestapo, assigned to
Department IV A 4 (personal security), and also to Special Department IV N (information
gathering). A few days ago, I learned that that same Wolfgang Birkner had responsibility
within the Gestapo for overseeing the activities of one of the most mysterious Polish
underground organizations, Miecz i Pług (The Sword and the Plow). It can therefore be
assumed that he was an eminent specialist in the mounting of agent provocateur operations.
Far be it from me to say that Birkner had anything certain to do with the events in
Jedwabne and Radziłów. It is enough that he may have poked his finger in, even if he did
not participate personally. He was a prime example of the "murderer from behind a
desk."
Gross writes, "I cannot understand why Szarota is 'not yet able, as a historian, to
confirm the information provided by Monkiewicz.' All the more so, since Szarota met
Monkiewicz personally." My reply is simple: to date, Waldemar Monkiewicz has never
revealed where he got his information about the participation of Kommando Bialystok in the
Jedwabne murder, where he came across the name of Wolfgang Birkner, or on what basis he
states that trucks carrying 232 German police arrived in Jedwabne on July 10, 1941. I
believe that I am not the only one who would want to know these things, and I cannot
imagine how he can continue to remain silent on this subject.
* * *
Were Germans the instigators of the murder by Poles of their Jewish neighbors in Jedwabne on July 10, 1941? Today, in our present state of knowledge, this is a question we are unable to answer. Even if it turns out that it was the Germans who suggested the idea of burning the Jews in a barn and who ensured that the perpetrators would not be punished, this does not diminish the guilt of those who committed this savage crime. In such a case, however, the events in Jedwabne should be listed among the well-organized operations of the Nazi Einsatzgruppen, Einsatzkommandos, and Sonderkommandos referred to in the relevant orders as Selbstreinigungsaktionen, or "self-purification operations." In short, the idea was to provoke anti-Jewish pogroms in the occupied territory in the East "without leaving any traces" of German involvement. I describe this mechanism in detail with reference to the case of Kaunas in my book U progu zagłady (On the Threshold of Destruction). This does not mean that there were no instances of pogroms erupting spontaneously, before the Germans arrived. However, Jedwabne was already under German occupation on July 10, 1941. Analogies may be sought between the course of events in Jedwabne and in Kaunas. Similarly, should any involvement of Wolfgang Birkner in the preparation of the Jedwabne crime be proven, this would indicate that German involvement was greater than Gross supposes. The responsibilities of a researcher also include checking out such leads.
In engaging in a discussion with Jacek Żakowski, I was not acting as a reviewer of Professor Jan T. Gross's book, despite the fact that, on several occasions, he refers to me as such in his polemical fervor. I was to write a long review of Neighbors for Biuletyn ŻIH The Bulletin of the (Jewish Historical Institute). However, I shall not be writing the review. In contrast to Professor Gross, I do not feel that we know today everything there is to know about the events in Jedwabne. He understands exactly what happened there, and why, on that nightmarish Thursday, July 10, 1941-but I do not! Not yet. I am waiting for confirmation of reports that persons freed from the prison in Łomża returned to Jedwabne before the pogrom. I am waiting for the results of archival searches that must be carried out in Ludwigsburg, Potsdam, and Berlin. Finally, I am waiting for the results-unfortunately delayed-of the investigation being conducted since September by the Institute of National Remembrance.
P.S. I must candidly admit to the participants in the meeting at which Professor Gross was present at the Tadeusz Manteuffel Historical Institute, where I have worked for 38 years, that it was one of the most unpleasant experiences in my life. However, the meeting enriched my knowledge of human nature. In some, I discerned boastfulness, gall, the irresponsible use of words, bloody-mindedness, and deep-seated resentments, and in others a lack of loyalty and civil courage. I shall long remember this lesson.