Participants in the discussion held at the Municipal Offices in Jedwabne on February
22, 2001:
Krzysztof Godlewski, mayor,
Stanisław Michałowski, chairman of the town council,
Father Edward Orłowski, parish priest,
Stanisław Przechodzki, director of the Łomża branch of the Podlasie Public Health
Center,
Senator Stanisław Marczuk, chairman of the Białystok chapter of Solidarność from
1981 to 1991,
Więź editors - Jacek Borkowicz, Father Michał Czajkowski (co-chairman of the
Polish Council of Christians and Jews) and Zbigniew Nosowski.
Zbigniew Nosowski: We have come together to talk about how to deal with memories of the tragic events that took place here 60 years ago.
Krzysztof Godlewski: In broad terms, the entire "Jedwabne case" has two aspects, a moral one and a political one. Both of these aspects constantly permeate each other and mingle in discussions on this subject. For several months, we have been playing host to a series of journalists. Some of them have come to us in order to learn the truth, whilst others have come in order to write a sensationalist article. Articles like that cast a very unfavorable light on the entire debate surrounding Jedwabne. The first question on the list is: How many people died and where did they die, and was this possible? Only at the end of the list do the murdered people themselves appear. A game of numbers begins: Did 500 people die, or 1,600? The tragedy is becoming a game in the hands of the media and politicians.
Stanisław Przechodzki: Some people are trying to profit from this tragedy. The
tragedy of people-the tragedy of those who died then, the tragedy of those who were
guilty, and the tragedy of those who are still alive today-somehow gets lost in the rush
of words. Jedwabne is a small place, everyone here knows everyone else, and the tragedy
concerns everyone. Arguments are revived, and both anti-Semitic voices and voices accusing
the Poles are being heard again. No one should be written off. Those who might think in an
untruthful way today, but who follow their own consciences and believe what they are
saying, might change someday.
There is no anti-Semitism in Jedwabne. I say so with full deliberation. I have encountered
symptoms of anti-Semitism in larger towns. But simple people live here. Nevertheless,
certain anti-Jewish elements remain inside them, shaped by the history of the
inter-war period or the war itself. But this is not the aggressive anti-Semitism that can
be found among certain political groups or in some newspapers.
Jacek Borkowicz: How did the people here remember the events of July 1941 before May last year, in other words before the appearance of Andrzej Kaczyński's article "Burning Alive," which sparked off a series of publications about the massacre?
Stanisław Przechodzki: I am, and I feel myself to be a Jedwabne man, though I have
been living in Łomża for a dozen years or so. My forebears settled here. My family lived
right on the town square. My parents told me about the events when I was still a boy. I
did not find them all that interesting. For most young people here, they were so remote
that they seemed to have occurred hundreds of years ago. They were in the past, and that
was that. In any case, our parents did not want to tell us everything; they did not want
to damage us emotionally. We used to go to the so-called "tombs," that is, the
Jewish cemetery, and our parents shouted at us whenever we gathered nuts there. We did not
realize what we were doing, though we knew that beside the cemetery there was a barn in
which the Jews were burned.
Only later, when I visited Jedwabne as a student, did the time come to read up on the
subject and reflect upon it. That was when I discovered a few more details. Towards the
end of my mother's life I knew much more, but I still did not know all the details which I
read about in Gross's book. However, I know a lot of details which do not appear there.
But they make no difference to the letter and spirit of that book.
Stanisław Michałowski: I, too, was born here. My family has lived in Jedwabne for three generations. When I was eight, I witnessed a conversation between people who had taken direct part in the massacre. Names were mentioned, details given. I did not identify myself with the events. I did not comprehend them. Years later, a very clear memory of what I once heard came back to me. The words I heard have a completely different dimension today.
Stanisław Przechodzki: Those who live here and come from here will never be the
same people that they were a year ago. Even at home, among my family, I feel
different than the way I felt last year, even though I am not to blame for what happened
60 years ago. The Jedwabne that existed before May 2000 is gone.
The people of Jedwabne are in for a difficult task. They will have to accept the truth of
the events which, though they happened in the distant past, are nevertheless a tragedy
that is very close to them today. But before that, they will have to prepare themselves by
undergoing an internal mental change.
One must remember that the overwhelming majority of the population here consists of
ordinary people. They are no better and no worse than the inhabitants of many Polish
towns. It is a downright lie to portray them in some publications as simple peasant folk
who do not read and who live in a village dominated by the all-encompassing weight of the
church.
Zbigniew Nosowski: When you said, "We will never be the same again," everyone nodded in agreement. What has changed?
Stanisław Przechodzki: Most of all, Jedwabne is no longer just another Polish
town, one of thousands. One can say without exaggeration that we are now on the lips of
the world. That creates a very onerous psychological burden. The people of Jedwabne now
have to consider how much they are capable of changing and what sort of truth they should
accept. Can we stand up to the things that will surely happen over the next few months? In
some people, knowledge of the tragedy, even though it happened so long ago, still rouses
misgivings. They try to interpret them in their own way - not always in accordance with
the truth - with the intention of protecting their families. These people will find it
difficult to change and to accept the fact that certain events are irreversible. One
always tries to seek an excuse.
But there is no excuse for what happened on July 10, 1941, never mind how difficult the
period of Soviet occupation was. My parents and sister were on the deportation list, but
at the very last moment, on June 20, 1941, they were warned about this and hid in the
forest. Specific individuals and the entire Soviet system are responsible for the tragedy
of the people who were deported from this area and mistreated. We know that in those areas
where Russians were not the dominant ethnic group, the Bolsheviks systematically
recruited, first of all, members of ethnic minorities for the NKVD. The reason was clear.
Should it be necessary to disclose the crime, the minority could always be blamed. For
instance, in the days of Dzerzhinsky, the second largest ethnic group among the Chekhists-after the
Russians-was the Poles. A similar mechanism was applied to the Jews. I do not know how
many Jewish Soviet militiamen there were in Jedwabne, and how many Jewish informers.
Perhaps a few, perhaps over a dozen. But all the rest of the Jews were poor, simple
people. We do not suspect that a list of Poles to be deported was prepared in every Jewish
household, just as we do not suspect that every Polish household thought about how
liquidate the Jews.
After reading some articles, one might get the impression that eastern Poland in the
period 1939-1941 was under Jewish occupation, and not Soviet occupation. I did not think
it possible to alter history so much in the space of a few months.
Stanisław Michałowski: My parents were deported. These days, people say that the Jews handed Poles over to the NKVD, but my family, unfortunately, was handed over by a neighbor, a Pole. What's more, after my father had been deported (he was taken at night, one of the first to go), the Russians came the next morning, threw everything out, drove us out of the house, and ordered us not to enter the property. They were accompanied by another neighbor, also a Pole.
Stanisław Przechodzki: One cannot blame the entire Jewish community of Jedwabne
for the deeds of a few Jews during the Soviet terror. Yet the same applies to those who
took part in the crime of July 10. This was a not an entire "society," as Jan T.
Gross says in Neighbors [in the Polish edition, Gross writes that the crime was
committed by "society," and in the American edition by the "neighbors"
of the Jedwabne Jews - trans.]. They were just individuals, perhaps several dozen of them,
perhaps more, perhaps fewer. Of course, in a certain sense, the remainder are also
responsible. They may not quite have been capable of preventing it, may not have done all
they could have done, or did not offer shelter.
But generally, after 60 years, it is difficult to judge the acts of our parents and
grandparents. The situation was different then. One occupation had passed, and another was
beginning. No one knew what Nazism would bring, so the German forces received a warm
welcome in many places. They were treated as liberators from Soviet occupation.
Stanisław Michałowski: What happened in July 1941 is regrettable, but undeniable.
In a certain sense, it also concerns me, and I too bear moral responsibility, even though
I am in a "comfortable" situation arising from the fact that my family was
neither directly nor indirectly involved in those events.
I feel very sorry to say this, but I think the Poles played a certain part in the
atrocity. But on the other hand, I do not agree that the involvement of the Germans was
marginal, or even non-existent. Even Professor Gross has written in his book that were it
not for Hitler and the war, the atrocity would never have happened. The Germans organized
everything. There was a group of people, 92 of them, whose names and addresses are known,
who came out onto the square to guard the Jews who were under escort. Most of these
people were acting under pressure, they were in the pillory [the speaker may mean "in
the yoke" - ed.]. One wonders what would have happened to them if they had refused to
come. Could they have helped? I suspect not. The element of fear which paralyzed the Jews
also affected the Poles in a certain sense. There was a group of some thirty persons whose
participation in the crime is irrefutable and-to be honest-was ruthless. They included
people known for an inclination to hooliganism and banditry before the war.
I grieve over what happened-and in our own town at that. But I have never agreed, and
still do not agree, with attempts to implicate the whole town in this business. One should
not apply collective responsibility. Over 95 percent of Jedwabne's present population came
here after the war. These people have no connection with the events of summer 1941.
Father Edward Orłowski: At this point I would like to correct a certain
distortion in Gross's book. He writes that, when they sensed danger, the Jews of Jedwabne
asked the bishop in Łomża to shelter them. They were supposed to have offered him silver
candlesticks in return for this help. The bishop supposedly kept his word, but only
"for a while." His appeal to the Germans proved to be of no avail and he did not
prevent the massacre.
Well, nothing of the sort happened. When the occupation came [in 1939 - ed.] and Poland
was divided up, the bishops went their separate ways. The auxiliary bishop went to live in
Ostrów Mazowiecka, under German occupation, while Bishop Stanisław Łukomski hid from
the Soviets in Kulesze Kościelne. He returned to Łomża on July 8 or 9, just before the
Jedwabne murders, but he did not actually take up office until August, because the
vicarage and bishop's palace had been commandeered by German troops. It would have been
practically impossible for Jedwabne Jews, under conditions of wartime isolation, to have
contacted the bishop before July 10.
Father Michał Czajkowski: Mr. Przechodzki said: "Accept the truth." Jesus said that the truth shall make us free. The quicker we accept the truth, the sooner we will be liberated from this nightmare. You will be different, but the important thing is, how? Does change mean an apologetic attitude, a closing of your eyes to the truth-or does it mean liberation, which brings with it the courage of acceptance? The good must be given a chance, so that the world does not associate Jedwabne solely with the evil that happened here.
Krzysztof Godlewski: One could accept the truth if only we knew it in full.
For instance, if the exact number of Jews were established. But that unfortunate number of
1,600 Jews has been pulled out of a hat!
We want to bring this issue to a close, although it has gotten too big for me, as it has
for some others among us. Whatever I say anything on this subject, I offend someone's
sense of what is sacred. Are we still the "royal Piast tribe"
that we are proud of being? I was brought up on Mickiewicz, on the song of
the Pierwsza Brygada [First Brigade]. My father
was in the Home Army, and did time in Wronki prison. When I ask
such questions, I enter unwillingly into a conflict with my own father.
Zbigniew Nosowski: The Pope talks of an examination of conscience by the Church, for in the Church there is a link between present and past generations. We bear all the good, and also all the evil previously done in the name of the Church. I think one can view the nation in a similar way-after all, this concept also possesses a spiritual dimension.
Father Edward Orłowski: Let us tell the whole truth-change must occur on both
sides, and not just one. For dialogue applies to both sides. By blaming only one side, we
will always be biased.
When the two totalitarian states divided Poland between themselves, they took advantage of
ethnic minorities in order to set them at odds with each other. Here, the Jews and the
Poles co-existed well. Things began to deteriorate only after the outbreak of the war, and
the conflict reached its peak when the Germans attacked the Soviet Union. We must admit
the whole truth-young Jews supported communism, and the Soviets used the Jews against
Poland. Later, when the Germans came, they tried to use the Poles against the Jewish
community. One cannot say that the crime was committed by the Poles. What happened in
Jedwabne also happened all over Europe. However, it cannot be excluded that some Poles
were compelled to take part in this crime, others felt like exacting vengeance on the
Jews, and some may have been downright criminals. It is also difficult to accept that
Polish society as a whole treated the Jews so cruelly. If it is only individuals who did
so, then they did it as part of German operations.
I worked with Father Józef Kembliński, who was the priest here throughout the
occupation, when I was vicar in Lipsk on the Biebrza River. We went to Jedwabne then,
looked at the monument at the site of the burned barn, and talked. He always said that the
murder was carried out by the Germans. I know from his account that the Jews asked him for
protection from destruction. They were prepared to give him gold and other valuables.
Father Kembliński talked to the gendarmes because he spoke German well, and asked
if anything could be done. They replied that it was impossible. They had been given
orders-the Jews must die! Father Kembliński did not accept the gold.
Father Michał Czajkowski: And what did he say about the murder itself? Where was he at the time?
Father Edward Orłowski: For three days, the Jews were rounded up to weed the grass and clean the park. No one in town knew how it would end because on the critical day they, too, were herded onto the square. On the day when that unfortunate barn burned, the parish priest stood at the gateway leading to the church and watched. The town square was almost empty. People were only peeking out the windows or around corners. The fear was pervasive.
Father Michał Czajkowski: Couldn't he have intervened?
Father Edward Orłowski: I know that, before the burning of the barn, he went up to an officer who had arrived in Jedwabne that day and said: "What harm have the women and children done to you? Spare them at least!" to which the officer replied: "Maybe you don't know who's in charge here. Clear off, if you want to keep your head on your shoulders!"
Zbigniew Nosowski: The factual plane and the moral plane keep getting entangled here. What exactly happened and what can be done now? Father, you are speaking about motives that can explain the events. But can they justify them?
Father Edward Orłowski: Nothing can justify murder, absolutely nothing.
Zbigniew Nosowski: Apparently, Rabbi Baker, who was born in Jedwabne under the name Piekarz and is today an old man living in New York, has indicated that he could come here and talk to people, young people, but that he would like to be accompanied by the local priest.
Father Edward Orłowski: The Rabbi has never asked me, but if he wants, then I am ready to meet him. Human fellowship is built not only on the basis of religion, but also on the basis of culture and a general sense of humanity. He is invited to the rectory!
Jacek Borkowicz: The afterword of Gross's book [reference is made to the Polish edition; the American edition of Neighbors does not contain the words of Rabbi Baker - trans.] contains a message from Rabbi Baker in which he asks the people of Jedwabne to tend the Jewish graves and commemorate the site of the synagogue. Would this be possible-not so much in the financial as in the psychological dimension?
Father Edward Orłowski: I realize that, as parish priest, I am responsible not just for the Roman Catholic cemetery here, but also for the cemeteries of other communities within the parish. We have a German cemetery here, and I never permit the old graves to be destroyed by burying people there. When, in 1991, there were plans to set up a market square close to the Jewish cemetery, I protested from the pulpit and said that it would be a sacrilege. I suggested that the marketplace be moved elsewhere, and I offered 1.1 hectares of parish land in exchange. Thanks to the exchange, neither the Catholic nor the Jewish cemeteries have been trampled. True, the Jewish cemetery is overgrown, but we have so many unemployed people here. If the Jewish community provides the money and employs them, they will tidy up the cemetery.
Father Michał Czajkowski: But here we are talking about a community gesture.
Father Edward Orłowski: At this moment, that is perhaps impossible.
Krzysztof Godlewski: As for looking after the Jewish graves, there might still be
some psychological barriers in the minds of the people of Jedwabne, but I see no such
danger in the minds of young people. They already think in different terms, for them there
are neither Jews, nor Romans or
Greeks. That initiative could launch the building of not just one, but several small
memorials in the hearts of these young people, much more durable than stone.
However, there is a polarization of views. On the one hand, we are defending ourselves
against historical accusations, and on the other hand the government is preparing major
ceremonies on July 10. What would happen if it turned out that we here are in opposition
to all this? Something important is due to happen on July 10, so let world opinion see us
as open-minded and responsible Catholics. But there is no sense in our doing anything that
runs contrary to our convictions.
Jacek Borkowicz: The people of Jedwabne should be aware that a gesture on their part does not mean they are confessing to the crime, but is merely an expression of responsibility for the place where they live.
Krzysztof Godlewski: I remember how the government's proposed version of the
inscription on the monument ended: "Forgive us, as we have forgiven others!" But
if we do not think we share any guilt, then what is the sense of that sort of
"forgiveness"? If the July 10 ceremonies are meant to be simply a general
reminder of the death of Jews, after which we all go home, then it would be better not to
have any ceremonies at all.
On the basis of what Father Orłowski says, we bear practically no guilt at all. Father
Orłowski has his information, and we have ours. How are we to tell who is right? I am
convinced that the Poles played a considerable part in this crime. But if this
participation was only sporadic, then it would be a grave mistake to say that the whole
town was involved. We would only be wronging the residents.
No one is criticizing the people of Jedwabne for being forced to leave their homes and
guard the Jews. The complaints are about the ones who were over-zealous. They should be
named, and they alone should be tried. Except that no one is able to do this.
Father Edward Orłowski: They are either dead, or old.
Krzysztof Godlewski: The question remains: Do we, the Jedwabne community, accept the legacy of those 30 people? Do we distance ourselves from it? Do we apologize for those 30 people?
Stanisław Marczuk: I agree with the mayor. There are no good or bad nations, only good and bad people.
Jacek Borkowicz: In the same way that there are no good or bad towns.
Stanisław Marczuk: The Pope stresses that one cannot blame the entire Jewish people for the death of Christ. I think the same principle ought to be applied to Jedwabne - individual Poles were guilty, yet there were people with various mentalities among the general Polish population of the town. Their attitudes to the murder of the Jews could not have been identical.
Zbigniew Nosowski: How do children and young people ask their parents today about what happened in 1941?
Stanisław Michałowski: I witnessed a five-year-old child listening to a conversation among adults, and then asking: "Listen, grandfather, was it you who murdered those Jews, or your dad, or my dad?" When you hear such questions, you cannot brush them aside, unless you are totally thick-skinned. Most of us are experiencing this matter profoundly, each in his own way.
Krzysztof Godlewski: Before today's talk, I didn't sleep all night. Whenever I
think seriously about this crime, I lose my equilibrium, and emotions get the upper hand.
This is not something about which one can talk coolly, calculating and jotting down
figures. On July 10 last year, as we were laying a wreath at the memorial, two elderly
ladies were talking about what happened 60 years ago. At one point, both of them burst
into tears. No one who has the tiniest bit of sensitivity can talk about this normally. We
cannot lose sight of this in our talk.
We in Jedwabne don't need either psychologists or sociologists. Anyone who is incapable of
reacting to these horrors on their own is beyond integration with society. For others, it
is enough if, when they walk past the monument, they think about things-and then go back,
in their thoughts and more than once, to the entire episode and digest it. Their
consciences will be enough to remind them to do so.
Zbigniew Nosowski: Mr. Mayor, I understand you wanted to name the local school after Antonina Wyrzykowska, who rescued seven Jews during the German occupation. Has this proposal been considered in the school?
Krzysztof Godlewski: To my surprise, I found that the children knew nothing at all about this subject. Should we therefore "make them happy" by digging up old matters?
Father Michał Czajkowski: The children will find out anyhow. I do not think this can be kept hidden from them. Besides, they probably know a lot already. They must, or else a five-year-old would not have asked who carried out the murder. One should not hide the dark side of local history from children, but one should also show them the beautiful parts of that history.
Krzysztof Godlewski: The suggestion of naming the school after Mrs. Wyrzykowska was just an idea I tossed off the top of my head. The school is not yet ready for it. Remember that the school is an organism consisting of the Teachers' Council, the Parents' Committee, and the pupils. The new name cannot be imposed by an administrative decision. Internal changes have to occur first. And that is a long educational process in which the family and the home must also play their part.
Jacek Borkowicz: Gross writes about the Wyrzykowski family in a footnote to Neighbors, describing them as wonderful people, and I hope a book will also be written about them one day. But at the same time I do not think anyone will ever write such a book. That is how the logic of the media works, unfortunately. Evil is more attractive than good. That is why commemorating Mrs. Wyrzykowska by naming the school after her would somehow fill this gap.
Krzysztof Godlewski: Let me tell you one thing: I consider it my duty to mediate. Wherever I encounter racial or religious hatred, or other kinds of hatred, I will try to overcome it within the limits of my modest abilities. In this way I want to repay the debt that is owed to those who were murdered. This shall be my absolution and . how shall I put it? . my penance for the death of those people. What I mean to say is that the death of those people should somehow pay off. If we all make sure that such events as in 1941 never happen again, those deaths will have not been in vain.
Zbigniew Nosowski: Do you pray for the murdered Jews, Father?
Father Edward Orłowski: I feel responsible for the entire history of my parish. Ever since I became parish priest, I have been praying for all its residents living and dead, regardless of their creed. Yes, I do pray for the Jews, but I also pray for the Germans, for the Russians, for all those whose bodies lie in our parish soil. That is my duty. War set these people against each other, and they resorted to atrocities, to death. But that death has reconciled them. They have stood, deeply shamed, before the same God.
Father Michał Czajkowski: It's a shame that they were only reconciled after their deaths.
Father Edward Orłowski: If necessary, I will take up a collection in my parish for a monument to the murdered Jews, then I will take part in a procession with my parishioners and sing the Angelus, and then we will pray at the stone where those who were burned in the barn are buried.
Krzysztof Godlewski: The Church is imbued with the wisdom of two thousand years, but today's times are a time of change. I have three children, whose religious attitudes are different than mine, and completely different from my father's. Certain steps and gestures can only do us good. You, father, are the highest authority in Jedwabne, and have the greatest opportunity to work a gradual change in people's hearts.
Father Michał Czajkowski: The acts of contrition proclaimed by the Pope do the Church good, because they make it credible in the eyes of others. Perhaps there is no such thing as collective guilt, but every community needs a kind of collective responsibility, felt by everyone who considers himself a part of this community. Can anyone say that the Pope does not love the Church because he discusses its sins? He discusses the inquisition, the pogroms, and the expulsion of the Jews from Spain precisely because he feels such a strong attachment to this Church. It is the same when we talk about own sins. We do not do so because we are bad Poles, but because we love Poland so much. Gentlemen, you feel so closely linked to this place and experience its history so deeply because it is your town, your life.
Krzysztof Godlewski: Resolving this issue and explaining it in full, even if it is painful to do so, will give us more benefits than keeping it a secret.
Stanisław Przechodzki: Of course. There can be only one truth in a fundamental issue. The murder was carried out by some neighbors. That was the main murder - the burning in the barn - but there were also many, very many individual murders. There is no doubt that they were committed with the approval of the Germans. But to talk of dozens or hundreds of armed gendarmes in Jedwabne is a mockery of the victims. There was no cordon of Germans around Jedwabne. Just before the barn was burnt, my mother, with a baby in her arms, walked through the entire town and left it unhindered. Nowhere did she see any Germans. One kilometer away from Jedwabne, she heard the screams of the burning victims. It was so piercing that she remembers it to this day.
Stanisław Marczuk: 35 year ago, Polish bishops addressed the following famous words to the Germans: "We forgive and we ask for forgiveness." There was a heated reaction to these words at the time. People said, why should we apologize to the Germans? And yet as a result of this message, the attitudes of Germans towards the Poles changed, and this was confirmed by surveys. Sometimes we apologize not because we owe someone a debt of guilt, but because we require purification. He who utters these words first is the wiser. We apologize not because we are guilty. We apologize simply in the name of love.
Father Michał Czajkowski: No one expects the parishioners here to go to the confessionals and confess to the evil of 1941 as their own personal sin. There is a kind of solidarity; not just a surface layer, but one that reaches deep down. In the name of this solidarity we ourselves should commemorate the victims, and not just follow instructions from foreign journalists tell us to do.
Stanisław Michałowski: But these instructions sometimes smack of blackmail. Being continually lectured to arouses a feeling of being under threat in the local community. And a person who is being attacked naturally begins to defend himself.
Jacek Borkowicz: Jedwabne is becoming a symbol, whether we like it or not. An important part of this symbol is the things which we Poles find the most difficult to enunciate. Irrespective of the number of perpetrators, irrespective of the amount of German inspiration, and irrespective of whether there was any coercion and how strong it was, we cannot deny that the murder was perpetrated by Polish hands. The murderers were Poles. I do not agree with the reverend Father that the same thing happened all over Europe. Jedwabne is not typical - if it were, it would never have become the symbol it now is. Of course, Jedwabne is no exception either - similar events occurred along the entire front, in Lithuania, the Ukraine and Moldavia, not to mention in the neighboring towns of Wąsosz and Radziłów. But a characteristic feature of a symbol is that it "falls" on one place, in this case Jedwabne, and we have to come to terms with that, because what is done will not be undone. But now we can exercise some influence, albeit restricted, on the form of this symbol. Soon it will be too late to do so.
Stanisław Michałowski: But such reflection cannot be introduced by external laws and decisions, even if they are wise. It must start inside people.
Stanisław Przechodzki: The atrocity occurred 60 years ago, but a rejection of the
truth of it, and even more an acceptance of this truth, will change the people here. It
will also determine the way in which the outside world looks at Jedwabne. Let us leave it
to historians to discover the causes of those conflicts. They had but one outcome-a tragic
one. If the people of Jedwabne do nothing but entrench themselves and defend themselves
against attacks, if they shut themselves up in their own hell, their defense of the good
name of their town will be nothing but a mockery of a defense. On the part of the people
of Jedwabne themselves, there should be more sensible, premeditated actions. We should
show that we have already understood something and that we have changed.
At the same time, we should be bold. A single bold thought, a single bold deed causes the
wave of criticism to disintegrate. And very often a small gesture suffices, one which does
not cost much, but is a Christian gesture and very needed. Finally, we should bear in mind
that we have children and grandchildren. Our parents did not deal with this issue. True,
the conditions for doing so did not exist, but these conditions have existed now for
eleven years. If we do not deal with this issue, it will pass to the next generation. And
why should our descendants have to be tormented? It is enough that we ourselves are
tormented .
Edited by Jacek Borkowicz