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Neighbors: The Destruction of the Jewish Community in Jedwabne, Poland
On a summer day in 1941 in Nazi-occupied Poland, half of the town of Jedwabne brutally murdered the other half: 1,600 men, women, and children-all but seven of the town's Jews. In this shocking and compelling study, historian Jan Gross pieces together eyewitness accounts as well as physical evidence into a comprehensive reconstruction of the horrific July day remembered well by locals but hidden to history. Revealing wider truths about Jewish-Polish relations, the Holocaust, and human responses to occupation and totalitarianism, Gross's investigation sheds light on how Jedwabne's Jews came to be murdered-not by faceless Nazis, but by people who knew them well.
214 pages, Paperback
First published January 28, 2000
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September 13, 2012
My own family's link to this book: In 1941, my great-grandparents sent my grandfather's younger brother to stay with a family in Jedwabne, Poland, thinking it was safer there. They would later learn that my grandfather's little brother (my great-uncle, though it feels odd to say that given his death 40+ years before I was born) was packed into a barn along with many of the town's other Jews by the townspeople, who then set it on fire. Sadly, as my grandfather eventually became the sole surviving member of his family, this was the most detail and closure he ever received about any of his family members' deaths.
Reading a book dedicated to detailing the event in which a relative was murdered is a surreal experience. My grandfather is no longer alive today, and discussing what happened to him and his family was not an easy topic to broach when he was, so I only knew the broad facts of what happened to his brother. Hearing what shtetl life was like in such detail before the war and the witness testimonies of what happened during the pogram itself was helpful in furthering my understanding of what life was like for my family. While difficult at times to read, I'm happy to have read it.
As the author says in the forward, this is not a book that will bring closure or any answers upon finishing it. Obviously not a pleasure read, but acts as a chronicle of a senseless act of history. I do not know of any other books published on this specific event, so this may be the best monument to the victims of Jedwabne that exists.
Reading a book dedicated to detailing the event in which a relative was murdered is a surreal experience. My grandfather is no longer alive today, and discussing what happened to him and his family was not an easy topic to broach when he was, so I only knew the broad facts of what happened to his brother. Hearing what shtetl life was like in such detail before the war and the witness testimonies of what happened during the pogram itself was helpful in furthering my understanding of what life was like for my family. While difficult at times to read, I'm happy to have read it.
As the author says in the forward, this is not a book that will bring closure or any answers upon finishing it. Obviously not a pleasure read, but acts as a chronicle of a senseless act of history. I do not know of any other books published on this specific event, so this may be the best monument to the victims of Jedwabne that exists.
December 8, 2021
The Jewish population of the town of Jedwabne disappears - only 7 remain out of 1,600 men, women, and children. This is one of the most horrific books I have ever read. This book should be required reading for anyone studying international relations. The ability of institutions to turn citizens into 'proxy soldiers' for there cause is a situation that (sadly) continues to this day.
January 27, 2023
Úgy mondják, az áldozattól való távolság megkönnyíti a gyilkolást. Meghúzunk egy kart, ami kioldja a bombát. Megnyomunk egy gombot, és egy rakéta útnak indul. Nincs kontaktus, nincs probléma. Igaz lehet. De van, akinek máshogy is megy. Husánggal. Vasrúddal. Életlen késsel. Az áldozat szemébe nézve. Az áldozatot a nevén nevezve. Végsőkig kiélvezve az ölés személyességét. Ahogy Jedwabnéban történt.
Gross kötete az a fajta történelmi munka, ami nem pusztán bizonyos események bemutatását, felderítését tűzi ki célul, hanem tudatosan megy neki a lengyel nemzeti identitás Szent Teheneinek. Tabut akar törni. A lengyel önkép elidegeníthetetlen része ugyanis a mély katolicizmussal elegy áldozatiság. Hogy Lengyelország a "nemzetek Krisztusa", az ország, akit hol a németek, hol az oroszok feszítettek keresztre. Csakhogy itt van Jedwabne, 1941-ben. A község, ahol a zsidó lakosságot - durván 1500 lelket! - saját keresztény szomszédaik kínozták meg és mészárolták le, felfoghatatlan kegyetlenséggel. Mindezt úgy, hogy németek csak mutatóba akadtak a faluban. Egy ilyen esemény* a hagyományos lengyel önképpel nem fér össze, ezért tagadni kell. Pedig lehetséges, hogy valaki egyszerre tettes és áldozat. És ha valaki egy imaginárius közösséghez (a "nemzet"-hez) tartozónak vallja magát, kijelentve, hogy a nemzet ellen elkövetett bűnök egyben személyesen ellene elkövetett bűnök is, akkor a nemzet által elkövetett bűnökkel is kezdenie kell valamit. Élvezni a csoporthoz tartozást, de nem nézni szembe a csoport bűneivel, nos, az olyan, mintha valaki nem járna be a munkahelyére, de a munkabérre azért igényt tartana.
A kötetet felépítése kiválóan alkalmassá teszi a provokációra, a tabutörésre. Rövid, tömör, világos és közérthető, Gross egyértelműen meghatározza módszertanát**, nem óvatoskodik a megfogalmazásokkal, és egy olyan ütős konklúzióba torkollik, amitől tutira torkán akad a falat minden nagylengyelnek. Ez a konklúzió pedig az, hogy az antiszemita klisének, miszerint a zsidók (legalábbis részben) tehetnek az ellenük elkövetett bűnökről, mert a kommunista Szovjetunió támogatói voltak, pont az ellenkezője igaz. Vagyis az, hogy a bolsevizmus lengyelországi kiépítésében leginkább azokra támaszkodott, akik részt vettek a pogromokban. Az antiszemitákra, a csőcselékre, a kollaboránsokra. Azokra, akiknek volt mit feledtetni a szovjethatalommal***. Azokra, akik fogékonyak voltak a gyűlöletkeltésre. Mert tényleg nem az van, hogy jobb és bal. Hanem hogy valaki hajlandó-e gyűlölni a szomszédját. És ha hajlandó, akkor neki édes mindegy, hogy a "keresztyén" nacionalizmus vagy a kommunizmus ideológiája teszi lehetővé a gyűlölet kiélését. A lényeg, hogy valaki adjon husángot a kezébe.
* És nem "egy" ilyen esemény volt. Ott van a kielcei pogrom, már a háború után, amikor a felhergelt tömeg ötven hazatérő zsidót lincselt meg. Vagy amikor a nemzeti partizánok kétszáz mózeshitűt szedtek le egy vonatról, hogy agyonlőjék őket. Az sem igaz, hogy mindebben csak a társadalom töredéke vett részt - a jedwadnei tömeggyilkosság esetén a falu katolikus lakosságának (a férfiakat számolva) csaknem fele elkövetőként lett azonosítva.
** Gross módszerének talán legvitathatóbb pontja, hogy szerinte a tanúvallomásokat el kell fogadni - a bizonyítás kötelezettsége azokat terheli, akik cáfolni akarnak. Ami nyilván kétélű eljárás, de pont Lengyelország esetében, ahol alig találunk túlélőt, védhető történészi álláspont.
*** Ezzel alighanem a kommunista hatóságok is tisztában voltak. Nem véletlen, hogy a jedwabnei pert is úgy elkenték 1949-ben: egyetlen halálos ítélet született, azt sem a gyilkosságokért rótták ki, hanem azért, mert a delikvens a háború folyamán belépett a német rendőrség kötelékébe.
Gross kötete az a fajta történelmi munka, ami nem pusztán bizonyos események bemutatását, felderítését tűzi ki célul, hanem tudatosan megy neki a lengyel nemzeti identitás Szent Teheneinek. Tabut akar törni. A lengyel önkép elidegeníthetetlen része ugyanis a mély katolicizmussal elegy áldozatiság. Hogy Lengyelország a "nemzetek Krisztusa", az ország, akit hol a németek, hol az oroszok feszítettek keresztre. Csakhogy itt van Jedwabne, 1941-ben. A község, ahol a zsidó lakosságot - durván 1500 lelket! - saját keresztény szomszédaik kínozták meg és mészárolták le, felfoghatatlan kegyetlenséggel. Mindezt úgy, hogy németek csak mutatóba akadtak a faluban. Egy ilyen esemény* a hagyományos lengyel önképpel nem fér össze, ezért tagadni kell. Pedig lehetséges, hogy valaki egyszerre tettes és áldozat. És ha valaki egy imaginárius közösséghez (a "nemzet"-hez) tartozónak vallja magát, kijelentve, hogy a nemzet ellen elkövetett bűnök egyben személyesen ellene elkövetett bűnök is, akkor a nemzet által elkövetett bűnökkel is kezdenie kell valamit. Élvezni a csoporthoz tartozást, de nem nézni szembe a csoport bűneivel, nos, az olyan, mintha valaki nem járna be a munkahelyére, de a munkabérre azért igényt tartana.
A kötetet felépítése kiválóan alkalmassá teszi a provokációra, a tabutörésre. Rövid, tömör, világos és közérthető, Gross egyértelműen meghatározza módszertanát**, nem óvatoskodik a megfogalmazásokkal, és egy olyan ütős konklúzióba torkollik, amitől tutira torkán akad a falat minden nagylengyelnek. Ez a konklúzió pedig az, hogy az antiszemita klisének, miszerint a zsidók (legalábbis részben) tehetnek az ellenük elkövetett bűnökről, mert a kommunista Szovjetunió támogatói voltak, pont az ellenkezője igaz. Vagyis az, hogy a bolsevizmus lengyelországi kiépítésében leginkább azokra támaszkodott, akik részt vettek a pogromokban. Az antiszemitákra, a csőcselékre, a kollaboránsokra. Azokra, akiknek volt mit feledtetni a szovjethatalommal***. Azokra, akik fogékonyak voltak a gyűlöletkeltésre. Mert tényleg nem az van, hogy jobb és bal. Hanem hogy valaki hajlandó-e gyűlölni a szomszédját. És ha hajlandó, akkor neki édes mindegy, hogy a "keresztyén" nacionalizmus vagy a kommunizmus ideológiája teszi lehetővé a gyűlölet kiélését. A lényeg, hogy valaki adjon husángot a kezébe.
* És nem "egy" ilyen esemény volt. Ott van a kielcei pogrom, már a háború után, amikor a felhergelt tömeg ötven hazatérő zsidót lincselt meg. Vagy amikor a nemzeti partizánok kétszáz mózeshitűt szedtek le egy vonatról, hogy agyonlőjék őket. Az sem igaz, hogy mindebben csak a társadalom töredéke vett részt - a jedwadnei tömeggyilkosság esetén a falu katolikus lakosságának (a férfiakat számolva) csaknem fele elkövetőként lett azonosítva.
** Gross módszerének talán legvitathatóbb pontja, hogy szerinte a tanúvallomásokat el kell fogadni - a bizonyítás kötelezettsége azokat terheli, akik cáfolni akarnak. Ami nyilván kétélű eljárás, de pont Lengyelország esetében, ahol alig találunk túlélőt, védhető történészi álláspont.
*** Ezzel alighanem a kommunista hatóságok is tisztában voltak. Nem véletlen, hogy a jedwabnei pert is úgy elkenték 1949-ben: egyetlen halálos ítélet született, azt sem a gyilkosságokért rótták ki, hanem azért, mert a delikvens a háború folyamán belépett a német rendőrség kötelékébe.
March 16, 2021
I can't help but to compare the death of 1,600 Jews at the hands of their neighbors during WWII to the killing of Black people in 1917 East St Louis or 1921 Tulsa, etc. The anger toward both groups by their perpetrators is staggering. The attitude that it was their own fault for existing and that they brought death upon themselves continues to be a pervasive attitude of those who attacked them and some historians.
August 12, 2016
What went wrong with Poland? The conventional story is that Poles were anti-Semitic because for them Jews ran Communism. When the Nazis invaded Poland, they were greeted as liberators. Gross argues this is not quite right. In 1941 the Catholic half of the town of Jedwabne murdered the Jewish half through obscene and proximate methods: decapitation, drowning, burning. Unlike the anonymity of death camp gas and the morally ambiguous role of soldiers ‘doing their duty’ these Poles were not compelled, yet they killed their own neighbors. Further, Polish rescuers were ostracized after the war; the only mass labor strike after the war was to support murderers of Jews, then standing trial by the Soviets. Polish society, even its historians, has been in denial for decades. What explains these inhumane attitudes? Gross offers some interesting suggestions, greed, the guilt of collaboration, residual pre-modern anti-Semitism. An excellent short work that amends our understanding of the Holocaust.
December 29, 2023
Un saggio spietato ma veritiero di quanto accaduto nella Polonia del 1941 occupata dai tedeschi, quando nel villaggio di Jedwabne, tutti gli ebrei residenti furono barbaramente trucidati in un granaio dove essi vennero ammassati e a cui fu dato fuoco con il kerosene: 1600 persone di tutte le età arse vive dai loro concittadini polacchi con cui avevano condiviso fino allora la normale vita di comunità. Il tutto avvenne con il beneplacito delle autorità militari tedesche ma senza il loro intervento attivo. In pochissimi si salvarono perché gli abitanti del villaggio e delle zone rurali limitrofe fecero una scrupolosa e aggressiva guardia armata a tutte le vie d’uscita dall’abitato radunando tutti gli ebrei nella piazza del villaggio dove li dileggiarono e aggredirono fisicamente prima di avviarli verso il granaio. Alla fine della guerra le autorità polacche instituirono un processo-farsa che assolse quasi tutti gli imputati.
February 19, 2017
This book is not intended to be edu-tainment such as Schindler's List or The Boy in the Striped Pajamas. This is not historical fiction or narrative non-fiction.
The author's objective is, using fact-based academic methodology, to expose the lie of conventional wisdom that in WWII the ordinary people Poland were forced by the Nazis to take part in the killing of Poland's Jews.
He takes one particularly horrific incident, the murder of the Jews of Jedwabne, and weaves together primary sources to show that the Catholic Polish residents of Jedwabne viciously murdered their Jewish neighbours with very little encouragement from their Nazi overseers.
The Nazi invasion of Poland, or 'liberation' from the Soviets as so many non-Jews seemed to consider it, gave the perpetrators the reassurance that their actions would not be punished but the initiative, the stimulus, the enthusiasm with which they undertook this pogrom was theirs alone. And it was not simply a desire to get rid of the Jews, to remove 'the other' from their town: they stationed guards around the town so that Jews could not escape.
In the space of one day they swept through the town killing the Jewish residents in cruel and violent ways and when such methods were not deemed sufficiently efficient they locked the rest of the Jewish residents in a barn and burned them alive.
The author adds the minimum of narrative necessary to connect the various testimonies and offers little analysis or personal supposition as to the murderers' motivations. Greed, deeply-seated anti-Semitism and the need to blame the other seems to be the general conclusion. This is not particularly satisfying or specific but it is the truth as we can understand it from the sources provided. Any further exploration of this phenomenon would require the skills of a psychologist or a novelist and would lead us into the realms of conjecture and imagination.
Following the war the pogroms continued through Poland and the families that had protected Jews were persecuted. In addition to the ancient Semitic trope of blood libel was added resentment that the Jews had brought such shame on Poland, after all if there had been no Jews there would have been no Holocaust.
To be honest this was not news to me. As a Jew in Israel I have heard many times from Polish Holocaust survivors, include those from my husband's family, how their Polish neighbours were more than willing to lend the Nazis a helping hand in solving "the Jewish Problem'.
However until this book and the contemporaneous documentaries produced on the subject it seems Poland was unwilling to face this aspect of their history and the rest of the world was willing to let them ignore it.
For me the unique value of this books is that it offers primary sources, witness testimonies and it forces us to examine the society in which we live where ordinary people can turn against their neighbours and kill 1600 men, women and children just because they can.
The author's objective is, using fact-based academic methodology, to expose the lie of conventional wisdom that in WWII the ordinary people Poland were forced by the Nazis to take part in the killing of Poland's Jews.
He takes one particularly horrific incident, the murder of the Jews of Jedwabne, and weaves together primary sources to show that the Catholic Polish residents of Jedwabne viciously murdered their Jewish neighbours with very little encouragement from their Nazi overseers.
The Nazi invasion of Poland, or 'liberation' from the Soviets as so many non-Jews seemed to consider it, gave the perpetrators the reassurance that their actions would not be punished but the initiative, the stimulus, the enthusiasm with which they undertook this pogrom was theirs alone. And it was not simply a desire to get rid of the Jews, to remove 'the other' from their town: they stationed guards around the town so that Jews could not escape.
In the space of one day they swept through the town killing the Jewish residents in cruel and violent ways and when such methods were not deemed sufficiently efficient they locked the rest of the Jewish residents in a barn and burned them alive.
The author adds the minimum of narrative necessary to connect the various testimonies and offers little analysis or personal supposition as to the murderers' motivations. Greed, deeply-seated anti-Semitism and the need to blame the other seems to be the general conclusion. This is not particularly satisfying or specific but it is the truth as we can understand it from the sources provided. Any further exploration of this phenomenon would require the skills of a psychologist or a novelist and would lead us into the realms of conjecture and imagination.
Following the war the pogroms continued through Poland and the families that had protected Jews were persecuted. In addition to the ancient Semitic trope of blood libel was added resentment that the Jews had brought such shame on Poland, after all if there had been no Jews there would have been no Holocaust.
To be honest this was not news to me. As a Jew in Israel I have heard many times from Polish Holocaust survivors, include those from my husband's family, how their Polish neighbours were more than willing to lend the Nazis a helping hand in solving "the Jewish Problem'.
However until this book and the contemporaneous documentaries produced on the subject it seems Poland was unwilling to face this aspect of their history and the rest of the world was willing to let them ignore it.
For me the unique value of this books is that it offers primary sources, witness testimonies and it forces us to examine the society in which we live where ordinary people can turn against their neighbours and kill 1600 men, women and children just because they can.
January 11, 2009
This is a true and terrifying book I did not want to read...but knew I should. The brief description of the book below is taken from the Princeton Review.
"One summer day in 1941, half of the Polish town of Jedwabne murdered the other half, 1,600 men, women, and children, all but seven of the town's Jews.
Jan Gross pieces together eyewitness accounts and other evidence into an engulfing reconstruction of the horrific July day remembered well by locals but forgotten by history.
It is a story of surprises: The newly occupying German army did not compel the massacre, and Jedwabne's Jews and Christians had previously enjoyed cordial relations. Jedwabne's Jews were clubbed, drowned, gutted, and burned not by faceless Nazis, but by people whose features and names they knew well: their former schoolmates and those who sold them food, bought their milk, and chatted with them in the street. As much as such a question can ever be answered, Neighbors tells us why."
I read this book more than a year ago and have not stopped thinking about it. It's not about what war does to people or what traumatic experience does to people. Ultimately it is not about Jews or Nazis or anti-semitism. It is simply about people and what they are capable of if given the opportunity.
The crushing truth of this story is that ordinary citizens killed 1600 of their neighbors simply because they could.
"One summer day in 1941, half of the Polish town of Jedwabne murdered the other half, 1,600 men, women, and children, all but seven of the town's Jews.
Jan Gross pieces together eyewitness accounts and other evidence into an engulfing reconstruction of the horrific July day remembered well by locals but forgotten by history.
It is a story of surprises: The newly occupying German army did not compel the massacre, and Jedwabne's Jews and Christians had previously enjoyed cordial relations. Jedwabne's Jews were clubbed, drowned, gutted, and burned not by faceless Nazis, but by people whose features and names they knew well: their former schoolmates and those who sold them food, bought their milk, and chatted with them in the street. As much as such a question can ever be answered, Neighbors tells us why."
I read this book more than a year ago and have not stopped thinking about it. It's not about what war does to people or what traumatic experience does to people. Ultimately it is not about Jews or Nazis or anti-semitism. It is simply about people and what they are capable of if given the opportunity.
The crushing truth of this story is that ordinary citizens killed 1600 of their neighbors simply because they could.
August 27, 2022
"Man to man is wolf."---Freud's favorite maxim
In his classic nine hour documentary on the Holocaust, SHOAH, from the 1980s, the Jewish film-maker Claude Weizmann put three questions to his Polish interview subjects: 1. Were there many Jews here before the war? Answer: Yes. 2. Are you sorry the Germans killed the Jews? Answer: Yes, of course. 3. Why do you think the Jews were murdered? Answer: Because they killed Christ! This story is more horrific than any horror writer could dream up and more blood-curling than any true crime tale. On a hot summer day in 1941 in the Polish village of Jedwabne, just outside Biyalstok, in German-occupied Poland but outside of the gaze of the Nazis the Polish population murdered the entire Jewish half, save seven souls. But, here's the ghoulish part: The Poles did not kill the village Jews because the Germans ordered them to do so. There were no Germans in the vicinity. The area had been occupied by the Russian Army in 1939, then taken by the Germans during Barbarossa. The Poles did not murder the jews on account of anti-semitism; Gross convincingly shows this village had no particular history of hatred against the Jews; so, no the village priest did not tell them the Jews were Christ-killers. Gross is forced to fall back on a more chilling explanation; that the Poles killed the Jews because they could. The power to slaughter the Jews provided the justification, not the other way around. One intriguing clue Gross found was that the same people who participated in the bloodbath had previously collaborated with the Soviet occupiers. The rush of lording over others, even to the point of death, is what thrilled them. The German occupation gave them the moral sanction, although not the exhortation, for Judeocide. Would you or I have behaved any differently?
In his classic nine hour documentary on the Holocaust, SHOAH, from the 1980s, the Jewish film-maker Claude Weizmann put three questions to his Polish interview subjects: 1. Were there many Jews here before the war? Answer: Yes. 2. Are you sorry the Germans killed the Jews? Answer: Yes, of course. 3. Why do you think the Jews were murdered? Answer: Because they killed Christ! This story is more horrific than any horror writer could dream up and more blood-curling than any true crime tale. On a hot summer day in 1941 in the Polish village of Jedwabne, just outside Biyalstok, in German-occupied Poland but outside of the gaze of the Nazis the Polish population murdered the entire Jewish half, save seven souls. But, here's the ghoulish part: The Poles did not kill the village Jews because the Germans ordered them to do so. There were no Germans in the vicinity. The area had been occupied by the Russian Army in 1939, then taken by the Germans during Barbarossa. The Poles did not murder the jews on account of anti-semitism; Gross convincingly shows this village had no particular history of hatred against the Jews; so, no the village priest did not tell them the Jews were Christ-killers. Gross is forced to fall back on a more chilling explanation; that the Poles killed the Jews because they could. The power to slaughter the Jews provided the justification, not the other way around. One intriguing clue Gross found was that the same people who participated in the bloodbath had previously collaborated with the Soviet occupiers. The rush of lording over others, even to the point of death, is what thrilled them. The German occupation gave them the moral sanction, although not the exhortation, for Judeocide. Would you or I have behaved any differently?
March 12, 2023
"Il nazismo, ripetiamolo con il tedesco Eric Voegelin, filosofo della politica, è un regime che fa leva sugli istinti malvagi degli esseri umani, non solo perché insedia «gentaglia» in posizioni di potere,
ma anche perché «l'uomo comune è un uomo ragionevole finché la società nel suo complesso si mantiene in ordine, ma quando da qualche parte si propaga il disordine e la società comincia a cedere, diventa un selvaggio che non sa più quello che fa»
Questo libro e' veramente agghiacciante: con la prosa distaccata e lucida che lo contraddistingue, Jan T.Gross ci racconta che " un giorno del luglio 1941 metà della popolazione di un piccolo paese dell'Europa orientale assassinò l'altra metà, circa 1600 tra uomini, donne e bambini."
Gli ebrei del piccolo paese di Jedwabne non furono massacrati dagli occupanti nazisti, ma dai loro vicini di casa polacchi, e la cosa piu' agghiacciante e' che del massacro, e di tutti gli altri massacri simili, il governo polacco ha fatto finta di niente, istituendo dei processi farsa ai colpevoli che per la maggior parte sono rimasti impuniti.
Vergognatevi, e' l'unico commento che riesco a scrivere.
ma anche perché «l'uomo comune è un uomo ragionevole finché la società nel suo complesso si mantiene in ordine, ma quando da qualche parte si propaga il disordine e la società comincia a cedere, diventa un selvaggio che non sa più quello che fa»
Questo libro e' veramente agghiacciante: con la prosa distaccata e lucida che lo contraddistingue, Jan T.Gross ci racconta che " un giorno del luglio 1941 metà della popolazione di un piccolo paese dell'Europa orientale assassinò l'altra metà, circa 1600 tra uomini, donne e bambini."
Gli ebrei del piccolo paese di Jedwabne non furono massacrati dagli occupanti nazisti, ma dai loro vicini di casa polacchi, e la cosa piu' agghiacciante e' che del massacro, e di tutti gli altri massacri simili, il governo polacco ha fatto finta di niente, istituendo dei processi farsa ai colpevoli che per la maggior parte sono rimasti impuniti.
Vergognatevi, e' l'unico commento che riesco a scrivere.
October 25, 2010
Interesting in that it explores Polish anti-semitic action during WWII, which is often overlooked. But Gross' bias is quite evident, and even distracting to the story and understanding the history. His attempt to correct the omission of Polish complicity to "the final solution" oversteps its usefulness by misrepresenting in the other direction.
July 5, 2007
Very interesting, very sickening. Beware when picking this up - graphic and disturbing.
Side note: Jews living in Poland have recently told me that - while his facts are absolutely correct - they felt the book itself has given an overall inaccurate impression of Polish anti-Semitism and has implied that this continues, at the same level, today. That is, they felt it's not as primitive and prevalent and that this book has somehow supported that thought. I can see how it supports it but tried myself to read it as an isolated case study, too. Just interesting to think about Polish Jews and their issues with it.
Side note: Jews living in Poland have recently told me that - while his facts are absolutely correct - they felt the book itself has given an overall inaccurate impression of Polish anti-Semitism and has implied that this continues, at the same level, today. That is, they felt it's not as primitive and prevalent and that this book has somehow supported that thought. I can see how it supports it but tried myself to read it as an isolated case study, too. Just interesting to think about Polish Jews and their issues with it.
April 15, 2013
It's hard to process that, in such a slim volume, Jan T. Gross thoroughly debunks the myth of innocence, ignorance, and "forced" killings that so pervades public understanding of the Holocaust. But the author accomplishes it, weaving historical records with brief narration to give new meaning to the terms "perpetrator" and "collaborator." It's also a study on human motivation and how such mass murders can be abided in the face of that motivation. Gross' argument that half of the Jedwabne community murdered its Jewish half primarily for economic purposes is a strong one that is backed up by the evidence of not only this narrative but also of so many other studies like it, such as Hitler's Beneficiaries: Plunder, Racial War, and the Nazi Welfare State by Gotz Aly.
More than anything, this book is so frighteningly human in its depravity, a notion that casual readers may not understand without emerging themselves into more Holocaust scholarship.
More than anything, this book is so frighteningly human in its depravity, a notion that casual readers may not understand without emerging themselves into more Holocaust scholarship.
April 10, 2011
This is not as incredible as it sounds. This Poland community turned in the favor of the Nazis, with the common man (your neighbor) jumping in to do there bidding against the Jews. This is a true story. A very quick read, but "a must" if you want to understand human behavior durnig the worst of times.
August 9, 2019
Grim read but essential to see what was happening (Aside from the resistance narrative) in Nazi occupied Europe.
July 3, 2015
Find this and other reviews at: http://flashlightcommentary.blogspot....
My journey to Jan Tomasz Gross’ Neighbors started with a movie suggestion. Amazon recommended Pasikowski’s Aftermath and I was so captivated by the trailer that I dug into the backstory and discovered the fictional 2012 Holocaust-related thriller was loosely inspired by the 1941 Jedwabne pogrom.
If you’re scratching your head, take comfort in knowing you aren’t alone as Jedwabne isn’t a particularly well-recognized event. I only discovered it while reading The Wherewithal, but I’d never studied the pogrom and wasn’t overly familiar with the details. Natural curiosity paired with fond memories of Schultz’s prose prompted a search for nonfictional resource material which is how I found myself with a copy of Gross’ work.
I’d high hopes going in. The book has several outstanding reviews, but after experiencing the text firsthand, I can’t help feeling many reviewers based their opinions on the emotions elicited by Gross’ chronical of the atrocity. I mean no offense and I don’t mean to downplay the importance of Gross’ content, but structurally this is one of the most poorly formatted case studies I’ve ever encountered. Gross’ presentation is illogical and difficult to follow. The author’s strong opinions are poorly concealed and his terminology often prompted me to wonder at how objectively he’d researched the material.
I fully appreciate what Gross tried to convey within these pages, I respect the spirit in which it was written and I admit his work opened my eyes to what occurred in German-occupied Jedwabne on July 10, 1941, but the tone and format of the book make endorsing it something of a challenge.
My journey to Jan Tomasz Gross’ Neighbors started with a movie suggestion. Amazon recommended Pasikowski’s Aftermath and I was so captivated by the trailer that I dug into the backstory and discovered the fictional 2012 Holocaust-related thriller was loosely inspired by the 1941 Jedwabne pogrom.
If you’re scratching your head, take comfort in knowing you aren’t alone as Jedwabne isn’t a particularly well-recognized event. I only discovered it while reading The Wherewithal, but I’d never studied the pogrom and wasn’t overly familiar with the details. Natural curiosity paired with fond memories of Schultz’s prose prompted a search for nonfictional resource material which is how I found myself with a copy of Gross’ work.
I’d high hopes going in. The book has several outstanding reviews, but after experiencing the text firsthand, I can’t help feeling many reviewers based their opinions on the emotions elicited by Gross’ chronical of the atrocity. I mean no offense and I don’t mean to downplay the importance of Gross’ content, but structurally this is one of the most poorly formatted case studies I’ve ever encountered. Gross’ presentation is illogical and difficult to follow. The author’s strong opinions are poorly concealed and his terminology often prompted me to wonder at how objectively he’d researched the material.
I fully appreciate what Gross tried to convey within these pages, I respect the spirit in which it was written and I admit his work opened my eyes to what occurred in German-occupied Jedwabne on July 10, 1941, but the tone and format of the book make endorsing it something of a challenge.
October 12, 2011
A totally fascinating book that shows every aspect of the perfect storm of circumstances that led a small town in the Lomza/Bialystock region to slaughter half its population (the Jewish half) in a single day in July of 1941. For years, it was believed that the Nazis perpetuated this slaughter, as is reported even in Martin Gilbert's famous HOLOCAUST history from the '80's. But it appears that they only watched as the villagers and others from nearby villages orchestrated and carried out the humiliation, torture, stoning, drowning, rape and (mostly) burning of nearly all of the town's 1,600 Jews. What set the stage for this? A mix of traditional anti-semitism, anti-Soviet fervor, SS occupation, unconfirmed rumors of collaboration between Jews and Soviets, real non-Jewish collaborators who wanted to hide their collaboration by making scapegoats of the Jews, lust for money and property, nationalism, base banditry, etc. Every one of these stones is turned over. Gross gets about as close as one can to understanding what is impossible to fully understand: how neighbors and former friends can so easily be turned into mass slaughterers. The atmosphere conveyed herein sounds more like Rwanda in 1994 than the traditional telling of the Holocaust, with its methodological killing systems. This is the world of pitchforks and scythes and primitive slaughter.
November 15, 2015
I picked this up after reading a review of the new book The Crime and The Silence by Anna Bikont. Never heard about this episode before, so decided to read Neighbors first, since it appears to have been and continues to be quite the bombshell, and what inspired Bikont to writer her book/investigation. Neighbors is less of a comprehensive narrative history and more of a historiography of how a horror gets told, covered up, silenced, questioned, and ultimately excavated. It's fairly short, covering only the most basic information to make the case for his historical argument for Polish responsibility. It's opened my eyes to how little I know about antisemitism in Eastern Europe, and unfortunately still thrives today.
September 18, 2011
I was completely blown away by this story. The fact that something as horrific as what this book describes happened is really terrible, but the fact that it was almost forgotten by history altogether is just another tragedy. This book provides a particular insight into the very worst that humanity is capable of. The author gives answers to the who, how, and why questions of this tragedy. Let more be aware of this story so that something like this can be avoided in the future and never repeated.
June 20, 2012
What makes people kill those they live next to? Not sure, but this book does a close up of the question.
Gross' book apparently raised quite a discussion in Poland. It is short and despite the subject matter, rather easy to read. It is as if Gross knows that if he goes too emotional, the reader will have to put the book down. The most haunting section is the last section which is simply pictures.
The book is important because it does showcase how history can be forgotten or overlooked. It also shows that our understanding of war isn't quite the way it should be.
Gross' book apparently raised quite a discussion in Poland. It is short and despite the subject matter, rather easy to read. It is as if Gross knows that if he goes too emotional, the reader will have to put the book down. The most haunting section is the last section which is simply pictures.
The book is important because it does showcase how history can be forgotten or overlooked. It also shows that our understanding of war isn't quite the way it should be.
September 19, 2018
Neighbors is a relatively short book about a small town of in Poland before, during, and after WWII. The author explores how a town of about 3,600 people, half Jewish and half Christian, can go from living together in peace with neighbors to a murderous, killing frenzy during the war to more or less shrugging it off after the war. What the author discovered was that all but seven of the Jews were not killed by the Nazis but by their own neighbors while the Nazis watched and took photos without participating. Men, women, and children were hunted and chased down and brutaly killed by beating, clubbing, and herded into a barn that was set on fire. After the war there were hearings and depositions taken of many of the participants who, by their own testimony, were not particularly disturbed by their actions. The non-Jewish Poles saw the Jews as supporters of the communists who initially controlled the half of Poland that included this town after a pact was signed with the Nazis. When the Nazis attacked and invaded their "ally" and took over all of Poland the non-Jewish townspeople wanted revenge went the most prevalent explaination. This was a gruesome but fascinating study of human nature and the residual feelings against remaining Jews attempting to return to their homes after the war. Recommended for anyone who studies WWII, Holocaust, Pogroms against Jews, or may be concerned about YOUR neighbors.
June 17, 2012
A largely unknown story about the anti-semitism that permeated Europe during WWII. Neighbors literally bludgeoned each other to death, corralled Jewish neighbors in a barn and burned them to death, and many other atrocities. The author examines what caused people to turn so violently and vehemently against their neighbors. I found this book disturbing, and fascinating. I also found many parallels between this situation and the Rwandan Genocide.
September 22, 2013
This book is a long academic paper. What actually happened was terrible and heart-rending, so I was surprised at how momentously unmoving a read Neighbors was. I don't think I need a book to be overly flowery or sentimental, but the actual text was so academic it was difficult to pay attention to. A lot of analysis of the various merits of different kinds of sources, and conclusions being back up with words like "furthermore" and "secondly."
I ain't in college no more. Not for me.
I ain't in college no more. Not for me.
October 28, 2018
Książka, która wstrząsnęła i podzieliła kraj nad Wisłą położony, nadal czytanie jej boli, nadal fakty w niej przedstawione są solą sypaną w rany II Wojny Światowej, niszczącą martyrologiczny obraz wpajany nam w szkołach, narodu-ofiary.
Zdecydowanie bardziej warto wrócić do Sąsiadów, jak Strachu.
A część i tak będzie wiedziała swoje "to Niemcy...", tak samo w Radziwiłłowie, czy pod Grajewem, czy jak kilka lat później w Kielcach i Krakowie UBecy i Rosjanie.
Zdecydowanie bardziej warto wrócić do Sąsiadów, jak Strachu.
A część i tak będzie wiedziała swoje "to Niemcy...", tak samo w Radziwiłłowie, czy pod Grajewem, czy jak kilka lat później w Kielcach i Krakowie UBecy i Rosjanie.
July 3, 2007
A couple weeks after the Nazis invaded the Soviet half of Poland, the Poles of the small town of Jedwabne took it upon themselves to murder the 800 Jews who lived there--their neighbors. This is one of the creepiest historical accounts I've ever read.
December 4, 2021
I used this book for a story thread in my new novel, The Puppet Maker's Daughter to be released in January 2022. Downright evil consumed the Jews in Jedwabne, Poland.
July 16, 2012
Gross’s book is a look at the relations of Poles and Jews during the years of World War II occupation through the prism of the pogrom that occurred in Jedwabne, a village in eastern Poland in June 1941, just as the German troops took the control of the region away from the Soviets. Gross pieces together the few eyewitness accounts of the event with other evidence, mainly the depositions taken by Polish prosecutors between 1949 and 1953 during the trial of the pogroms’ perpetrators. The resulting work is a powerful indictment of the Polish population of Jedwabne. Gross concludes that the atrocities they perpetrated were unprovoked by the Jews, not particularly encouraged by the Germans, and displayed a level of shocking brutality towards the Jewish inhabitants who for centuries lived as their neighbours in a tight-knit, almost idyllic (Gross calls it exactly that) community.
Gross has a number of theses he wishes to convey in his brief book. First, he indicates the inadequacy of the historiographic approach that dominated Holocaust literature until ‘Neighbors’. Under the existing model the lives of the Poles and Jews in occupied Poland were treated as largely disengaged and affected by very different forces. Gross rejects this assumption, claiming that events such as Jedwabne were proof of a very close interdependence of the histories of the two people. In other words he rejects the approach that Polish-Jewish relations during World War II were always mediated by Nazis and Soviets, stating that direct interaction played a huge role and form part of the story of the Holocaust. Finally, Gross rejects the notion that the idea that the belief in Judeo-Bolshevism was a driving factor in creating antagonism between the Poles and the Jews, and in fact reverses the argument claiming that a large portion of the post-war Stalinist core in Poland after the war consisted of former anti-Semites.
‘Neighbors’ without a doubt constitutes a watershed in Polish historiography of the Holocaust. For the first time the work of a Polish historian disclosing the ugly face of Polish behaviour during the war told the story so directly and without caveats. He walks away from the popular image that the worst crime of some of the Poles was keeping quiet for the fear of their lives at the sight of Jewish suffering, and points out that many Poles were in fact happy to become perpetrators of the suffering themselves, without any rational justification. Gross’s book impresses as it does not shy away from willing to accept the Polish ‘collective responsibility’ for the Holocaust, something that was traditionally reserved for the Germans. He logically concludes that if a nations ‘collective identity’ is assembled from remarkable achievements, such as Chopin’s music or Kopernik’s scientific endeavours, that same nation must also acknowledge its most shocking acts of violence and brutality. A nation that selects only those elements of its past that are commendable, it engages in self-indulgence rather than honest identity-formation.
However, despite being a doubtlessly important inclusion in Holocaust historiography, as well as in the shaping of modern Polish identity, the book comes short on some of the more prosaic aspects of coherent argumentation and methodology. Gross seems unsure as to whether in describing the behaviour of the Poles he should take the path outlined by Browning in his ‘Ordinary Men’, or by Goldhgen in ‘Hitler’s Willing Executioners’. The reader is told on one hand that the perpetrators were far from being the ‘scum of society’ and were being driven by ‘rational’ motives such as the opportunity of plunder or the deeply harboured belief in blood libel. On the other they are shown as in essence having nothing to profit from the pogroms, doing it more or less for pleasure (as illustrated by the examples of people coming in from adjacent villages to join in), as a group of people powerless in the face of the occupying forces drunk with the absolute power they held over the Jews, as victims becoming victimisers.
Due to the limited length of his book Gross provides little detail about significant aspects of the Polish-Jewish attitudes, such as what the relations between the two groups in Jedwabne were before the war. On one hand he describes them as close to idyllic, on the other he claims that Jews had to repeatedly pay off the priest in order to be saved from the pogroms (he calls it a ‘tax for protection’). This is particularly significant, as the crux of Gross’s argument relies on the fact that the two communities were before the war in essence normal ‘neighbors’.
Gross also very often takes a speculative tone, his book resembling more a work of investigative journalism than history. For example, he speculates that those non-Jewish Poles who ‘had been compromised during the German occupation’- that is, people such as those who had commited the Jedwabne murders- were more likely to become part of the postwar Stalinist regime. The evidence he uses for this is extremely anecdotal in nature (in essence he relies on the case of one of the Jedwabne perpetrators who became a member of the NKVD).
We also now know that Gross simply got some of his facts wrong. In May 2001, the Institute of National Memory conducted excavations of the site of the massacre. The results offered contradictions of some aspects of Gross's account. The total number of bodies found was estimated at between 200 and 250, far lower than Gross’s claim of 1,000. In addition, some ammunition of German manufacture was discovered at the site, posing new questions as to the real German involvement in the crime.
Gross is honest in admitting the limitations of his sources and methodology. He admits that specifics of the Jedwabne case will never be known, and that sources are scant. Despite that, however, at the end of the book he makes the bold proposal to historians writing about the pogroms, proposing a ‘suspension of incredulity’ in dealing with statements of pogrom survivors, and treat them as fact until proven otherwise, precisely due to the fact that there is so little evidence relevant to the topic. This is a controversial approach that seems to a large extent predicated by the need of justifying the uncritical attitude he took to some of the sources he used in writing ‘Neighbors'.
The books final flaw, and one on which it was most criticised by the wider public, is the awkward ‘blame game’ Gross engages himself in. “A murderer in uniform remains a state functionary acting under orders,”, he writes, “and he might even be presumed to have mental reservations about what he has been ordered to do. Not so a civilian, killing another human being is of his own free will- such an evildoer is unequivocally but a murderer.” Gross therefore seems to indicate that the Polish perpetrators of pogroms were somehow ‘guiltier’ then the Germans who engaged in Holocaust. This philosophical stance, strongly present throughout the book, lends ‘Neighbors’ an air of a work written with a clear agenda in mind, and without the emotional detachment needed for a book on such an emotionally charged topic.
Gross has a number of theses he wishes to convey in his brief book. First, he indicates the inadequacy of the historiographic approach that dominated Holocaust literature until ‘Neighbors’. Under the existing model the lives of the Poles and Jews in occupied Poland were treated as largely disengaged and affected by very different forces. Gross rejects this assumption, claiming that events such as Jedwabne were proof of a very close interdependence of the histories of the two people. In other words he rejects the approach that Polish-Jewish relations during World War II were always mediated by Nazis and Soviets, stating that direct interaction played a huge role and form part of the story of the Holocaust. Finally, Gross rejects the notion that the idea that the belief in Judeo-Bolshevism was a driving factor in creating antagonism between the Poles and the Jews, and in fact reverses the argument claiming that a large portion of the post-war Stalinist core in Poland after the war consisted of former anti-Semites.
‘Neighbors’ without a doubt constitutes a watershed in Polish historiography of the Holocaust. For the first time the work of a Polish historian disclosing the ugly face of Polish behaviour during the war told the story so directly and without caveats. He walks away from the popular image that the worst crime of some of the Poles was keeping quiet for the fear of their lives at the sight of Jewish suffering, and points out that many Poles were in fact happy to become perpetrators of the suffering themselves, without any rational justification. Gross’s book impresses as it does not shy away from willing to accept the Polish ‘collective responsibility’ for the Holocaust, something that was traditionally reserved for the Germans. He logically concludes that if a nations ‘collective identity’ is assembled from remarkable achievements, such as Chopin’s music or Kopernik’s scientific endeavours, that same nation must also acknowledge its most shocking acts of violence and brutality. A nation that selects only those elements of its past that are commendable, it engages in self-indulgence rather than honest identity-formation.
However, despite being a doubtlessly important inclusion in Holocaust historiography, as well as in the shaping of modern Polish identity, the book comes short on some of the more prosaic aspects of coherent argumentation and methodology. Gross seems unsure as to whether in describing the behaviour of the Poles he should take the path outlined by Browning in his ‘Ordinary Men’, or by Goldhgen in ‘Hitler’s Willing Executioners’. The reader is told on one hand that the perpetrators were far from being the ‘scum of society’ and were being driven by ‘rational’ motives such as the opportunity of plunder or the deeply harboured belief in blood libel. On the other they are shown as in essence having nothing to profit from the pogroms, doing it more or less for pleasure (as illustrated by the examples of people coming in from adjacent villages to join in), as a group of people powerless in the face of the occupying forces drunk with the absolute power they held over the Jews, as victims becoming victimisers.
Due to the limited length of his book Gross provides little detail about significant aspects of the Polish-Jewish attitudes, such as what the relations between the two groups in Jedwabne were before the war. On one hand he describes them as close to idyllic, on the other he claims that Jews had to repeatedly pay off the priest in order to be saved from the pogroms (he calls it a ‘tax for protection’). This is particularly significant, as the crux of Gross’s argument relies on the fact that the two communities were before the war in essence normal ‘neighbors’.
Gross also very often takes a speculative tone, his book resembling more a work of investigative journalism than history. For example, he speculates that those non-Jewish Poles who ‘had been compromised during the German occupation’- that is, people such as those who had commited the Jedwabne murders- were more likely to become part of the postwar Stalinist regime. The evidence he uses for this is extremely anecdotal in nature (in essence he relies on the case of one of the Jedwabne perpetrators who became a member of the NKVD).
We also now know that Gross simply got some of his facts wrong. In May 2001, the Institute of National Memory conducted excavations of the site of the massacre. The results offered contradictions of some aspects of Gross's account. The total number of bodies found was estimated at between 200 and 250, far lower than Gross’s claim of 1,000. In addition, some ammunition of German manufacture was discovered at the site, posing new questions as to the real German involvement in the crime.
Gross is honest in admitting the limitations of his sources and methodology. He admits that specifics of the Jedwabne case will never be known, and that sources are scant. Despite that, however, at the end of the book he makes the bold proposal to historians writing about the pogroms, proposing a ‘suspension of incredulity’ in dealing with statements of pogrom survivors, and treat them as fact until proven otherwise, precisely due to the fact that there is so little evidence relevant to the topic. This is a controversial approach that seems to a large extent predicated by the need of justifying the uncritical attitude he took to some of the sources he used in writing ‘Neighbors'.
The books final flaw, and one on which it was most criticised by the wider public, is the awkward ‘blame game’ Gross engages himself in. “A murderer in uniform remains a state functionary acting under orders,”, he writes, “and he might even be presumed to have mental reservations about what he has been ordered to do. Not so a civilian, killing another human being is of his own free will- such an evildoer is unequivocally but a murderer.” Gross therefore seems to indicate that the Polish perpetrators of pogroms were somehow ‘guiltier’ then the Germans who engaged in Holocaust. This philosophical stance, strongly present throughout the book, lends ‘Neighbors’ an air of a work written with a clear agenda in mind, and without the emotional detachment needed for a book on such an emotionally charged topic.
December 26, 2021
A controversial book concerning a massacre of ethnic Jews in German occupied Poland during the Second World War. The controversy comes in where the author suggests the massacre was committed by the Polish neighbors, with the German forces authorization and provocation. Neighbors is a short read, and it uses court documents of proceedings taking place after the war is its main primary source. Gross suggests that the testimony of Holocaust survivors should be treated as primary sources in uncovering atrocities committed during, and I mostly agree. The only issue is that such accounts can be difficult to verify, partly due to the Nazi's own villainous due diligence, but in this case I felt Gross provided enough evidence to backup the holocaust survivors story.
Perhaps what is more interesting is the controversy surrounding this text, as it provoked a firestorm of condemnation from Polish nationalists who resented any implication of responsibility for the fate of Jews during the Holocaust. That said I felt Gross was clear that this book was not about saying Poland, as a nation, held any responsibility for the Holocaust, but was more about expanding the scope of Holocaust Studies to include perpetrators outside that of just the Germans. He is clear to state that one can be both perpetrator and victim, and trying to stay blind to any possible violence committed by Polish nationals only reduces the explanative power of Holocaust literature.
Perhaps what is more interesting is the controversy surrounding this text, as it provoked a firestorm of condemnation from Polish nationalists who resented any implication of responsibility for the fate of Jews during the Holocaust. That said I felt Gross was clear that this book was not about saying Poland, as a nation, held any responsibility for the Holocaust, but was more about expanding the scope of Holocaust Studies to include perpetrators outside that of just the Germans. He is clear to state that one can be both perpetrator and victim, and trying to stay blind to any possible violence committed by Polish nationals only reduces the explanative power of Holocaust literature.
April 16, 2019
an absolutely crucial read in understanding historiographical approaches in examining Polish-Jewish relations during the Holocaust. I am incredibly impressed with the use of one horrific incident as a lens in which to view the more widespread antisemitism and complex issues of Polish nationialism during WWII.
March 8, 2022
The story of ordinary, Polish villagers whose long-held ill disposition towards Jews is tipped over the edge by a combination of Nazi allowance, wartime conditions, degradation of morality, and the deepest mysteries at the root of human evil. Neighbors brutally, barbarically mutilate and destroy their neighbors and the causes of such events are ultimately incomprehensible. Gross forces us to reckon and attempt to understand, yet prevents us from completely foreclosing on motivations, because that would be an insulting and self-justifying action in its own right.
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