Neighbors; The Destruction of the Jewish community in Jedwabne, Poland

New York: Penguin Books, 2002. Third printing [stated]. Trade paperback. xxii, [2], 214, [2] pages. Illustrations. Sources. Maps. Afterword. Notes. Index. Cover has some wear, soiling, and creases. Paperback edition published with a new Afterword. National Book Award Finalist sticker on front cover. Ink notation at top of first page. Jan Tomasz Gross (born 1947) is a Polish-American sociologist and historian. He is the Norman B. Tomlinson '16 and '48 Professor of War and Society, emeritus, and Professor of History, emeritus, at Princeton University. Gross is the author of several books on Polish history, particularly Polish-Jewish relations during World War II and the Holocaust, including Neighbors: The Destruction of the Jewish Community in Jedwabne, Poland; Fear: Anti-Semitism in Poland after Auschwitz; and (with Irena Grudzinska Gross) Golden Harvest. His 2001 book about the Jedwabne massacre, Neighbors caused controversy because it addressed the role of local Poles in the massacre. He wrote that the atrocity was committed by Poles and not by the German occupiers. Gross's book generated controversy and was the subject of vigorous debate in Poland and abroad. A subsequent investigation conducted by the Polish Institute of National Remembrance (IPN) supported some of Gross's conclusions. In addition, the IPN concluded there was more involvement by Nazi German security forces in the massacre. Polish journalist Anna Bikont began an investigation at the same time, ultimately publishing a book, My z Jedwabnego (2004), later published in French and English as The Crime and the Silence: Confronting the Massacre of Jews in Wartime 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. Derived from a Publishers Weekly article: This volume documents how nearly all of the Jews of Jedwabne, Poland, were murdered on one day—most of them burned alive—by their non-Jewish neighbors. Drawing on testimony that prompted and emanated from a 1949 Polish trial, Gross carefully describes how apparently normal citizens terrorized and killed approximately 1,600 Jewish villagers. Gross, a professor of politics and European studies at New York University, also attempts to place this heinous crime in historical and political context, concluding that he can explain but not fully understand. How to understand the Polish villagers, led by their mayor, exceeding the July 10, 1941, command of conquering German soldiers to annihilate the Jews but spare some tradesmen? Immediately, according to Gross, local townsmen-turned-hooligans grabbed clubs studded with nails and other weapons and chased the Jews into the street. Many tried to escape through the surrounding fields, but only seven succeeded. The thugs fatally shot many Jews after forcing them to dig mass graves. They shoved the remaining hundreds of Jews into a barn, doused it with kerosene and set it ablaze. Some on the outside played musical instruments to drown out the victims' cries. Gross, a Polish émigré himself, guides the reader along an analytical path. By de-emphasizing the drama, he helps readers cope with the awful incident. He asserts hopefully that young Poles are "ready to confront the unvarnished history of Polish-Jewish relations during the war." Condition: Good / No dust jacket issued.

Keywords: Jews, Anti-semitism, Holocaust, Jedwabne, Poland, Nazi, Massacre, War Crime, Jewish-Polish Relations, Pogrom, Radzilow, Soviet Occupation, Collective Responsibility, Collaboration, Stalinism, Historiography

ISBN: 0142002402

[Book #85164]

Price: $32.50

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