Poland

CREDIBILITY OF WITNESSES IN 1941 POGROM BOOK QUESTIONED.
Two Polish historians have questioned the credibility of witnesses cited in the book "Neighbors" by Jan Gross on the 1941 pogrom in Jedwabne (see "RFE/RL Poland, Belarus, and Ukraine Report," 6 and 20 March 2001), PAP reported on 29 March. Gross alleged in his book that on 10 July 1941, shortly after the town of Jedwabne in northeastern Poland was occupied by German troops, Polish residents of Jedwabne herded some 1,600 Jews into a barn and burned them alive. Gross's book, published in Polish last year and due to appear in English this month, alleges that the Jedwabne murder was perpetrated by Poles alone, without any incitement from the Nazi forces occupying the town. Gross claims his findings are based on the study of Polish court files and accounts of some eyewitnesses of the pogrom. But historians Tomasz Strzembosz and Piotr Gontarczyk say Gross's findings should not be taken for granted.

Gross wrote in his book that "the first and most precise account on this subject [the pogrom] is the testimony of [Szmul] Wasersztajn, dating from 1945." But Strzembosz told PAP that Wasersztajn could not have witnessed the murder of Jews in Jedwabne on 10 July 1941 because on that day he was in hiding some 500 meters from the site of the atrocity. Strzembosz added that files of the Lomza court from 1949 and 1953 (concerning trials of some participants in the Jedwabne pogrom) state that "Wasersztajn was not a direct witness" to the pogrom. Gross claims he had studied the same court files before he wrote his book.

According to Strzembosz, other less than credible witnesses cited by Gross are Abram Boruszczak and Eljasz Gradowski. Strzembosz told PAP that Boruszczak did not live in Jedwabne at all. As for Gradowski, Strzembosz said he was sentenced for theft in 1940 (during the Soviet occupation) and deported to the Soviet Union, from where he did not return to Poland until 1945 and thus "had nothing to do with the Jedwabne case." Strzembosz added that in the hearing of the case before the Lomza court in 1949, neither Boruszczak nor Gradowski were taken into account as witnesses by the court, since "they could, at most, have heard [about the crime]."

Another Polish historian, Piotr Gontarczyk, told the daily "Zycie" on 29 March that "in writing his 'Neighbors,' Gross based [his findings] on testimonies and accounts that were not credible." Gontarczyk added: "[Gross] chose those [accounts] which matched what he wanted."

Gross told journalists in Lublin on 29 March that Strzembosz's statement does not undermine his findings contained in the book. The author of "Neighbors" reiterated that he is convinced that there were no Germans present during the murder in Jedwabne, apart from a military police post. "The mass participation of Germans in this event is completely precluded," Gross stressed.

Meanwhile, the National Remembrance Institute, which launched an investigation into the Jedwabne pogrom last year, has found new evidence regarding the number of people who may have been the victims of the 1941 massacre. Historian Jerzy Milewski from the Bialystok branch of the National Remembrance Institute reported that, according to Soviet data, there were 562 Jews living in Jedwabne in 1940. "This data is significantly at variance with that which is in circulation," Milewski said. Gross wrote in his book that some 1,600 Jews perished in the Jedwabne pogrom.

State Archive Director Daria Nalecz on 26 March presented documents discovered in the archives of Lomza, which include accounts from 19 witnesses (of whom nine were of Jewish descent), PAP reported. Nalecz said all those accounts point to Germans as the perpetrators of the Jedwabne pogrom.


PBU report http://www.rferl.org/pbureport/