Jedwabne

Poland | Maidanek | Chelmno | Jedwabne | Treblinka | Auschwitz

Jedwabne is all about death, betrayal and lies.
Death - of 1500 Jews, murdered by their Polish neighbors.

Lies - by the neighbors who thought they could make history blame the Nazis for just one more atrocity.

Betrayal - of neighbors who were marched to the edge of the town, and murdered in cold blood.

Jedwabne is a beautiful little village. As our bus passed through, the villagers waved to us. We weren’t really told in advance what we would see, what horrors had occurred here. After several long days in Poland visiting mass grave after mass grave, concentration camp after concentration camp, the sunny day and lovely village seemed like a welcome change. For once, we didn't know that much about the place. Who, after all, knows much about a tiny village where the streets are almost too narrow for the bus to travel, where the houses are maintained so nicely and gardens grow so colorfully.

But Jedwabne is all about secrets and lies. Testimony of villagers exists, claiming it was the Nazis. Claiming they were there and saw it all. Few first-hand accounts exist to contradict the lies, because less than a handful survived. If your neighbor came to your door, would you know to flee? Would you know to suspect treachery? Could you imagine half your town rising up to murder your family, your friends and relatives, your whole community, the other half of the town? But the truth has been triumphant. Recently, the Polish President came to Jedwabne and admitted the truth that all knew, but refused to say aloud.

On July 10, 1941, the Polish villages of Jedwabne took their Jewish neighbors and murdered them. Only two are known to have survived. One ran from the slow moving procession and was able to hide in the forest and watch as his Polish friends and neighbors murdered his entire family, his Jewish neighbors and friends. The second was a young teenager whose father sent him back to the family home to make sure they had locked the door. As the young boy began to return to his family, he sensed something was wrong. He too took to the forest and watched as his fellow townspeople murdered his family and the rest of the Jews of Jedwabne.

Despite this horrible truth, this terrible crime, the people of Jedwabne decided to hide their murderous acts, their hatred, their massacre of betrayal. And so, after WWII, Jedwabne became like all other villages, a place where people remembered how the town had suffered at the hands of the Nazis, how the war years brought sorrow, and how the town had moved on, as all of Poland wanted to do. How they rebuilt, replanted and how the sun shines brightly in Jedwabne off the carefully maintained houses and gardens and roads.

But the truth was that the Christian people of Jedwabne murdered half of their own town, when there were no Nazis around. Polish anti-Semitism, pure and simple - generations of hatred that had nothing to do with Naziism and everything to do with man's inhumanity. But like all of Poland, a monument was required to remember that they had suffered during the war. Hadn't they lost fully half their townspeople?

The monument they put up after WWII told the story "In memory of 1500 Poles murdered by the Hitlerites" the sign read. And for 60 years, the shame of the town was hidden behind the lie. Poles murdered by Hitler's forces? The people of Jedwabne gave tearful accounts of Nazi murderers. It was the Nazis...and anyway, the Jews deserved to die because they were working with the Russians. It was the Russians...and anyway, the Jews deserved to die because they were working with the Nazis. Anything but the truth. The horrible truth.

But they couldn't keep the secret forever. There were those who knew the truth and remembered the hatred. Finally, after decades of work, the Polish President came to Jedwabne to correct the wrong. The sign, the lie, was erased. They were Jews who were murdered in Jedwabne and they would be remembered as Jews. Finally. And so the memorial was replaced with new words. "In memory of the 1500 Jews who were murdered." But the lie continues, doesn't it? They admit the "Hitlerites" didn't do it...but don't admit they did - at least not on the memorial that stands in Jedwabne.

Jedwabne still lies, still denies. The Internet still seeks to change history and so some of the townspeople say it isn't true, that their fathers and grandfathers didn't participate in yet another of Poland's many acts of anti-Semitism.

Before it said, "In memory of 1500 Poles murdered by the Hitlerites." Now it says, "In memory of 1500 Jews who were murdered." Still the truth is denied, this time by omission. Not a word about who murdered them. Until the sign is correctly written, until Jedwabne recognizes that it was their hatred that murdered their fellow townspeople, the name and town of Jedwabne will carry its shame and we will remember. To the 1500 hundred Jews murdered by the people of Jedwabne out of hatred and anti-Semitism, may your memory be blessed. And to the town of Jedwabne, may your town be remembered in shame.