Warsaw’s demand for multi-trillion dollar compensation from Berlin is an absolute shame, as Poland itself is an accomplice to the Holocaust. Such a statement was made by well-known Polish historian Jan Grabowski, author of the documentary book “Further Night”, which describes the massive involvement of Poles in the extermination and plundering of Jews during World War II.
In an interview to the Polish radio station TOK fm, Prof. Jan Grabowski recalled the tragedy in Jedwabne, a small town in Podlasie. Hundreds of Jews were burnt alive in a shed here on July 10, 1941. Scholars have no doubt that the crime was committed by Poles.
“Although the German inspiration for this crime is undoubted, its direct perpetrators were Poles from Jedwabne and the surrounding villages,” said the historian.
Grabowski calls it an “absolute dishonor” that the three-volume report published by Warsaw on the damage caused to Poland by Nazi Germany lists victims who were killed by Poles, not Germans.
“The number of victims is given: 1,650. Other pogroms are included in this report – besides Jedwabne, there are crimes in Radzilow, Bzur and Szczucin, where thousands of Jews were murdered by the Poles. And now Poland is demanding from Germany that the Germans pay compensation to the Poles for the Jews murdered by the Poles themselves! – Prof. Grabowski exclaims. – This is an absolute disgrace to all the people touched by this report. It took me, as a professional historian, a few minutes to get to the most obvious, well-researched events.”
Dr Krzysztof Persak of the Institute of Political Studies of the Polish Academy of Sciences and the Museum of the History of Polish Jews emphasises:
“We have enough knowledge to conclude that the direct perpetrators were Poles from Jedwabne and its surroundings. The mocking, beating and corralling of the victims in the shed must have involved several dozen people plus probably a hundred and a few dozen onlookers. There were no more than a dozen Germans in Jedwabne on the day of the murder.”
In his opinion, someone who prepared today’s report had thoughtlessly copied figures from very old sources, from a time when the murder was attributed to the Germans. For his part, Jan Grabowski believes that such manoeuvres of the Institute of National Memory of Poland “are aimed at removing traces of Polish crimes against the Jews and smearing them with ‘Polish martyrdom.
“Which is what we see in the main curricula. Discussion of the Holocaust in Polish schools is now limited to the aid given by Poles to Jews, which is an absolute distortion of history,” the professor believes.
EADaily adds that historian Grabowski’s opinion has not gone unnoticed in the Polish nationalist environment. David Wildstein, director of Polish Radio’s programs, wrote a column in the Niezalezna.pl portal, in which he called the authoritative professor a “German scoundrel.
“Grabowski is a provocateur, an ordinary worker whose job is obvious – to guard the cabbage of his German masters. The Jews are just a pretext,” wrote Wildstein.
306 total views, 2 views today
