Description
Neighbors--Jan Gross's stunning account of the brutal mass murder of the Jews of Jedwabne by their Polish neighbors--was met with international critical acclaim and was a finalist for the National Book Award in the United States. It has also been, from the moment of its publication, the occasion of intense controversy and painful reckoning. This book captures some of the most important voices in the ensuing debate, including those of residents of Jedwabne itself as well as those of journalists, intellectuals, politicians, Catholic clergy, and historians both within and well beyond Poland's borders.
Antony Polonsky and Joanna Michlic introduce the debate, focusing particularly on how Neighbors rubbed against difficult old and new issues of Polish social memory and national identity. The editors then present a variety of Polish voices grappling with the role of the massacre and of Polish-Jewish relations in Polish history. They include samples of the various strategies used by Polish intellectuals and political elites as they have attempted to deal with their country's dark past, to overcome the legacy of the Holocaust, and to respond to Gross's book.
The Neighbors Respond makes the debate over Neighbors available to an English-speaking audience--and is an excellent tool for bringing the discussion into the classroom. It constitutes an engrossing contribution to modern Jewish history, to o
Chapter
Maria Kaczyńska “In Memory and Admonition,” Gazeta Wspótczesna, 11 July 2000
PART II: THE MORAL DEBATE
Zofia Kossak-Szczucka “Prophecies Are Being Fulfilled,” Prawda, May 1942
Joanna Tokarska-Bakir “Obsessed with Innocence,” Gazeta Wyborcza, 13–14 January 2001
Jan Nowak-Jeziorański “A Need for Compensation,” Rzeczpospolita, 26 January 2001
Antoni Macierewicz “The Revolution of Nihilism,” Gtos, 3 February 2001
Hanna Świda-Ziemba “The Shortsightedness of the ‘Cultured,’” Gazeta Wyborcza, 6 April 2001
Jerzy Stawomir Mac “Homo Jedvabicus,” Wprost, 22 July 2001
PART III: OFFICIAL STATEMENTS
Living in Truth: Special Statement by Prime Minister Jerzy Buzek regarding the Slaughter of Jews in Jedwabne in 1941, April 2001
Address Delivered by Wladyslaw Bartoszewski, Polish Minister of Foreign Affairs, Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., 5 April 2001
Address by President of Poland Aleksander Kwaśniewski at the Ceremonies in Jedwabne Marking the Sixtieth Anniversary of the Jedwabne Tragedy on 10 July 2001
Findings of Investigation S 1/00/Zn into the Murder of Polish Citizens of Jewish Origin in the Town of Jedwabne on 10 July 1941, pursuant to Article 1 Point 1 of the Decree of 31 August 1944
“Jedwabne—Let Us Be Silent in the Face of This Crime: Piotr Lipiński Talks with Professor Andrzej Rzepliński,” Gazeta Wyborcza, 22 July 2002
PART IV: THE DEBATE IN THE CATHOLIC CHURCH
“A Poor Christian Looks at Jedwabne: Adam Boniecki and Michal Okoński Talk with Archbishop Henryk Muszyński,” Tygodnik Powszechny, 25 March 2001
Interview with the Primate of Poland, Cardinal Józef Glemp, on the Murder of Jews in Jedwabne, 15 May 2001
Rev. Stanislaw Musial, “We Ask You to Help Us Be Better,” Gazeta Wyborcza, 23 May 2001
PART V: VOICES OF THE INHABITANTS OF JEDWABNE
“We Are Different People: A Discussion about Jedwabne in Jedwabne,” Więź, April 2001
Marta Kurkowska-Budzan, “My Jedwabne”
PART VI: MEMORIES AND METHODOLOGIES: THE HISTORICAL DEBATE
Tomasz Strzembosz “Collaboration Passed Over in Silence,” Rzeczpospolita, 27 January 2001
Jerzy Jedlicki “How to Grapple with the Perplexing Legacy,” Polityka, 10 February 2001
”A Roundtable Discussion: Jedwabne—Crime and Memory,” Rzeczpospolita, 3 March 2001
Anna Bikont “We of Jedwabne,” Gazeta Wyborcza, 23 March 2001
Bogdan Musial “The Pogrom in Jedwabne: Critical Remarks about Jan T. Gross’s Neighbors”
Jan Gross “Critical Remarks Indeed”
“Jedwabne without Stereotypes: Agnieszka Sabor and Marek Zając Talk with Professor Tomasz Szarota,” Tygodnik Powszechny, 28 April 2002
Dariusz Stola “Jedwabne: How Was It Possible?”
PART VII: THE DISCUSSION OUTSIDE POLAND
David Engel “Introduction to the Hebrew Edition of Neighbors”
Israel Gutman “Do the Poor Poles Really Look at the Ghetto? Introduction to Hebrew Edition of Neighbors”
István Deák “Heroes and Victims” (Extracts), New York Review of Books, 31 May 2001
Richard Lukas “Jedwabne and the Selling of the Holocaust,” Polish American Journal, May 2001
Adam Michnik “Poles and the Jews: How Deep the Guilt?” New York Times, 17 March 2001
Leon Wieseltier and Adam Michnik “Washington Diarist: Righteous” and an Exchange of Letters, New Republic, 9, 17, and 24 April 2001
The Neighbors Respond
：The Controversy over the Jedwabne Massacre in Poland
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