Thus, there are many premises and testimonies! - Let us take a closer look at them, though.

Someone's (we do not know whose) warning Dwojra Pecynowicz and Mietek Olszewicz about the action to be taken does not tell us anything explicit about the concluded "agreement." One could tell it because of the arrival of a larger group of Germans (I shall discuss it later), it could be a result of some hearsay, a reflection of what had happened in Radziłów on 7th July, etc. The account of the MP messenger about the arrival of Gestapo officers, and who thinks that they discussed something, but does not know what, but can only associate the fact with the call to drive Jews to the town square, does not say anything about an "agreement", but about a given order, rather. By the way, I have never heard of Germans concluding "agreements", neither with the Warsaw Judenrat in 1942, nor with the Warsaw Mayor-Commissioner in 1939 - 1944. How can we then talk about an "agreement" with representatives of a small town. They were simply giving orders.

Bardon, similarly as Jerzy Laudański, only saw the Gestapo entering the building of the Board. Szmul Wasersztajn, who, by the way, does not mention an "agreement", but an "order", was, for obvious reasons, the most misinformed person: there had to be a barrier in communication between the quisling City Board and the community that was about to be murdered. Henryk Krystowczyk also heard something. With the reservation that Henryk Krystowczyk is an absolutely non-credible person. He is a liar, caught on lying, and a man who offered himself as a witness of the crime for low reasons, i.e. vengeance. When he testified that he had seen Jews being driven to the barn by: Czesław Laudański with his son Zygmunt, and Aleksander Łojewski, "with a walking-stick in the hand ", and he allegedly had seen it from the attic of his second cousin's, Wacław Krystowczyk's house at Przestrzelska St., the said Wacław admitted that "he could not make good observation while in my house, as the view is foreshadowed by Śleszyński's barn" (GK SCŁ 123, f. 213v i 218). It is true. One cannot see from Przestrzelska Street what happens on the way to the barn, nor even in Cmentarna Street, as it is overshadowed by houses and trees, and, moreover, it is hard to recognize people from the distance of 250 meters, or who had a walking-stick in the hand. This is why Krystowczyk recognized those whom he wanted to recognize, including Czesław Laudański who had been absent beyond any doubt.

Let us summarize. Prof. Gross has based information of exceptional importance for the factual and moral reasons, and putting the blame on the Polish City Board and the Poles themselves, on gossip and suppositions. During the German occupation one could say that it was based on the SLS Agency, i.e. "Some Lady Said." And especially while formulating such an accusation, he should have cared for credible source foundations, and he was especially obliged to do it.

But in fact, the author of the "Neighbors" words it in the following way: "Where the idea of the whole project was conceived? - Was it submitted by the Germans (as one could assume by the phrase that "the Germans gave such an order", according to the account by Wasersztajn), or, was it a "grass-root" initiative of city councilors of Jedwabne? - It is impossible to determine it. It is anyway without greater importance [underlined by T.S.], as clearly both parties came easily to an agreement." (p. 52)

Well, this is something I cannot understand! I cannot discuss it with him, as if it were indifferent to a Polish historian, whether the initiative of that terrible murder committed on people from that town, on the neighbors, came from the occupiers, or whether it was a "grass-root" initiative of the City Board, quisling, but composed of Poles. What the Jewish community would say about a Jewish historian who would write that it was indifferent to him, whether Judenrat's sending thousands after thousands of Warsaw Jews to the Umschlagplatz was done by German orders, or was it a "grass-root" initiative of the very Judenrat, as "clearly both parties came easily to an agreement." I leave this question without an answer.

I would also like to ask the author of the "Neighbors" two simple questions:

1. How does he know that beside the City Board also a City Council existed in Jedwabne in 1941, and that it took any part in any possible talks with the Germans?

2. How does he know that both "parties" easily came to an agreement, as in fact we know nothing about the talks themselves (their course, results, circumstances)?

All these are irresponsible words, cast in the wind, without any grounds, but, on the other hand, with an all too clear tendency to throw mud on the residents of Jedwabne. Simply shameful.

There is no reason then to consider, following the accounts of Szmul Wesersztajn and Eliasz Grądowski (footnote 48 on p. 54), whether in fact the Germans proposed the Poles that they "allowed" (as it comes out from the context) to save the lives of some number of Jews - professionals, and Bronisław Śleszyński resisted to that, or, whether, following Wiktor Nieławicki's account, "the Germans suggested while at the very barn that some Jews be spared, as they needed labor force, and one of the Poles who managed the action replied that they would submit sufficient number of their own people to work" [underlined by T.S.].

Wasersztajn could possibly hear something about it, but not at "first hand" (according to Jan Gross), while Eliasz Grądowski, who was in the USSR till the end of the war, did not hear anything - not even something "not at first hand." And, let us add it, he is an evident liar, who not only disclosed in his testimony that he'd been hundreds kilometers away from Jedwabne on 10th July 1941, but pretended that he was one of those subject to repressive measures. Namely, he testified the following: "Initially they drove all the Jews to the town square in Jedwabne - I fled (...)" and he mentioned as many as 26 people guilty of the murder, adding that Abram Boruszczak, a witness of the prosecutor, who was not a resident of Jedwabne at all, had witnessed the same.

It is getting spicier by the fact that the same Eliasz Grądowski, while testifying in front of the City Court of Justice in Łomża in the case to admit the property right to Gedal London, concerning a property at Przestrzelska Street in Jedwabne, that used to belong to Ms. Sora Drejarska, his sister, and he testified on 8th January 1947 (therefore, two years earlier): "Drejarska was murdered with her entire family by Germans and only her brother remained alive", while testifying in a similar case concerning Josech Lewin, he claimed: "He is a brother of Fajga, born Semin, who was murdered by Germans on 10th July 1941, and it was done in that way that the Jews, including herself, were driven to a barn in Jedwabne and were burnt alive. I know that, as I was hiding in the area of Jedwabne at that time" [underlined by T.S.]. Another Polish citizen of Jewish descent, Mr. Jankel Bena, gave testimony as a witness in the same case: "On 10th July, I saw Germans driving all the Jews of Jedwabne to a barn and setting fire (...). I was hiding from the Germans at that time, and was hidden at the cemetery then, and witnessed everything."

One thing we don't know is whether it concerns the catholic cemetery at Cmentarna ("Cemetery") Street, located several hundred meters from Śleszyński's barn, or the Jewish cemetery, located within several dozen meters.

The same concerns other witnesses, too. The City Court of Justice in Łomża made a statement at that time: "The fact of the death of Zelik Zdrojewicz was ascertained by the testimony of an eye-witness, Zelik Lewiński, who had seen Zdrojewicz being driven on that critical day with the entire Jewish population of Jedwabne to a barn, set on fire by the Germans. The witness managed to escape from being driven into the barn in the last moment" [underlined by T.S.].

This prompts a question: When did Eliasz Grądowski and others testified truly? - Was it when they accused the Poles of murder, thus ruling out the German participation, or when they provided account about the Germans, not mentioning a single word about the Poles? It seems like they said what they deemed beneficial or comfortable in a given moment.

One more comment. Prof. Gross's statement that the accounts of the last witnesses of the Holocaust are especially credible, and that they should be treated as such, was disqualified and ridiculed by himself. Perhaps in other cases, yes, but in those he used to present his premise, no. I cannot help it.

In what concerns Eliasz Grądowski and Abram Boruszczak, it also refers to Wiktor Nieławicki, who, according to Gross "escaped before being driven with the crowd of Jews to the barn" (footnote 48, p. 54). Could he get back, close to the barn, in order to listen to the conversations between the murderers? - And who informed him, hiding away from deadly danger, about that conspiracy? - Probably not those "Poles who managed the action."

Thus, the entire premise assuming an agreement between some Polish authorities and the German political police is "suspended in a vacuum" being not proved by any serious arguments.

WHO SET THE ŚLESZYŃSKIS' BARN ON FIRE?

This fundamental issue is still waiting to be solved. I have no documents that would be of prevailing importance, but I would nevertheless like to present some testimonies that can prove useful.

The first one is a statement by Aleksander Wyrzykowski, husband of Antonina, the very main positive heroin of the "Neighbors" - a film by Agnieszka Arnold, and who is also present in Gross's book. It was the two of them who kept seven individuals of Jewish descent in hiding as long as till 1945. Aleksander Wyrzykowski (born in 1908 and living in Milanówek by Warsaw at that time), signed a "Testimony" on 2nd May 1962, which begins with the following words: "I, Wyrzykowski Aleksander, together with my wife, Antonina, would like to submit the following statement. From November 1942 to 22nd January 1945, we were hiding seven Jews in our place. We lived in Janczewko in the poviat of Łomża at that time. Not far from our place, in the town of Jedwabne, the Germans, assisted by some Poles, burnt 1600 Jews alive in 1942 [wrong: it was in 1941 - T.S.] (...)" [underlined by T.S.]. the second testimony is that by Stefan Boczkowski of the village of Grądy Małe, located in the vicinity of Jedwabne, and who, together with a friend, Roman Chojnowski of the same village, witnessed the events in Jedwabne on 10th July. They were both over 15 at that time. He wrote me the following in his letter of 21st November 2000: "Both of us, with many other local people were walking within some distance, at the rear of the column [of Jews - T.S.] - but we could see almost entire column pretty clear. Once the column approached the barn, they brutally ordered the Jews to enter it, and, in most of the cases, German soldiers "physically helped them" enter the barn - by kicking, beating up and pushing individual people by force. Once all those from the column were pushed into the barn, the large door was closed, i.e. the door that served to let horse-driven carriages with cargo into the barn. Then a military pickup with soldiers arrived at a high speed, and some of the soldiers immediately jumped down on the ground, while the remaining soldiers began to hand to those on the ground metal containers with gasoline, and those soldiers immediately poured the gasoline on the sides of the barn, all around; immediately after they poured the gasoline, some soldiers began to set fire on the barn on the sides all around. The barn was immediately set on fire with high flames and smoke. There was a terrible cry, lament and some hell-like uproar (...)".

Another account is in line with that of Boczkowski. It was submitted in New York City, and this time not to myself, but to Waldemar Piasecki. I cannot evaluate how credible it is, although it sounds very credible, indeed. It was submitted by Apolinary Domitrz of the village of Rostki by Jedwabne, born in 1929, who, together with his colleagues, Jan Rakowski and Zenon Ryszkiewicz, was pasturing cows within a half-kilometer off the fire. Having spotted the fire, they arrived running when the barn was on fire for quite a while already. The record says:

"It was warm when the barn was set on fire. It burst up. Then we immediately ran to Jedwabne. (...) A turn to Cmentarna Street. And so we stood some two hundred and fifty meters from the barn. It was a fire like hell. It cracked like chopped splinters. It was built of wooden boards, thatched. Everything was very hot. There was a blast and a yellow smoke came out. Like that. And the Germans withdrew from the fire. And what about the others? What "others"? Master, there were no Poles in there. Only the Germans. We have seen no Poles. How many MPs were there? Oh, master, plenty came in. Some twenty or thirty. I did not count them, but there were many of them. (...)" (Witness No. 5. Jedwabne - the inner history of the crime. "Kulisy", No. 16 of 19th Apr. 2001.)

One can say that the contemporary account published by "Kulisy" is of no importance. Confronted with "zero" credibility of Grądowski and Boruszczak, testifying in front of the court, I would not be as skeptical in relation to accounts provided years later, provided they were submitted independently of one another and if facts and pictures they describe confirm one another. The difference between the testimonies provided by Boczkowski and Domitrz is that the former watched from the very beginning the Jews being driven and the fire itself, and thus saw the Poles, while the latter arrived when Poles had already left the area around the barn.

There is yet another element to increase the level of credibility of Boczkowski's account. Even though he did not know the files of the case of 1949 while submitting his testimony, he clearly distinguishes between two groups of Poles involved in guarding Jews in the town square and driving them into the barn. The first one were those "forced" to perform the task under pressure, while the second one were "volunteers" marked off by beating up the Jews.

The conviction of the local community that it was the Germans who had burnt the Jews in Jedwabne and that the same could happen to the Poles is present in the account by father Kazimierz Olszewski, the priest at the Center for the Blind in Laski by Warsaw. He wrote, among other things:

"I was born in the village of Grądy Duże, 4 kilometers off Jedwabne, and I lived there till 1953. My parish church was in Jedwabne. (...) The Soviets fled on 22nd June 1941, and then the Germans came. On 10th July 1941 I was with my father, who worked in our field by the village of Przestrzele, some kilometer and a half from Jedwabne. Some time before the evening we noticed a column of smoke. The day was warm and sunny. There was a fire in Jedwabne, something was burning.

We came back home in the evening. The news was spread - the Germans had burnt Jews in a barn of Jedwabne. I could hear around me that soon the same would be the fate of the Poles. I shall never forget a conversation with my mother, Helena: "Mum, I'm afraid that they will burn us alive, too." Then I heard the answer: "Do not fear, it takes a short while." I shall never forget the smoke of the barn on fire and the conversation with my mother. (...) Little was said about the participation of the local community in the Holocaust of the Jews, as there was no doubt of who was the main perpetrator of the murder in Jedwabne." (A letter of 6th March 2001.)

I am not writing all this in order to try to diminish the participation and responsibility of Poles at all cost, as there is no doubt that some group of them took part in the murder. Instructive in this context is however a statement by Prof. Adam Dobroński, and concerning the events of Tykocin, "which till recently have been regarded as the most drastic example of the Polish participation in the extermination of Jews. According to Jewish accounts, it was the Poles who had organized the pogrom (...). But following a more extensive research of the source material, the extent of Polish participation has been clearly decreased, and currently they say that while in fact a certain number of Poles took part in it, but as a result of the Germans having earlier rounded-up Poles, and they summoned some by their names, and took others directly from the street." (A. Dobroński - "Historical Controversies are Verified in a Dialogue", "Rzeczpospolita" of 5th May 2000.). Exactly the same as in the case of Jedwabne.

The above quotation leads us to the problem of analogies, to look at the murder in Jedwabne from the perspective of other cities and towns of the Łomża region.

What happened in other places

We do not have more comprehensive knowledge of similar murders as that of Jedwabne, committed in at least several places at approximately the same time, but descriptions of those events reveal scenes that indicate some predefined "scenario", a ritual course of the mass extermination of Jews. At the same time, the Germans are the key "directors" and "actors" in each case, with some smaller or bigger participation by some group of the local community. At the same time, descriptions provided by Polish and Jewish witnesses match one another. There is therefore no question of manipulation or lies on the part of the witnesses.

Namely, Jews in Zaręby Kościelne were treated exactly in the same way as those in Jedwabne, and the only difference is that it happened as early as September 1939. Wacław Zakrzewski, in his account entitled "On Pathless Tracts of the War" (Archiwum Wschodnie, sign. II/507/Ł) of 1973, has recorded that while Germans entered Zaręby on 14th September 1939:

"Local Jews led by the rabbi came out to greet the Germans. The Germans allowed them to welcome them, and ordered that all the Jews gathered in the town square. Once all the Jews gathered, they ordered them to collect the fertilizer that remained after the market with their bare hands, and ordered the rabbi to take it away in the hat (...)".

Does not it remind us of the order to clean the town square in Jedwabne, as an overture to the execution? Was not it at Czyżewo, located west of Jedwabne, where Germans who came here in June 1941, ordered to smash monuments of Lenin and Stalin into pieces? Doctor Marian Godlewski of Warsaw, who was a resident of the town at that time, recollects the following:

"The Russians erected a monument of Lenin, in the town square of Czyżewo, and that of Stalin - a bust - at the train station, on a small square by the train station. The station was within some kilometer to the town. Immediately after having seized the town, the Germans drove all the Jews of Czyżewo and told them to break Lenin's monument into pieces, and then go to the station and break Stalin's monument into pieces, and then carry all that remained of both monuments on hand-barrows, sing Jewish mourning songs, and throw the broken monuments into the Broja river after the procession. The event was organized by Germans." (A letter of 19th April 2001.)

After all, the order to break monuments of the "leaders" into pieces, to carry them on hand-barrows in a procession and to sing (in Jedwabne they sang: "The war is because of us" and Soviet songs) is also an element of a ritual that preceded the murder.

Let us now take a look from the perspective of accounts given by local Jews. At first those from Zaręby Kościelne. "At the beginning of August 1941, Polish policemen gathered Jewish men who had worked for the Soviet authorities and whom they knew as active collaborators. Many managed to hide, and they gathered approximately 30 in total. They were made carry Lenin's statue, from the market square to the river by the town. On the way, Polish policemen forced the Jews to sing Hatikwa, and one of them, Jaakow Krzybowicz (Grzybowicz?) was made play the accordion. By the river, while throwing the statue into water, a local policeman, Roman Zakrzewski, ordered a local Jew, Abram Bonowicz to deliver a speech he dictated to him. (...)" (AŻIH, Account 301/386. Account by Rachela and Mindl Olszak, a typewritten copy). It is described in a similar way by Cipa Goldberg (Acc. No. 301/383), who adds the following fragment: "One day, the Germans drove rabbi Śpiewak on the street, made him take off his shoes and sweep the street, and collect rubbish in his own hat."

It was very similar in Kolno: "On July 5 1941, the Germans and their Polish assistants drove the entire Jewish community and gathered them around Lenin's monument. They made the men to put on their talliths and sing; While singing Hatikwa, accompanied by terrible beating up and shouts, the statue was broken into pieces by Jewish smiths. The debris was loaded on cars. They were driven by Jews in talliths, the Germans sitting on top of the cars with the reins in their hands, the Poles hustling and beating up (...). At the cemetery, they dig a grave, make them prey, sing, and to the great joy of the persecutors, the debris that remained from Lenin's statue is buried." (AŻIH, acc. 301/1996, Białystok, 28th Nov. 1946.)

Apart from that, repeated, with some modifications, ritual, another characteristic moment that begins the wave of atrocities completed with extermination, is the arrival of a larger group of Germans. It is the most visible in accounts concerning Radziłów, located some 20 kilometers north of Jedwabne. Chana Finkelsztajn has recorded the following in her account of 22nd Oct. 1945 (No. 301/1284): "On 7th July [1941 - T.S.] many Germans arrived"; another account by Menachem Finkelsztajn (No. 301/1994, of 28th Nov. 1946.) informs:

"It is 3 p.m., 7th July 1941; four German cars full of Gestapo officers arrive from a little town of Stawiski to Radziłów; with them there is one person in a Polish uniform." The same Chana Finkelsztajn wrote in another version of her account (No. 301/1284) that "on 7th July, three taxis with Germans arrived." (The same witness, contrary to Gross's statements of the marginal participation of the Germans in the crime of Radziłów, recognized the present Gestapo officer, Hermann Schaper, as the "commander of the whole action").

The same applies to Jedwabne: The above-quoted Bardon, Jerzy Laudański and Szmul Wasersztajn inform about the arrival of the taxis. There are though other accounts that mention trucks instead of "taxis." Prelate Tadeusz Klimaszewski, the present parish priest of Wizna, while sent to the town from a nearby village of Słupy, saw a German truck in a street leading to Wizna from Jedwabne, and they mentioned four trucks with Germans at that time. (Account of 18th March 2001.) Stefan Boczkowski saw a pickup at Śleszyńskis' barn.

All that added together would indicate that it was not "Satan descending in Jedwabne", as Prof. Gross put it, but a commando from Ciechanów instead, arriving to yet another site of a pogrom. This fact would provide a logical explanation of that series of mass murders that took place in locations north of Łomża in the Summer of 1941.

Tomasz Strzembosz Rzeczpospolita 12th May 2001.