Article from the "Gazeta Pomorza i Kujaw" 19.03.2001

Archaeologists from UMK and specialists from the Torun’s "Geophysics" localised the mass grave of the Jewish population in Jedwabne.

Today it is precisely known that on the 10.07.1941 there was a barn in which the Jews from Jedwabne where burned and then buried next to it.

In the opinion of prof. Andrzej Kola from the UMK Institute of Archaeology and Ethnology, this grave could contain approximately 300 bodies.

Because of the book "Neighbors", in which the author, J. T. Gross described the crime committed many years ago, the whole of Poland is talking about Jedwabne, which is a small town in the Lomza district.

Prof. Gross is accusing the Polish population of Jedwabne, and not the Gestapo or the German gendarmes, of committing this crime. The case is currently under the investigation conducted by IPN. On Thursday, the old monument was removed from the place. It will be replaced with a new one erected in the same location of the massacre of the Jewish population.

Unfortunately, people currently living in Jedwabne couldn’t indicate the exact locality. For this reason, specialists’ from UMK were asked to help. In the past the same specialists’ were able to precisely localise mass graves of the Polish officers murdered by NKVD in Charkov, and also the Jews murdered by the Germans in concentration camp in Belzec.

"First I’ve received aerial photographs taken in the early 50’s to analyse. On Saturday, we went to Jedwabne. This time, we were not able to drill in the ground, because the Jewish side objected to any interference with the grave.

Because of this, we had to relay on two other methods. We used the georadar and magnetic resonance. Indications of both instruments were nearly identical, we also carefully analysed the surface structure of the soil.

Using such methods, we were able to establish that the grave is approximately 5 meters long and 2 meters wide. The old monument was 10 meters away from this place. In the very close proximity to this grave we found remains of the barn" – said prof. Andrzej Kola.

On the old monuments was the information that on the 10.07.1941 in Jedwabne, 1600 people died.

Also, prof. Kola doesn’t have any doubts, that the grave can contain a maximum of 300 bodies.

Would that mean that there could be some more graves in the close vicinity?

In the opinion of prof. Kola it is not very possible. All witnesses indicate that there was only one burial place.

Prof. Andrzej Kola also said:

"It is very regrettable that the Jewish side doesn’t agree to the exhumation. In one-week time, we would be able to verify what the people are saying and what the author of "Neighbours" has written.

This could serve as a good lesson for the future. Many times I’ve found that the verbal testimonies of the witnesses have to be treated as not very reliable historical sources".

Grzegorz Konczewski "Nowosci - Gazeta Pomorza i Kujaw" 19.03.2001

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