After the German attack on the Soviet Union in June 1941, special Einsatzgruppen were organized to kill as many Jews as it was possible in the Polish areas annexed by Soviet Union. The Nazi propaganda mentioned the Soviet crimes committed in this region and blamed Jews for collaboration with the Soviets.

In July 1941, the entire Jewish population of Jedwabne, a village in Poland with about 2500 inhabitants, was massacred. Most of the victims were burned alive in a barn. The number of persons killed is estimated between 380 (the latest estimate by Polish IPN) and 1600.

For many years, it was assumed that the atrocity had been committed by German Einzatsgruppen, but in 2001 the Polish-American historian Jan Tomasz Gross published a detailed study of the event[1], where he described it as a typical pogrom. Gross concluded that the approximately 1600 jews in the village were clubbed, drowned, gutted, and burned to death by their Polish neighbors without any assistance from the Germans

The book caused an enormous controversy in Poland. Many people questioned its conclusions, and Prof. Tomasz Strzembosz argued that, although some Poles were involved, the operation was controlled by the Germans. Following an intensive investigation, the IPN released a report where they supported many of Gross's findings, although they believed the number of jews killed was significantly lower: 380 instead of 1600. They also claimed that there were 8 German policemen present. There thus remain questions about possible German involvment. Many witnesses claim to have seen German soldiers that day in Jedwabne, whereas others contend that there were no Germans in the town on the day of the massacre.

That some non-Jewish Poles took active part in this crime is beyond doubt, but the question of possible German involvement hasn't been completely settled.

In 2001 the President of Poland, Aleksander Kwasniewski, officially apologized to the Jewish nation for this crime. Many people criticized him for doing so before events were reconstructed with reasonable confidence.

References

• Jan T. Gross, Neighbors: The Destruction of the Jewish Community in Jedwabne, Poland, Princeton University Press, 2001.
• Dariusz Stola, "Jedwabne: Revisiting the evidence and nature of the crime", Holocaust and Genocide Studies, vol. 17, no. 1, Spring 2003, 139-152.
• Antony Polonsky & Joanna B. Michlic (editors), The Neighbors Respond: The Controversy over the Jedwabne Massacre in Poland, Princeton University Press, 2003.