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In the Fall of 1939, Jedwabne (pron: Yedvabneh], a small town with a population of almost 3,000 in northeastern Poland, came under Soviet occupation. The day following the June 22, 1941, German attack on the Soviets Union, Jedwabne came under German occupation. On July 10, 1941, some members of the Polish population of Jedwabne participated in the slaughter of most of the town's 900 to 1600 Jews. After the war, a number were tried, convicted and served prison terms for having done so.
Jan Tomasz Gross, a Polish-born New York University historian, has investigated the slaughter and authored a book, Neighbors (Sasiedzi) detailing it. The book has stimulated widespread debate in Poland's press with over 750 articles appearing to date.
Time-wise, the discussion can be divided into three periods. The first group of articles began to appear in May of 2000, soon after the publication of the Polish version of Gross's book, and continued through the Fall. The magazine Wiez has posted English translations of a score of those articles on the Internet. The debate took on added intensity in the Spring of 2001, a period broadly coinciding with the scheduled April 1st publication of the English version of Gross's book. The third group of articles appeared in a period broadly antedating or coinciding with the 60th anniversary of the tragedy and the July 10th memorial service that tool place in Jedwabne. (the banner at top of the page is a link to Jedwabne page of the Warsaw-based daily, Rzeczpospolita which features more than 145 articles.
Poland's Institute for National Remembrance has undertaken a full fledged judicial investigation of the facts pertaining to the slaughter, among these: who specifically were the perpetrators, the identity of any still alive and liable to prosecution, and the extent to which the slaughter was result of orders or instigation by the German occupiers, the latter a question under ongoing debate. That investigation continues, it is expected that its conclusions will be published before the end of 2001.