Ceremony held on 80th anniversary of Jedwabne massacre

A ceremony was held in Jedwabne on Sunday marking the 80th anniversary of the WWII massacre of Jewish inhabitants of the town in northeastern Poland.

Chargé d'affaires of Israel to Poland Tal Ben-Ari Yaalon at a monument commemorating the Jedwabne pogrom of 1941. The 80th anniversary of the massacre was marked in the town of Jedwabne, northeastern Poland, on Sunday.

Photo: PAP/Michał Zieliński

A number of Polish, Israeli, German and US officials attended the event, including representatives of the Polish government as well as Israeli and German Embassies in Warsaw. 

Also, the US Special Envoy for Holocaust Issues, Poland's Chief Rabbi Michael Schudrich and former Israel ambassador to Poland Szewach Weiss attended the ceremony.

The event included a wreath-laying ceremony, prayers, reflections and a reading of the names of the victims.

The pogrom, carried out by a group of ethnic Poles, took place on 10 July 1941 in the town of Jedwabne, which was then under the Nazi German occupation.

Over 300 local Jews of all ages were herded into a barn which was then set alight.

Poland's Institute of National Remembrance (IPN), which is tasked with investigating crimes against Polish citizens, took up the case in 2000, and found that Poles played the 'decisive role' in the pogrom, although Nazi German encouragement was stressed.

(ał)

Source: PAP