On Thursday, residents of Jedwabne - a town of just over 1,600 people - together with official delegations representing various institutions and faiths, gathered to honour the memory of the Jews murdered there 84 years ago, during World War II on July 10, 1941.
Investigations by Poland’s Institute of National Remembrance (IPN) have concluded that the massacre was carried out by local Poles under German occupation, with most victims burned alive in a nearby barn.
‘We are here to pray, to mourn, and to weep together,’ says Poland’s chief rabbi at Jedwabne
“We are here to pray, to mourn, and to weep together. Perhaps some people seek to provoke, but we will not respond. Today is not a time for debate or words - it is a time for prayer,” Rabbi Schudrich told those gathered at the memorial.
The Chief Rabbi of Poland, Michael Schudrich, added that the nearby Jewish cemetery holds the remains of Jews who lived alongside the local community for centuries, emphasising that in the past, people here lived peacefully together.
Speaking to journalists, he stressed that the site should unite people. “A great tragedy happened here; innocent lives were lost. But this is not the whole story of Jedwabne,” he said. “You cannot define Jedwabne by one terrible day, although I cannot forget it.”
Poland's Chief Rabbi Michael Schudrich. Photo: PAP/Michał Zieliński
The event was not without incidents.
Polish police intervene to ensure safe departure after Jedwabne commemorations disruption
For several minutes after the ceremony, the delegation with Poland’s Chief Rabbi Michael Schudrich was unable to leave.
Groups of nationalists and far-right activists, including the controversial and repeatedly sanctioned far-right MEP Grzegorz Braun and his supporters, attempted to block the vehicles of the ceremony participants. They demanded exhumations and denied that Poles were responsible for the Jedwabne massacre.
Photo: PAP/Michał Zieliński
According to Tomasz Krupa, a spokesperson for the local police, several dozen officers helped the cars leave the site. Krupa emphasized that the crowd was blocking a public road. Police formed a corridor on both sides of the vehicles and used a megaphone to call for order and to prevent further obstruction of the departure.
Controversy deepened when the Israeli institute Yad Vashem called on Polish authorities on Thursday to remove an installation by right-wing activist Wojciech Sumliński.
Yad Vashem urges removal of controversial installation challenging Jedwabne massacre history
Sumliński, together with a group of right-wing extremists gathered around him, placed obelisks near the Jedwabne memorial on land he had purchased.
These obelisks present an alternative version of history, suggesting that Poles were not responsible for the massacre of Jews in Jedwabne.
In an official statement, Yad Vashem said: “Yad Vashem is profoundly shocked and deeply concerned by the desecration of historical truth and memory at the Jedwabne memorial site in Poland, where new plaques were recently installed in an apparent attempt to distort the story of the massacre of Jews.”
The institute stressed that the massacre, which took place on 10 July 1941, involved local residents participating in the brutal murder of hundreds of Jewish neighbours. It condemned any attempt to deny or misrepresent these events as a falsification of history and a disrespect to the victims.
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Source: Yad Vashem/IAR/PAP/ENRS