In the course of July 1941, the Russian-controlled Jedwabne (in northeastern Poland) was captured by Germany, who was just beginning to institutionalize their control of Eastern Poland when the non-Jewish civilians perpetrated a massacre against the Polish Jews. In Neighbors: The Destruction of the Jewish Community in Jedwabne, Poland, historian Jan Gross describes how the massacre was not committed by German invaders (Nazis/Germany army) but was a “violent transformation of a multiethnic cultures in Poland to a homogenous one”. In fact, according to the evidence Gross presents, the Nazis tried to persuade the Poles to keep at least one Jewish family from each profession, but the Poles responded, "We have enough of our own craftsmen, we have to destroy all the
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Jan Gross claims that non-Jewish Polish residents were some-what responsible for the fate of Jews living in Poland during WWII, which is contrary to the standard view of the assumption that “these two ethnic groups' histories are disengaged.” However, Jan Gross documents that the Jedwabne's mayor facilitated the massacre, in which non-polish Jews came in to watch/ celebrate as if it were a holiday. He writes on brutal details of violence such as “about half the men of Jedwabne's 1,600 Catholic community participated in torturing Jedwabne's 1,600 member Jewish community, corralling them into a barn, which was then set ablaze”.By focusing so intensely on this single massacre, Neighbors has reevaluated the Polish national identity by emphasizing the cultural reluctance in Poland and the extent of anti-Semitism in its history. It is evident that this event was a an effect of the semitic political culture in the prewar years, which was a cause of Jewish
Jan Gross claims that non-Jewish Polish residents were some-what responsible for the fate of Jews living in Poland during WWII, which is contrary to the standard view of the assumption that “these two ethnic groups' histories are disengaged.” However, Jan Gross documents that the Jedwabne's mayor facilitated the massacre, in which non-polish Jews came in to watch/ celebrate as if it were a holiday. He writes on brutal details of violence such as “about half the men of Jedwabne's 1,600 Catholic community participated in torturing Jedwabne's 1,600 member Jewish community, corralling them into a barn, which was then set ablaze”.By focusing so intensely on this single massacre, Neighbors has reevaluated the Polish national identity by emphasizing the cultural reluctance in Poland and the extent of anti-Semitism in its history. It is evident that this event was a an effect of the semitic political culture in the prewar years, which was a cause of Jewish