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Poland Asks Jews for Forgiveness
WARSAW, July 10 (News Agencies) - Polish President Alexander Kwasniewski has made a formal apology on behalf of the Polish people for the 1941 Jedwabne massacre, in which Polish Jews were rounded up and killed in the village's center.
In a public ceremony on Tuesday, President Kwasniewski traveled to Jedwabne to apologize for Polish participation in the massacre, which has long been blamed solely on occupying German soldiers who invaded the country during WW II.
"For this crime, we must beg the souls of those who died and their families to forgive us," said Kwasniewski.
"Today, as a man, citizen and president of the Polish republic, I ask pardon in my own name and in the name of those Polish people whose consciences are shocked by this crime."
The declaration follows months of debate and attempts to come to terms with aspects of the war -- and of Poland's relations with its Jewish community, which many ordinary Poles barely know of, if at all.
Analysts note that Kwasniewski, an ex-communist himself, showed political courage by publicly seeking forgiveness when a recent opinion poll showed that a majority, albeit a small one, said there was nothing to apologize for.
For decades, debate on the Jedwabne massacre was effectively silenced by communist authorities that continued to firmly blame the incident on occupying German Nazi forces. Only a few Poles were convicted for collaboration.
But, the issue exploded into the national consciousness last year with the publication of a book by Polish-Jewish U.S. historian Jan Tomasz Gross entitled "The Neighbors."
The book, which Gross initially wanted to publish in Polish, gives detailed descriptions of the horrors carried out by Poles in Jedwabne and nearby villages via accounts by eyewitnesses and close relatives of victims.
In April, Polish state television - in prime time broadcasts over two evenings - screened a documentary that filmmaker Agnieszka Arnold spent four years making, and which was a key inspiration for Gross' book.
The documentary helped to further lift the veil on the Jedwabne massacre. Many Poles were shocked by the witnesses' accounts, descriptions of the killings and the expression of accumulated hatred against Jews.
Some three million Jews lived in Poland before World War II, which amounts to about 10 percent of the population of a country historically home to Europe's biggest Jewish community.
On Tuesday, state television again played its role in raising public awareness by broadcasting live the entire two-and-a-half hour ceremony commemorating the 60th anniversary of the
Jedwabne massacre. It also aired documentaries on historical relations between Poles and Jews.
During Wednesday's ceremony, people placed stones, candles and wreaths on a new monument erected in memory of the victims.
The inscription on the new memorial stone, written in Polish, Hebrew and Yiddish, reads: "To the memory of Jews from Jedwabne and the surrounding area, men, women and children, inhabitants of this land who were murdered and burnt alive on this spot on 10 July, 1941."
However, Poland's soul-searching is far from over. The Polish Institute of National Memory has opened an official investigation into Jedwabne.
Even if the probe cannot confirm the number of victims, it will "at least allow us to establish publicly who was responsible," said the institute's head, Leon Kieres.
The national debate on Jedwabne has also highlighted the persistence of old attitudes in Poland, Western news agencies said. Far-right nationalist militants have taken the opportunity to denounce foreign "lies" and "plots" aimed at "tainting Poland's image."
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