The Program of Jedwabne Research Paper (Research Paper Sample)

The Pogrom of Jedwabne
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Introduction
The massacre of Jews in Jedwabne took place on July 10th, 1941 amidst the occupation of Poland by Nazi Germans subsequent to the defeat of the Soviet Union forces. The findings of the victims buried in the two graves exhumed by a team of anthropologists and archeologists confirmed mass graves in Jedwabne. The atrocities were carried out by Polish gentile inhabitants of the Jedwabne town with the support of Nazi Germans in a two weeks time since the Nazi forces occupied the town from the Soviet Union. However, the participation of both Nazi and Poles is controversial because while the Poles are the culprits for perpetrating the massacre as advanced in the book ‘War and Genocide’ by Doris Bergen, it is astonishing that Poles some of whom volunteered to rescue the Jews during the Holocaust could commit such a grievous act. It is difficult to believe that the Nazi Germans played a lesser role than Poles in the Jedwabne pogrom because they were out to perpetrate atrocities against handicapped and marginalized communities in their attempt to prove the superiority of the Aryans.
It is estimated that the town had half of its population comprised of Jews who resided in the place from the 18th century, and the other half made up of Poles. In secret treaties with the Germans, the Soviet Union Red Army occupied eastern part of Poland, but Jedwabne was taken by Germans after crushing a resistance mounted by the Poles in 1939. Jedwabne was later put under the custody of the Soviet Union in the same year, an action that was appreciated by both Poles and Jews who viewed the Red Army as their protector. The Soviet Union Red Army dismantled the Polish administration that they found in the region, established their governance systems, and offered administrative positions to the Jews who declared their allegiance to the Soviet Union2. These positions resulted in a paradigm change, in a cordial relationship between Poles and Jews, due to the fact that the Jews joined the Soviet Union militia in guarding Poles rounded up for deportation to Siberia, participated in denying the Poles food and other basic needs. They also assisted the Red Army in terrorizing gentiles and some Jews who were still supportive to the Poles, and played a role in arresting gentiles for expulsion, deportation, and executions in the Soviet prisons, which lasted until June 21st, 19413.
The Nazi Germans attacked the Soviet Union on 22nd June 1941 and occupied the Polish territory under control of the Soviet Union3. The Nazi murdered Jews men by shooting them in the towns neighboring Jedwabne, in addition to spreading propaganda about the Jews and the Soviet Union. They accused the Jews of assisting the Soviet Union in committing crimes in the region, which convinced some Poles who viewed Jews as enemies. Hatred against Jews grew significantly among Poles within the two weeks of Nazi Germans’ control of Jedwabne. This was aggravated by propaganda, the role of Jews in the crimes against Poles, committed by the Soviet Union, orders from Nazi Germans encouraging atrocities against Jews, robberies, pogroms with impunity, and anti-Jews massacre carried out by the Nazi Germans in other towns. These factors were instrumental in changing the psychology of Poles; hence, their participatory role in the progression of the Nazi plan of eradicating Jews and collaboration of Poles with the Nazi despite the moral implications of the pogroms, which had many negative consequences. However, it is unlikely that all Poles residing in the town committed the atrocities because evidence suggests that few Poles perpetrated the Jedwabne pogroms under supervision by the Nazi Germans. Despite the majority of Poles in the town, opting not to take part in the pogrom, their passivity during the massacre betrayed them into being equally guilty as the murderers.
On the fateful day of July 10th, 1941, just two weeks after the Nazi occupation of Jedwabne, several Poles and Germans assembled to discuss the fate of Jews by the order of Marian Karolak, who was the mayor of the town and the Nazi Germans4. History has it that the Germans proposed to let live one of the Jews in each career, but the Poles who were furious with rage objected the proposition and instead suggested all the Jews to be eliminated. The Polish men rounded up Jews men, women, and children, both residents and refugees who fled the massacre in the nearby towns carried out by Nazi Germans. Jews were taken to a central square in the town of Jedwabne, compelled to the uproot grass, attacked, and killed by being beaten. Several Jews men were compelled by the Nazi Germans to destroy and carry the statue of Lenin left behind by the Soviet Union, they carried it with the town’s rabbi forced to be in front of the procession to an empty barn where they were killed before being buried together with the fragments of the Lenin statue. Later on the same day Jews, mostly women and children, were taken to the same barn where they were confined and burnt until they all died. The Nazi German guards were present in the barn as the Poles massacred Jews, and they shot Jews who attempted to escape the inferno4. The dead bodies were buried in two mass graves. The goal of this research paper is to discuss the pogrom of Jedwabne on the 10th July, 1941. It researched, explored, and provided a conscience account of the role of Poles in the progression of the Nazi plan, a collaboration of the Poles with the Nazi, both positive and negative consequences of the Poles actions, the moral implication of the Poles as evidenced in the book ‘War and Genocide’ by Doris Bergen, and the role of psychology in the Jedwabne pogrom in relation to the Stanford prison experiment.
The role of the Poles in progression of the Nazi plan
The poles played a central role in the progression of the Nazi plan of eradicating Jews, gentiles, handicapped, and occupation of Poland. They convinced the people in the meeting that assembled the Nazi Germans and Poles to kill all the Jews in Jedwabne without leaving any one of them in a career. They helped in identifying, rounding up, taking the Jews to the barn, and killing them as Nazi Germans watched or assisted in the process. According to Bergen, the Nazis had not picked new or specific groups to focus their hatred on but instead they "borrowed and built on prejudices that had been familiar before" among the Nazi people who were initially living in Germany2. The book talks of the reluctant forces in the government that made Hitler succeed by pushing aside the laws that could have made it illegal for the Nazi party to mistreat the Jews. These laws that "were simply not enforced" also enabled Hitler to escape serious jail sentence, become a German citizen, and run for presidency. Bergen claims "would it that Hitler was not there, Nazism would have taken different forms if they had occurred at all". This is because local communities hated Jews, for example, Poles residing in Jedwabne, who could kill Jews for cooperating with the Soviet Union in deporting Poles out of the vicinity to Siberia. Research and investigations on the incident accuse Poles who inhabited Jedwabne and neighboring towns to be the culprits who perpetrated the pogrom at Jedwabne and the nearby area towns. The total number of Jews killed by the Poles has not been confirmed to date, but it is approximated that at least 350 Jews were killed. The Germans are ascribed with the responsibilities of the massacre because they inspired the Poles to accomplish the decisive role of killing Jews, observed the massacre of the Jews as it took place, declined to intervene in stopping the pogrom despite being armed and in full control of Jedwabne town, and they did not only consented but also tolerated Jews being killed by the Poles. Some Jews managed to escape the pogrom, for example, the seven Jews who survived by being hidden in the Wyrzykowski family.
The Poles are held responsible for perpetrating and accomplishing the plans by the Nazi Germans to solve the problem of the Jews by killing them. Jan Gross, in the book ‘neighbors’, asserts in graphic details that Poles who made half of the Jedwabne’s population rose against the other half comprised of Jews and murdered most of them. The book affirms that it is the Poles who commenced and executed the massacre at least 1500 Jews residing in the town and those who migrated from the nearby towns to escape the atrocities carried out by Germans, and Nazi Germans were least to blame in the incident. Gross further explains that in spite of a complex interplay of various factors in the incident which include intrinsic accusations, unique Polish anti-Semitism, Soviet Union rule, and invaded by Germans, the Poles who accused Jews of collaborating with the Soviet Union were indeed the ones implicated in the crimes committed by the Red Army. The poles were the fast to attack the Jews in order to deflect the urge for revenge due to the anger in their neighbors and to win favors from the new Nazi Germans who occupied Jedwabne. The Poles were afraid of the Nazi Germans as well as the Jews whom they feared could carry out revenge against them for collaborating with the Soviets9.
The Poles are perceived to have perpetrated atrocities committed by the Nazi Germans against the Jews due to specific features in the Polish scenario. While other communities such as the Danish, Italians, and Bulgarians obstructed the Nazi plans, their Polish counterparts did not stop the Nazi from isolating, expropriating, and ultimately annihilating the Polish Jews. The situation can be explained by the reasoning that Poles were already resigned due to persecution and abuse they were subjected to for a longer time while under the Nazi German domination than their counterparts. Another factor is tha...