Neighbors - The Destruction of the Jewish Community in Jedwabne, Poland - Book Report/Review Example

Gross, Jan T. Neighbors: The Destruction of the Jewish Community in Jedwabne Published: Poland Publisher: Princeton, N.J Pengium Books Date: 2001 Student’s name: Tutor’s name: Book Review The purpose The ‘Neighbors’ focuses to depict the miseries that Jewish were subjected to in the hands of the Polish people. The book primary purpose was to force the people of Polish to confront their legacy of their anti-Jewish thoughts and deeds. Therefore, therefore, is never another anti-Polish diatribe. Therefore, determining Gross initial intent does not lie on anti-Polish stereotypes noted in the English version of the book. The books anchors on a number of allegations addressing whatever unraveled in the Polish village of Jedwabne. The books try to meditate the massacre of Jewish believed to have been executed by Police during the summer of 1941. Gross uses this book to present an accusation of Polish complicity in the Holocaust (Gross, 34). The author effectively painted out the Jewish suffering at the hands of malicious Poles. Hence, the book reinforced the longstanding prejudices Jews have persistently harbored against the Polish people. Many critics have been leveled against the factuality of the Gross funding. However, attacking Gross’ book merely for its historiographical inadequacies is misplaced as harbor missing valuable points of the Neighbors. Synopsis The books detail the inhumane massacre that over 1600 Jewish of Jedwabne faced in the hands of Polish. The author uses the Soviet occupation as the setting to showcase how matters shifted after the invasion of German of the USSR during June 1941. As the eyewitness recounts how many town hooligans started to harass the Jews of Jedwabne beginning June 25th of 1941. Gross thus showcases how such anti-Jewish harassments collapsed on July 1941 got circumscribed in the town square by the Polish neighbors. The author paints how the Polish neighbors beaten and subjected the Jewish of Jedwabne to severe indignities. Further, Gross accounts how over 1600 Jewish of Jedwabne were ultimately moved to an adjacent barn, locked in and burnt alive. The books describe the massacre that the Jewish went through advanced by the Polish people. The Jewish were affected by the chauvinism of the Poles who never cared for any slight humanitarian rights. The author thus anchors his investigation from the eyewitnesses who witnessed the brutal acts of Polish people against the 1600 Jewish of Jedwabne. The author further relied on the Wasserstein affidavits and single depiction to reconstruct the massacre. However, these affidavits had discrepancies that described separate massacre but the author explored them. The ‘Neighbor’ thus intended to showcase to the Poles that they were responsible for the history and the consequences of the massacre. Gross focused on understanding of the unfolding circumventing the Jedwabne on July 10th, 1941 but seriously stumbles. He showcased how that the Jewish were murdered because German occupying Jedwabne. Therefore, the books detail how the German was responsible for the instigation of the massacre. Gross also outlines that the villagers pushed the Jewish following the low pace of killing into Bronislaw to be burned alive. The fire consumed that the 1600 Jewish in a matter of minutes. The book also explained the Poles ripped away gold teeth and wedding bands from the charred bodies after the burning were complete. Further, the Poles were ordered by the Germans to bury the rotten bodies following the sight of gnawing dogs to prevent disease outbreaks. The author equivocates the massacre responsibility without hesitation. He narrated how the decision circumventing life and death were solely in the docket of Germans in Jedwabne. He further showcased the problematic behavior of the Polish people. Gross outlined that socially marginal aspects of Polish society participated in the attack of Jewish. He further linked the massacre to the intense hatred of Jedwabne town following the German invasion. He details how prior to the German invasion both Gentiles and Jewish collaborated and peacefully coexisted. The point out how the Gentiles turned against their Jewish counterparts when Germany invaded Russia in 1941. The Jewish were paraded in the streets with the statue of Lenin in their hands chanting. The Jewish were forced to chant that the massacre was targeted at them. The Gentiles stabbed a number of Jewish men, women and children while others stoned to death. Further, Gross demonstrated in his books how several Jewish children were drowned in river Biebrza and Narew. Further, the oppression amongst Jewish girls include raping as well as being beheaded. In summary, the author attempted to put responsibility on the German invasion to the oppressive acts advantaged by the Poles. The Poles were reiterating their Jewish support for the German particularly because the German had occupied the city of Jedwabne. Gross, however, no intent to give the account of the massacre had, but intended to put it straight to the Poles’ their responsibility for their present history. Gross’ book, however, failed in a historiographical term as it has a lot of deficiencies. About the Sources The authors anchored his information on a number of sources including eyewitnesses and Wasserstein deposition (drafted in 1945 numbered 301/152) and Wasserstein avadavat (numbered 301/163) as the primary and secondary sources respectively. The Wasserstein deposition described the pogrom. Further, Gross relied on testimony from a few of postwar trials generated by this single deposition. My Opinion for Success/ Failure In my view, the book has failed in a number of aspects. Despite the fact that Gross received a number of praises, the book has remained in-factual. The tendency of Gross to engage in numerous apologetics, for example, the Jewish apologetics distorts the particular message he seeks to convey to the readers. The book attempts to make a call for the Poles, Germans or Jewish for their history responsibility. However, this can only be achieved by at least studying and touching on the history of Polish-Jewish hostility and competition to showcase the aspect of chauvinism in both sides. Therefore, the inability of Gross to give the book this historical setting culminates to the serious impairment of the moral appeal of his book. Therefore, the book fails further as a polemic. Gross’ failure is seen when he fails to present the Germans with the opportunity to give their side. Thus, there was no balancing out of the relentless anti-Germanism. Indeed, the historical revisionism as well as the Holocaust has to be devoted to constructing a true narrative that focuses at reconciling the competing patriotisms of various individuals. There is an urgent need for revisionists to soldier their work on and distinguish the fact from fiction anchored in the story of Holocaust (Gross 43). Further, for effective of these studies, they should aim at challenging various European people among them Jewish individuals to ensure a parochial alongside chauvinist myths of the past. Gross also embedded his finding on single Wasserstein deposition that attracted a number of the question on how it was drafted in 1945. Also, his failure to review the records of German Einsatzgruppen presented great in-factual allegations and even failed to recognize the discrepancies in the Wasserstein affidavit and deposition that totally described two different massacres. Finally, Gross admitted from the end note entry (p.210f) his reliance on Wasserstein’s deposition and affidavits despite exploring their discrepancies. Therefore, in my view, Gross was more of attempting to reconstruct the massacre without touching on the history of Jewish and Poles. Works Cited Gross, Jan T. Neighbors: The Destruction of the Jewish Community in Jedwabne, Poland. Princeton, N.J.: Penguin Books, 2001. Print. Read More