*** From [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Miroslaw J. Wiechowski) FreeRepublic.com "A Conservative News Forum"
Polish ambassador acknowledges villagers' guilt (Jedwabne) News/Current Events Source: Jerusalem Post Published: 11/25/01 Author: Etgar Lefkovits Posted on 11/25/01 1:28 PM Pacific by veronica A book blaming Polish villagers for the murders and pogroms committed in the small northeastern Polish town of Jedwabne in 1941 was one of the most important books written in Poland in the last century, Polish Ambassador to Israel Maciej Kozlowski said this evening. "Neighbors" by Polish-born New York University Professor Jan T. Gross revealed to the Polish people and the world at large that it was Poles - and not the Nazis as previously thought - who set fire to approximately 1,600 of their Jewish neighbors in a barn on July 10, 1941. The book, originally published in Polish in May 2000, caused a major awakening and stirred a national debate in Poland, and led to an official investigation of the massacre. Poles had portrayed themselves as equal victims to the Jews since they were under German occupation. "I would not be exaggerating to say that 'Neighbors' was one of the most important books written in the last century in Poland," Kozlowski said at a packed symposium at Yad Vashem marking the publication of the Hebrew edition of the book. "We were living too long in a myth hat we are saints, and this book disclosed both the lingering anti-Semitism in Poland [on the one hand], and the fact that we are ready to face the facts and accept historical truths [on the other]," he said. =============================================================== Lista 'Forum Zagraniczne' Administrator: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Archiwum: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]
