----- Original Message ----- From: Frank Milewski To: Frank Milewski Sent: Wednesday, July 07, 2004 6:11 PM Subject: Fw: Jedwabne Eyewitness Dead in N.Y.
NEWS from THE POLISH AMERICAN CONGRESS HOLOCAUST DOCUMENTATION COMMITTEE
177 Kent St., Brooklyn, N.Y. 11222 - (718) 349-9689
EYEWITNESS TO GERMAN WW II CRIME IN JEDWABNE DEAD IN NEW YORK
The eyewitness who got close enough to get a good look at German
soldiers burning down a barn full of Jewish men, women and children
during World War II died July 3rd in a New York City medical facility
after remaining in a coma nearly a year. The atrocity he observed took
place in the town of Jedwabne, Poland on July 10, 1941.
Boleslaw (Apolinary) Domitrz was 75 at the time of his death. He came
to the U.S. from Communist-controlled Poland and resided in Greenpoint,
Brooklyn (N.Y.) for over 20 years. With the Communist system in Poland
collapsing in 1989, he intended to return back home and spend the rest
of his retirement years in the place he was born.
In June last year, he met with the Polish American Congress to say
goodbye to the organization's leadership. Just days before his
departure, he suffered complications from an existing heart condition.
A subsequent stroke left him immobilized until the day he died.
Domitrz gained prominence in February, 2002 when he confronted NYU Prof.
Jan T. Gross at a lecture sponsored by the City University of New York.
Gross, a Jewish immigrant also from Poland, was there promoting his new
book, "Neighbors," a slanted account about the same barn-burning
atrocity Domitrz personally witnessed when he was just 12 years old.
Gross sensationalized that incident by trying to claim the Catholic half
of Jedwabne's population were the ones who incinerated the Jewish half
of the town and not the Germans who invaded there.
Despite his weakened physical condition at the time, Domitrz felt a
moral obligation to attend Gross' lecture and make sure the audience
there would hear the truth. Gross was accusing Polish Catholics of
something exactly opposite from what Domitrz clearly saw that terrible
day in 1941.
Before he ever came to America, Domitrz learned how it was to live under
Communist and Nazi brutality and repression. He knew how maliciously
anti-Polish much of their propaganda had been. And what could be more
malicious, Domitrz felt, than to whitewash the German atrocity at
Jedwabne and try to shift the blame for it to Hitler's Catholic victims
in Poland.
Putting people into buildings and burning them was a common technique
the Nazis used in various countries they occupied. One such barbaric
extermination of human beings took place in Michniow , Poland on July
12-13, 1943 where the Germans herded Poles into barns and houses and
burned them alive for helping a Jewish partisan unit. Over 200 people
died, including 70 children.
Gross appeared stunned when Domitrz stood up in the packed auditorium
during the question and answer period and started speaking in Polish and
telling him he was wrong for blaming the Catholics of Jedwabne for what
the Germans did.
There are other eye-witnesses to the barn burning still living in Poland
who also dispute the accusations Gross makes. But it had to be a shock
to Gross and everyone else in the audience to see someone like Domitrz -
right in the very heart of New York City - get up and start challenging
the integrity of his book.
Domitrz described how he and two boyhood friends were in a field near
the town and saw smoke rising from the burning barn. Out of curiosity,
they ran toward the fire until they were in a perfect position to
observe the entire scene. One thing was sure. There were no Poles
around. Everyone seemed to have disappeared indoors as if from some
dreadful and ominous fear. The only persons the boys saw around the
burning barn were Germans in uniform, holding machine guns and with
their dogs. Nobody else.
"When we realized we were the only Poles out there", Domitrz said, "we
were so scared the Germans might see us and throw us into the fire that
we turned around and ran right back as fast as we could."
Although Domitrz never recovered from his stroke, some of his testimony
has fortunately been preserved for the historical record.. Before his
health deteriorated so abruptly, the Polish American Congress was
instrumental in taping an interview with Domitrz in which he gave an
account of his experience regarding the burning of the barn.
Titled, "Jedwabne: What is Truth?", Domitrz and other eyewitnesses to
German murders of Jews elsewhere in Poland recall what they saw.
Commentary from Dr. Jan Moor-Jankowski and Prof. Iwo Pogonowski is
included and provides a scientific and forensic prospective to the
Jedwabne incident. At this time, only a Polish-language version of the
video or DVD is available from the Polish American Congress.
What Boleslaw Domitrz fervently believed was his moral obligation to
speak out and tell the truth about Jedwabne is now documented and
preserved as part of the permanent record.
Contact: Frank Milewski - (718) 263-2700
Note to Editor: Attachment with this news release is photo below
JEDWABNE EYEWITNESS NEVER MADE IT HOME
Just days before his intended departure for Poland
last year, Boleslaw Domitrz (r) is shown saying
goodbye to Frank Milewski, chairman of the Polish
American Congress Holocaust Documentation
Committee. Illness and death shattered his dream
of going home again from ever coming true.
<<attachment: Domitrz.jpg>>
