The Crime and the Silence : Confronting the Massacre of Jews in Wartime Jedwabne DOC, PDF, EPUB
9780374536374 English 0374536376 A monumental work of nonfiction on a wartime atrocity, its sixty-year denial, and the impact of its truth "'It's a lie that Poles killed the Jews in Jedwabne,' says Tadeusz S., a retired doctor from Warsaw and an eyewitness to the events of July 10, 1941." Thus begins this monumental work of historical memory about a wartime atrocity and its perpetrators' denial. On that summer day in 1941, residents of the Polish town of Jedwabne herded local Jews into a barn and set it on fire. According to the historian Jan Gross, author of Neighbors , sixteen hundred men, women, and children perished in the blaze. But the massacre was a secret that was suppressed for so long that many of the details remained obscure and others were vehemently denied. Determined to excavate the truth of what happened in Jedwabne, the acclaimed Polish journalist Anna Bikont began reporting on the town. Despite warnings and threats from residents who insisted that she stay away, she combed sensitive archives and interviewed townspeople who lived through the turbulent period when the Nazis took control of Jedwabne. She discovered a community steeped in fear, residual guilt, and lies. Part reportage, part memoir, The Crime and the Silence is the story of the massacre told, like Claude Lanzmann's Shoah , through oral histories of survivors, witnesses, perpetrators, and Righteous Gentiles. In addition to presenting her journal entries, which include a remarkable discovery made about her family background, Bikont identifies the sources of the hatred that ignited the flames and asks what happens to a society that tries to bury an unconscionable crime., Winner of the National Jewish Book Award in the Holocaust category A monumental work of nonfiction on a wartime atrocity, its sixty-year denial, and the impact of its truth Jan Gross's hugely controversial Neighbors was a historian's disclosure of the events in the small Polish town of Jedwabne on July 10, 1941, when the citizens rounded up the Jewish population and burned them alive in a barn. The massacre was a shocking secret that had been suppressed for more than sixty years, and it provoked the most important public debate in Poland since 1989. From the outset, Anna Bikont reported on the town, combing through archives and interviewing residents who survived the war period. Her writing became a crucial part of the debate and she herself an actor in a national drama. Part history, part memoir, The Crime and the Silence is the journalist's account of these events: both the story of the massacre told through oral histories of survivors and witnesses, and a portrait of a Polish town coming to terms with its dark past. Including the perspectives of both heroes and perpetrators, Bikont chronicles the sources of the hatred that exploded against Jews and asks what myths grow on hidden memories, what destruction they cause, and what happens to a society that refuses to accept a horrific truth. A profoundly moving exploration of being Jewish in modern Poland that Julian Barnes called "one of the most chilling books," The Crime and the Silence is a vital contribution to Holocaust history and a fascinating story of a town coming to terms with its dark past.
9780374536374 English 0374536376 A monumental work of nonfiction on a wartime atrocity, its sixty-year denial, and the impact of its truth "'It's a lie that Poles killed the Jews in Jedwabne,' says Tadeusz S., a retired doctor from Warsaw and an eyewitness to the events of July 10, 1941." Thus begins this monumental work of historical memory about a wartime atrocity and its perpetrators' denial. On that summer day in 1941, residents of the Polish town of Jedwabne herded local Jews into a barn and set it on fire. According to the historian Jan Gross, author of Neighbors , sixteen hundred men, women, and children perished in the blaze. But the massacre was a secret that was suppressed for so long that many of the details remained obscure and others were vehemently denied. Determined to excavate the truth of what happened in Jedwabne, the acclaimed Polish journalist Anna Bikont began reporting on the town. Despite warnings and threats from residents who insisted that she stay away, she combed sensitive archives and interviewed townspeople who lived through the turbulent period when the Nazis took control of Jedwabne. She discovered a community steeped in fear, residual guilt, and lies. Part reportage, part memoir, The Crime and the Silence is the story of the massacre told, like Claude Lanzmann's Shoah , through oral histories of survivors, witnesses, perpetrators, and Righteous Gentiles. In addition to presenting her journal entries, which include a remarkable discovery made about her family background, Bikont identifies the sources of the hatred that ignited the flames and asks what happens to a society that tries to bury an unconscionable crime., Winner of the National Jewish Book Award in the Holocaust category A monumental work of nonfiction on a wartime atrocity, its sixty-year denial, and the impact of its truth Jan Gross's hugely controversial Neighbors was a historian's disclosure of the events in the small Polish town of Jedwabne on July 10, 1941, when the citizens rounded up the Jewish population and burned them alive in a barn. The massacre was a shocking secret that had been suppressed for more than sixty years, and it provoked the most important public debate in Poland since 1989. From the outset, Anna Bikont reported on the town, combing through archives and interviewing residents who survived the war period. Her writing became a crucial part of the debate and she herself an actor in a national drama. Part history, part memoir, The Crime and the Silence is the journalist's account of these events: both the story of the massacre told through oral histories of survivors and witnesses, and a portrait of a Polish town coming to terms with its dark past. Including the perspectives of both heroes and perpetrators, Bikont chronicles the sources of the hatred that exploded against Jews and asks what myths grow on hidden memories, what destruction they cause, and what happens to a society that refuses to accept a horrific truth. A profoundly moving exploration of being Jewish in modern Poland that Julian Barnes called "one of the most chilling books," The Crime and the Silence is a vital contribution to Holocaust history and a fascinating story of a town coming to terms with its dark past.