Neighbors: The Destruction of the Jewish Community in Jedwabne, Poland

After the Nazi invasion of Poland on September 7, 1939, which prompted the start of World War II, the Eastern European country was a pawn in the German-Russian play for power. After the Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact, Jedwabne came under Soviet control. The totalitarian Russian regime conflicted with the Poles’ staunch Catholic faith. Gross contrasts the Soviet invasion with that of the Nazis to show that the Poles were not averse to totalitarianism, which was also a key aspect of fascist rule, but disliked regimes that conflicted with their traditional values. The Nazis were reactionaries. Thus, their values, which embraced traditional gender roles, paternalistic authoritarianism, and suspicion toward minorities, were compatible with the values of Jedwabne residents. The Poles killed the Jews to align with the regime that they thought was most compatible with their values, and the one that would rid them of the minority that they believed posed an intrinsic threat.

There were, after all, rumors that Jews were complicit with communism. The assumption that Jews had aligned with the Soviet invaders allowed the non-Jewish Poles to characterize their Jewish neighbors as outsiders, though they had been living in the country for centuries. The non-Jewish Poles went even further by blaming the Jews for their having become targets of Nazi aggression, given the prevalence of Jewish communities in Poland.