by Anna Bikont
Rogalski, Father
Rogers, Morgan Ty
Rogiński, Father
Rogowski, Franciszek
Rogowski, Jan
Rogowski, Romuald
Ronen, Meir (Meir Grajewski); exiled to Kazakhstan
Rostiki
Roszkowski, Antoni
Rotszyld
Rothchild, Tzipora
Rottenberg, Pinchas
Rottenberg, Pinio
Rozenbaum, Mosze
Rozenbaum, Zajdel
Rudnicki, Szymon
Rydaczenko, Mark Timofiejewicz
Rydzewski, Marian
Rydz-Śmigły, Edward
Rydzyk, Father
Rzeczpospolita (Republic)
Rzepliński, Andrzej
Ś., Tadeusz, see Święszkowski, Tadeusz
Sachsenhausen
Samoobrona (Self-Defense)
Sawicki, Dawid
Schaper, Hermann
Scharf, Rafael
Schell, Jonathan
schools; in Jedwabne; in Radziłów; Tarbut; in Wizna
Schudrich, Michael
Semborski, Jankiel
September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks
Serwetarz, Etka
Shabbat
Shevelyov
Shushan Purim
Siberia
Siedlecki, Bolek
Siedlecki, Felek
Sielawa, Franciszek
Sielawa, Stanisław
Sikora, Father
Sikorska, Maria
Simon Wiesenthal Center
Singer, Isaac Bashevis
Six-Day War
60 Minutes
Skolimowski, Jerzy
Skomski, Eugeniusz
Skroblacki, Wolf
Skrodzki, Bożena
Skrodzki, Jan; investigations by
Skrodzki, Zygmunt
Skryhiczyn
SLD (Union of the Democratic Left)
Śleszyński, Bolesław
Śleszyński, Bronisław
Sliwecki, Eugeniusz
Słobodzianek, Tadeusz
Smurzyński, Jerzy
Śniadowo
Sobuta, Józef
Sokołowska, Julia
Sokołowski, Jan
Sokołowski, Stanisław
Solidarity
Sosnowska, Chana
Sosnowska, Hana
Sosnowska, Sara
Sosnowski, Zundel
Soviet occupation; age factor in attitudes toward; daily life under
Soviet Union, Soviets; German-Soviet War; Polish-Soviet War; Red Army; Stalin-Hitler pact
Spiegel, Der
Spiegelman, Art
Sprawa Katolicka (Catholic Cause)
Sroszko, Chaim
Srul, Mendel
Stalin, Joseph; Hitler’s pact with; Laudański brothers and
Stalinism
Staniurska, Janina
Statkiewicz, Henryk
Stankiewicz, Józef
Stawiski
Stefanek, Bishop
Stola, Dariusz
Stolarski, Icek
Strohammer, Karl
Stryjakowski, Meir
Strzałka, Abram
Strzelczyk, Czesław
Strzelecka, Eugenia
Strzelecki, Mieczysław
Strzembosz, Tomasz
Sugihara, Chiuno
Sukkoth
Sułek, Antoni
Sulewski (a.k.a. Nieczykowski), Józef
Sunday
Suraski, Rywka Leja
Suraski, Samuel
Surowiecki, Antoni
Święszkowski, Tadeusz
Szarota, Tomasz
Szczęsna, Gabriela
Szcześniak, Andrzej Leszek
Szczuczyn
Szklarkiewicz, Daniel
Szlapak, Lejb
Szlapak, Wolf
Szmalcowniks
Szmidtowa, Miss
Szmuił, Berek
Szmul, Uncle
Szumowksi, Marian
Szuster-Rozenblum, Pesia
Szwalbe, Aaron
Szymanowski, Jan
Szymborski, Abram
Szymonów, Józek
Tabortowski, Jan
Talmud
Tarasewicz, Pawł
Tarbut schools
Tarnacki, Feliks
Tarnacki, Jerzy
Tatra Mountains
Tocki, Władysław
Tokarska-Bakir, Joanna
To Our Neighbors
Torah
Treblinka
“Truth About Jedwabne, The”
Trzaska, Michał
Trzaski
Trzeciak, Father
Turek, Menachem
Tuwim, Julian
Tych, Feliks
Tygodnik Kontakty (Contacts Weekly)
Tygodnik Masowsze (Masowsze Weekly)
Tygodnik Powszechny (General Weekly)
Tygodnik Solidarność (Solidarity Weekly)
Tykocin
Unia Wolności (Freedom Union)
Urynowicz, Marcin
Vietnam War
Vilnius
Vogel, Rivka
vydvizhentsy
Wądołowska, Czesia
Wądołowski, Antoni
Wądołowski, Marian
Wajnsztajn, Mechajkał
Wajsztejn, Szmul
Wałach, Icchak
Wałęsa, Lech
Walewski, Jan
Walters, Ann, see Finkelsztejn, Chana
Warsaw; All Saints’ Church in; Otwock orphanage in
Warsaw Center for Contemporary Art
Warsaw Ghetto; Ringelblum Archive of
Warsaw Ghetto Uprising
Warzyński, Franciszek
Wasersztejn, Berek
Wasersztejn, Całka
Wasersztejn, Chaja Sara
Wasersztejn, Chana Jenta
Wasersztejn, Gerardo
Wasersztejn, Izaak
Wasersztejn, Mojżesz
Wasersztejn, Rachela
Wasersztejn, Rebecca
Wasersztejn, Saul
Wasersztejn, Szmul; Bikont’s Gazeta piece on; death of; Karwowski and; testimony and memoirs of; Wyrzykowska and
Wasersztejn family
Wasilewski
Wasilków
Wąsosz
Wein, Aron
Weiss, Szewach
Weschler, Joanna
Weschler, Lawrence
Weschler, Ren
Weschler, Sara
“What Happened in Jedwabne and How”
Widman, Giselle
Wiernik, Maria
Wierzba, Ryfka
Wierzba, Stanisław
Wierzba, Szymek
Wieseltier, Leon
Wiesenthl, Simon
Więz (Bond)
Winterszajs, Szmul
witches
Wizna; Jewish Tarbut school in
Wołek, Chaim
Wołkowycki, Włodzimierz
Wołyński, Oleś
World Association of Polish Home Army Soldiers
World War I
World War II
Wożniakowska-Thun, Róża
Wydźga, Andrzej
Wyrzykowska, Antonina; Wasersztejn and
Wyrzykowska, Helena
Wyrzykowski, Aleksander
Wyrzykowski, Antoni
Wysokie Mazowieckie
Wyszonki-Kościelne
Yad Vashem
Yediot Akhronoth
Yizkor books; see also Jedwabne Book of Memory
Yom Kippur
Youth Movement of the Greater Poland Bloc
Zaborowski, Abram
Zaborowski, Meszek
Zabrze
Zacharewicz, Daniel
Zacharewicz, Szaja
Zacharewicz, Zajman
Zajdensztat, Abram
Zakopane
Żakowski, Jacek
Zalewska, Halina
Zalewski, Stanisław
Zambrów
/> Zandler, Lejzor
Zanklewo
Zaręby Kościelne
Zawadzki, Bolesław
Zawadzki, Roman
Zdrojewicz, Hirsz
Zejer, Mr.
Zejer, Stanisław
Żelechowski, Stanisław
Zeligson, Chona
Zimnowicz, Jakob
Zimnowicz, Sara
Zimnowicz, Szulamit
Zimny, Jutke
Zimny, Wolf
Zionism, Zionists; Bricha; see also Palestine
Zionist-Revisionist Party
Żukowska, Alina
Życie (Life)
Życie I Praca (Life and Work)
Życie Warszawy (Warsaw Life)
Życiński, Józef
Żyluk, Feliks
Żyluk, Janusz
Żyluk, Józef
Żyluk, Marian
A Note About the Author
Anna Bikont is a journalist for the Gazeta Wyborcza, Poland’s main newspaper, which she helped found in 1989. For her articles on the crimes in Jedwabne and nearby Radziłów, she was honored with several awards, including the Press Prize for reportage in 2001 and the Polityka Prize for historical writing. In 2011 she received the European Book Prize for the French edition of The Crime and the Silence. In 2008 and 2009, Bikont was a fellow at the Cullman Center of the New York Public Library. You can sign up for email updates here.
A Note About the Translator
Alissa Valles is the author of Orphan Fire and the editor and cotranslator of Zbigniew Herbert’s Collected Poems: 1956–1998 and Collected Prose: 1948–1998. You can sign up for email updates here.
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Contents
Title Page
Copyright Notice
Journal: August 28–December 28, 2000
1 Lord, Rid Poland of the Jews
or, On Polish-Jewish Relations in Jedwabne in the Thirties
Journal: January 2–February 6, 2001
2 I Wanted to Save Her Life—Love Came Later
or, The Story of Rachela Finkelsztejn and Stanisław Ramotowski
Journal: February 7–March 10, 2001
3 We Suffered Under the Soviets, the Germans, and People’s Poland
or, The Story of the Three Brothers Laudański
Journal: March 11–March 28, 2001
4 You Didn’t See That Grief in Jews
or, Polish and Jewish Memory of the Soviet Occupation
Journal: March 29–May 12, 2001
5 I’ll Tell You Who Did It: My Father
or, The Private Investigation of Jan Skrodzki
Journal: May 13–June 1, 2001
6 If I’d Been in Jedwabne Then
or, The Story of Meir Ronen, Exiled to Kazakhstan
Journal: June 3–June 14, 2001
7 A Time Will Come When Even Stones Will Speak
or, The Soliloquies of Leszek Dziedzic
Journal: June 18–July 10, 2001
8 Your Only Chance Was to Pass for a Goy
or, The Survival of Awigdor Kochaw
Journal: July 11–November 30, 2001
9 A Desperate Search for Something Positive
or, The Soliloquies of Krzysztof Godlewski, Ex-Mayor of Jedwabne
Journal: December 1–December 30, 2001
10 Only I Knew There Were Seven of Them
or, The Story of Antonina Wyrzykowska
11 I, Szmul Wasersztejn, Warn You
or, The Road from Jedwabne to Costa Rica
Journal: January 1–February 25, 2002
12 They Had Vodka, Guns, and Hatred
or, July 7, 1941, in Radziłów
Journal: February 27–June 17, 2002
13 The Dreams of Chaja Finkelsztejn
or, The Survival of a Radziłów Miller’s Family
Journal: June 16–December 1, 2002
14 Decent Polish Kids and Hooligans
or, On the Murderers of Jedwabne, Radziłów, Wąsosz, and the Surrounding Areas
Journal: January 10, 2003–July 10, 2004
15 Strictly Speaking, Poles Did It
or, A Conversation with Prosecutor Radosław Ignatiew
Notes
Acknowledgments
Index
Frontispiece
A Note About the Author and Translator
Copyright
Farrar, Straus and Giroux
18 West 18th Street, New York 10011
Copyright © 2004 by Anna Bikont
Translation copyright © 2015 by Alissa Valles
All rights reserved
Originally published in Polish in 2004 by Wydawnictwo Prószyński i Ska, Poland, as My z Jedwabnego
English translation published in the United States by Farrar, Straus and Giroux
First American edition, 2015
Frontispiece map copyright © Magdalena Korotyńska.
Grateful acknowledgment is made for permission to reprint “Mr. Cogito Seeks Advice,” from The Collected Poems: 1956–1998, by Zbigniew Herbert. Translated and edited by Alissa Valles. Copyright © 2007 by the Estate of Zbigniew Herbert. Translation copyright © 2007 by HarperCollins Publishers LLC. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers.
Our eBooks may be purchased in bulk for promotional, educational, or business use. Please contact the Macmillan Corporate and Premium Sales Department at 1-800-221-7945, ext. 5442, or by e-mail at [email protected].
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Bikont, Anna.
[My z Jedwabnego. English]
The crime and the silence: confronting the massacre of Jews in wartime Jedwabne / Anna Bikont; translated from the Polish by Alissa Valles.—First American edition.
pages cm
“Originally published in Polish in 2004 by Wydawnictwo Prószyński i Ska, Poland, as My z Jedwabnego”—Title page verso.
ISBN 978-0-374-17879-6 (hardback)—ISBN 978-0-374-71032-3 (e-book)
1. Holocaust, Jewish (1939–1945)—Poland—Jedwabne. 2. Jews—Poland—Jedwabne—History—20th century. 3. Bikont, Anna—Diaries. 4. Jedwabne (Poland)—Ethnic relations—History—20th century. 5. Jedwabne (Poland)—Biography. 6. Collective memory—Poland—Jedwabne. I. Title.
DS134.66.J43 B4513 2015
940.53’1844—dc23
2014046631
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This publication has been subsidized by Instytut Książki—the ©POLAND Translation Program.