1941 Tragedy in Jedwabne

75 years ago, on July 10, 1941, the Polish inhabitants of the village of Jedwabne in the Bialystok district massacred their Jewish neighbors. About 350 people were stabbed to death or burned in the locked barn. The pogrom was carried out with the consent of the German occupation authorities. Only in 2000 did the Polish-American historian Jan Gross publish the results of his investigation into the involvement of Poles in the murder of Jews. Previously, the Jedwabne massacre was attributed to the Germans.

Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski said after Gross' revelations: "It was a crime. No one justifies it. We must ask for forgiveness from the shadows of the dead. I apologize on my own behalf and on behalf of those Poles whose conscience is tormented by this crime."