Rambam protests latest Polish WWII whitewash

Students and faculty members of the Rambam Mesivta in Lawrence rallied outside the Polish Consulate in Manhattan on Yom HaShoah to call attention to that country’s recent attempt to rewrite Holocaust history.

Dr. Jan Gross, a professor of history at Princeton University authored a book, “Neighbors,” which documents the brutal murder of the Jews in the town of Jedwabne by their Polish neighbors. In July 1941 the Poles in that town herded 1,300 Jews into a barn, doused it with kerosene and burned all of the Jews trapped inside.

Recently, Gross was quoted as saying that “Poles killed more Jews than Germans,” referring to the activities of the Polish resistance fighters. This indictment of Polish citizenry evoked an outcry by thousands of people in Poland today and the Polish prosecutor is looking into indicting and jailing Gross for the crime of ”insulting the state.”

According to rally organizer, Rabbi Zev Friedman, “I’ve heard many survivors speak of the glee their Polish neighbors had when Jews were being mercilessly persecuted. It was reported that eyewitnesses in the Warsaw ghetto saw Poles watching approvingly or even helping out, acting as spotters as German soldiers shot Jews.

“Today’s rally calls on the Polish government not just to drop charges and exonerate Dr. Gross, but to admit their history and take full responsibility for what its citizens did to their own neighbors during the Holocaust.

“The attempts of the government of Poland, which holds itself out to be a democracy, to stifle the free speech and historical documentation of an internationally acclaimed professor of history, smacks of charges one would expect to hear emanating from North Korea and other totalitarian regimes.”

At the rally students chanted, ‘’Do what’s right — don’t rewrite (history)” “Your land is drenched in blood,” and “Remember Jedwabne.”

A handful of nationalistic Polish protesters attempted to deflect blame and responsibility and spoke about how Poles, in fact, aided Jews during World War II.