By Michael Anes
We created this part of the trip to pogrom villages for our 2018 schedule, when we visited the great synagogue at Tykocin, the Łupochowo forest Nazi killing site where hundreds of Tykocin’s Jews were shot to death in August 1941 and buried in three mass graves, and then to the Jedwabne and Radziłów pogrom memorial markers.
For this Fulbright-Hays Group Projects Abroad trip I wanted to more fully emphasize a) how close these towns were to each other, b) how many pogroms there were from late June 1941 through August 1941 in the region in the wake of the Nazi invasion of Russia and c) to emphasize the character of this violence, that is how some of these violent spasms had more or less Nazi involvement and encouragement or different types of victims. In fulfillment of these goals, our guide Lukasz discussed with us the Wizna, Wąsosz and Szczuczyn pogroms as we drove through those villages, in addition to stops at Jedwabne, Radziłów and Bzury.
In chronological order:
Many of the trees along the walk in Łupochowo have been logged since 2018.
And the Jedwabne memorial is broken; the symbolic burned barn door has slipped from its position in the concrete frame.
Jedwabne is the most infamous pogrom case, having been written about extensively since Jan Gross published his 2000 book Neighbors. This book caused huge controversy in Poland about the extent of Polish civilian culpability in crimes against Jews. The controversy has had political ramifications for over 20 years now.
Next to Radziłów, the site of pre-war hostility and more than one pogrom (1933, 1935), and which was a model case for collecting Jews into a barn and burning the whole structure (done here and then three days later at Jedwabne.) The memorial is still in the old style, mention killing of the Jews by Hitlerite fascists and not mentioning the involvement of townspeople.
In another post I’ll talk about the heinous crime perpetrated against 20 young women in Bzury, a new site visit for our program and one that is very deep in the forest.
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