Institute of National Remembrance - text version
Official Statement of the Institute of National Remembrance - Commission for the Prosecution of Crimes Against the Polish Nation on the Manslaughter of Jewish inhabitants of Jedwabne, July 10th, 1941 - wersja graficzna tekstu
Official Statement of the Institute of National Remembrance - Commission for the Prosecution of Crimes Against the Polish Nation on the Manslaughter of Jewish inhabitants of Jedwabne, July 10th, 1941
Fulfilling its obligation, the Institute of National Remembrance has opened the investigation of the manslaughter of Jewish inhabitants of the town Jedwabne which took place during one of the first days of the German occupation. It is the first legal proceeding in the independent Poland. The previous proceedings ended with a legal condemnation of 12 Poles in 1949 and 1953. They have not, however, clarified all circumstances of the crime. Detailed information regarding the participation of the occupying German forces, was lacking. The archived materials and the historical data known during the time of the opening of the investigation pointed out to Polish complicity in the case.
The task of the Institute of National Remembrance is to assess all the pertinent circumstances of the Jedwabne crime, and to point to its perpetrators. The Institute is guided by the conviction that the manslaughter of the Jewish neighbours has not been committed in the name of our Nation. The Institute of National Remembrance will make every effort to ascertain the truth.
We must call this crime by its proper name. Our membership in the family of civilised nations excludes any justification for mass murders of children, women and men because of national, political, social, racial or religious reasons. It makes us treat such acts as crimes against entire humanity.
Only upon the closing of the investigation, the real course of that tragedy will be revealed. It will be made possible after a thorough use of every record available up to date. The evidence of the investigation will be published for the public opinion to familiarise itself with the scope of that tragedy. Publication of a White Book on Jedwabne will become the evidence of clearing of accounts for our share of responsibility for the wartime fate of the Jewish people, whose ancestors have lived with us on the same land for centuries, contributing to the common good and our common history. We would like to stress that the drama of Jedwabne events cannot be the basis of harmful generalisations in assessment of the position of the Polish people during the time of the tragic years of the Second World War.
By declaring our will of commemoration of the Jedwabne drama, we are hopeful that its memory will serve the reconciliation of Poles and Jews, two nations so painfully experienced by the genocide of the 20th
century.
Warsaw, March 14th, 2001
18 November 2003
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