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Institute of National Remembrance
www.ipn.gov.pl
18 04 2002
Information on the investigation
of the crime committed in Jedwabne released by the Head
Commission for the Prosecution of Crimes against the
Polish Nation
In September of 2000, the
Institute of National Remembrance - Commission for the
Prosecution of Crimes against the Polish Nation instituted
an inquiry about the murder of Polish citizens of Jewish
nationality on July 10th, 1941. The investigation
was started by analysis of records of the trial of 1949,
during which 21 Polish inhabitants of Jedwabne and a
German gendarme were accused, and of which 12 persons
were legally sentenced for abetting to the committed
crime. The records of the trial of 1953 were also taken
into consideration, during which one more Polish perpetrator
was accused of participation in the crime.
The said crime has been committed by burning the Jewish
victims - men, women and children - in a barn located
at the outskirts of the Jedwabne town.
During the investigation currently conducted, 42 witnesses
have been heard, including a group of eyewitnesses of
the events.
In the light of their accounts, it can be assumed that
Polish inhabitants of Jedwabne actively participated
in the crime. These were mainly young men in the number
of about 40, acting jointly with 8 German gendarmes
present at the site. It has also been ascertained that
a commando Gestapo of several persons from Ciechanow
township might have participated in the crime, as it
has been ascertained - based on the materials found
in German archives - that the commander of the commando
was seen 3 days before the crime in the town of Radzi3ów
where he was giving orders on the day of the murder
of Jewish inhabitants of that town.
In case of the crime committed in Radziwi3ów township,
a separate investigation is being conducted, during
which whiteness accounts reviling the course of events
and criminal records have been found against one of
the Polish perpetrators of the crime.
In result of the exhumation works conducted in Jedwabne
in June of this year, it has been ascertained that remains
of 150 - 250 Jewish victims are located in mass graves.
Small articles that used to belong to the victims were
found. The exhumation works allowed to ascertain that
both the group of Jewish men and the Rabbi, who were
told to carry the broken bust of Lenin from the Jedwabne
market square, as well as, the rest of the victims,
were murdered in the barn. The corpses were thrown into
2 holes in the ground: one dig inside the barn, and
the second outside of it, along its longer side.
During the exhumation, ammunition shells were also found,
that were later subject to expert investigation in order
to ascertain whether, and which caliber, was used to
shoot at the victims who were rushed to the barn on
July 10th, 1941.
Recently, an eye-whiteness of the crime was questioned
at his place of residence in Israel by the prosecutors
of the Commission for the Prosecution of Crimes against
the Polish Nation. Also, another person from Poland
who, during the occupation, sheltered Szmul Wasersztajn
(the author of the accounts of the Jedwabne crime),
and other Jewish inhabitants of Jedwabne, were questioned.
The investigative materials will be published after
prior anonymity of the witnesses' personal data.
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