Secrets in the archives
The special operational groups of Gestapo could have operated
in Jedwabne, suppose the German historians.
The authorities of GBR
had conducted at least three investigations by the end of fifties,
assuming that the crimes in the Bialystok district of summer 1941 were
committed by Nazis, and amongst them, was the massacre in Jedwabne.
However, each investigation ended with dismissal as a result of lack
of proves.
The first investigation was re-opened in 1958. Its bases
were the indications found in the petitions by the citizens of Israel
who petitioned German authorities in 50-ties for reparations for their
suffering in the hands if nazis.
The research undertaken by the agency in Ludvisburg proved,
that in the Bialystok and Lomza regions, independently of the
intervening units (Einsatzgruppen) there perhaps operated the special
unit designated for the "special assignments", in which included
was the Gestapo unit of the Eastern Prussia region.
One other of such
groups could have operated in the Lomza region, and have something
to do with the massacre in Jedwabne - thinks Borger. The German
authorities asked Israel or the legal help. However search for witnesses
in Jedwabne had proven unsuccessful at that time. The investigation
against the person suspected of commanding the unit was dropped
about 1965.
In 1968 similarly, the second investigation against
the commanders of SS and police, environmental police and
the gandarmerie units, suspected of committing the crime in
9locations in the Bialystok region, including Jedwabne.
The Prosecutor took up the third investigation in this matter
of Bielefeld in 1974. At that time, the German side petitioned
to take the testimonies of 10 witnesses in Poland that the Main
Commission for Investigation of the Nazi Crimes sent to Ludvisburg
on October 7th, 1974.
In these testimonies there is talk about German
responsibility for the crime in Jedwabne - asserts Borget.
As a part
of this investigation German prosecutor deposed also residing
abroad Jewish witnesses. One of them, Cwi Baranowicz, mentions
the attempt by Poles to burn Jewish population in the synagogue
in Piatnica. According to witnesses, the burning did not occurred
only thanks to the German intervention. The witness suggested that
the Poles participated in the Jedwabne massacre. However, Baranowicz
himself had not ever resided in Jedwabne.
Borget admitted that in
the German sources one could find the information that Germans
considered the possibility of using anti- Semitic sentiments in the local
community on the territory that has been taken by German army
in June 1941, to ignite pogroms. - The word of caution was issued
to make German initiative invisible - explains.
Borgert excluded
the possibility of existing the German film in Koblencja
and in Berlin - Such materials do not exists in Ludvisburg or in the
archives of Koblencja and Berlin - he assured. However, he did not
deny that the Polish historian searching documents on behalf of IPN
can find a trace that can bring him to the leads to the other documents
in the other archives. Published on Wednesday in ZYCIE excerpt
of the testimony does not belong to Cwi Baranowicza but to Waclawa
Kupieckiego.
-It does not apply to Poles-
said Professor Witold Kulesza .
The witnesses deposed in the trials
of the Jedwabne crime conducted in Germany, do not even mention
participation of Poles in he crime. Why?
The prosecution in Germany was related to the alleged German perpetrators
of crimes but not Polish. The German Prosecutors did not have a jurisdiction
to persecute Polish perpetrators.
Part of the documents in Ludvisburg was
sent to the by the Main Commission for Investigating Nazis Crimes.
And even there is no mention about Poles. When Main Commission
to Investigate Nazi Crimes were to address the German authorities
to take up the investigation it would indicate the German preceptors.
And that is why it did not rely to the German side for example
the testimonies of the witnesses of the trial conducted in Poland
in 1949. Indeed at that time there were 12 Polish residents
of Jedwabne sentenced for the crime. Even if we were to sent
to Germany the testimonies indicating the Polish perpetrators
of the crime, that the German Prosecutor would have sent them back.
Why than to come back to the matters already known
for a long time?
We are coming back to these documents to find out what was
established, thus far. However, we must admit that they
do not bring a breakthrough in the investigation.
Wojciech Kamiński, pap
Wojciech Kamiński, pap, Zycie, 2001-03-24
translated by: Emilia Wisniewska