Jedwabne Commemoration Marred by Holocaust Denial and Rising Antisemitism in Poland

By: Fern Sidman

The 84th anniversary of the Jedwabne massacre — a solemn occasion meant to honor the memory of hundreds of Jews brutally murdered by their Polish neighbors in 1941 — became a flashpoint for Holocaust denial and rising antisemitism in Poland this week. As the Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA) reported on Monday, what should have been a dignified commemoration was marred by historical revisionism, political provocation, and open hostility toward the Jewish community.

On Thursday, Jewish leaders, including Poland’s Chief Rabbi Michael Schudrich and the Board of the Jewish Community of Warsaw, gathered at the site of the Jedwabne massacre — a town northeast of Warsaw where, in July 1941, local residents herded hundreds of Jews into a barn and burned them alive. The events, chronicled by historian Jan Tomasz Gross in his landmark 2000 book ‘Neighbors,’ shattered the long-standing narrative that absolved Poles of complicity in the Holocaust. The revelations led to a historic presidential apology in 2001 and an official investigation by the Institute of National Remembrance, confirming that Polish perpetrators were responsible.

Yet, as the JTA report highlighted, Jedwabne remains a political and cultural fault line in Poland. In the lead-up to this year’s memorial, a disturbing new installation appeared near the official monument — seven boulders bearing metal plaques in both Polish and English, which advanced false narratives aimed at absolving Poles of blame. One plaque claimed the massacre was actually committed by a German pacification unit, directly contradicting the findings of historical and governmental investigations. Another peddled antisemitic tropes, suggesting Jews sympathized with Soviet oppressors during Poland’s interwar years — a claim steeped in age-old conspiracy theories about Jewish disloyalty.

As was reported by the JTA, far-right activist Wojciech Sumlinski publicly took credit for the installation, stating on social media that the project was funded through crowdfunding efforts. Though situated on private property about 100 feet from the official memorial, the proximity of the plaques cast a long shadow over the day’s remembrance.

The events took an even darker turn when far-right demonstrators, including nationalist politicians, physically blocked Rabbi Schudrich and other participants from leaving the site. Among them was Grzegorz Braun, a notorious member of the European Parliament known for his openly antisemitic rhetoric and denial of Polish responsibility for Jedwabne. Braun also called for the exhumation of massacre victims — a direct affront to Jewish law, which prohibits disturbing the dead — prompting police intervention to disperse the blockade, JTA reported.

Compounding the outrage, Braun triggered a police investigation after publicly denying the existence of gas chambers at Auschwitz, a remark condemned by the Auschwitz Memorial and described by JTA as part of a broader pattern of Holocaust distortion among Poland’s far-right figures.

Chief Rabbi Schudrich did not mince words. Calling the plaques a “disgrace” and “an expression of the disease of antisemitism,” Schudrich’s condemnation echoed across Jewish organizations worldwide. Yad Vashem, Israel’s Holocaust memorial authority, issued a sharply worded statement expressing “profound shock and deep concern” over what it called a desecration of historical truth. Yad Vashem, as cited by JTA, called on Polish authorities to take immediate action and remove the offensive installation.

The gravity of the situation was not lost on the American Jewish Committee (AJC). Agnieszka Markiewicz, AJC’s Central Europe director, warned in a statement carried by JTA, “What happened today in Jedwabne is not only a disgrace to the memory of the victims, it is a test for Poland’s democracy. The normalization of antisemitism, especially from elected officials like Grzegorz Braun, demands more than silence. It demands moral clarity, legal accountability, and swift political response.”

The Jedwabne incident unfolds against a broader backdrop of political shifts in Poland. As the JTA report noted, the recent election of Karol Nawrocki — a historian known for downplaying Polish complicity in the Holocaust — as Poland’s president signals a troubling endorsement of revisionist narratives. The Law and Justice Party, Nawrocki’s political home, has championed legislation criminalizing accusations of Polish involvement in Nazi crimes, a move widely criticized by Jewish leaders and historians alike.

As the JTA report indicated, the desecration of the Jedwabne memorial site is more than an isolated act of vandalism — it reflects a deepening crisis in Poland’s reckoning with its wartime past. The incident drew attention to the urgent need for Polish society and its leaders to confront antisemitism with honesty, uphold historical truth, and reject the dangerous allure of nationalist revisionism before it further corrodes the country’s democratic fabric.