The Aftermath of Jedwabne

This is a seminar course and enrollment will be capped at around 25 students.

Instructor: Anna Bikont

Polish-Jewish relations in the Holocaust has long been a point of contention. Ever since 2000, when Jan Gross brought to light the murder of Jews from the town of Jedwabne by their Polish neighbors during World War II in his book Neighbors, the debate has intensified. This class will explore the discussion over the past 20 years over Polish-Jewish relations during the Holocaust.

Among other pressing topics, this class will consider the categorization of Poles and other nations of occupied Europe during the Holocaust. Is it justified to continue using the word bystander, or should there be only a binary of perpetrator and victim? How do the Righteous Among the Nations fit into the narrative? How does the Polish government and nation of the 21st century seek to shape the memory of the 20th century? Can the truth revealed be denied once again? This class will discuss these questions using texts by Barbara Engelking, Jan T. Gross, Joanna Tokarska-Bakir, and Elżbieta Janicka, among others.

Course Materials:
The instructor will provide all course materials digitally to students throughout the class.

Anna Bikont is a non-fiction writer and journalist for Gazeta Wyborcza, the main newspaper in Poland which she helped found in 1989. In 2015 the English version of her book, The Crime and the Silence.  Confronting the Massacre of the Jews in wartime Jedwabne, published by FSG, was selected in the 100 Notable Books of the Year by the New York Times and won one of the National Jewish Book Awards. Her books have been translated into Czech, Chinese, Deutsch, English, German, Hebrew, Italian, French, Spanish, Swedish. In 2017, she received a doctorate honoris causa from the Gothenburg University.

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