"TRUTH SQUAD" CONFRONTS GROSS AT N.Y. LECTURE

Polonia Today ^ | February 6, 2002 | Editor

[malarski]

http://www.poloniatoday.com/truth.htm Polonia Today

February 6, 2002

"TRUTH SQUAD" CONFRONTS
GROSS AT N.Y. LECTURE

New York (PMN)--New York University Professor Jan T. Gross received less than a friendly reception when he came to the City University of New York Graduate Center on February 6, 2002, to promote his controversial book, "Neighbors." His lecture there left no doubt he was intent on putting the blame for a 1941 wartime atrocity in the small Polish town of Jedwabne on the local Polish population and not on the Germans who were in control there. But a "truth squad" of New York Polish Americans was ready for him when a discussion period followed his presentation.

Charles Chotkowski, Director of Research for the Polish American Congress Holocaust Documentation Committee, charged Gross with factual errors regarding the Catholic Church and Lomza's Bishop Stanislaw Lukomski. Gross' lengthy response appeared to be more an attempt of rationalization than a frank admission of mishandling the historical record.

Jan Moor-Jankowski, M.D., for 30 years a professor of forensic medicine of the New York University School of Medicine, then stunned Gross with a frontal attack on the credibility of "Neighbors." He made a striking comparison of it with another Holocaust bestseller reviewed only a day before in the Wall Street Journal. The book, "Fragments," was written by an imposter who claimed he was a Jewish Holocaust survivor when, in fact, he was not. The Wall Street Journal reviewer called it a "coldly planned fraud" or a work of "a deranged man who actually believes the myths he has constructed for himself." Dr. Moor Jankowski said that he has the same opinion of Dr. Gross and his book "Neighbors."

Dr. Gross did not even attempt to rebut Dr. Moor Jankowski's statement. (It should be noted that Dr. Moor Jankowski was hailed in American and Polish media for helping Jews during WWII in Poland. He was decorated by the President of France for his Resistance activities and also received a medal from Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir for helping to organize the teaching of medicine in Israel. He is the only American member of the French Academy of Medicine.)

Gross came in for another surprise when Boleslaw Domitrz spoke up to give his testimony as an eyewitness to the 1941 Jedwabne atrocity by uniformed Germans. However, in his book Gross accused the Poles of putting all the town's 1600 Jewish residents into a barn and burning them alive. Gross's version of events was denied by several witnesses. To have Mr. Domitrz now appear in New York and confront Gross added an explosive sense of drama to the meeting. Domitrz recalled what happened on the day the event in question took place. From afar, he and two of his teenage friends saw smoke rising from the burning barn. Out of boyhood curiosity, Domitrz said they tried to get a closer look at the barn. As they approached the fire they realized that there were no Poles around. Everyone seemed to have gone indoors as if from some dreadful and ominous fear. The only people the boys saw around the barn were Germans in uniform. Nobody else.

"When we realized we were the only Poles out there," said Domitrz, "we were so scared the Germans might see us and throw us into the fire that we turned around and ran right back as fast as we could."

When Mr. Domitrz finished his statement, Dr. Gross was visibly shaken and offered no questions or rebuttal to the eyewitness testimony. Dr. Braham, the moderator, then abruptly adjourned the session.

[malarski]

Interesting article in reference to previously posted articles on the subject of Jedwabne story.

[malarski]

bump

[malarski]

The Truth Bump

[Phil V.]

ominous read.

Why the fabrications?

[Nam Vet]

I'll sure bump this. I'm sick and tired of all the revisionist history of the past years. At 55 years old, 75% of 'liberal' history I've seen first hand rewritten in front of my eyes.

Nam Vet

[Phil V.]

Didn't George will swallow the "Neighbors" crapola?

[MACD]

You use the term "revision" . …. I prefer "refine" . ….

We should continue to look at the evidence of past events, and using newer and more modern methods, to determine what really happened.

Those who don't want to look back to clarify the reality of events, have something to hide -- the truth!

"Revision" based on solid evidence is far more reliable than PR campaigns in support of a "cause" . …. When research and discussion are suppressed, then truth is suppressed! Revisionist efforts are to be encouraged when those efforts are based on factual evidence.

[Lancey Howard]

'Neighbors' was a little too dark, and the humor a little too obtuse. But it was interesting to see the role-reversal with Ackroyd as the zany character and Belushi playing the straight man. Me and my buddy were the only two people in the theater who were laughing. Our wives were scared.

[BrooklynGOP]

Hah! Lovely! At least Poles have a consistent view of Jews in this Polonia rag... ie:

Judaism has been described as being based a religion of "revenge...."

We will not abandon Israel, if for no other reason than that the domestic reality will not let us...

Ofcourse there is no other reason, according to this author, other the domestic reality that we support Israel..

[dennisw]

Go here to find out what Kulak (AKA commiesout) texoma kudzu and others think about Jews. Speaking more frankly than at FR.

[Free the USA]

thanks for the ping

[sobieski]

As the recent book says, the Holocaust is now an industry. If the facts that more Christian non-combatants than Jews were killed as untermenschen, then the "uniqueness" of the Jews would be called into question. If it became known that over 4 million Catholic non-combatants were killed, the attacks on Pope Pius would appear silly. That's why "Neighbors" is so important as propoganda; the Poles must be transferred to Nazi allies, not people fighting the Nazis. And Jewish collaboration with the Soviets must be covered up; any talk of it is, of course "antisemitism"

[Hugin]

There may be some truth to it. There was a lot of Polish anti-semitism prior to WWII, which was encouraged by the NAZIs after they took over. I recently read a great first hand account of Jewish partisans in Poland, 'Fighting Back: A Memoir of Jewish Resistance in World War II', by Harold Werner. He escaped from the NAZIs and their Polish allies, and eventually helped form a Jewish partisan battalion, who later on were supported by the Russians. They spent almost as much time being attacked by right wing Polish resistance forces as by Germans. While it's true that they were mostly left-wing socialists, he claims that they made many attempts to form a common front with the right-wing resistance groups that were led mostly by ex-Army officers, but were rebuffed. It's available on amazon.com and an excellent read.

[Phil V.]

'Fighting Back: A Memoir of Jewish Resistance in World War II', by Harold Werner.

Thanks

I am a VERY undisciplined "scholar". But I'll note your suggestion and put it on the "to do" list.

[Justa]

"We should continue to look at the evidence of past events, and using newer and more modern methods, to determine
what really happened.

Unfortunately, those three words now have a different meaning in that context.

[Hillarys Gate Cult]

I expected great things out of Cathy Moriarty after "Neighbors" but only saw her in a couple of movies. I just read she spent most of the eighties plagued by bad career advice. BTW, the book makes the movie look pleasant. The part of Vic was originaly made for Belushi.

[MACD]

Yes, that's a good discussion site . …. they tried to have those discussions here . …. but frankness is not allowed on FR . …. :-(

[malarski]

He escaped from the NAZIs and their Polish allies, and eventually helped form a Jewish partisan battalion, who later on were supported by the Russians. They spent almost as much time being attacked by right wing Polish resistance forces as by Germans.

Nazis and Poles were never allies.
Nazis and Soviets were allies and both attacked Poland in 1939.
The Jewish partisan battalion was a red battalion which mostly attacked and murdered patriotic Polish peasants, who were unarmed. Additionally that battalion cooperated with the KGB officers.
The communist Jews in that battalion, who were Polish citizens, were in fact simply traitors.