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A Book Report on 'Neighbours'

发布时间:2017-03-30
该论文是我们的学员投稿,并非我们专家级的写作水平!如果你有论文作业写作指导需求请联系我们的客服人员

Neighbors by Jan T. Gross

Neighbors recollects the horrifying events that occurred during and after WWII to the Jews of Jedwabne by their own town. These people murdered 1,600 women, children, and men by beatings, torturing, and burnings; all but seven people of the entire town survived. This horrifying day in July of 1941 was often forgotten or ignored but the people of Jedwabne and surrounding town remembered it all too well. Gross used first hand experiences and other pieces of documented evidence in his book to retell history and make it more known. Gross' book unveils the truth about the relations between the Jewish and the Polish, how people reacted to German occupation and a totalitarian government.

Many would believe that at the time, the German occupation would urge the massacre of Jews; Neighbors shows the exact opposite. It was not the Nazis who were murdering the Jews, it was the neighbors of the Jews of Judwabne. A family nearby helped save the remaining seven Jews of the town and was eventually forced to leave their home. One of the most terrible parts of Gross' stories is the fact that the Jews of Judwabne were drowned, beaten, tortured, and burned alive by former neighbors, friends, coworkers, and school mates. Gross makes the implication that Poles and other Europeans were not merely innocent bystanders but rather enforcers to the murder.

In Neighbors, Gross presents a few explanations as to why the Poles murdered their fellow neighbors. The first and most obvious explanations is antisemitism that existed before German occupation. The chaotic war and sudden Nazi occupation fueled the fire and allowed for such horrible actions to take place. Not only does Gross study the massacre but also analyzes the bystanders, such as the police, governments and the church, and their reactions to this. Instead of trying to stop the murder, they simply turned the other cheek as they did not care about what was happening.

As this is the most common and widely accepted explanation for the Holocaust, Gross felt as though there was a more complex reason; money. Gross explains that the Polish government prospered as a direct result from the Holocaust. The Polish took Jewish homes, businesses, land, and personal property. Home and businessmen were given to non-Jews and personal property such as gold were melted down and given right back to the government. The Polish did not have a problem with using stolen Jewish stuff because they knew that the Jews would not return for their belongings. The very few Jews who did return demanded their homes and businesses back and further angered the Polish.

Gross does not believe that material possessions was the only explanation and presents another reason. The Polish did not accept the surviving Jews because they were a reminder of the Holocaust and their immoral actions during German occupation. Not only were the Jews a reminder but the Polish was forced to admit they were not victims because they justified the killings and did nothing to stop it. After the war, the Polish were almost afraid of the Jews as their persecution was a constant reminder of the destruction of their morals and inhumane behavior. The Polish realized they were wrong for turning against their own people and mass elimination did not solve anything.

It is typically believed that the antisemitism was prevalent in Poland because the Poles believed the Jews were responsible for communism and the Nazis were going to liberate them from communism. Gross argues throughout Neighbors that this commonly believed “myth” is inaccurate. The Nazis who mass eliminated the Jews were seen as “doing their job” yet the Catholics and other non-Jews willingly participated in this act of killing their former friends and neighbors.

Gross' book collectively establishes a shared guilt of all Polish residents of the time. In his book, Gross claims that the mass execution was planned and lead by the town's council leaders and the town's mayor. Although he claims that not everyone in the town was active in the murders, they were all present and fully aware of what was happening. While many sources claim that only 92 people participated in the events that occurred that day, Gross argues that the non-Jewish residents, as a whole, were responsible for the execution. The citizens who stood by and watched or cheered on the active killers hold just as much blame as those who actually did the killing.

The testimonies presented in Neighbors serve as the entire basis for Gross' arguments and explanations for the Massacre in Jedwabne. This is a main concern for the integrity and accuracy of Gross' argument. The only official documentation is court papers produced by perpetrators of the Jedwabne massacre, the rest of the information comes from interviews and testimonies. Some of these testimonies come from former residents of Jedwabne and even surviving Jews from Jedwabne. Gross uses these testimonials in the sense that they are all true and bases his knowledge and information on these “facts”. Gross states that he believes these survivors and witnesses chose to write and tell their story as a method of dealing with their past. He believes these accounts to be true because after the war the Jews were determined to present accurate evidence to bring justice to the persecutors during the Holocaust. His other reason for stating these accounts to be true is that he believes there is no reason for blaming the Polish for actions and crimes commit by the Germans. Therefore the accounts presented to Gross prove to be reliable and assumes that those who actively participated would not lie or exaggerate the details of the murders.

In Neighbors, Gross presents the personal accounts of survivors and witnesses but fails to presents both sides of the story. It appears as though Gross specifically chose the testimonies as they pertained to his topic and further proved him to be right. Although Gross did include eyewitness reports, he did not include the counter point, such as German participation, to show both sides of the story leaving the reader with insufficient information.

Even though the evidence presented by Gross is not complete, it does show an importance to the Polish participation in the Holocaust. His book exposed the Polish and proved that they weren't just there to save the Jews. The myth that the Poles were exclusively there to rescue Jews and fight against German oppression was proven false by Gross' book and the testimonies of those who actually lived it. Neighbors is a relatively short book with a vast amount of information that quickly exposes a hidden truth to the Holocaust. Many people believe that Poland was ignorant of the mass executions or forced to do the killings. Poland was aware of what the Nazis were doing to Jews but most Poles believed their country to be innocent of killing during the Holocaust until the truths were presented to them. Some of the Poles refused to accept what was presented in Gross' book and avoided the subject of being the victim and the prosecutor of the Jews. Poland did contribute vastly to the rescue of thousands of Jews, knowing the penalty if they were caught, but they are also guilty of mass killings such as in Jedwabne. This book also depicts the truth about human nature; given the right circumstances, humans will ignore their morals for personal gain. He argues that a majority of the Jedwabne town chose to murder the Jewish citizens for economic prosperity which he supports throughout his book. This part of his book is very important to studying the Holocaust because it presents a new aspect to the genocide.

Gross' presentation of his gathered information and research on the massacre of Jedwabne are contradictory to preconceived beliefs by the Polish of WWII and specifically the involvement in the Holocaust. The Poles were in disbelief when Gross published Neighbors because murder of Jews did not occur elsewhere in Poland to such degree and was not typical behavior of the Polish during the Holocaust. Although Gross presents hard evidence condemning the Poles for murder, he claims that his book was not written to persecute the Polish people but rather shed some light on a hidden piece of history. He believes that these actions should be accepted as a part history rather than be ignored and, hopefully, the results will end in decreasing antisemitism and bettering the relationship between the Poles and the Jews. Gross would agree that knowledge and acceptance is the best method to further prevent such violent acts among people from happening again.

Whether or not readers agree with the information Gross presents in Neighbors it is evident that this book had made a significant impact on Polish-Jewish relationships. Since the publication of Gross' book, Jedwabne has been a central topic of discussion when referring to the participation of Poles during German occupation. Gross' information presented in his book led to mass research and criminal trials concerning Jedwabne which has no presented us with even more knowledge of what really happened.

After the release of Neighbors, many people began to doubt how reliable the book was in it conclusions. Many people believe that Gross' reported number were highly inaccurate such as that half of the town did not actively participate in the murders and the death toll did not total to 1,600 Jews. Doubting the precision of the facts was not completely denying that such events did occur but rather Gross' sources weren't fully accurate. Aside from the postwar trials that convicted several men of war crimes, there is not sufficient evidence to prove Gross' claims were accurate. We are not left with enough evidence to support or deny Gross' claims in which we can only assume there is a partial truth to the matter that will help understand the situation in broad terms.

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