‘Moral Provocateur’

For most Poles Prof. Gross is not a moral provocateur, but rather an amoral manipulator; for professional historians he is just a pseudohistorian. In a situation, when there are contradictory viewpoints on publicistic activities of Gross, one could expect from the Princeton University that it invites the representatives of academia representing both pro and contra Gross views. As long as Princeton doesn’t do it, it cannot be regarded as a serious scientific institution. The effects of Princeton’s indifference can be seen in the video footage from a demonstration organized by a New York rabbi in front of the Polish Consulate few weeks ago: https://www.youtube.com/wat...

Regards, 

As a visitor I respectfully greet the alumni and alumnae of Princeton.

In the matter of Prof. Jan T. Gross, it would be commendable for this “moral provocateur” to correct his persistent claim that 1600 (one thousand six hundred) persons were massacred in Jedwabne. That iconic figure is a cachet in the continuing publicity campaign for his bestseller “Neighbors” (Princeton University Press, 2001). Professor Gross knows that the correct figure is 340.

Whether or not the professor is insulting the nation of Poland, is this ongoing marketing exploitation not insulting the dead?

In the question of Nazi German management of the massacre, what is the truth? Upon discovery of German bullets among the corpses, the forensic investigation was terminated abruptly. At his Colin Miller Memorial Lecture at UC Berkeley in 2003, chaired by John Connelly, Prof. Gross conceded to me: “Had the forensic investigation not been prematurely terminated, then we would really know.”

Qualified discussion in this case cannot disregard the 2005 monograph by Marek Jan Chodakiewicz: http://www.iwp.edu/news_pub...

Professor Gross’s September 2015 assertion that “Poles killed more Jews than [they did] Germans” is what philosophers since Russell would call an indefinite description, impossible to count as true or false until the terms are settled. But the attitude of accusation is unambiguous. That is his point.

In an Author’s Note added to his Project Syndicate article, Gross accepts an estimate of 200,000-250,000 who tried to hide, with about 40,000 surviving. “The bulk ... perished either directly, killed by the Poles (or Ukrainians) among whom they were hiding, or by being betrayed and delivered to German police outposts by the local population.” He calls this brisk subtraction “rather straightforward.”

He appeals to authors of studies offering “rigorous documentation.” Are these studies unchallenged? Further, why not calculate how many Poles (or Ukrainians) assisted the 40,000 survivors?

If Prof. Gross wants confidence in his handling of numbers, he could begin by correcting his mythic figure of 1600 victims at Jedwabne.
It would be proper ask the dean of instruction to supervise academic debate in these wartime relations. The reputation of Princeton accompanies this celebrated author wherever he speaks, and is invoked as support for some of his questioned claims.

Actually, Professor Gross is not about freedom of speech himself, as he never allows to see the light of day, at Princeton or at any of his lectures elsewhere, questions, or the research of historians extremely critical of him, that suggest there are fundamental flaws in his research. Ironically, his very controversial book “Neighbors,” according to other historians, is based on statements extracted by the Communist Security Services under torture, and on hearsay expressed by a member of the same Communist Security Services. It is also based on the testimony of two others that were found to be not credible, even by the Communist court, as they made conflicting testimonies under oath at two separate trials, and claimed to be eyewitnesses, when in fact they weren’t (one was proven to be in Soviet custody during the events he alleged to have witnessed). Gross ignored (never even mentions it) testimony under oath that retracted the statements made under torture, and the promised cessation of torture only upon agreement with the statements prepared by the Communist interrogators. Gross also ignored other testimony and accounts by Polish and Jewish witnesses that conflict with the testimony of the person who never testified under oath, was not a witness, while having been a collaborator with the Soviets during the initial Soviet occupation of this territory, and later became a member of the Communist Security Services, the same services that were engaged in torture, and the suppression of basic freedoms such as freedom of speech, freedom of the press, etc. The fact that these facts are unknown at Princeton, or at the Davis Center, is a discredit to those institutions. The author of this article has also has done a poor job at investigating the topic she wrote about. So much for freedom of speech and academic freedom at Princeton!