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President`s Address at the Mourning Ceremony in Jedwabne on 10 July 2001

Mr. Ambassador of Israel, Rabbi Baker, representatives of Jewish communities, your Excellencies - from Poland and abroad, Mr. Mayor and residents of Jedwabne, ladies and gentlemen, countrymen, On July 10th, 1941, sixty years ago on this very land, then conquered and occupied by Nazi Germany, Jews fell victims of carnage. A day of awe it was, a day filled with hate and violence. We have learnt much though still not all there is to learn about this crime. It could be the whole truth will never be known. That, however, has not deterred us from assembling here today, or from speaking on the issue in clear terms. We have learnt enough to desire to face the reality of the pain, the desperate call and the anguish of those murdered here; and to do so alongside the victims` family members present here today, and before the high court of our own conscience. This was a crime nothing can justify. Among the victims - those burnt alive - were women and children. The terrifying cries of the human beings rounded up into a barn set afire continue to devastate those who witnessed the killings. The victims were vulnerable and defenceless, their killers driven by a sense of impunity reinforced through the incitement coming from the occupying forces. It has been established beyond doubt that Polish people formed part of the persecuting and tormenting mob here. We can say with all certainty that in Jedwabne citizens of the Republic of Poland died at the hands of some other of her citizens, the destiny of the former sealed by no other than their fellow men - their neighbours! Ladies and gentlemen, At the time, sixty years ago, as the scheme to wipe Poland off the map of Europe was unfolding, there were no Polish authorities in Jedwabne. The Polish state was not able to protect its citizens against a massacre sanctioned and inspired by the Hitlerite state. Yet, the Republic of Poland should have endured in Polish hearts and minds. The norms of a civilised polity, of the nation proud of its age-old tradition of toleration and harmonious racial and religious coexistence were still valid, or rather should have remained valid and binding on her citizens. Thus, those involved in the hounding down and the assaults, the butchery and the setting of fires perpetrated those crimes against their Jewish neighbours, and beyond that against the Republic of Poland: her majestic history and her glorious traditions. We stand on a hapless land. By ordain of fate, tragic for its present inhabitants, its name - Jedwabne had turned into an appellation that conjures up in our common memory the demons of fratricide. It was not only in Jedwabne that the superstition-fed prejudices burst into flames of hatred and anti-Semitism in the course of that "age of furnaces". The responsibility for those deaths, the wrongs and the sufferings inflicted upon the Jews of Jedwabne, as on those of Radziłowo and some other localities, for those unspeakable events that cast so gloomy a shadow on Poland`s history, rests with their perpetrators and instigators. We cannot speak of collective responsibility, laying the guilt, be it, on an entire nation or a specific locality`s population. People can be held responsible only for their own deeds. The iniquity of the fathers is not inherited by the sons. Does that, however, warrant our saying that all those things happen long ago and involved others? A nation is a community: a community of individuals and a kinship of generations. That is why we need to face the truth, and to face every truth, with no exception. That is why we need to say: this is the way it was, this is what happened. Only if the memory of those days strikes horror and moral indignation in our hearts will our conscience be free. We are here to have a collective heart-searching. As we pay tribute to the victims, we also say: never again. On this day, let us all think ourselves Jedwabne`s inhabitants, and all be as they are. Let us stand with them in the shared sense of remorse, despair, shame and of solidarity. Cain could have slain Abel anywhere. Any community could have been put to a similar test, a test of evil and of good, of depravity and of decency. Righteous are those whose response to human suffering is compassion. Many were the Poles - including some residents of the surrounding lands and of Jedwabne itself - who have earned the right to be called the righteous ones! We remember them all today with supreme gratitude and utmost respect. Ladies and gentlemen, The great national debate around this crime committed in 1941 proved life changing for us. Our consciousness in the year 2001, the first one in the new millennium, has been forever altered. Today, Poland has the courage to face the truth of a nightmare that has begloomed one of the chapters of her history. We have become conscious of our responsibility for the way we think of the sinister episodes of the past. We realised that the nation is ill served by those who would have us deny that past. Such an attitude leads to moral self-destruction. We, the assembled, together with all in this country whose conscience is tender and with its lay and religious moral authorities, who have consolidated our adherence to the basic values, now pay homage to the memory of those murdered here and express our deepest remorse at the vileness of this crime`s perpetrators. We articulate our pain and shame, express our determination to know the truth and communicate our indomitable will for reconciliation and concord. On account of this crime we should plead forgiveness with the shadows of the departed and their families, with each of those then victimized. I express remorse today as a human being and as a citizen and the President of the Republic of Poland. I do so in my own name and on behalf of the Poles who are appalled in their conscience at this crime; of those who believe they can take no pride in the greatness of Polish history without, at the same time, feeling the pain and the shame for the evil that Poles had caused to others. I would, with all of my heart, that this town`s name be not identified with this crime alone, but that it equally stand as a symbol of the great self-examination, becoming a paragon of reconciliation. On 27th of May, Polish bishops prayed "for all those bearing any resentment or grudge against the Jewish people, that they receive the grace of a change of heart". These words well convey the feelings of great majority of Poles. May this change of heart come about indeed. Let us spare no effort to bring it about. The tragedy that was played out here cannot be undone. The evil will not be erased nor the suffering forgotten. The truth about the things that had happened cannot redress them. It is not within its power to do so. At the same time, it is only the truth, the most searing and hurting truth that has the power to disinfect a lesion in the memory. That has been our hope and the reason for our coming together here today. We speak the words of remorse, grief and contrition not merely for human decency`s sake: not only because others expect them from us, not because the murdered would be thus compensated, and not because the world is watching, or listening to what we would say. We speak them out because they express just what we feel, because we ourselves are most in need of these words! This we do to become better men, stronger in their moral fibre and free of all prejudice, malice and hate. We speak them out to express our deepest esteem for men and out of love for mankind. We do so to turn evil into good.