In the spotlight: Jan Tomasz Gross
Historia moralnej zapaci (direct translation: Fear: Antisemitism in Poland right after the war. A history of a moral downfall). The Prosecutor's Office in Kraków is now investigating whether the book slanders the Polish nation.
Jan T Gross' book, which was published in the US in 2006 under the title Fear: Antisemitism in Poland after Auschwitz, deals with instances of violence against Jews in the post-war period and has led to a heated debate on Polish-Jewish relations. According to Gross, anti-Jewish sentiments were strong in post-war Poland and violence was triggered by Poles' desire to take Jewish property.
The accusations provoked heated retorts from a number of public figures, including Cardinal Stanisław Dziwisz, the Archbishop of Kraków. In a letter to Znak, the book's publisher, the cardinal wrote that it did not propagate historical truth, but instead generated anti-Polish sentiments.
According to professor Marek Chodakiewicz from Columbia University, who has just published a book in Poland on the same topic, Gross was selective in his presentation of historical facts. Some of the criticism directed against Gross also concerned the fact that the book's Polish and American editions differ, with the former lacking most of the latter's footnotes and employing sharper language.
Born in 1947 in Warsaw, Jan Tomasz Gross studied sociology at Warsaw University. In 1968, he was arrested and expelled from the university for his participation in Polish student protests. Gross emigrated to the US where he obtained his doctorate in sociology in 1975. He gained US citizenship and currently teaches at Princeton University. His 2000 book Neighbors, about the Jedwabne massacre, spurred a similar debate and led the Polish Institute of National Remembrance to investigate the case.
