IPN announces findings of investigation into the 1941 events in Jedwab

A probe by the Institute for National Remembrance (IPN) into a world war two pogrom in the town of Jedwab yesterday at a press conference announced that it was a local mob - and not occupying Nazi forces - who played a decisive role in the massacre. A band of 40 men armed with sticks rounded up local Jews in the town square on July 10, 1941, marched them to a barn and burned it down, war crimes prosecutor Radoslaw Ignatiew said. But, revising earlier conclusions, Ignatiew declared that German special forces at the scene had incited the killings, although there was no clear evidence they had played an active role. "We have to conclude that the role of the local population was decisive in the perpetration of this criminal act," Ignatiew told journalists. The case hit the headlines last year after emigre historian Jan Gross blamed the deaths of up to 1,600 Jews on their Polish neighbors, challenging the official version which pinned responsibility solely on the Nazis. President Aleksander Kwasniewski apologized on behalf of his nation at an emotional ceremony on the pogrom's 60th anniversary. (Reuters)