Seeking forgiveness
By : Michael Leville
"Oh Lord, please forgive us for our sins." This was the final message last week of a musical performance of the Jewish prayer "El Maale Rahimim" (For our heroes who died in battle), commemorating the 60th anniversary of the hundreds of Jews who were murdered by their Polish neighbors in the northeastern village of Jedwabne.
The performance, led by composer Krzysztof Knittel in Warsaw's Evangelical Augsburg Church of the Three Saints, followed a memorial service earlier on July 10 in Jedwabne, where President Aleksander Kwasniewski apologized for the massacre.
"I beg pardon in my own name and the name of those Poles whose conscience is shattered by that crime," Kwasniewski said.
International Jewish leaders praised the president's acknowledgment of Polish guilt in the pogrom.
"I admire his braveness and I must say I am proud of him," Szewach Weiss, the Israeli ambassador to Warsaw, told Gazeta Wyborcza daily.
Prime Minister Jerzy Buzek, who addressed a packed church before the concert, said music was the proper channel for marking the anniversary of the tragedy because "music has always been a symbol of the best virtue of our land," and is the art that "introduces peace among nations." He added that "after coexisting with Jews for centuries, our relations deteriorated after being overtaken by international violence," but "today, a free and sovereign Poland is making up for the losses of the totalitarian system."
The hour-long concert, organized by the Polish Cultural Foundation (FKP), opened with a performance by Camerata Silesia, a Katowice singing group led by Anna Szostek. The group sang psalms by Jan Kochanowski to the music of Mikolaj Gomolka, a 16th century composer. Ewa Podles followed singing a medley of poems by Friedrich Ruckert to Gustaw Mahler's music.
After the program, Reverend Rudolf Barzankowski of the Evangelical church in Olsztyn said he deeply regretted what happened in Jedwabne and hoped the evening's music helped to express an understanding of the pain caused by the tragedy.
A Jewish man from New York described the concert as "respectful, interesting and well put together."
The massacre in Jedwabne was forced into the spotlight last year after the publication of "Neighbors," a book by New York historian Jan T. Gross who contends the town's Catholic residents and not Nazi forces as had previously been believed rounded up some 1,600 Jews and murdered them. Recent investigations, however, have indicated that the actual number of people killed was much lower and that there may have been German involvement.
