Żaryn has stated that the Germans were directors of the Jedwabne pogrom and also assigned blame to the "Volksdeutsche" and "outsiders" who came from other villages. Poles, in his opinion, were provoked and oftentimes coerced to participate in pogroms. He added that "even if some of the Polish locals participated in this 'spectacle' under duress... the majority looked in disgust at what the Germans have done..." Żaryn has stated that the current narrative about the Jedwabne events had become a "founding myth" about the "allegedly proven" organized massacres of Jews by Poles, supposedly rooted in inherent Polish anti-Semitism. He has suggested that these stereotypes stem from insufficient documentation of some World War II events in Poland. Consequently, Żaryn has supported the efforts to exhume the bodies of Jedwabne's victims to obtain more evidence.