And yet the book has also stung some Poles, who believe it condemns the entire nation as anti-Semitic while ignoring Poland's resistance to the Nazis and the deaths of 3 million ethnic Poles during the war. In Jedwabne, locals now refuse to discuss what took place in their town. And we did nothing to them. Jews don't expect any apologies from us. They simply want us to recognize that this little town was also shaped by the Jews.
Censorship is one reason.
Gross's book has been praised by most Western historians of Poland, who say it forces Polish society to acknowledge the virulence of its anti-Semitism during the period. Some of the disputes may be resolved by investigators from Poland's National Remembrance Institute, which plans to report on the evidence later this year. But Neighbors may only be the beginning. Gross writes that Jedwabne was closely preceded by similar liquidations in two nearby towns. Norman Naimark, an authority on East European history at Stanford University, says Neighbors will spawn further research into wartime crimes against Jews by their Polish, Lithuanian, Latvian and Ukrainian neighbors.