We wandered through the Christian cemetery and came upon a startling find. There, in a condition much more ragged than the Polish-Christian graves yet in much less a state of decay than in the Jewish cemetery, were the graves of German soldiers killed in Jedwabne during World War I. Rustic wooden crosses, bouquets of plastic flowers strewn about, and the remains of memorial candles marked this cemetery.
Chapter 07
Chapter 7 – 11: “Jedwabne’s Cemetery of World War I German Soldiers”
Chapter 7 – 12: “Post-Gross, Grave Discussions”
Scholar Joanna Michlic explains: In the midst of politically and emotionally charged discussion, a decision from the Polish state authorities: “an appropriate commemoration of the Jewish victims of the Jedwabne massacre” would be installed, and marked with the words, “To the memory of Jews from Jedwabne and the surrounding area, men, women and children, inhabitants of this land, who were murdered and burned alive on this spot on July 10, 1941.”