July 10, 2025 — Warsaw, Poland
American Jewish Committee (AJC) strongly condemns the antisemitic demonstrations and Holocaust denial that marred today’s commemoration of the Jedwabne massacre.
On July 10, 1941, in the Polish town of Jedwabne, at least 340 Jews — women, men, and children — were burned alive in a barn. As confirmed by Poland’s own Institute of National Remembrance, this horrific crime was carried out by Polish neighbors, incited by the occupying Nazi German forces.
AJC played a vital role in bringing the truth about Jedwabne to light. For decades, AJC supported courageous historians, worked alongside Polish civil society, and encouraged President Aleksander Kwaśniewski’s landmark acknowledgment and apology in 2001 — a defining moment for Poland’s democratic conscience.
“What happened today in Jedwabne is not only a disgrace to the memory of the victims, it is a test for Poland’s democracy,” said AJC Central Europe Director Agnieszka Markiewicz. “The normalization of antisemitism, especially from elected officials like Grzegorz Braun, demands more than silence. It demands moral clarity, legal accountability, and swift political response. Remembrance without responsibility is not remembrance at all.”
Far-right extremists, emboldened by MP Grzegorz Braun, disrupted today’s memorial with loudspeakers, screens playing a film denying the history of the massacre, and threats to the Jewish community gathered for the ceremony. Nearby, another group erected an installation of boulders bearing plaques that deny the historical record, distort facts, and spread antisemitic lies. Just hours earlier, Braun stated in a radio interview, “Ritual murder is a fact, and Auschwitz with gas chambers is a fake,” evoking the centuries-old blood libel that Jews have murdered non-Jews (such as Christian children) in order to use their blood in rituals.
These are not isolated provocations. Braun — who previously extinguished a Hanukkah menorah in the Sejm and was banned from the European Parliament for antisemitic outbursts — exemplifies a dangerous normalization of hatred in public life.
This cannot go unanswered.
AJC is calling on Polish government officials to:
- Unequivocally condemn today’s events and Braun’s remarks;
- Hold accountable those who distort and desecrate Holocaust memory and incite hatred;
- Adopt and implement a national strategy to combat antisemitism and foster Jewish life, as most EU member states have already done.
AJC has long honored Poland as a place of deep Jewish history — where communities once flourished and where dialogue about a painful and complex past remains essential. Today’s incidents come just months after world leaders gathered in Poland to mark the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz.
Agnieszka Markiewicz is the Rubin and Frances Partel Director of the Shapiro Silverberg AJC Central Europe Institute. AJC Central Europe serves seven Central European countries: the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, and Slovakia. AJC has been widely recognized as one of the most active non-governmental organizations in Central and Eastern Europe since 1989. In addition to Warsaw, AJC’s European presence includes offices in Berlin, Brussels, and Paris and representatives in Budapest, Prague, Rome, and Sofia.
AJC is the global advocacy organization for the Jewish people. With headquarters in New York, 25 offices across the United States, 15 overseas posts, as well as partnerships with 38 Jewish community organizations worldwide, AJC’s mission is to enhance the well-being of the Jewish people and Israel and to advance human rights and democratic values in the United States and around the world. For more, please visit www.ajc.org.
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