Poland and the Jews Now, generations after the Shoah, the role of the citizenry of Poland during the German occupation and afterward is still debated. In July 1941, in the village of Jedwabne, virtually all of the town’s 1,600 Jews were murdered in one day. In Neighbors (2001), Prof Gross demonstrated that they were killed viciously, not by the occupying Germans, but by their Polish neighbors. That book, nominated for a National Book Award, created a storm. Recently, what appeared to be an innocuous snapshot of Polish peasants near former death camp Treblinka revealed a great deal more, as Gross shows in his new book, Golden Harvest (2012). The Poles in the photo were actually digging among the bones of the Jews to find gold and gemstones overlooked by the Nazis. Golden Harvest recounts how victims were hunted, extorted, robbed as ninety percent of Poland’s Jews were eventually killed. The book divided Poland’s thinkers and created an international controversy. Don’t miss this provocative talk. Jan Gross, History Professor of War and Society at Princeton, was born in Warsaw in 1947 to a mother who was a member of the Polish resistance and a Jewish father who survived the Nazi occupation of Poland. As a young dissident who took part in student and intellectual protests in 1968, Jan Gross was expelled from Warsaw University. He and his parents immigrated to America in 1969 when the authorities permitted “people of Jewish origin” to leave. He earned his PhD at Yale and has taught there and at NYU, Emory, Yale and universities in Paris, Vienna and Krakow. The popular lecture series continues as well-known writers, artists, scientists, educators and other scholars share their insights and learning. Preceded by lunch at noon in the social hall, the programs, including questions and answer periods, generally conclude by 1:20 p.m. The lectures are open to the public, so plan to bring a friend along with a dairy or parve lunch. Coffee, tea and cookies will be provided.