Bloodlands

This is very surprising, to say the least. Jan Gross is a phenomenal writer and has made enormous strides in modern European historiography in his career. I use several of his works regularly in my writings. Some context: In communist Poland, the government deliberately shaped the official history of the Holocaust and World War II to cultivate a myth of resistance and triumph over fascism. While there was undoubtedly an impressive network of resistance in Poland, there were also instances of Polish complicity with German orders. When the communist states of Eastern Europe collapsed in 1989-1991, they were faced with groundbreaking realizations that their national histories were manipulated. This has been very traumatic and difficult for these countries; history and memory's return to these nations was unforgiving. Gross's book 'Neighbors' shed light on questions of agency and complicity during the Holocaust. He did not try to pin responsibility on the Polish population as a whole, nor did he attempt to undermine the legacies of resistance that still stand. Rather, he only evaluated the social dynamics of genocide in smaller, rural areas; he wished to restore a balance to the bigger picture. I will post more news as it comes out, as well as some excerpts I have saved from Gross and his contemporaries.

me: Да. Тим, ето Том.