The Historiography of the Holocaust

Local Collaboration in the Holocaust in Eastern Europe 125
been confirmed in some of the neighbouring towns (most notably Radzilów)
and it is most likely that the initiation, or at least the permission, for the
‘massacre’ in Jedwabne came from the Germans, if the role of the Poles as
active perpetrators is undisputed. 27
The work of the Polish Institute for National Memory, examining a number
of issues surrounding the Jedwabne debate, confirms the need for further
scholarship on the broader issues of ‘collaboration’. The Institute’s report also
examined the pattern of anti-Jewish incidents in the Bialystok district during
the first month following the Nazi attack on the Soviet Union. 28 However, it is
clear that the scope of such research needs to be expanded still further. For
example, one topic that has been largely neglected previously is the role played
by Poles in the local police forces in Generalbezirk Weissruthenien (roughly
contiguous with the western part of modern Belarus). Although subject to
repressive measures as a group, and clearly mistrusted by the Germans, there
were nevertheless hundreds of Poles who actively participated in anti-Jewish
measures here as members of the Schutzmannschaft. 29
In the Baltic states the debate on the issue of ‘spontaneous’ pogroms occurring
before the arrival of the Germans and what the absence or presence of such
actions might tell us about the nature of local antisemitism remains very much
alive. 30 The foremost case is Lithuania, where local nationalist activists (described
confusingly as ‘partisans’) sought to round up and settle scores with their political
opponents the moment the Soviets took to their heels. Many Jews also fell
victim to these local anti-communist ‘purges’ in Lithuania, although their full
extent remains disputed, partly due to the limited sources available for this
chaotic period of transition from Soviet to German control. 31
The question remains clouded on account of the Nazis’ plans to coordinate
local ‘self-purges’ or pogroms directed specifically against the Jews, without
leaving any trace of their own role as agent-provocateurs. 32 Thus some nationalist
historians attempt to play down the significance of local participation in the
initial anti-Jewish measures, including those that occurred before the German
arrival, claiming that even these were a product of German manipulation
and not a spontaneous outburst. 33 Certainly for Latvia the comparative lack of
evidence for widespread spontaneous actions against the Jews leads to a greater
degree of caution. Nevertheless, as Henry Huttenbach points out, the great
disparity between Jewish accounts of the first days of the German invasion and
the versions to be found in other sources still requires some explanation. 34
Historians have noted similar spontaneous pogroms in Ukraine and Belorussia
in the interim period between the Red Army’s retreat and the Germans’ arrival,
although many of these initial actions were directed against Jewish property
more than Jewish lives. 35 In Romania, the Iasi pogrom and other atrocities
committed shortly after the Axis attack on the Soviet Union in June 1941
demonstrate the willingness of both the Romanian state and some of its people