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'{{pp-pc1}} {{Use dmy dates|date=November 2018}} {{POV|date=May 2018}} {{Infobox academic |name = Jan T. Gross |image = Jan Tomasz Gross.png |image_size = |caption = Jan T. Gross at the [[Collège de France]], 2019 |birth_name = Jan Tomasz Gross |birth_date = {{birth date and age|1947|8|1}} |birth_place = [[Warsaw]], Poland |death_date = |death_place = |nationality = |ethnicity = |sub_discipline = Polish-Jewish relations during the World War II |workplaces = {{unbulleted list | [[Yale University]] | [[New York University]] | [[Princeton University]]}} |alma_mater = {{unbulleted list | [[Yale University]]}} |doctoral_advisor = |academic_advisors = |doctoral_students = |notable_students = |known_for = |influences = |influenced = |children = |spouse = |awards = [[John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation|John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship]] (1982) |signature = |footnotes = }} '''Jan Tomasz Gross''' (born 1947) is a [[Poland|Polish]]-[[United States|American]] [[sociologist]] and [[historian]]. He is the Norman B. Tomlinson Professor of War and Society, and Professor of History at [[Princeton University]].<ref name="princ"/> He is known for his work about Polish history, particularly about Polish-Jewish relations during [[World War II]]. ==Biography== Gross was born in [[Warsaw]] in 1947 to Hanna Szumańska, who was a member of the Polish resistance ([[Armia Krajowa]]) in World War II, and Zygmunt Gross, who was a [[Polish Socialist Party]] member before the war broke out. His mother was Christian and his father was [[History of Jews in Poland|Jewish]]. His mother, Hanna, lost her first husband, who was Jewish, after he was denounced by a neighbor.<ref>[https://www.thejc.com/culture/books/david-herman-interviews-jan-gross-chronicler-of-polish-atrocities-1.34035 David Herman interviews Jan Gross, chronicler of Polish atrocities], The JC, 22 June 2012</ref><ref>Samuel Crowell, [https://web.archive.org/web/20101216062155/http://ihr.org/jhr/v20/v20n3p41_Gross.html "The Debate about Neighbors"], May/June 2001, archive.org; {{ISSN|0195-6752}}.</ref> His mother rescued a number of Jews from the Nazi extermination, including her future husband whom she married after the war. Jan Tomasz Gross attended local schools and studied physics at the [[University of Warsaw]].<ref name="Culture.pl">{{cite journal|title=Jan Tomasz Gross|publisher=[[Culture.pl]]|date=6 February 2011|author=Andrzej Kaczyński|via=Google translate|url=https://translate.google.ca/translate?hl=en&sl=pl&tl=en&u=https%3A%2F%2Fweb.archive.org%2Fweb%2F20140530065644%2Fhttp%3A%2F%2Fculture.pl%2Fpl%2Ftworca%2Fjan-tomasz-gross&anno=2}}</ref><ref>[https://culture.pl/en/artist/jan-tomasz-gross Jan Tomasz Gross (English version on culture.pl)], culture.pl</ref> Gross was among the young dissidents called ''[[Komandosi]]'', and was among the university students who participated in the protest movement known as the "March Events" {{ndash}} the [[1968 Polish political crisis|Polish student and intellectual protest]]s of 1968. Like many Polish students, Gross was expelled from the university, and arrested and jailed for five months. Amidst the anti-Semitic campaign by the [[Polish United Workers' Party|Polish communist government]], Gross emigrated from Poland to the [[United States]] in 1969.<ref>[https://www.thejc.com/culture/books/david-herman-interviews-jan-gross-chronicler-of-polish-atrocities-1.34035 David Herman interviews Jan Gross, chronicler of Polish atrocities], Jewish Chronicle, 22 June 2012</ref><ref>[https://www.haaretz.com/jewish/.premium-the-pole-who-is-breaking-the-silence-1.5410809 Historian Who Shed Light on WWII Massacres Goes From Honoree to 'Pole Hater'], Haaretz, Ofer Aderet, 1 March 2016</ref><ref name="princ">{{cite web|url=http://www.princeton.edu/history/people/display_person.xml?netid=jtgross&interview=yes|title=Norman B. Tomlinson '16 and '48 Professor of War and Society. Professor of History. On Leave 2015-16|publisher=Princeton University History Department|accessdate=28 August 2015}}</ref> In 1975 he earned a Ph.D. in sociology from [[Yale University]]. He has taught at Yale, [[New York University]], and in [[Paris]]. He became a naturalized [[United States of America|U.S.]] citizen. He has specialized in studies of Polish history and Polish-Jewish relations in Poland. He is the Norman B. Tomlinson '16 and '48 Professor of War and Society in the History Department at [[Princeton University]]. Gross has held this seat since 2003.<ref>[https://www.princeton.edu/dof/faculty/professorships/ Norman B. Tomlinson '16 and '48 Professorship in War and Society (2002) -Established by Norman B. Tomlinson '48 in memory of his father, Norman B. Tomlinson '16 for a professorship in the Department of History. 2003 - 2017 J. T. Gross] at princeton.edu Accessed 3 February 2018</ref> Gross is also Professor of History at Princteon, both positions emeritus.<ref>[http://history.princeton.edu/people/jan-tomasz-gross Jan Tomasz Gross, Department of History], princeton.edu Accessed 3 February 2018</ref> ==Honors== On 6 September 1996, Gross and his wife Irena Grudzińska-Gross were awarded the [[Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland]] by President [[Aleksander Kwaśniewski]],<ref>[http://isap.sejm.gov.pl/DetailsServlet?id=WMP19970060047 Postanowienie Prezydenta Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej z dnia 6 września 1996 r. o nadaniu orderów i odznaczeń. ''Order of the President of the Republic of Poland of September 6, 1996 on the awarding of orders and decorations.''] at isap.sejm.gov.pl Accessed 3 February 2018</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://bucerius.haifa.ac.il/gross.html |title=Bucerius Institute for Research of Contemporary German History and Society, University of Haifa, Israel |publisher=Bucerius.haifa.ac.il |date=12 March 2001 |accessdate=27 June 2013 |deadurl=yes |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20131001092242/http://bucerius.haifa.ac.il/gross.html |archivedate= 1 October 2013 |df= }}</ref> for "outstanding achievement in scholarship". As Professor at the Department of Politics, New York University, Gross was a beneficiary of the [[Fulbright Program|Fulbright]] Program, for research on "Social and Political History of the Polish Jewry 1944-49" at the [[Jewish Historical Institute]], Warsaw, Poland (January 2001- April 2001).<ref>[http://libraries.uark.edu/specialcollections/fulbrightdirectories/ARK_COLL_LB2283_D46_2000-2001.pdf FULBRIGHT SCHOLAR PROGRAM 2000-2001 U.S. Scholar Directory], libraries.uark.edu; Accessed 3 February 2018</ref> In 1982 Jan T. Gross was awarded a fellowship in the field of sociology by the [[John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation|John Simon Guggenheim Memorial]].<ref>[http://www.gf.org/fellows/all-fellows/jan-t-gross/ Jan T. Gross Fellow: Awarded 1982 Field of Study: Sociology (John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation)] at gf.org/fellows Accessed 3 February 2018</ref> Also in 1982, as an assistant professor of sociology at Yale University, he was among thirty-three [[Rockefeller Foundation|Rockefeller]] Humanities Fellowship competition entrants awarded, his project entitled "Soviet Rule in Poland, 1939-1941."<ref>[http://www.rockefellerfoundation.org/app/uploads/Annual-Report-1982.pdf Rockefeller Foundation]{{dead link|date=January 2018 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> ==Work== His 2001 book about the [[Jedwabne massacre]], titled ''[[Neighbors: The Destruction of the Jewish Community in Jedwabne, Poland]]'', caused controversy because it addressed the role of local Poles in the massacre. He wrote that the atrocity was committed by Poles and not by the German occupiers. Gross's book generated controversy and was the subject of vigorous debate in Poland and abroad. The political scientist [[Norman Finkelstein]] accused Gross of exploiting the Holocaust.<ref name="NGF2001">{{Cite web|author=Norman G. Finkelstein |date=20 June 2001 |title=Goldhagen for Beginners: A Comment on Jan T. Gross's Neighbors |trans-title=an abridged version of appeared in the Polish periodical, ''Rzeczpospolita'' |url=http://www.normanfinkelstein.com/article.php?pg=3&ar=7 |website=normanfinkelstein.com |via=archive.org |accessdate=31 October 2015 |deadurl=yes |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20100323164812/http://www.normanfinkelstein.com/article.php?pg=3&ar=7 |archivedate=23 March 2010 }}</ref> [[Norman Davies]] describes ''Neighbors'' as "deeply unfair to Poles".<ref>[http://serwisy.gazeta.pl/swiat/1,34265,4854594.html Davies: "Strach" to nie analiza, lecz publicystyka] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080128090143/http://serwisy.gazeta.pl/swiat/1,34265,4854594.html |date=28 January 2008 }}, ''[[Gazeta Wyborcza]]'', 21 January 2008. {{pl icon}}</ref> A subsequent investigation conducted by the [[Polish Institute of National Remembrance]] (IPN) supported some of Gross's conclusions, but not his estimate of the number of people murdered. In addition, the IPN concluded there was more involvement by Nazi German security forces in the massacre.<ref name=IPN_postanowienie>[http://www.ipn.gov.pl/ftp/pdf/jedwabne_postanowienie.pdf Postanowienie o umorzeniu śledztwa] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121114125013/http://www.ipn.gov.pl/ftp/pdf/jedwabne_postanowienie.pdf |date=14 November 2012 }}, ipn.gov.pl, 30 June 2003. {{pl icon}}</ref> Polish journalist [[Anna Bikont]] began an investigation at the same time, ultimately publishing a book, ''My z Jedwabnego'' (2004), later published in French and English as ''The Crime and the Silence: Confronting the Massacre of Jews in Wartime Poland'' (French, 2011; and English, 2015). Gross's book, ''[[Fear: Anti-Semitism in Poland after Auschwitz]]'', which deals with [[anti-semitism]] and [[Anti-Jewish violence in Poland, 1944-1946|anti-Jewish violence in post-war Poland]], was published in the [[United States]] in 2006, where it was praised by reviewers. When published in Polish in Poland in 2008, it received mixed reviews and revived a nationwide debate about anti-Semitism in Poland during and after World War II.<ref name=Whitlock>Craig Whitlock, [https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/17/AR2008011703411.html "A Scholar's Legal Peril in Poland"], ''Washington Post'' Foreign Service, 18 January 2008, p. A14. quote: "The book was first published in 2006 in the United States, where reviewers found it praiseworthy.", "When the Polish-language edition of his book was released here last Friday, prosecutors wasted no time in announcing that he was under investigation."</ref>"<ref name="UsaToday2008"/> [[Marek Edelman]], one of the leaders of the [[Warsaw Ghetto Uprising]], said in an interview with the daily newspaper, ''[[Gazeta Wyborcza]]'', "Postwar violence against Jews in Poland was mostly not about anti-Semitism; murdering Jews was pure banditry."<ref name="UsaToday2008">{{cite web|author=Ryan Lucas|url=https://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2008-01-24-3040464218_x.htm|title=Book on Polish anti-Semitism sparks fury |publisher=USA Today|date=24 January 2008}} quote: The book was first released in the United States in 2006, where it was greeted with warm reviews. In Poland the book was sharply criticized in newspaper editorials and reviews and by historians, accusing Gross of using inflammatory language and unfairly labeling all of postwar Polish society as anti-Semitic... [[Marek Edelman]], the last surviving leader of the 1943 [[Warsaw Ghetto Uprising]], said the postwar violence against Jews was "not about anti-Semitism." "Murdering Jews was pure banditry, and I wouldn't explain it as anti-Semitism," Edelman said in an interview with the daily newspaper, ''[[Gazeta Wyborcza]]''. "It was contempt for man, for human life, plain meanness. A bandit doesn't attack someone who is stronger, like military troops, but where he sees weakness."</ref> Gross's latest book, ''[[Golden Harvest (book)|Golden Harvest]]'', co-written with his wife Irena Grudzińska-Gross and published in March 2011, is about Poles enriching themselves at the expense of Jews murdered in the Holocaust.<ref name="guardapr"/> Critics in Poland have alleged that Gross dwelt too much on wartime pathologies emerging during wartime, drawing "unfair generalizations".<ref name="Kramer">[https://books.google.co.il/books?hl=en&lr=&id=I4JIDwAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PA66&dq=%22Golden+Harvest%22+%22jan+gross%22&ots=U0tkRbGsDy&sig=Z2jd1_aohLiwSkPEiJFPkXY8-jU&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=%22Golden%20Harvest%22&f=false Transitional Justice and the Former Soviet Union], Cambridge University Press, Mark Kramer, pages 68-69</ref> The Chief Rabbi of Poland, [[Michael Schudrich]], commented: "Gross writes in a way to provoke, not to educate, and Poles don't react well to it. Because of the style, too many people reject what he has to say."<ref name=guardapr>{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/apr/07/jewish-renaissance-poland?INTCMP=SRCH|title=A Jewish renaissance in Poland|author=Jeevan Vasagar|author2=Julian Borger|newspaper=The Guardian|date=7 April 2011|accessdate=13 June 2011}}</ref> ==Controversies== In an essay published in 2015 in the German ''[[Die Welt]]'', Gross wrote that during World War 2, "Poles killed more Jews than Germans".<ref>Jan T. Gross: "[https://www.welt.de/debatte/kommentare/article146355392/Die-Osteuropaeer-haben-kein-Schamgefuehl.html Flüchtlingskrise: Die Osteuropäer haben kein Schamgefühl]." ''Die Welt'', 13 September 2015. {{de icon}}</ref> Subsequently, in 2016, Gross said that "Poles killed a maximum 30,000 Germans and between 100,000 to 200,000 Jews.".<ref name="Haaretz201610">[https://www.haaretz.com/world-news/europe/.premium-historian-may-face-charges-for-writing-that-poles-killed-jews-in-wwii-1.5454793 Historian May Face Charges in Poland for Writing That Poles Killed Jews in World War II], Haaretz, Ofer Aderet, 30 October 2016</ref> Polish Foreign Ministry spokesman Marcin Wojciechowski described Gross's statement as "historically untrue, harmful and insulting to Poland". He added that Poland's Ambassador to Germany addressed a letter of protest to the editors of ''[[Die Welt]]''.<ref>{{cite news|title=Polish Foreign Min. rebukes Gross over Die Welt refugee article|date=14 September 2015|url=http://www.thenews.pl/1/10/Artykul/221053,Polish-Foreign-Min-rebukes-Gross-over-Die-Welt-refugee-article|author=Polskie Radio}}</ref> However, according to historian [[Jacek Leociak]] "the claim that Poles killed more Jews than Germans could be really right – and this is shocking news for the traditional thinking about Polish heroism during the war".<ref name=AP20160414>[https://www.timesofisrael.com/holocaust-scholar-who-said-poles-killed-jews-grilled-by-police/ Holocaust scholar who said Poles killed Jews grilled by police], AP (reprinted by Times of Israel), 14 April 2016</ref> On 15 October 2015, Polish Prosecution opened a libel probe against Gross. The office was acting under a paragraph of the criminal code that "provides that any person who publicly insults the Polish nation is punishable by up to three years in prison". Polish prosecutors had previously examined Gross's 2008 book ''Fear'' and the 2011 book ''Golden Harvest'', but not closed those cases after finding no evidence of a crime.<ref>[https://news.yahoo.com/warsaw-acts-over-claim-poles-killed-more-jews-155700210.html "Warsaw acts over claim 'Poles killed more Jews than Germans"], [[Agence France-Presse|AFP]], 15 October 2015; retrieved 31 October 2015.</ref><ref name="Haaretz201610"/> In 2016, the [[Simon Wiesenthal Center]] said the decision to continue the investigation against Gross was alarming, bearing "all the hallmarks of a political witch-hunt", and a "form of alienating minorities and people who were victimized".<ref>[https://www.timesofisrael.com/polands-treatment-of-holocaust-scholar-tests-speech-freedom/ Holocaust scholar tests Poland’s freedom of speech, and its WWII narrative], Associate Press (reprint by Times of Israel), Vanessa Gera, 5 November 2016</ref> On 14 January 2016 Polish President [[Andrzej Duda]] requested a reevaluation of the Knight's Cross of the [[Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland]] issued to Gross due to what he described as "an attempt to destroy Poland's good name".<ref>[https://www.timesofisrael.com/do-the-words-polish-death-camps-defame-poland-and-if-so-whos-to-blame/ "Do the words ‘Polish death camps’ defame Poland? And if so, who’s to blame?"], ''[[The Times of Israel]]'', 26 February 2016</ref> Gross in response said that "[[Law and Justice|PiS]] is obsessed with stimulating a patriotic sense of duty".<ref name="politico201602">[https://www.politico.eu/article/duda-poland-holocaust-history-walesa-gross/ Poland turns history into diplomatic weapon], Politico, Jo Harper, 19 February 2016</ref> Duda's decision was met with local and international protests.<ref>[https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/feb/14/academics-defend-historian-over-polish-jew-killings-claims Polish move to strip Holocaust expert of award sparks protests], Guardian, 14 February 2016</ref> [[Timothy Snyder]], an American historian noted for his work on European [[genocide]]s, said that if the order was taken from Gross, he would renounce his own as well.<ref>[http://wmeritum.pl/naukowcy-z-francji-bronia-jana-tomasza-grossa/136619 "Naukowcy z Francji bronią Jana Tomasza Grossa" (Researchers from France defend Jan Tomasz Gross)], Wmeritum (Poland)</ref> ==Publications== ;Books * {{cite book|last = Gross|first = Jan Tomasz|title = Polish Society Under German Occupation - Generalgouvernement, 1939–1944|year =1979|publisher =[[Princeton University Press]]|location = Princeton, NJ }} * {{cite book|last2 = Gross|first2 = Jan Tomasz|last = Grudzińska-Gross|first = Irena|title = War through Children’s Eyes: The Soviet Occupation of Poland and the Deportations, 1939–1941|year =1981|publisher =[[Hoover Institution Press]]|location = Stanford, CA }} * {{cite book|last = Gross|first = Jan Tomasz|author2=Irena Grudzińska-Gross|title = W czterdziestym nas matko na Sybir zesłali ...|location = London|publisher = Aneks|year= 1984 }} * {{cite book|last = Gross|first = Jan Tomasz|title =Upiorna dekada, 1939–1948. Trzy eseje o stereotypach na temat Żydów, Polaków, Niemców i komunistów|location = Kraków|publisher = Universitas|year= 1998}} * {{cite book|last=Gross|first=Jan Tomasz|title =Studium zniewolenia|location=Kraków|publisher=Universitas|year=1999}} * <!-- please verify this one--> {{cite book|last=Gross|first=Jan Tomasz|title=The Politics of Retribution in Europe: World War II and Its Aftermath|publisher=Princeton University Press|location=Princeton, NJ|year=2000|editor=Istvan Deak and Tony Judt}} * {{cite book|last=Gross|first=Jan Tomasz|title=[[Neighbors: The Destruction of the Jewish Community in Jedwabne, Poland]]|publisher=Princeton University Press|year=2001|location =Princeton, NJ|isbn=0-14-200240-2}} * {{cite book|last=Gross|first=Jan Tomasz|title=Revolution from Abroad. The Soviet Conquest of Poland's Western Ukraine and Western Belorussia|year=2003|publisher=Princeton University Press|location =Princeton|isbn=0-691-09603-1}} * {{cite book|last=Gross|first=Jan Tomasz|title=Wokół Sąsiadów. Polemiki i wyjaśnienia|publisher=Pogranicze|language=Polish|location=Sejny|year=2003|isbn=83-86872-48-9}} * {{cite book|last=Gross|first=Jan Tomasz|title=[[Fear: Anti-Semitism in Poland after Auschwitz]]|publisher=Random House|isbn=0-375-50924-0|year=2006}} * {{cite book|last=Gross|first=Jan Tomasz|author2=Irena Grudzińska-Gross|title=[[Golden Harvest (book)|Golden Harvest]]|publisher=Oxford University Press|location=New York|year=2012|isbn=978-0-19-973167-1}} ;Other * ''"Lato 1941 w Jedwabnem. Przyczynek do badan nad udzialem spolecznosci lokalnych w eksterminacji narodu zydowskiego w latach II wojny swiatowej,"'' in ''Non-provincial Europe'', Krzysztof Jasiewicz ed., Warszawa - London: Rytm, ISP PAN, 1999, pp.&nbsp;1097–1103 ==See also== * [[Anti-Jewish violence in Poland, 1944–1946]] * [[Lucy Dawidowicz]] * [[History of Jews in Poland]] * [[Kielce pogrom]] * [[Research Materials: Max Planck Society Archive]] * [[Raul Hilberg]] ==References== ===Notes=== {{notelist}} ===Footnotes=== {{reflist}} ==Further reading== * John Connelly, [http://journals.cambridge.org/production/action/cjoGetFulltext?fulltextid=126545 "Poles and Jews in the Second World War: the Revisions of Jan T. Gross"], ''Contemporary European History''. Cambridge: November 2002. Vol. 11, Issue 4. ==External links== * [https://history.princeton.edu/people/jan-tomasz-gross Profile at History Department, Princeton University] {{Authority control}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Gross, Jan T.}} [[Category:1947 births]] [[Category:Date of birth missing (living people)]] [[Category:Living people]] [[Category:Polish historians]] [[Category:American historians]] [[Category:University of Warsaw alumni]] [[Category:Scholars of antisemitism]] [[Category:Polish emigrants to the United States]] [[Category:Writers from Warsaw]] [[Category:Controversies in Poland]] [[Category:American sociologists]] [[Category:Guggenheim Fellows]] [[Category:Knights of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland]]'