The 2014 Yad Vashem International Book Prize for Holocaust Research has been awarded to Professor Jan Grabowski for his book, 'Hunt for the Jews: Betrayal and Murder in German-Occupied Poland.'
The Book Prize, in memory of Holocaust survivor Abraham Meir Schwarzbaum, and his family members who were murdered in the Holocaust, is awarded annually to a book published within the last two years.
The award ceremony will take place on Monday at the Yad Vashem International School for Holocaust Studies during which the recipient will address a series of guests.
When it was first published in Polish in 2011, Grabowski’s book was followed by a vigorous discussion in the mainstream Polish media, showing that his writing can effectively break through a purely academic canon and affect widespread social perceptions of this crucial chapter of Polish and Jewish history.
“For some in the Polish society my previous books were dirty laundry that should have not been taken out. There were a few Polish newspapers with nationalist views… for whom the purpose of my book was only to tarnish the image of Poland,” Grabowski said.
The books that he published over the past few years have one theme in common: Polish participation in the killings of their Jewish neighbours.
In ‘’The hunt for Jews: betrayal and murder in Poland under German occupation,’’ which was published in English, Grabowski, who is not Jewish and lives today in Canada, describes several massacres in which Poles volunteered to help the Nazi exterminate the Jews.
The original book in Polish is called Judenjagd — The hunt for the Jews. The English book is an improved and extended version. It includes many new discoveries, pieces of evidence and cases not previously published.
But Grabowski also dedicates the last chapter of his book to the "Righteous" and their activities and fate during the occupation and afterwards. This chapter includes a penetrating and critical account of Polish historiography's dealing with the issue of the rescue of Jews during the Holocaust.
Several years ago, he contributed to a more in-depth look at this issue by drawing attention to paid rescuers in Poland (Rescue for Money: Paid Helpers in Poland, 1939-1945).
The craftsmanship of Grabowski’s study is exemplary and shows that a careful reading of archival material allows for the detailed reconstruction of personal life (and death) stories of Jews in hiding.
The Yad Vashem committee found his study groundbreaking and exemplary in its approach and methodology, in its analytical quality and in its contribution to the better understanding of the multi-facetedness of the Shoah.