Anna Bikont responds to Krzysztof Wyszkowski's statement regarding her article entitled "It is Mr. Poteraj's dream as well as mine that these infamous events be described. About the crime of a Home Army unit against Jews hiding in the marshes near the village of Podosie in Łomża" published in volume 18 (2022) of the journal Zagłada Żydów. Studia i Materiały / Holocaust Studies and Materials, pp. 170-199

On March 22 this year, on the website of the Institute of National Remembrance, Krzysztof Wyszkowski published a statement relating to the article I prepared. I do not fully understand why the author issued it as a member of the IPN Collegium - after all, I spoke to him as a private person. However, I clarify the doubts raised and answer the accusations made against me.

We did indeed discuss the Krzewin crime in meetings that lasted a decade. I have selected those statements that seemed interesting to me. This does not seem to me to be an accusation, on the contrary. I was not asked for authorization. Krzysztof Wyszkowski was willing to confront something as painful as his own father's participation in an AK unit that set out to murder hiding Jews.

By mentioning that he traveled to the scene of the crime and lit candles, I was expressing my respect for such an attitude. I do not understand the allegation that "the author unfoundedly attributed to the IPN my request to reopen the investigation." I wrote that Krzysztof Wyszkowski requested that the investigation be reopened.

I remain grateful to Krzysztof Wyszkowski for providing me with the materials he collected during his research into the Krzewin crime.

In Anna Bikont's article entitled "Mr. Poteraj's dream as well as mine is for these infamous events to be described" On the crime of an AK unit against Jews hiding in the swamps near the village of Podosie in Łomża [in:] Holocaust of the Jews, Studies and Materials, r. 2022, no. 18, the author of the text attributed the following statements to me:

196: "I found the place, lit candles. I went to the IPN in Bialystok with a proposal to build a monument."
197: "I drove there a couple of times on the Day of the Dead back in the days when communication was more difficult, I lit candles. I knocked on the doors of the IPN, I admonished myself. Everyone urged me to leave it, over time they knocked it out of my head."

This is an unauthorized and disinforming compilation of various information given to the Author during subsequent conversations, during our meetings that lasted a decade.

The author unfoundedly attributed to the Institute of National Remembrance my request to reopen the investigation, filed with the prosecutor of the Main Commission for the Investigation of Crimes against the Polish Nation, several years before it came into existence.

I vehemently deny that I ever raised the matter except for a conversation with prosecutor Waldemar Monkiewicz, who in 2000 showed kindness but left the case unprocessed.

Krzysztof Wyszkowski
Member of the College of the Institute of National Remembrance

source: https://ipn.gov.pl/pl/dla-mediow/komunikaty/181113,Oswiadczenie-Krzysztofa-Wyszkowskiego-czlonka-Kolegium-Instytutu-Pamieci-Narodow.html
accessed 28.03.2023

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