Jan Tomasz Gross and Irena Grudzinska-Gross in Warsaw, photo by John BeauchampThenews.pl presents an exclusive interview with Jan Tomasz Gross and Irena Grudzinska-Gross, the authors of Golden Harvest, one of the most controversial books to be published in Poland this year.
Reporter John Beauchamp met with the authors, who are in Poland to promote Golden Harvest, a book on Polish-Jewish wartime relations and which describes how, after the Second World War, the area around the Treblinka Nazi death camp became a place where gold-diggers searched for valuables, literally digging up the corpses of the victims.
The new book has stirred interest for months and caused controversy among conservative circles in Poland well before its release last week.
In this interview, Jan Tomasz Gross and Irena Grudzinska-Gross answer questions about the source material used in the book, as well as comment on media queries as to the origin of the old black and white photograph which was used as a point of departure for the writing of Golden Harvest.
Also in the interview, an insight as to how Jan Tomasz Gross’s works have an effect on Polish-Jewish relations, his ongoing boycott of one of Poland’s leading conservative newspapers, and both of the authors’ upcoming plans for future publications. (jb)
Contributing editor: Nicholas Hodge
Related stories:
Controversy heats up around Golden Harvest, thenews.pl 10 March
Call for resolution in memory of Poles who aided WW II Jews, thenews.pl 8 March
Poland’s historical institute picks over Golden Harvest, thenews.pl 14 Feb
WW II 'Polish plunder' book released for preview, thenews.pl 9 Feb
Profile: Jan Tomasz Gross, thenews.pl, 8 Feb
Former Israeli Ambassador defends Gross, thenews.pl 24 Jan
Publishers ignore protest against Jan Gross’s Golden Harvest, thenews.pl, 11 Jan
Polish ‘gold-diggers’ at Treblinka Nazi death camp?, thenews.pl, 29 Dec