Kyle Donahue

Neighbors, and Ida both provide a story that needs to be told, but I think they each tell the same story in a dramatically different way. Neighbors by Jan Gross, I believe points to the huge massacres happening in the town of Jedweben and what that said about a nation. Gross is trying to paint a picture unlike any ever told before. The awful crimes against humanities that occurred were always done by the Nazis, but Gross is pointing to the nation of Poland as the evil, along with the Nazis. This picture must be hard to swallow because I can only imagine the shock this piece brought. Ida on the other hand is a smaller story. The story that effects a small family, and provides a smaller scope. Ida does a crazy thing, by bringing in a nun as the main character, because the Catholic Church in both stories becomes the main villain. They wanted the Jews out, and that is as far as the similarity goes for me because Ida brings in the close relationships of a family torn apart by these horrific crimes. Neighbors grander scale approach succeeds in making it easy to know, “Ok the polish did some awful things too and they need to be punished”, where Ida brings the confusion into the question. You see people who are a part of the groups who are responsible, Anna the nun who is catholic, and Wanda who is a judge for the Polish government. It makes them both reevaluate what happened and who is to blame, but it doesn’t give you a clear answer. Which is what makes the two stories different and to me Ida provides a more realistic feeling of the people of Poland. Although it would be easier to make a scapegoat and blame a group or specific identity it isn’t what is happening. Confusion is my guess of the general feeling of Poland and confusion is good because it makes people reevaluate and ask questions.