The German concept of “self-cleansing actions” (Selbstreinigungsaktionen) – formulation, implementation, oblivion, and suppression

Abstract

Over a quarter of a century has passed since film documentary director Agnieszka Arnold discovered previously unknown information on the “self-cleansing action” in Jedwabne. The brief period of interest taken in this subject by the media and historians did not bring a thorough explanation of the “Jedwabne complex”. We still know little of how the Germans and Austrians forming part of Einsatzgruppen instigated and implemented, or instead inspired, genocidal Selbstrenigungsaktionen taking place in the rear area of all German army groups (Heeresgruppen). The Romanians adopted a slightly different strategy, although it, too, resulted in the extermination of the Jewish population in the territories recovered after their seizure by the Soviets in 1940. In popular understanding of the issue, the so-called pogroms (although this is not a correct term) occurred only in Podlasie/Podlachia/Podlachien region, Kovno/Kauen/Kaunas, and Lvov/Lemberg/Lviv. In reality, their scope spanned the entirety of the “Bloodlands”, from the General Government to the Caucasus. It is important to note that the term Selbstrenigungsaktionen is practically absent from scholarly discourse (suffice it to type it in an Internet search engine). It is worrying that this genocidal episode of the Shoah goes nearly unstudied – of course, as part of international research initiatives free from accusations of biased exploration.