Anatol Fejgin
Anatol Fejgin was born in Warsaw in 1909 to a Jewish family. He was a son of Mojżesz and Maria née Kacenelebogen. He was a member of KPPCommunist Party of Poland (KPP, polish: Komunistyczna Partia Polski) – a communist party operating from 1918 to 1938., PPRPolish Workers' Party (PPR, polish: Polska Partia Robotnicza) - a Polish communist party operating from 1942 to 1948 in Warsaw during the German occupation by Polish communists from the so-called Initiative Group (parachuted by the Soviet Air Force in 1941) by merging several communist organisations. From 1944, the party ruled in Poland as a non-sovereign state, under the domination of the USSR. and PZPRPolish United Workers' Party (polish: Polska Zjednoczona Partia Robotnicza - PZPR) - communist monoparty established in 1948. Also referred to as real-socialist, ruling in the Polish People's Republic in 1948–1989. It existed until 1990. It followed the ideology of Marxism-Leninism. During its existence, the PZPR was a mass party, leading a centrally managed and bureaucratic economy, exercising state power in a totalitarian manner, seeking totalitarian control of all spheres of social life., an officer of the security apparatus of the People's Republic of Poland. Later discharged from service, removed from the Polish United Workers' Party for abusing power, arrested and sentenced to 12 years in prison for "violating the socialist rule of law".
After World War II, in 1945, he applied to the Main Directorate of Information of the Polish ArmyMain Directorate of Information of the Polish Army - a body of military counterintelligence operating in the People's Republic of Poland in the years 1944-1957, responsible, next to the Ministry of Public Security, for mass arrest, torture and repression among soldiers of the Polish Army, the Home Army, underground anti-communist organisation Freedom and Independence, National Armed Forces and civilian population. - one of the most villainy institution in Stalinist Poland - where he became the deputy chief of the Board. After 4 years, he was transferred to the equally infamous Ministry of Public SecurityMinistry of Public Security (UB, polish: Urząd Bezpieczeństwa) - secret police, intelligence and counterintelligence agency operating during the communist era of the Polish People's Republic. Identified with communist crimes; murders and bestial torturing of those fighting for independent Poland., where he soon became director of the Department XDepartment X was a department of the Ministry of Public Security during the communist dictatorship in the Polish People's Republic and dealt with the fight against the so-called "provocation in the workers' movement". In fact, it was responsible for the mass, bloody repression of people opposing the regime and fighting for an independent Poland. Its director was Col. Anatol Fejgin..
These institutions dealt not only with the bloody torture of prisoners, but also with provocations. When asked by Henryk PiecuchHenryk Piecuch (born December 4, 1939 in Bielsko) - retired colonel of the Border Guard and Border Guard Forces, journalist, writer, researcher and promoter of the activities of special services, especially Polish., Colonel Fejgin revealed the secret about the Kielce PogromThe Kielce Pogrom - a series of attacks on the Jewish population that took place on July 4, 1946 in Kielce. The pogrom was carried out by the inhabitants of Kielce, soldiers of the Polish People's Army, the Internal Security Corps and officers of the Citizens' Militia. The immediate cause of the pogrom was the rumor that the Jews had imprisoned an eight-year-old boy in a basement for the purpose of ritual murder. As a result of the pogrom, 37 Jews were killed and 35 were injured. Three Poles were also killed. The Kielce pogrom outraged part of the public opinion in Poland and, to a greater extent, abroad. It caused almost mass emigration of Jews from Poland and other European countries to Israel and contributed to the spread of the stereotype of a Pole-anti-Semite in the world.:
Fejgin made it clear about Poland:
The party appreciated such ideologically dedicated and talented communists - Fejgin was awarded the Order of the Cross of Grunwald of the 3rd classOrder of the Cross of Grunwald - Polish high military state decoration of the communist People's Republic of Poland. The 3rd class order was awarded for personal heroic deeds on the battlefield or in underground activity., Order of Polonia RestitutaOrder of the Rebirth of Poland, Order of Polonia Restituta - the second highest Polish civilian state decoration (after the Order of the White Eagle), awarded for outstanding achievements in the field of education, science, sport, culture, art, economy, national defense, social activity, service state and developing good relations with other countries. and The Silver Cross of the War Order of Virtuti MilitariThe Silver Cross of the War Order of Virtuti Militari - is the highest Polish war decoration, awarded for outstanding combat services. It is one of the oldest war orders in the world. The motto of the order is: Honor and Fatherland. The silver cross - 5th class - was awarded to officers, non-commissioned officers or privates for deeds of outstanding bravery, risking their lives..
Fejgin's career collapsed after Stalin's death (changes in the USSR, the liquidation of the head of the Soviet political police Ławrientij BeriaLavrentiy Pavlovich Beria (1899 - 1953) - a Soviet communist activist of Georgian origin, a communist criminal, head of the NKVD, who was largely responsible for the "great purges" of the Stalinist period. One of the main perpetrators of Stalinist crimes. Directly responsible for the murder of Polish officers in Katyn. The peak of his influence fell on the period of World War II and immediately after it. After Stalin's death, he was the author of the most liberal project of systemic changes in the USSR. As a result of a conspiracy against him, he was removed from his post and executed. and those closest to him) and escape of Józef Światło to USA. Fejgin was held responsible for that, as it was he who did not oversee his deputy during a special mission in East BerlinEast Berlin was the de facto capital city of the German Democratic Republic (GDR) from 1949 to 1990. Formally, it was the Soviet sector of Berlin, established in 1945. The American, British, and French sectors were known as West Berlin. From 1961 until 1989, East Berlin was separated from West Berlin by the Berlin Wall. The Western Allied powers did not recognise East Berlin as the GDR's capital, nor the GDR's authority to govern East Berlin. In 1990, the day Germany was officially reunified, East and West Berlin formally reunited as the city of Berlin and the Berlin Wall was destroyed. . The information compromising the authorities was revealed by Światło on Radio Free Europe. The search for those responsible began in the country, and the accusations intensified. Fejgin was finally arrested.
In 1957, the Provincial Court sentenced him to 12 years in prison for unlawfully depriving at least 28 people of their liberty and causing them particular torment. He held them unjustifiably in prison for several months to three years, and ordered his subordinate security officers to use physical and mental coercion, i.e. torture, against some of them.
Antoni Ferenc - Fejgin's, Romkowski's and Różański's prosecutor - during the trial, recalled the words of Fyodor Dostoyevsky from the book "The House of the Dead": there are crimes that always and everywhere, according to all possible codes, from the beginning of the world pass as indisputable crimes and will be considered as such as long as a human remains human
. From himself he added: Among such crimes are the acts alleged against the accused
. But in fact, the Political Bureau and the First Secretary Władysław GomułkaWładysław Gomułka, pseudonym "Wiesław", "Feliks Duniak" (1905 - 1982) - Polish communist politician, First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Polish Workers' Party, First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Polish United Workers' Party, First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Recovered Territories. Member of the National Council, the Legislative Seym and the Seym of the People's Republic of Poland, member of the State Council. Builder of the People's Republic of Poland. Gomułka's political line aroused distrust in Moscow. Gomułka believed that strong-arm rule and repressions could not replace social support for the people's government. He recognized that it was possible to build socialism in Poland without the dictatorship of the proletariat, terror and the annihilation of existing social structures. were about who and for what was to be held accountable. The commission to investigate party responsibility presented a report in which almost all the blame was placed on Romkowski, Różański and Fejgin as those who created a special system of conducting the investigation, consisting in the fact that most often young, inexperienced investigators were not privy to the entire investigation, and received from their superiors predetermined fragmentary questions
.
Despite his conviction, Fejgin was not deprived of his civil rights and the right to decorations.
In 1958 the court discontinued other proceedings in the Fejgin case, in which he was proven:
- beating those arrested in the ["Zamość-Lublin" case],
- orders to beat those arrested in this case,
- presence during the beating of the arrested, accepting with his presence the use of physical force,
- threatening the detainees with the use of physical coercion if they do not confess to committing the offenses they are accused of,
- accepting requests of subordinate officers regarding the application of long-term night interrogations to arrested,
- recommending or tolerating the use of other forms of pressure on the arrested (punishment, staging beatings).
These terms hid extremely brutal and sophisticated physical and mental torture.
Fejgin was finally released from prison in 1964 as a result of a pardon. The court, which was then an institution operating in a communist and non-sovereign state, justified its decision with the following words:
At the end of the 1980s, Fejgin was indignant in a conversation with Henryk Piecuch (the transcript of the conversation was published in the book "Meetings with Fejgin. Behind the scenes of the security services") that someone could have accused him of having even touched someone with a finger during the investigations. Piecuch admitted that he was of such stature that with his own hands he could not hurt the interrogated person
, but nevertheless, there is no doubts, that he personally tortured the prisoners.
As early as in free Poland, in the 1990s, Fejgin demanded that the state honor his activities in the Security Office
Fejgin died in Warsaw in 2002. He is buried at the Powązki Military Cemetery