Helena Wolińska / Fajga Mindla

Helena Wolińska-Brus (born Fajga Mindla Danielak; 1919 - 2008) was a military prosecutor in post-war communist Poland with the rank of lieutenant colonel, involved in the show trials of the Stalinist regime in the 1950s. She was responsible for the arrest and execution of many Polish resistance fighters from World War II, including distinguished heroes of the Polish Home ArmyHome Army (AK, polish: Armia Krajowa) – the clandestine armed forces of the Polish Underground State during World War II. during the war.

From an early age she was a fanatical supporter of communism. She belonged to the [Communist Union of Polish Youth]. During World War II, she escaped from the Warsaw ghetto. Then she changed her name and surname to Helena Wolińska. She served in the [Gwardia Ludowa], she was the head of the Staff Office [of the People's Army], the head of the General Department at the [Citizens' Militia] Headquarters. She is remembered as being firm, yet arrogant and overconfident.

Wolińska was " an instrument of judicial murder " and a Stalinist criminal. While working in the Supreme Military Prosecutor's Office , she supervised investigations against independence underground soldiers. She answered, inter alia, for the arrest of 24 people. The most famous example of its activity was the unlawful arrest, investigation and trial of General [Emil August Fieldorf], commander of the underground Home Army fighting against the German occupation during World War II, who refused to cooperate with the communist government after the war. He was arrested on the following charges: Whoever tries to change the political system of the Polish State by force, shall be punishable by imprisonment for not less than 5 years or by death . Fieldorf - one of the greatest heroes of the Polish Underground State - thanks to the prepared evidence, he was tried by a secret court and hanged in 1953 after a show trial and then buried in a secret place - his family the body was never shown.

One of the drastic cases of breaking the law by prosecutor Wolińska was the arrest of Col. [Wojciech Borzobohaty], who at that time was serving a five-year prison sentence for activities within the structures of WiNFreedom and Independence (pl. Wolność i Niezawisłość) - Polish civil-military underground organization founded in 1945 in Warsaw. Its core were the remains of the disbanded Delegation of the Armed Forces for Poland. WiN took over its organizational structure, staff, property, and partly forest departments. The commanders of the Delegation of the Armed Forces areas became the presidents of the WiN areas. WiN demanded that the Red Army and the NKVD leave Poland. The organization rejected the shape of the eastern border established in Yalta. The organization was also against political persecution and the devastation of the country committed by the Soviet army.. Having no evidence, she accused him on the basis of the decree on the penalty of fascist-Nazi criminals guilty of murdering and tormenting civilians and prisoners, and traitors of the Polish nation . In prison, he became paralyzed and disabled, which Wolińska knew very well.

This is how she received the opinion in the party circles:

Lt. Col. Res. Wolińska during his military service turned out to be a diligent and very valuable officer. She had a high degree of party and political sophistication. She was efficient at work, boldly and firmly as a prosecutor, she made decisions in criminal cases. She had a heightened class and political vigilance.

For her "diligence" she was awarded [the Order of Polonia Restituta]].

She was therefore a highly valued employee of the Stalinist regime. But she lacked a human conscience. The report [of Mazur's commission], established during the de-Stalinization period, mentions Wolińska, inter alia, multiple unjustified arrests without consulting the case file, non-response to complaints about forced confessions and torture, and pressure on the court. Wolińska violated the rule of law by her biased involvement in investigations, and she staged questionable trials that often ended in executions. It was then written about her:

(...) at work NPWChief Military Prosecutor's Office - the highest organizational unit of the military part of the prosecutor's office in Poland in the hierarchy, existing from 1919 to 2016. The military part of the Public Prosecutor's Office performed tasks similar to the civilian part, but towards soldiers and matters related to the Ministry of National Defense, its institutions and the Armed Forces of the Republic of Poland., being in senior official positions for 3 years as secretary of POPThe basic party organization (pl. Podstawowa organizacja partyjna, POP)- the smallest unit (cell) of the Polish United Workers' Party (exercising power in the Polish People's Republic). Basic party organizations existed in workplaces, universities and cultural institutions in the years 1949–1989. 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. for 3 years, she introduced an atmosphere of fear, she was overbearing, ruthless and vulgar in her work, which lowered the seriousness of her position and failed personal dignity at work.

She gave cases a false legal qualification (espionage) to deal with them in the military prosecutor's office, applied arrest to people who were not charged with any criminal offenses, and even held in custody defendants who had already been released by the court. During the investigations, Wolińska's victims were subjected to torture. She was arrogant, vulgar and self-confident. She treated her subordinates brutally. She often referred to her husband's high position.

Władysław BartoszewskiWładysław Bartoszewski (1922 – 2015) was a Polish politician, social activist, journalist, writer and historian. A former Auschwitz concentration camp prisoner, a World War II resistance fighter, part of the Polish underground, participated in the Warsaw Uprising. After the war he was persecuted and imprisoned by the communist Polish People's Republic due to his membership in the Home Army (Armia Krajowa, AK) and opposition activity. After the collapse of the communist regime, Bartoszewski served twice as the Minister of Foreign Affairs. He was also an ambassador and a member of the Polish Senate. He was a chevalier of the Order of the White Eagle, a honorary citizen of Israel, a Righteous Among the Nations - a honorific used by the State of Israel to describe non-Jews who risked their lives during the Holocaust to save Jews from extermination by the Nazis for altruistic reasons. recalled that while in prison in the 1950s, he saw blank arrest warrants signed by Wolińska. This made illegal prison extensions easier for innocent inmates.

A judge of the Supreme Military Court, Józef WaszkiewiczJózef Waszkiewicz (1917 - 1990) graduated from the Faculty of Law and Administration at the Jagiellonian University. After being drafted into the "People's" Polish Army in 1947, he was assigned to work in the military administration of justice. Initially, he was a judge of the Military District Court in Poznań, then deputy head in Rzeszów and head of the district military courts in Koszalin and Zielona Góra. In the years 1952–1957 he was a member of the Supreme Military Court. He was transferred to the reserve in the rank of lieutenant colonel in 1958. Author of memoirs entitled "Rehabilitations" (polish: "Rehabilitacje"), which deals with the operation of the communist apparatus of repression through the military judiciary. wrote about her:

Wolińska blackmailed not only her staff, but also judges. For her, everyone was "unsure". Her behavior was possible because, as Comrade Jóźwiak's wife, everyone was afraid of her and gave in to her. (...) Wolińska caused enormous damage to our homeland. As a judge, judging the activities of these three (Wolińska, col. Feldman and Frenkiela ) I cannot find any other term for them than" scoundrels "".

There were legends about her vulgar disposition. One of the Stalinist judges who released Jehovah's witnesses, previously arrested by Wolińska, told her a later phone call:

(...) called me (...) "Dolores from Warsaw" (...) and asked on what grounds you fired Yahwehs. I replied that it was based on a court decision. Then she said, "Don't be so wise" and challenged me from h ... ".

When she condemned Juliusz SobolewskiJuliusz Sobolewski, ps. Roman, (1917 - 1956) graduated from the Sapper Cadet School in the 1930s. As a platoon officer cadet he commanded a platoon in the 2nd sapper company. Home Army officer. Jeniec Stalagu X B Sandbostel, then Oflagu X-C Lübeck. Arrested by the UB in 1952. Accused of espionage for Anglo-American intelligence. He underwent a heavy investigation in the Mokotów prison. Sentenced to death, commuted during a trial review to 40 months in prison. After the sentence was changed, he was taken to be exposed to x-rays many times. In 1954, conditionally released from prison - already suffering from leukemia. For a year and a half, he worked at the Rubber Industry Office. Posthumously rehabilitated in 1957. - one of the Home Army commanders - to death for "espionage", his wife came to Wolińska to plead for mercy:

She was not moved by my words, she did not even deign to look at me. She kicked me out of my office, claiming it was the worst day of her life because Stalin had died.

Another of her accused, [Jerzy Łyżwa], wrote this:

The prosecutor, Halina Wolińska, issued an arrest warrant against me on September 9, 1951, executed on the same day by the Director of the Investigation Department of the Ministry of Public Security, J. Różański. Held under investigation for 21 months and 20 days, I did not know what I was sitting for or what they were accusing me of. Only at the end of May 1953, when the investigation was being completed, I was given seven or eight sanctions issued by prosecutor Wolińska for signing, and ordered to insert backdates. I signed the sanctions, refusing to insert backdates. The investigator inserted them in a different ink and character.

Wolińska never answered for her crimes - she fled to Great Britain.

The investigation into her crimes became possible only after the collapse of communism in Poland in 1989. Over the years, three extradition requests were submitted, which were rejected. In 2007, the Military District Court in Warsaw, at the request of IPNThe Institute of National Remembrance (pl: Instytut Pamięci Narodowej, IPN) is a Polish state research institute in charge of education and archives with investigative and lustration powers, to protect the reputation of the Republic of Poland and the Polish Nation. The IPN investigates Nazi and communist crimes committed between 1917 and 1990, documents its findings, and disseminates them to the public., issued the European Arrest Warrant for Wolinska.

Wolińska said she would not return to this "vile country", she described the court's decision as "the circus". She argued that her accusers were motivated by anti-Semitism. These accusations were, of course, only a pitiful attempt to escape responsibility. They were replied, inter alia, by Bartoszewski, formerly pursued by Wolińska:

The signature of Lt. Col. Wolińska appears on my indictment in red pencil. By approving the indictment against me, she knew that I was a co-founder of ŻegotaŻegota - Council to Aid Jews with the Government Delegation for Poland - a Polish underground humanitarian organization operating in the years 1942–1945, as an organ of the Polish government in exile, whose task was to organize aid for Jews in and outside ghettos. The council operated under the underground code name "Konrad Żegota", often abbreviated to "Żegota". According to the Council's estimates, 40,000-50,000 people were provided with aid by the outbreak of the Warsaw Uprising in August 1944. . I am an example that the explanations of some people around Wolińska and herself that some anti-Semitic action is taking place around her are nonsense.

Fajga Mindla died a natural death in Oxford, UK in 2008.

SOURCES
https://www.witrynahistoryczna.pl/artykuly/zbrodnie-prokurator-heleny-wolinskiej/
https://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helena_Woli%C5%84ska
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helena_Woli%C5%84ska-Brus