Helena Wolińska-Brus

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Helena Wolińska-Brus (born 1919 of Jewish parentage as Fajga Mindla Danielak) is a former military prosecutor from Poland, involved in Stalinist regime show trials of the 1950s. She was responsible for the persecution of non-communists in the Peoples Republic of Poland, where numerous people were sentenced to death and executed after trials based on falsified evidence. Among other crimes, she is alleged of organising the unlawful arrest of, and aiding investigation and trial against, Poland's wartime hero general Emil August Fieldorf. Emil August Fieldorf "Nil", a legendary commander of the Polish underground Polish Home Army during WW II, was falsely accused of collaborating with the Nazis and being a "fascist criminal". Wolińska signed Fieldorf's arrest warrant and extended his detention several times, although she was perfectly aware of his innocence. Fieldorf was executed on February 24, 1953, after a one-day show trial.

Wolińska was married to Franciszek Jóźwiak, the commander of the Gwardia Ludowa and the first commandant of the communist state police Milicja Obywatelska in Poland. Her second husband, Wlodzimierz Brus (born as Beniamin Zylberberg), was a marxist economist and member of the governing political party in communist-ruled Poland Polish United Workers' Party until 1968. After political changes in Poland and the anti-Jewish campaign of Gomulka in 1968, Wolińska moved with her husband to Britain. Currently, Wlodzimierz Brus is a professor of economics at Oxford University. Wolińska lives in Oxford and has British citizenship.

Since 1999, Poland has been striving for extradition of Wolińska from Britain to stand trial in Poland. Wolińska is occused of being an "accessory to a court murder," classified as a Stalinist crime and a crime of genocide, and is punishable by up to ten years in prison. The official charges against her were initiated by the Commission for Investigating Crimes against the Polish Nation. (A 1956 report issued by the communist authorities concluded that Wolińska had violated the rule of law and was involved in biased investigations and show trials that frequently resulted in executions.)

In 2006, the British Government, after reviewing all the documents provided by the Polish National Remembrance Institute and the Polish Prosecutors related to the crimes committed by Helena Wolińska-Brus, refused her extradition to Poland. The British Home Office sited humanitarian reasons, her old age, and the 50 years since the alleged crimes occurred. (UK refuses to extradite a Stalinist prosecutor to Poland Radio Polonia 2006)

The case of Wolińska attracted international attention (East European Constitutional Review, 1999). From her British exile, Wolińska refers to Poland as a "despicable country" and "the country of Auschwitz and Birkenau", claiming she will never return to stand trial. She claims the Polish investigation of her crimes is only motivated by "anti-semitism".

An ironic illustration of the above is the case of Senator Wladyslaw Bartoszewski, best known for having led the "Żegota" Home Army division which was responsible for rescuing Jews. He is also an Auschwitz survivor, and now an honorary citizen of Israel. Wladyslaw Bartoszewski was arrested by Wolińska. The Sunday Telegraph cited her 1998 saying,"Senator Bartoszewski, I never heard as much about him then, as I do now." This may well be true. After all, most of the Home Army officers senior to Senator Bartoszewski were put to death, round about the time Wolińska was walking the halls of the Ministry of Public Security in her military prosecutor's uniform.

Maria Fieldorf Czarska, the daughter of general Emil August Fieldorf, says bitterly that she doubts Wolińska will ever come to trial: "she will say she is old, she will say she is ill, she will say we are anti-semitic." The Independent cited her in 1999 saying: "The sad truth is that our secret services in the 1950s were dominated by Jews. (...) All the people connected with the arrest and prosecution of my father were Jewish, and most of them went to Israel. Nobody says sorry to us, but nowadays we have to say sorry to Jews all the time."

Many Poles deeply resent Jews who use their Jewishness as an excuse when they are accused of other crimes. One Polish government official states the problem like this: "Just because Jews were victims of crimes against humanity, does that mean they cannot be tried for crimes against humanity themselves?" (The Three Lives of Helena Brus The Sunday Telegraph 1998)

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