Widow, 88, faces arrest warrant over death of Polish hero

[Errigal]

Widow, 88, faces arrest warrant over death of Polish hero

Robert Booth
Wednesday November 21, 2007
The Guardian

An 88-year-old Polish widow living in Britain is facing extradition to her home country and 10 years in jail for her alleged part in the killing of a Polish national hero who led the country's anti-Nazi resistance in the second world war.

A military court in Warsaw yesterday issued a European arrest warrant demanding the extradition of Helena Wolinska-Brus, a survivor of the Warsaw ghetto who now lives alone in an Oxford suburb.

As a prosecutor in Stalinist-era Poland in 1952, Wolinska-Brus is accused of fabricating evidence that led to the execution of the general Emil Fieldorf and the wrongful arrest of 24 others. Using the alias Nil, Fieldorf led the Polish underground home army against the German occupiers and refused to collaborate with the communist regime which followed.

A spokeswoman for Soca, the Home Office-sponsored Serious Organised Crime Agency, which will handle the warrant, said the warrant was the first stage in any possible extradition process.


Speaking to the Guardian yesterday, Wolinska-Brus claimed she was being made a scapegoat by the new Polish government and denied involvement in the prosecution that led to Fieldorf's death. "This is ancient history," she said. "It all happened in the 1950s. Yes it is a crime that should not be forgotten and as a Jew I know things shouldn't be forgotten. But how do I know what happened? I wasn't a prosecutor in that case."


An earlier Polish extradition request, aimed at putting Wolinska-Brus on trial in Warsaw in 1999, was refused by Jack Straw, then home secretary.
"What is going on is like a circus ... I am a scapegoat ... I am the only one alive, I can't even call witnesses if I'd like to have them because everyone is dead," she added.


Wolinska-Brus has lived in the UK since 1972 and was married to Wlodzimierz Brus, an emeritus professor of Russian and east European studies at Oxford University, who died two months ago.


She said yesterday that she did "not believe in" Polish courts and that in Britian the courts would be objective. "If the British police want me to answer some questions, I will. I am a British citizen as well as a Polish citizen."


The Polish military court says there is evidence to show Fieldorf was falsely imprisoned and interrogated about the activities of the Polish anti-communist underground in the war. Historians accuse Wolinska-Brus of fabricating the charges.


The campaign to have her extradited began with Fieldorf's daughter, Maria, who learned from her rabbi that her father was held in solitary for 23 months before he was killed. She accuses Wolinska-Brus of having been "one of those careerists who are the pillars of any dictatorship". She said in an interview: "Every few days I went to the prosecutor's office seeking news of my father. One day they said, don't come back or send any money for food or cigarettes, we have hanged your father. It was a terrible experience and I vowed to repay them."

Widow, 88, faces arrest warrant over death of Polish hero | Special reports | Guardian Unlimited

Her husband's obituary:
Wlodzimierz Brus | Obituaries | Guardian Unlimited

An article which is far too sympathetic but has interesting info:
Anne Applebaum -- The Three Lives of Helena Brus

Wikipedia entry:
Helena Wolińska-Brus - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[Kernunnos]

What hypocrisy.

Now polish courts are kangaroo courts, because Poland is a catholic country and there communism is a crime.

Well said, mrs Torture.