Political murderers shouldn't be prosecuted - Michnik (frere), Fejgin, Wolinska

They were just following orders, so they deserved the protection from prosecution they received from various quarters.
Discuss.

they shouldn't be put to jail but they should be symbolically prosecuted so the public at large know what is wrong and what is right

The official line is that they served a regime which has been judged by history, so their prosecution is devoid of purpose. Soon, of course, it will be as they are dying of old age.

Wolinska was a prosecutor: it was her job to prosecute people who may be guilty. It is the job of the judge to decide if the accused is actually guilty.

I actually have a friend whose family helped to hide Wolinska during the war- in fact this is where her Polish last name comes from. Then she stabbed them in the back. It is not as simple as taking orders.

One relative, now dead, hid a Jew who became prominent as a sidekick to Bierut - and was rewarded tenfold despite being active in Bataliony. His family is still enjoying the benefits, through employment of a grandson high up in a state-owned firm.

By the way, Harry is a scream. He thinks revolutionary justice involves impartiality. If he used an ounce of logic, he would know that Communist prosecutor and Communist judge were on the same side. Still, that's our Harry for you. Doncha just luv im? Bless.

And if you were to use a gram of logic, you would see that if a judge is on the same side as a prosecutor, the judge is the one who is doing something wrong. But perhaps you're willing to overlook that, given that the judge in the Fieldorf case was a Catholic Pole?

Jeez, you're slow on the uptake. Totalitarian structures are - d'oh - totalitarian. All-encompassing. I'm not sure how to get this over in clearer terms. Everybody taking part of their own free will is guilty. "Only following orders" - that's a bit of an old canard.

You'll get it one day - we'll talk then.
Bye for now

I see that you've given up trying to argue with what I do say and instead are trying to argue with what I did not say. Sadly that's not a surprise.

Exactly how do you propose they prosecute Mrs Wolińska? Rap on the table and one knock for guilty, two for not guilty?

Who protected them?

It's pretty fair to say that none of them would have received a fair trial, especially compared to the countries where they reside.

So, Demjanjuk was only an alleged guard therefore doing his job and following orders, yet somehow that fact did not absolve him of his sins and subsequent trial. Don’t be ridicules, those that murder in the name of ideology are the worst offenders of them all hiding behind the rank or job title as an excuse yet performing their job with extra zeal and in particularly sadistic fashion taking a great deal of pleasure in it. There’s no excuse! A murderer is a murderer after all.

And who was the murderer, the prosecutor, the prosecutor's boss, the judge or the executioners. Irrelevant now since as far as I know, all of them are dead.

Jon, Harry, Delphi - I find your views to be incredibly disturbing. Having Jews in the family (by marriage) and a close Jewish friend, the idea of letting murderous ideological bygones be bygones is a subject that has been extensively discussed in my social circle and is actually a no-brainer for people with a moral backbone. Try to understand by analogy. Destroying human life for a set of ideas is not a small matter - you need to understand this. Delphi threw in the old canard of Poland being unable to hold a fair trial. Funny. Try saying that to the UK - Irishmen have had gross miscarriages of justice there, as did of course al-Megrahi the so-called Lockerbie bomber. So, using your logic, we should stop all political trials. Anyone wanting to murder, merely has to invoke an ideal and we can then shake hands and forget the whole thing.

BERND KOSCHLAND, MEMBER OF ASSOCIATION OF JEWISH REFUGEES

We still have to persevere in pursuing the Nazi war criminal for a number of reasons.

They have committed crimes, so they need to be found and it needs to be logged, because otherwise it passes out of human knowledge.

If someone is found guilty then the sentence is really immaterial. What matters is that justice has to be done.

Even though it happened 60-odd years ago, the effects of it on individuals are still there - psychologically and physically.

Tracking Nazis down is an important lesson to demonstrate to potential modern-day human rights abusers that their crimes will never be tolerated

I came to the UK in 1939, but my parents and several other family members died at the hands of Nazis in camps in Izbica, Poland, and Riga in Latvia.

Tracking Nazis down is an important lesson to demonstrate to potential modern-day human rights abusers that their crimes will never be tolerated.

I don't think you can forgive these people their crimes. What you can do is build a bridge of understanding.

We can live alongside each other as long as we both remember I cannot forgive, you should not be able to forget, but let's build a kind of bridge between each other to make a better future.

As much a no-brainer as prosecuting Mrs Wolinska-Brus who died last year?

news.bbc


Maybe it's just me, but this all seems absurd and obsessive.


Sounds more like they simply wanted the death of every German after the war. What about the Soviets? Do the people they killed not matter and do not deserve all this scorn and hunting?

The problem with many post war jews is that they don't even try to hide the fact that they're self serving and driven by revenge, not so much justice. If they were, you'd think Israel would be a bastion of equality.

At this point they're often not even going after important Nazis or people who are connected with specific incidents of wrongdoing anymore.

They already got most of these people, except the ones who are suspected to be dead of old age.

They're targeting people who were completely unimportant, not connected to any specific incident of abuse and did not freely choose to work in the camps to begin with.

For example John Demjanjuk; Ukrainian, drafted by Red Army, captured by Germans, sent to camp where Germans routinely starved POWs to death. Allegedly "volunteered" to serve as guard in order to escape notorious prison camp. Not connected with any specific incident of abuse or wrongdoing, just tried for working at the camp. Tried when he was in his 80s, based on forged KGB documents and vague 40 year old evidence from KGB interviews. (And I'm leaving out the previous trial that the Israelis admit was a completely wrongful conviction based on mistaken identity.)

We should be ashamed for going along with this. Guys like this were in an incredibly difficult situation and didn't have any good options available.

Of course, my attitude might be different if my relatives died in a death camp. Anyway I'm sure they have a 'Kill them all and let god sort it out' attitude going now.

So what did you say Harry?
In fact you said nothing of importance, you just are your usual self.
"Wolinska" did have to become prosecutor during soviet occupations. Because she volunteered to the job she should be hold accountable in the same degree as judge and anybody else involved in totalitarian regime where their role were to make an impression of juice and judicial process while in fact accused had been tortured and their fate was decided elsewhere.

In fact those people she helped to murder shouldn't be prosecuted at all. It didn't make sense for Poles to prosecute them. Its would be as if British would prosecute gen Alexander and his staff, and Americans prosecute Eisenhower and his officers after the war instead of voting him president.

It was Soviet Union that prosecuted them using traitors and scum like her.
Harry is just defending her on the ground of her being being Communist (doubt it) and Jewish as in his eyes Jew can do no wrong.

Way to go Harry!