Uncommon war criminals in the Eastern front

Hi guys i found interesting info about uncommon war criminal from Poland

http://www.theage.com.au/news/world/holocaust-jew-accused-of-war-crimes/2005/07/10/1120934125780.html

Solomon Morel
An old Jewish man who took his own cold-blooded revenge against Germans for the Holocaust will not be extradited back to Poland from Israel to answer charges of genocide.

The case of Solomon Morel, 86, is the only one in Holocaust history where a Jew stands accused of war crimes against Germans.

It has perplexed legal minds in both countries. Poland says genocide is genocide whether a Jew or a Nazi committed it, while many Israelis see rough justice in the 1500 German deaths for which Mr Morel is alleged to be responsible.

Now the Israeli Government has said that Mr Morel will not be sent back to stand trial in Poland under any circumstances.

Mr Morel, who came from the little Polish town of Grabowo, claims he was an Auschwitz survivor whose family was murdered by the Nazis during World War II. A book, An Eye for an Eye, which documents his strange life, claims his family was indeed liquidated, but by Poles who collaborated with the Nazis. It also says that he was never imprisoned by the Germans.

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AdvertisementBy 1943 he was employed peeling potatoes for a Jewish partisan brigade before escaping to the Soviet Union, where he trained in the gruesome interrogation methods of the NKVD, Stalin’s political police, before returning to Poland in 1945. He was then put in charge by the communists of a camp containing thousands of German prisoners including SS men, soldiers and civilians.

John Sack, the Jewish-American author of An Eye for an Eye, claims Mr Morel, as commandant of Swietochlowice Camp, morphed into the kind of monster that would have been welcomed by the Gestapo.

“His favourite method of killing prisoners was hacking the skull of his victims with a wooden leg of a chair,” according to the book. “It is quite possible that in Swietochlowice several thousand persons were murdered by Morel and his men.”

They would beat them and throw the bodies out of the window."
Camp survivorSack’s book, and a score of Polish books and newspaper articles, said he beat, shot, starved, tortured and killed with gusto in the camp.

“I knew Morel in the camp. He was a very brutal man,” survivor Dorota Boriczek said. “He was young then. He would come in at night. We could hear the cries of the men then. They would beat them and throw the bodies out of the window.”

In 1989, a Polish reporter found Mr Morel living in a part of Katowice assigned for former uniformed functionaries of communist terror.

In the early 1990s, the Main Commission for the Investigations of Crimes Against the Polish Nation started an official investigation of Mr Morel’s activities in the Swietochlowice Camp after witness articles appeared in the press.

In 1994, Mr Morel sought political asylum in Sweden. This was refused. He then successfully sought sanctuary in Israel.

Poland tried to extradite him seven years ago on torture charges. Israel refused. So prosecutors began preparing a genocide case, for which there is no statute of limitations.

Last week, they received a blank refusal from Israel saying “there was no basis whatsoever” to extradite Mr Morel.

A Polish prosecutor said testimony from former inmates documented Mr Morel’s torture of at least 13 prisoners.

“There should be one measure for judging war criminals, irrespective whether they are German, Israeli, or any other nationality,” the prosecutor said.

This is strange why Israel ferused to give out such criminals?
What/s do you think?

Yes! (I’m aware of some similar cases in Canada, where Ukrainian descendants have wondered why former members of the NKVD backed partisans have not been deported after proof has arisen that they killed and terrorized civilians.) I think these cases depend largely on the context of the crimes and there are no absolutes. But any guy running a camp in which he has absolute control over the occupants, and makes them subject to torture and extrajudicial murders needs to be brought to justice.

Thanks Nickdfresh. Certainly you right.
And nobody don’t refuse the international right of Israel to demand the former nazi concentration srrvicements for the justicein in Israel. Look for instance to the Ivan (John) Demijanyuk
http://www.ww2incolor.com/forum/showthread.php?t=3998&page=5
But it’s interesting why Israel itself refuse simular demands

Now the Israeli Government has said that Mr Morel will not be sent back to stand trial in Poland under any circumstances

Wha’t this mean?
Factically Israel refuse the even the possibility of the guilt of former polish servicment.
But i don’t think the Polish State prosecutors will lie , there is no any doubt the S.Morel is guilt for the mass killing and tortures of prisoners.
So i think just two possible explanations could be.
Or Israel is agreed with Morel guilt but refused to give out him to the Polish justice.
Or Israels even don’t consider the mass killing of non-jews as criminal by the jewish cervicment.
Anyway Israel demonstates the open dual-standarts justice: from the one side it demand all former nazi criminals from all the world ,from the other side it refuse any possibility for the justice above former jewish criminals.

Cheers.

A killer is a killer, is a killer, is a killer.

Isreal should hand him over for a fair trial, maybe not in Poland but the Hague is always available.

They expect war criminals that have acted against them and Jewish people in other countries to be handed over, they should do the same.

Possible - the current government in Poland are somewhat right wing, rather nationalist and somewhat anti-semitic (very strongly Catholic/Nationalist hybrid). In the circumstances where you have a Jewish man accused of torturing Poles on behalf of the Communists - as appears to be the case here - I would certainly have worries about the political motivations behind the prosecution and his chances of a fair trial.

Such people should always be brought to trial no matter how long ago the crimes were committed. However, in the circumstances I think you’re maybe being a little harsh on the Israelis.

pdf27, you shouldn’t worry :wink:
Although we have some radical right-wing maniacs in polish goverment, our authorities still respect the law and polish courts are independent of politicians.
It just couldn’t happen to sentence Morel unfairly.

It just couldn’t happen to sentence Morel unfairly.

Yeah, right. Tell yourself that enough times and you will believe it.

It is possible in ALL and ANY country to have unfair trials due to political pressure.

I hope not, but the amount of faith I have in politicians suggests otherwise. Poland is worse off than most countries in this sense, as it hasn’t had very long since the end of Communism to develop a truly independent justice system. This isn’t knocking Poland, but merely stating that there is reason to suspect the possibility of political interference, and that this is a possible reason for the Israeli decision.

There is the, rather normal, hatred/backlash towards the commies for cramping the country for so long. I really doubt an non-biased court could be found.

The Hague on the other hand…

There is another case almost similar to Morel. Helena Wolinska - British Government persistently refuses her extradition.
Below is an article by Anne Applebaum about this case.

http://www.anneapplebaum.com/communism/1998/12_06_tel_brus.html

As you see looking at the date of the article - December 6, 1998, this time no one even dreamed about political forces which now have power in Poland. Judiciary at least from 1990 is completely independent from politicians, however, I agree that Hague Tribunal would be a right solution.

There is no accident that most people responsible for communist repressions and crimes were Jewish.
NKVD and SMERSH, which created subordinate secret services in communist governed Poland, were itself almost exclusively staffed by people of Jewish origins.
Since bolshevics coup in 1917 which killed real Russian revolution, USSR was largely led by Jewish revolutionaries. Trocky, Kamenev, Zinoviev, Bukharin… to mention only a few.
No doubt that NKVD choose again Jewish activists to work for them in Poland. Pattern and method was obvious - much the same as in Russia “revolutionary cadres” not hesitated to kill with cold blood decent Russians, Ukrainians and many other nationalities - the same was repeated in Poland.
Anne Applebaum is Jewish herself, so hardly anyone can accuse her to be anti-semitic.