Peter Vogel, brutally murdered an elderly lady and burned her body to prevent detection.
However, he was caught and sentenced to jail. In 1983, miraculously, the Communists allowed him to leave Poland and settle in Switzerland, where Vogel became a banker. After 1989, Vogel appeared in Poland, where he quickly earned a sobriquet "the accountant of the Left." Vogel was also involved in a number of scams, embezzlements, and money laundering operations, including the Orlen gasoline case. Vogel enjoyed close ties to the KGB's Vladimir Alganov (Kwasniewski's alleged handler) and to Poland's Communist secret police collaborators residing in Vienna, Andrzej Kuna and Aleksander Zagiel, both implicated in the Orlen case. In July 1999 Kwasniewski initiated the process to grant amnesty to Peter Vogel, whom he finally pardoned in December 2005, right before leaving office.
10 May 2006
Aleksander Kwaśniewski, who over six years ago signed an act of clemency for Peter Vogel, who had been sentenced for murder, testified May 4 as a witness in Katowice's prosecutor's office, which is investigating the circumstances of the pardon. Following questioning, Kwaśniewski gave assurances that there had been no irregularities whatsoever in the President's Office in handling the case. He said that no grounds existed for suspecting any hint of corruption regarding the matter, nor any reason to associate it with left-wing politicians.
A few months ago, Polish newspapers wrote about the Vogel's pardon and referred to him as "the bag man of the left." At the Swiss bank Coutts, he reportedly handled the bank accounts of "leading left-wing politicians," who are linked to lobbyist Marek Dochnal. Dochnal has been in detention for months concerning allegations of corruption.
As a boy of 17, Vogel, whose name in the 1970s was Piotr Filipowski (alias Filipczyński), brutally murdered a 75-year-old woman during a robbery. He was sentenced to 25 years in prison. In 1979, he was given temporary leave from prison, and in 1983, under murky circumstances, he obtained a passport and fled to Switzerland. According to newspaper reports, he was recruited by the special services of the Polish People's Republic (PRL), who enabled his departure. He eventually became a banker and worked in Switzerland.
In 1998, Poland initiated extradition procedures. Vogel was handed over to Polish authorities in order to serve the remainder of his sentence. His lawyers quickly filed papers for a pardon. The then deputy general prosecutor supported the motion for a pardon and forwarded it to the president. In July 1999, Vogel was released again from prison and returned to Switzerland.
To nie jest tak, Jak minister Janusz Kaczmarek przedstawił na falach TVN24, że działacze SLD deponowali pieniądze na czyjeś rachunki bankowe. Tak się składa, że mój kolega - syn z bardzo bogatej rodzinny niemieckiej (firma prywatna od 1789 roku, która ma swój bank w Szwajcarii) – opowiadał mi wiele lat temu, jak to funkcjonuje.
Fot. Internet
Wielu ludzi, którzy chcą ukryć swoje pieniądze, zakłada tzw. 'rescue companies' (firmy ratunkowe) - po niemiecku 'Auffanggesellschaften' – w Szwajcarii, Luksemburgu lub Francji. Dlaczego te kraje? Można te firmy otworzyć w innych krajach, tzw. rajach podatkowych, ale nie ma pewności, że za rok, 5 czy 20 lat taka firma będzie nadal funkcjonować. Inny powód jest taki, że łatwiej jest pojechać do Szwajcarii, Luksemburga lub Francji niż gdzieś za ocean. Na zdjęciu: bank w Szwajcarii.
Wielu ludzi, którzy chcą ukryć swoje pieniądze, zakłada tzw. 'rescue companies' (firmy ratunkowe) - po niemiecku 'Auffanggesellschaften' – w Szwajcarii, Luksemburgu lub Francji. Dlaczego te kraje? Można te firmy otworzyć w innych krajach, tzw. rajach podatkowych, ale nie ma pewności, że za rok, 5 czy 20 lat taka firma będzie nadal funkcjonować. Inny powód jest taki, że łatwiej jest pojechać do Szwajcarii, Luksemburga lub Francji niż gdzieś za ocean.
Zaletą tych firm ratunkowych jest to, że jako członkowie ich zarządu wymienieni są tylko prawnicy - właściciel lub beneficjant nie jest wymieniony nigdzie. Oznacza to, że faktycznego właściciela rachunku (benefaktora) nie zna nawet szwajcarski bank, a więc nie jest to do sprawdzenia do czasu, kiedy właściciel rachunku nie zacznie popełniać błędów, np. wydawać za dużo albo przewozić powyżej 10 000 euro przez granicę Szwajcarii i zostanie wyrywkowo sprawdzony. Służby graniczne w Szwajcarii robią też zdjęcia rejestracji samochodów.
Można też zrobić to inaczej: wynajmuje się hotel obok granicy i wysyła sekretarkę albo zaufaną osobę, by przewiozła legalnie kwotę poniżej 10 000 euro. Robi ona wiele kursów - to tylko godzina jazdy, więc można sobie czekać w hotelu na uzbieranie się większej sumy, popijając Vintage Cristal Champagne i pojadając Beluga Caviar.
Często też zamówienia publiczne są zawyżane, a różnica idzie na taki właśnie rachunek. Tak było z zamówieniami w Polce, Rosji, Ukrainie czy innych byłych krajach komunistycznych. Koszt obsługi takiej 'rescue company' to około 5-8 tys. USD na rok.
Pieniądze deponuje się lub wypłaca tylko osobiście, bez żadnych elektronicznych transferów. Jeśli nie ma śladów po transakcji elektronicznej ani nazwiska, nikt nie jest w stanie zlokalizować naszych aktywów. Pieniądze takie traktowane są jako rachunek inwestycyjny i mogą być wykorzystywane do inwestowania na giełdzie lub w waluty obce.
W momencie, gdy potrzebna jest gotówka, musi być ona wypłacona tylko osobiście, a potem może być zamieniona na diamenty przemysłowe w Antwerpii w Holandii, która nie jest przecież daleko, i w ten sposób wywieziona do dowolnego wybranego kraju। Tam diamenty te są następnie sprzedawane za gotówkę. Preferowane są diamenty przemysłowe gdyż nie ważą one wiele, ale za to są dość wartościowe. Diament przemysłowy rozmiaru groszku może kosztować nawet 50.000 USD. Innym powodem wykorzystywania nieoszlifowanych diamentów jest to, że nie tracą one na wartości, podczas gdy brylanty nawet z certyfikatem tracą znacząco na wartości przy odsprzedaży.
This is additional contact to the expert I have।
Anne van HeerdenPartner, Head of ForensicKPMGBadenerstrasse 172P. O. Box8026 ZurichTel. +41 44 249 31 78Fax +41 44 249 22 33Contact Anne van Heerden
Registered Accountant (RA) (Dutch CPA), Member of the Royal Dutch Institute for Registered Accountants
Broad experience in a wide range of national and international fraud investigations as well as in fraud risk management
More than twelve years Forensic experience in the Dutch and Swiss Forensic practice: joined KPMG's Dutch audit department in 1986 and changed to Forensic in 1993; with Forensic Switzerland since the beginning of 2000
Monday, March 24, 2008
A real hero - Witold Pilecki - A Volunteer for Auschwitz
A real hero - Witold Pilecki - A Volunteer for Auschwitz
A real hero - Witold Pilecki - A Volunteer for Auschwitz
Pilecki i Anders
Ochotnik do Auschwitz/Volunteer for Auschwitz - W. Pilecki
("Let's Reminisce About Witold Pilecki")
Witold Pilecki was born in Poland in 1901. When the German Army invaded the country in September, 1939, Pilecki joined the Tajna Armia Polska, the Secret Polish Army.
When Pilecki discovered the existence of Auschwitz, he suggested a plan to his senior officers. Pilecki argued he should get himself arrested and sent to the concentration camp. He would then send out reports of what was happening in the camp. Pilecki would also explore the possibility of organizing a mass break-out.
Pilecki's colonel eventually agreed and after securing a false identity as Tomasz Serafinski, he arranged to be arrested in September, 1940. As expected he was sent to Auschwitz where he became prisoner 4,859. His work consisted of building more huts to hold the increased numbers of prisoners.
Pilecki soon discovered the brutality of the Schutz Staffeinel (SS) guards. When one man managed to escape on 28th October 1940, all the prisoners were forced to stand at attention on the parade-ground from noon till nine in the evening. Anyone who moved was shot and over 200 prisoners died of exposure. Pilecki was able to send reports back to the Tajna Armia Polska explaining how the Germans were treating their prisoners. This information was then sent to the foreign office in London.
In 1942 Pilecki discovered that new windowless concrete huts were being built with nozzles in their ceilings. Soon afterwards he heard that that prisoners were being herded into these huts and that the nozzles were being used to feed cyanide gas into the building. Afterwards the bodies were taken to the building next door where they were cremated.
Pilecki got this information to the Tajna Armia Polska who passed it onto the British foreign office. This information was then passed on to the governments of other Allied countries. However, most people who saw the reports refused to believe them and dismissed the stories as attempts by the Poles to manipulate the military strategy of the Allies.
In the autumn of 1942, Jozef Cyrankiewicz, a member of the Polish Communist Party, was sent to Auschwitz. Pilecki and Cyrankiewicz worked closely together in organizing a mass breakout. By the end of 1942 they had a group of 500 ready to try and overthrow their guards.
Four of the inmates escaped on their own on 29th December, 1942. One of these men, a dentist called Kuczbara, was caught and interrogated by the Gestapo. Kuczbara was one of the leaders of Pilecki's group and so when he heard the news he realized that it would be only a matter of time before the SS realized that he had been organizing these escape attempts.
Pilecki had already arranged his escape route and after feigning typhus, he escaped from the hospital on 24th April, 1943. After hiding in the local forest, Pilecki reached his unit of the Tajna Armia Polska on 2nd May. He returned to normal duties and fought during the Warsaw Uprising in the summer of 1944. Although captured by the German Army he was eventually released by Allied troops in April, 1945.
After the Second World War Pilecki went to live in Poland.The Polish Secret Police had him executed in 1948. It is believed that this was a result of his anti-communist activities.
Only Ghosts And Echoes -
Posted by Felis in Heroes, History (Sunday February 12, 2006 at 5:03 pm)
I learnt about Witold Pilecki only by accident, when my maternal grandfather dropped his name while talking about his former associate and the then Polish Prime Minister Jozef Cyrankiewicz.
- Cyrankiewicz, he said, could have saved Pilecki but of course his own heroic tale could have been ruined.
I started asking my grandfather additional questions and learnt a few things about this man, Witold Pilecki, who according to my grandfather’s patchy story, volunteered to go to Auschwitz to gather intelligence for the Home Army (Polish Military Underground Organization) operating during the German occupation.
It was, I think, 1967 and Witold Pilecki as far as the communist authorities were concerned, officially never existed.
My grandfather knew Jozef Cyrankiewicz because both of them were members of PPS -Polish Socialist Party before WWII (PPS was a social-democratic party). Cyrankiewicz was captured and sent by the Germans to Auschwitz in 1942 but my grandfather was saved from being captured by his new identity supported by false documents. After the war, most of the members of PPS accepted the communists’ offer to join the Soviet bandwagon in exchange for good positions within the new administration and sometimes because they weren’t sure what might happen to them if they refused.
This move gave the communists more legitimacy among Western countries as well as the desperate Polish nation.
Or so they thought.
The communist party members were mostly imported from the Soviet Union.
These people, officially Polish, very often could not speak the language and like the first President Boleslaw Bierut were full time NKVG (Soviet Security) employees (the real Polish communist who ended up in Russia after 1939 were mostly executed by Stalin in the 40’s).
And so PPS and PPR (Polish Worker’s Party) were amalgamated into PZPR (Polish United Worker’s Party).
My grandpa was one of those scoundrels, who joined the new organization and for the rest of his life tried to convince himself that his decision was morally justified. He never really made it to the “top†and that is probably why he felt resentment towards Cyrankiewicz for not assisting his old comrades a little bit harder.This is how I learnt about Witold Pilecki for the first time. My grandfather made bitter comments about Cyrankiewicz’s duplicity.
I digress.
I started searching for some more information about Pilecki and slowly a picture emerged, which as much as it was depressing, gave me the feeling of faith in certain moral values, which I thought were long time dead.
Witold Pilecki was rehabilitated only in 1991 and so as I was searching a few days ago for some extra materials about him, I discovered this Wikipedia entry.
There are more sources available on line but because most of them are in Polish, I decided to quote and to translate some additional and interesting aspects of Pilecki’s life story to pay a tribute to the man, who I think, deserves much more recognition.
It was 1940 the Secret Polish Army received conflicting reports about this “new facility†being built and expanded by the Germans in Auschwitz (Oswiecim in Polish) near Kraków.The commanders of the underground, secret army were also receiving requests from the Polish Government, in exile in London; to investigate and to report about German activities around Auschwitz as the unconfirmed rumors about atrocities taking place there reached the allied forces. Witold Pilecki, a lieutenant in the underground army, was the man who volunteered to Auschwitz.
Witold Pilecki was born in 1901 in Oluniec in Russia, where his family was exiled for taking part in the 1863 uprising against Russian occupation of Poland. In 1910 his family moved back into the remains of their property (Pilecki family were small gentry-landowners) near Wilno (today Vilnius). In 1918, he volunteered for the Polish Army that was being formed at that time, and then fought in the Polish-Bolshevik War of 1920.
Witold Pilecki in his cavalry uniform
In 1921 Pilecki took leave from the army to pass his High School Certificate exams (Matura). He attempted studying fine arts at the Stefan Batory University for a while.
Finally, he finishes Military school of Cavalry Reserve in Grudziadz and after being transferred to the Army Reserve as a second lieutenant, he takes over the farm management in his family property in Sukurcze in 1926. He lived and worked in Sukurcze until the outbreak of WWII. These were the happiest years of his life.
Witold Pilecki in before WWII
In 1931 Pilecki married Marianna Ostrowska, a teacher from Masovia. They had two children, a son Andrew and daughter Zofia. In the September campaign of 1939, Pilecki fought as a member of the “Prusy†army group. In November after the collapse of Polish defenses, he helped to found the Secret Polish Army, where he served as the Chief of Staff. In August 1940 Pilecki volunteered to infiltrate Germany’s Auschwitz Concentration Camp at Oswiecim
with the following objectives in mind:
Setting up of a secret organization within the camp to:
Provide extra food and distribute clothing among organization members.
Keep up the morale among fellow inmates and supply them with news from the
outside.
Preparing a task force to take over the camp in the eventuality of the
dropping of arms or of a live force (e.g. paratroops).
Report all of the above to the Secret Army headquarters
On September 19, 1940, with the permission of his commanding officers, he intentionally allowed himself to be captured by the Germans during a round-up in Warsaw’s suburb Zoliborz.
He arrived at Auschwitz at 10 P.M. on September 21, 1940, in the “second†Warsaw transport, under the name Tomasz Serafinski. He was registered as number 4859.
Â
Oswiecim - Pilecki’s mug shot
Â
Fragment of Pilecki’s diary (1) translated from Polish:
They made us run straight ahead towards the thicker concentration of lights. Further towards the destination (the SS troopers) ordered one of us to run to the pole on the side of the road and immediately a series from a submachine gun was sent after him.
Dead.
Ten other inmates were pulled out at random from the marching column and shot with pistols while still running to demonstrate to us the idea of “collective reprisal†if an escape was attempted by any one of us (in this case it was all arranged by the SS troopers).
They pulled all eleven corpses by ropes attached to just one leg. Dogs baited the blood soaked bodies.
All of it was done with laughter and jeering.
We were closing to the gate, an opening in the line of fences made of wire.
There was a sign at the top: “Arbeit macht frei†(Through Work To Freedom).
Only later we could fully appreciate its real meaning.
Pilecki survived his first days in Auschwitz and later established the first cell of his secret organization.
Fragment of Pilecki’s diary (2) translated from Polish:
From the darkness, from above the camp’s kitchen, Seidler the butcher spoke to us: †Do not even dream that any one of you will get out of here alive.
Your daily food ratio is intended to keep you alive for 6 weeks; whoever lives longer it’s because he steals and those who steal will be placed in SK, where nobody lives for too long.â€
Wladyslaw Baworowski - the camp’s interpreter translated it to us into Polish.
SK (Straf-Kompanie - Penal Company).
This unit was designated for all Jews, Catholic priests and those Poles whose “offencesâ€
were proven. Ernst Krankemann, the Block Commander, had a duty of finishing off as many prisoners of the unit as he possibly could to make room for new, daily “arrivalsâ€.
This duty suited Krankemann’s character very well.
If someone accidentally moved just little bit too much from the row of prisoners, Krankemann stabbed him with his knife, which he always carried in his right sleeve.
If someone, afraid of making this mistake, positioned himself slightly too far behind, he would be stabbed by the butcher in the kidney.
The sight of a falling human being, kicking his legs and moaning aggravated Krankemann.
He would jump straight away on the victim’s rib cage, kicked his kidneys and genitals, and finished him off as quickly as possible.
In ‘The Polish Underground Movement in Auschwitz’ Garlinski says:.
Pilecki’s secret organization, which he called the ‘Union of Military Organization’, was composed of cells of five prisoners who were unknown to one another with one man designated to be their commander.
These cells were to be found mainly in the camp hospital and camp work allocation office.
Once the first cells were established, contact with Warsaw became essential.
It so happened that at the time, by exceptionally fortuitous circumstances, a prisoner was released from the camp who was able to take Pilecki’s first report. Later reports were smuggled out by civilian workers employed in the camp. Another means was through prisoners who had decided to escape.
From the very start Pilecki’s principal aim was to take over Auschwitz concentration camp and free all the prisoners. He envisaged achieving this by having Home Army detachments attacking from the outside while cadre members of his Union of Military Organization, numbering around a thousand prisoners, would start a revolt from within. All his reports primarily concerned this matter. However, the Home Army High Command was less optimistic and did not believe such an operation to be viable while the Eastern Front was still far away.
In his diary Pilecki didn’t give the SS troopers much credit, and was certain that his organization could have taken control of the camp.
He waited for orders from the headquarters but at the same time the Germans started arresting members of Pilecki’s secret organization and he knew his time was up.
He also believed that if he could present “his case†in person some action would be taken.
Pilecki therefore felt it necessary to present his plans personally. This meant that he would have to escape from the camp, which he succeeded in doing with two other prisoners on 27th April 1943. Before the breakout Pilecki passed on his position within the camp organization to fellow inmate Henryk Bartoszewicz. However, neither his subsequent report nor the fact that he presented it in person altered the high command’s decision.
Fearing the reprisals on the entire Polish population was one of the reasons why such action was not allowed by the high command in London.
Another one was that there was no way to hide or to move such enormous number of people anywhere and with the Eastern Front still far away the whole project was considered unrealistic.
Witold Pilecki escaped from Auschwitz on the Easter Monday 1943, he also survived the Warsaw Uprising an the German POW camp in Germany.
He returned to Poland after the war and started organizing resistance
against the communists.
When he learnt that the Allies would not help to liberate Poland from the Soviets he started demobilizing the military underground organization.
It was then, that the communists arrested him.
Â
Pilecki - communist jail mug shots
Â
He was interrogated and tortured for many months. His finger nails were pulled out and his collarbones broken and he could hardly walk.
He never “talkedâ€.
After his process, which was a simple farce, he was sentenced to death by a firing squad.
There was no firing squad though.
The executioners dragged him the basement of the Security Headquarters building, into the boiler room.
He was gagged and could not walk.
They shot him with a single slug into the back of his head. He was buried somewhere on the rubbish tip next to the Powazki Cemetery.
His body was never found.
A real hero - Witold Pilecki - A Volunteer for Auschwitz
Pilecki i Anders
Ochotnik do Auschwitz/Volunteer for Auschwitz - W. Pilecki
("Let's Reminisce About Witold Pilecki")
Witold Pilecki was born in Poland in 1901. When the German Army invaded the country in September, 1939, Pilecki joined the Tajna Armia Polska, the Secret Polish Army.
When Pilecki discovered the existence of Auschwitz, he suggested a plan to his senior officers. Pilecki argued he should get himself arrested and sent to the concentration camp. He would then send out reports of what was happening in the camp. Pilecki would also explore the possibility of organizing a mass break-out.
Pilecki's colonel eventually agreed and after securing a false identity as Tomasz Serafinski, he arranged to be arrested in September, 1940. As expected he was sent to Auschwitz where he became prisoner 4,859. His work consisted of building more huts to hold the increased numbers of prisoners.
Pilecki soon discovered the brutality of the Schutz Staffeinel (SS) guards. When one man managed to escape on 28th October 1940, all the prisoners were forced to stand at attention on the parade-ground from noon till nine in the evening. Anyone who moved was shot and over 200 prisoners died of exposure. Pilecki was able to send reports back to the Tajna Armia Polska explaining how the Germans were treating their prisoners. This information was then sent to the foreign office in London.
In 1942 Pilecki discovered that new windowless concrete huts were being built with nozzles in their ceilings. Soon afterwards he heard that that prisoners were being herded into these huts and that the nozzles were being used to feed cyanide gas into the building. Afterwards the bodies were taken to the building next door where they were cremated.
Pilecki got this information to the Tajna Armia Polska who passed it onto the British foreign office. This information was then passed on to the governments of other Allied countries. However, most people who saw the reports refused to believe them and dismissed the stories as attempts by the Poles to manipulate the military strategy of the Allies.
In the autumn of 1942, Jozef Cyrankiewicz, a member of the Polish Communist Party, was sent to Auschwitz. Pilecki and Cyrankiewicz worked closely together in organizing a mass breakout. By the end of 1942 they had a group of 500 ready to try and overthrow their guards.
Four of the inmates escaped on their own on 29th December, 1942. One of these men, a dentist called Kuczbara, was caught and interrogated by the Gestapo. Kuczbara was one of the leaders of Pilecki's group and so when he heard the news he realized that it would be only a matter of time before the SS realized that he had been organizing these escape attempts.
Pilecki had already arranged his escape route and after feigning typhus, he escaped from the hospital on 24th April, 1943. After hiding in the local forest, Pilecki reached his unit of the Tajna Armia Polska on 2nd May. He returned to normal duties and fought during the Warsaw Uprising in the summer of 1944. Although captured by the German Army he was eventually released by Allied troops in April, 1945.
After the Second World War Pilecki went to live in Poland.The Polish Secret Police had him executed in 1948. It is believed that this was a result of his anti-communist activities.
Only Ghosts And Echoes -
Posted by Felis in Heroes, History (Sunday February 12, 2006 at 5:03 pm)
I learnt about Witold Pilecki only by accident, when my maternal grandfather dropped his name while talking about his former associate and the then Polish Prime Minister Jozef Cyrankiewicz.
- Cyrankiewicz, he said, could have saved Pilecki but of course his own heroic tale could have been ruined.
I started asking my grandfather additional questions and learnt a few things about this man, Witold Pilecki, who according to my grandfather’s patchy story, volunteered to go to Auschwitz to gather intelligence for the Home Army (Polish Military Underground Organization) operating during the German occupation.
It was, I think, 1967 and Witold Pilecki as far as the communist authorities were concerned, officially never existed.
My grandfather knew Jozef Cyrankiewicz because both of them were members of PPS -Polish Socialist Party before WWII (PPS was a social-democratic party). Cyrankiewicz was captured and sent by the Germans to Auschwitz in 1942 but my grandfather was saved from being captured by his new identity supported by false documents. After the war, most of the members of PPS accepted the communists’ offer to join the Soviet bandwagon in exchange for good positions within the new administration and sometimes because they weren’t sure what might happen to them if they refused.
This move gave the communists more legitimacy among Western countries as well as the desperate Polish nation.
Or so they thought.
The communist party members were mostly imported from the Soviet Union.
These people, officially Polish, very often could not speak the language and like the first President Boleslaw Bierut were full time NKVG (Soviet Security) employees (the real Polish communist who ended up in Russia after 1939 were mostly executed by Stalin in the 40’s).
And so PPS and PPR (Polish Worker’s Party) were amalgamated into PZPR (Polish United Worker’s Party).
My grandpa was one of those scoundrels, who joined the new organization and for the rest of his life tried to convince himself that his decision was morally justified. He never really made it to the “top†and that is probably why he felt resentment towards Cyrankiewicz for not assisting his old comrades a little bit harder.This is how I learnt about Witold Pilecki for the first time. My grandfather made bitter comments about Cyrankiewicz’s duplicity.
I digress.
I started searching for some more information about Pilecki and slowly a picture emerged, which as much as it was depressing, gave me the feeling of faith in certain moral values, which I thought were long time dead.
Witold Pilecki was rehabilitated only in 1991 and so as I was searching a few days ago for some extra materials about him, I discovered this Wikipedia entry.
There are more sources available on line but because most of them are in Polish, I decided to quote and to translate some additional and interesting aspects of Pilecki’s life story to pay a tribute to the man, who I think, deserves much more recognition.
It was 1940 the Secret Polish Army received conflicting reports about this “new facility†being built and expanded by the Germans in Auschwitz (Oswiecim in Polish) near Kraków.The commanders of the underground, secret army were also receiving requests from the Polish Government, in exile in London; to investigate and to report about German activities around Auschwitz as the unconfirmed rumors about atrocities taking place there reached the allied forces. Witold Pilecki, a lieutenant in the underground army, was the man who volunteered to Auschwitz.
Witold Pilecki was born in 1901 in Oluniec in Russia, where his family was exiled for taking part in the 1863 uprising against Russian occupation of Poland. In 1910 his family moved back into the remains of their property (Pilecki family were small gentry-landowners) near Wilno (today Vilnius). In 1918, he volunteered for the Polish Army that was being formed at that time, and then fought in the Polish-Bolshevik War of 1920.
Witold Pilecki in his cavalry uniform
In 1921 Pilecki took leave from the army to pass his High School Certificate exams (Matura). He attempted studying fine arts at the Stefan Batory University for a while.
Finally, he finishes Military school of Cavalry Reserve in Grudziadz and after being transferred to the Army Reserve as a second lieutenant, he takes over the farm management in his family property in Sukurcze in 1926. He lived and worked in Sukurcze until the outbreak of WWII. These were the happiest years of his life.
Witold Pilecki in before WWII
In 1931 Pilecki married Marianna Ostrowska, a teacher from Masovia. They had two children, a son Andrew and daughter Zofia. In the September campaign of 1939, Pilecki fought as a member of the “Prusy†army group. In November after the collapse of Polish defenses, he helped to found the Secret Polish Army, where he served as the Chief of Staff. In August 1940 Pilecki volunteered to infiltrate Germany’s Auschwitz Concentration Camp at Oswiecim
with the following objectives in mind:
Setting up of a secret organization within the camp to:
Provide extra food and distribute clothing among organization members.
Keep up the morale among fellow inmates and supply them with news from the
outside.
Preparing a task force to take over the camp in the eventuality of the
dropping of arms or of a live force (e.g. paratroops).
Report all of the above to the Secret Army headquarters
On September 19, 1940, with the permission of his commanding officers, he intentionally allowed himself to be captured by the Germans during a round-up in Warsaw’s suburb Zoliborz.
He arrived at Auschwitz at 10 P.M. on September 21, 1940, in the “second†Warsaw transport, under the name Tomasz Serafinski. He was registered as number 4859.
Â
Oswiecim - Pilecki’s mug shot
Â
Fragment of Pilecki’s diary (1) translated from Polish:
They made us run straight ahead towards the thicker concentration of lights. Further towards the destination (the SS troopers) ordered one of us to run to the pole on the side of the road and immediately a series from a submachine gun was sent after him.
Dead.
Ten other inmates were pulled out at random from the marching column and shot with pistols while still running to demonstrate to us the idea of “collective reprisal†if an escape was attempted by any one of us (in this case it was all arranged by the SS troopers).
They pulled all eleven corpses by ropes attached to just one leg. Dogs baited the blood soaked bodies.
All of it was done with laughter and jeering.
We were closing to the gate, an opening in the line of fences made of wire.
There was a sign at the top: “Arbeit macht frei†(Through Work To Freedom).
Only later we could fully appreciate its real meaning.
Pilecki survived his first days in Auschwitz and later established the first cell of his secret organization.
Fragment of Pilecki’s diary (2) translated from Polish:
From the darkness, from above the camp’s kitchen, Seidler the butcher spoke to us: †Do not even dream that any one of you will get out of here alive.
Your daily food ratio is intended to keep you alive for 6 weeks; whoever lives longer it’s because he steals and those who steal will be placed in SK, where nobody lives for too long.â€
Wladyslaw Baworowski - the camp’s interpreter translated it to us into Polish.
SK (Straf-Kompanie - Penal Company).
This unit was designated for all Jews, Catholic priests and those Poles whose “offencesâ€
were proven. Ernst Krankemann, the Block Commander, had a duty of finishing off as many prisoners of the unit as he possibly could to make room for new, daily “arrivalsâ€.
This duty suited Krankemann’s character very well.
If someone accidentally moved just little bit too much from the row of prisoners, Krankemann stabbed him with his knife, which he always carried in his right sleeve.
If someone, afraid of making this mistake, positioned himself slightly too far behind, he would be stabbed by the butcher in the kidney.
The sight of a falling human being, kicking his legs and moaning aggravated Krankemann.
He would jump straight away on the victim’s rib cage, kicked his kidneys and genitals, and finished him off as quickly as possible.
In ‘The Polish Underground Movement in Auschwitz’ Garlinski says:.
Pilecki’s secret organization, which he called the ‘Union of Military Organization’, was composed of cells of five prisoners who were unknown to one another with one man designated to be their commander.
These cells were to be found mainly in the camp hospital and camp work allocation office.
Once the first cells were established, contact with Warsaw became essential.
It so happened that at the time, by exceptionally fortuitous circumstances, a prisoner was released from the camp who was able to take Pilecki’s first report. Later reports were smuggled out by civilian workers employed in the camp. Another means was through prisoners who had decided to escape.
From the very start Pilecki’s principal aim was to take over Auschwitz concentration camp and free all the prisoners. He envisaged achieving this by having Home Army detachments attacking from the outside while cadre members of his Union of Military Organization, numbering around a thousand prisoners, would start a revolt from within. All his reports primarily concerned this matter. However, the Home Army High Command was less optimistic and did not believe such an operation to be viable while the Eastern Front was still far away.
In his diary Pilecki didn’t give the SS troopers much credit, and was certain that his organization could have taken control of the camp.
He waited for orders from the headquarters but at the same time the Germans started arresting members of Pilecki’s secret organization and he knew his time was up.
He also believed that if he could present “his case†in person some action would be taken.
Pilecki therefore felt it necessary to present his plans personally. This meant that he would have to escape from the camp, which he succeeded in doing with two other prisoners on 27th April 1943. Before the breakout Pilecki passed on his position within the camp organization to fellow inmate Henryk Bartoszewicz. However, neither his subsequent report nor the fact that he presented it in person altered the high command’s decision.
Fearing the reprisals on the entire Polish population was one of the reasons why such action was not allowed by the high command in London.
Another one was that there was no way to hide or to move such enormous number of people anywhere and with the Eastern Front still far away the whole project was considered unrealistic.
Witold Pilecki escaped from Auschwitz on the Easter Monday 1943, he also survived the Warsaw Uprising an the German POW camp in Germany.
He returned to Poland after the war and started organizing resistance
against the communists.
When he learnt that the Allies would not help to liberate Poland from the Soviets he started demobilizing the military underground organization.
It was then, that the communists arrested him.
Â
Pilecki - communist jail mug shots
Â
He was interrogated and tortured for many months. His finger nails were pulled out and his collarbones broken and he could hardly walk.
He never “talkedâ€.
After his process, which was a simple farce, he was sentenced to death by a firing squad.
There was no firing squad though.
The executioners dragged him the basement of the Security Headquarters building, into the boiler room.
He was gagged and could not walk.
They shot him with a single slug into the back of his head. He was buried somewhere on the rubbish tip next to the Powazki Cemetery.
His body was never found.
Sunday, March 23, 2008
Israel Attacks the USS Liberty
Israel Attacks the USS Liberty
Israel Attacks the USS Liberty pt 2 of 7
Israel Attacks the USS Liberty pt 3 of 7
Israel Attacks the USS Liberty pt 4 of 7
Israel Attacks the USS Liberty pt 5 of 7
Israel Attacks the USS Liberty pt 6 of 7
Israel Attacks the USS Liberty pt 7 of 7
The "Israel Lobby"
AIPAC: The Israeli Lobby pt 4 of 5
Israel Attacks the USS Liberty pt 2 of 7
Israel Attacks the USS Liberty pt 3 of 7
Israel Attacks the USS Liberty pt 4 of 7
Israel Attacks the USS Liberty pt 5 of 7
Israel Attacks the USS Liberty pt 6 of 7
Israel Attacks the USS Liberty pt 7 of 7
The "Israel Lobby"
AIPAC: The Israeli Lobby pt 4 of 5
Friday, March 21, 2008
Polak antysemita to absolutna bzdura
Polak antysemita to absolutna bzdura
Nasz Dziennik, 2008-03-21
Z Mateuszem Szpytmą, historykiem z IPN, specjalistą od historii wsi i ruchu ludowego, inicjatorem budowy w Markowej pomnika poświęconego rodzinie Ulmów oraz autorem artykułów i książek poświęconych Polakom ratującym Żydów w czasie okupacji niemieckiej, rozmawia Mariusz Kamieniecki
Album "Sprawiedliwi i ich świat" Pana autorstwa ukazuje historię Markowej i heroizm Polaków, którzy w czasie okupacji ratowali Żydów, narażając własne życie. Skąd wziął się pomysł i jaki jest cel tej publikacji?
- Pierwotnie planowałem opublikować artykuł naukowy o historii rodziny Ulmów, który miał być zaprezentowany podczas konferencji zorganizowanej przez krakowski IPN w Kielcach. Podczas prowadzonych badań okazało się, że informacji na temat Ulmów, a także innych rodzin, które ukrywały Żydów, jest więcej, niż przypuszczałem, niezwykle bogaty jest również materiał ikonograficzny poświęcony tym ludziom. Chodzi mianowicie o mniej więcej tysiąc zdjęć wykonanych przez Józefa Ulmę w okresie międzywojennym i w czasie II wojny światowej. Był to wystarczający materiał na album, który ukazywałby wieś Markową oraz rodziny, które ratowały przed zagładą aż 17 Żydów, a zwłaszcza wstrząsającą historię rodziny Józefa i jego będącej w stanie błogosławionym żony Wiktorii oraz ich sześciorga dzieci: Stasi, Basi, Władzia, Franusia, Antosia, Marysi, którzy za pomoc dwóm rodzinom żydowskim Szallom i Goldmanom złożyli najwyższą ofiarę. Wśród zdjęć są także autoportrety samego Józefa Ulmy.
Zbliża się 64. rocznica męczeńskiej śmierci Józefa i Wiktorii Ulmów oraz ich dzieci (24 marca). Kim byli i dlaczego zdecydowali się na taki akt miłości bliźniego?
- Ulmowie to rodzina od pokoleń związana z Markową. Byli to ludzie bardzo ubodzy, mieli niewiele ponad hektar ziemi. Józef był ogrodnikiem i propagatorem nowoczesnych jak na owe czasy metod upraw. Jego pasją było też fotografowanie, sam wykonał nawet jeden z aparatów. Tym, ale także fabrycznym sprzętem uwieczniał swoich najbliższych oraz życie wsi. Posiadał też własną maszynę introligatorską, eksperymentował z energią elektryczną i - co ciekawe - miał w swoim obejściu małą elektrownię wiatrową, dzięki której ładował akumulatory. Był także pierwszą osobą we wsi, która używała elektryczności. Niezwykle aktywny działacz społeczny - pracował m.in. jako bibliotekarz w Związku Młodzieży Wiejskiej, udzielał się w Katolickim Stowarzyszeniu Młodzieży, prenumerował wiele czasopism. Do dzisiaj w wielu domach w Markowej, także w tym miejscu, gdzie żył - na parceli, gdzie obecnie mieszka jego bratanica, zachowała się całkiem spora biblioteka należąca do Józefa. Jego żoną była najmłodsza córka Jana i Franciszki Niemczaków - Wiktoria. Było to bardzo religijne, doskonale rozumiejące się i darzące miłością małżeństwo, a owocem tej miłości było sześcioro dzieci. Wiosną 1944 roku miało się urodzić kolejne. Józef z Wiktorią regularnie uczestniczyli w nabożeństwach kościelnych. Z relacji świadków wynika też, że Józef z rodziną wspólnie klękali do modlitwy wieczornej.
Dlaczego zdecydowali się na ukrywanie Żydów? Przecież groziła za to śmierć...
- Byli to ludzie bardzo otwarci i wrażliwi na los drugiego człowieka. Z zachowanych przekazów wynika, że już przed wojną żyli w bardzo dobrych stosunkach z Żydami. Była to rodzina z jednej strony bardzo tradycyjna, żyjąca chrześcijańskimi wartościami, a z drugiej strony nowoczesna, otwarta na świat i na potrzeby innych bez żadnych uprzedzeń. Znajomość z Szallami i Goldmanami jeszcze sprzed wojny potwierdza brat Józefa, Władysław. Dlatego, kiedy ludzie ci poprosili o pomoc, Ulma im nie odmówił, mimo iż ryzykował życie nie tylko swoje, ale przede wszystkim swoich dzieci.
Kto i dlaczego zadenuncjował Ulmów i przyczynił się do zgładzenia tylu niewinnych Polaków?
- Z dokumentów podziemia Ludowej Straży Bezpieczeństwa - formacji związanej ze Stronnictwem Ludowym "Roch", która miała bardzo mocne struktury na terenie Obwodu Przeworskiego, wynika, że podziemie nie bez podstaw podejrzewało o tę denuncjację Włodzimierza Lesia, z pochodzenia Ukraińca, którego dziadkowie przybyli ze Wschodniej Galicji do Białej Rzeszowskiej i tu zamieszkali. On sam zaś ożenił się i zamieszkał na przedmieściach Łańcuta. W czasie okupacji był posterunkowym granatowej policji właśnie w Łańcucie i posiadał już uprzednio kontakty z jedną z ukrywanych przez Ulmów rodzin - Szallów, którym sam wcześniej pomagał. Kiedy jednak zorientował się, że grozi za to kara śmierci, wyrzucił ich na pastwę losu. Żydzi udali się do Markowej, do Ulmy, ale ciągle nachodzili Lesia, domagając się zwrotu dobytku, który dali mu na przechowanie. Hipoteza, ale oparta na bardzo mocnych podstawach głosi, że kiedy Szallowie w zamian za swój majątek dokonali "kradzieży" jego dóbr, Leś zdenerwował się i doniósł swoim kolegom z żandarmerii niemieckiej, którzy 24 marca 1944 roku dokonali zbrodni łącznie na 17 osobach. W tej karnej ekspedycji brał również udział Włodzimierz Leś.
Czy znany jest los inspiratorów tej zbrodni?
- Wkrótce po tym, jak Sowieci wkroczyli na te tereny, podziemie niepodległościowe wykonało wyrok śmierci na Włodzimierzu Lesiu, który był podejrzewany o dokonanie nie tylko tej zbrodni, ale miał także na sumieniu inne czyny, w tym wysługiwanie się niemieckiemu okupantowi. W 1958 roku w Czechosłowacji został odnaleziony zgermanizowany Czech Joseph Kokott, który był żandarmem niemieckiej policji w Łańcucie i osobiście rozstrzelał trójkę bądź czwórkę Ulmów. Kokott, który miał na sumieniu nie tylko rodziny Ulmów, Szallów i Goldmanów, ale także szereg Polaków i polskich Żydów z Łańcuta i okolic na mocy ekstradycji trafił do Polski i wyrokiem Sądu Wojewódzkiego w Rzeszowie z 1958 roku został skazany na karę śmierci zamienioną później na 25 lat więzienia. Kokott zmarł na krótko przed końcem odbywania kary. Z kolei dowódca ekspedycji karnej por. Eilert Dieken uniknął doczesnej kary i zmarł w latach 60. w Niemczech, kiedy akurat rozpoczęto zbieranie materiałów obciążających go z okresu II wojny światowej. Los innych sprawców mordu w Markowej: Michaela Dziewulskiego i Ericha Wilde, a także funkcjonariuszy policji granatowej z Łańcuta za wyjątkiem wspomnianego już Włodzimierza Lesia, jest nieznany.
Bohaterska postawa rodziny Ulmów nie była jednak odosobniona w Markowej. Rodzin, dzięki którym Żydzi mogli przetrwać koszmar wojny, było więcej...
- To prawda. Obok Ulmów w Markowej było jeszcze pięć innych rodzin, które ukrywały Żydów. Łącznie w ich domach oprócz ośmiu u rodziny Ulmów ukrywało się 17 Żydów. Bohaterstwem wykazały się dwie rodziny Barów, rodzina Przybylaków, Szylarów i Cwynarów, które mimo tragedii Ulmów i strachu, jaki padł na wieś, po tym, co się wydarzyło, nadal ukrywały Żydów. Dzięki temu ludzie ci przeżyli okupację niemiecką.
Czy znane są ich losy?
- Większość z nich wyemigrowała za granicę. Z dwoma rodzinami udało mi się nawet nawiązać kontakt. Rodzina Riesenbachów wkrótce po wojnie wyemigrowała najpierw do Austrii, a następnie do Kanady, gdzie jeszcze jeden z nich żyje. Żyją także ich dzieci. Drugi przedstawiciel Żydów ukrywanych w Markowej, z jakim nawiązałem kontakt, to Abraham Segal, który jako jedyny z rodziny ocalał z holokaustu i żyje w Hajfie, dokąd wyemigrował w 1946 roku. Utrzymuje on stały kontakt z mieszkańcami Markowej i często przyjeżdża tam na uroczystości. Do USA wyemigrowała także rodzina Weltzów, do Szczecina wyjechał Jakub Einhorn, a jego krewni mieszkają za oceanem. W Żydowskim Instytucie Historycznym zachowała się natomiast relacja wdowy po Jakubie Einhornie, która zaświadcza o tym, że rodzina Przybylaków w czasie wojny ukrywała jej męża. Ostatnią była rodzina Lorbenfeldów, którzy po wojnie wyjechali do USA, ale dalsze ich losy pozostają nieznane.
Nie tylko Markowa znalazła się na mapie miejscowości, w których ukrywano Żydów. Jaka była skala tego zjawiska na Rzeszowszczyźnie?
- Szczegółowe badania na ten temat prowadzi rzeszowski Oddział IPN, a konkretnie dr Elżbieta Rączy, której książka poświęcona tej tematyce ukaże się już niebawem. Wiemy, że z rąk Niemców zginęło za pomoc Żydom ok. 200 (w całej Małopolsce - Rzeszowskie i Krakowskie razem co najmniej 330) Polaków. Trudno natomiast powiedzieć, ilu Żydów zostało uratowanych, na pewno możemy mówić o tysiącach.
Ilu Żydów zostało uratowanych w okupowanej Polsce?
- Z szacunkowych danych, które stale IPN weryfikuje, wynika, że dzięki Polakom II wojnę światową przeżyło od 40 do 100 tysięcy Żydów. Myślę, że dzięki prowadzonemu przez IPN, Instytut Studiów Strategicznych, Naczelną Dyrekcję Archiwów Państwowych programom Index i Polacy Ratujący Żydów w ciągu kilku najbliższych lat dane te zostaną ostatecznie zweryfikowane. Wiemy natomiast, że za pomoc Żydom zginęło z rąk Niemców około dwóch tysięcy Polaków.
Żydów ukrywali nie tylko świeccy. Jaki był udział duchowieństwa w ratowaniu ludności żydowskiej?
- W skali Polski udział Kościoła katolickiego, także hierarchicznego, w ratowaniu Żydów był olbrzymi. Wiele w tym względzie uczyniły zakony, szczególnie żeńskie, m.in. na Rzeszowszczyźnie - chociażby Siostry Niepokalanki w Jarosławiu czy Służebniczki NMP w Starej Wsi, które ukrywały obywateli polskich narodowości żydowskiej. Jedna z form pomocy polegała także na fałszowaniu dokumentów metrykalnych, gdzie księża często zaświadczali, że dana osoba jest katolikiem. Wiele takich metryk wydała m.in. parafia uniwersytecka pw. św. Anny w Krakowie. To pomagało przeżyć Żydom okupację, niekoniecznie w ukryciu.
Czym faktycznie było ukrywanie Żydów w Polsce pod okupacją niemiecką?
- Trzeba pamiętać, że ukrywanie Żydów w Polsce pod okupacją niemiecką było wielkim ryzykiem. W przypadku ujawnienia takiego faktu Niemcy stosowali odpowiedzialność zbiorową. Stąd świadectwa siły charakteru, męstwa i odwagi ludzi świeckich, ale także duchownych jeszcze dziś porażają autentyzmem. Należy też pamiętać, że Polska oprócz Związku Sowieckiego była jedynym terenem okupowanym, gdzie nie tylko za ukrywanie, ale także za pomoc doraźną Żydowi groziła kara śmierci i wyroki takie w ogromnej większości były rygorystycznie wykonywane. Po raz pierwszy takie rozporządzenie w październiku 1941 roku wydał generalny gubernator Hans Frank.
A jak to wyglądało w innych krajach okupowanych?
- Tam również był zakaz pomocy Żydom, ale przypadki tego typu były mniej rygorystycznie karane. Tak było m.in. w okupowanej Francji, Belgii czy Holandii, gdzie za pomoc Żydowi można było otrzymać np. grzywnę, a jeżeli ta pomoc dotyczyła większej liczby Żydów lub była udzielana po raz kolejny, to w wyjątkowych przypadkach kończyło się to zsyłką do obozu koncentracyjnego. Nie było natomiast tak, by za pomoc Żydom groziła bezpośrednio kara śmierci.
Skąd takie rozbieżności w traktowaniu za pomoc Żydom?
- Zasadniczo okupacja w zachodniej Europie, a w Polsce czy w Związku Sowieckim znacznie się różniła, i to nie tylko w tym aspekcie. Nie umniejszając tego, że np. Francja była okupowana, to jednak w porównaniu z Polską, gdzie miały miejsce np. liczne pacyfikacje, była to zupełnie inna, bardziej łagodna rzeczywistość. Rozstrzeliwania czy wywożenie Francuzów do obozów należało do rzadkości, podczas gdy w Polsce czy ZSRS była to tragiczna codzienność.
Heroizm Polaków ratujących Żydów był rzeczą wyjątkową. Odwracając role, czy w podobnej sytuacji Polacy mogliby liczyć na pomoc ze strony Żydów?
- Trudno powiedzieć, jak zachowaliby się Żydzi w podobnej sytuacji. Myślę, że jest to kwestia indywidualnego podejścia każdego człowieka do konkretnej sytuacji, stąd trudno z góry deklarować jakiekolwiek postawy. Podejrzewam jednak, że mogłoby być podobnie, że również po stronie żydowskiej znaleźliby się ludzie sprawiedliwi, którzy nie zawahaliby się podjąć ryzyka i ratować zagrożone życie. Taką przynajmniej mam nadzieję. Pomoc drugiemu człowiekowi jest wpisana w naturę człowieka, który jest istotą społeczną, i to niezależnie od narodowości czy wyznawanej religii. Tym większe bohaterstwo tych Polaków, którzy nie zawahali się ryzykować własnego życia, niosąc pomoc Żydom.
Nie wszyscy jednak tak uważają. Tomasz Gross w swojej książce "Strach" pisze, że to, co się działo po wojnie w Polsce, było przedłużeniem holokaustu, że Kościół i Naród Polski był antysemicki. Patrząc na przykłady heroizmu Polaków, którzy ratowali Żydów, oskarżanie Polaków o antysemityzm wygląda na niedorzeczność i wyraźny akt złej woli. Jak to rozumieć?
- Być może wynika to z negatywnych doświadczeń autora i jego rodziny. Osobiście nie odważyłbym się powiedzieć o polskim Kościele, że był czy jest antysemicki. Nie znam też przypadku, by jakikolwiek kapłan nawoływał do tego, by nie pomagać Żydom, a tym bardziej żeby ich prześladować. Dlatego straszenie Kościołem uważam za zwykłą niedorzeczność. W odniesieniu do świeckich, owszem, zdarzały się sytuacje, w których Polacy nie udzielali pomocy Żydom, a nawet ich wydawali, ale były to przypadki skrajne, które w żaden sposób nie mogą rzutować ani podważać faktu, że dzięki heroizmowi Polaków wielu Żydów przetrwało okupację. Trzeba też bardzo wyraźnie i zdecydowanie powiedzieć, że szmalcownictwo w okresie wojny (choć nie były to przypadki częste) było bardzo surowo - nawet śmiercią - karane przez Polskie Państwo Podziemne. Również polskie władze na emigracji pomagały Żydom - nie tylko poprzez przekazywanie pieniędzy Radzie Pomocy Żydom, ale wydawały także oświadczenia mówiące o tym, co się dzieje z obywatelami polskimi pochodzenia żydowskiego w czasie okupacji niemieckiej, w co świat nie chciał wówczas wierzyć. To właśnie my, Polacy, nasz rząd wskazywaliśmy wyraźnie na ten problem. Dlatego oskarżanie nas o czynny antysemityzm jest nieporozumieniem i absolutną bzdurą. O naszej postawie najlepiej świadczą heroiczne czyny Sług Bożych Ulmów i wielu innych, często bezimiennych bohaterów, którzy ratowali Żydów przed zagładą.
Na koniec powróćmy może do Pana publikacji, która otwiera nową serię IPN. Co to za seria i czemu ma służyć?
- Nowa seria IPN w formie naukowej ma pokazywać zapomniane przez lata, czasem bardzo wstrząsające przypadki związane z ukrywaniem Żydów z poszczególnych regionów Polski, i to nie tylko w postaci pomocy indywidualnej, ale także pomocy zorganizowanej. Dotyczy to również wspomnianej już Rady Pomocy Żydom w ramach Polskiego Państwa Podziemnego czy rządu na uchodźstwie. Książka "Sprawiedliwi i ich świat" jest zwiastunem tej serii. Wkrótce będzie kolejna publikacja dr Elżbiety Rączy o Polakach pomagających Żydom na Rzeszowszczyźnie. Kolejna to wybór relacji z Komitetu dla Upamiętniania Polaków Ratujących Żydów założonego przez prof. Tomasza Strzembosza, który to komitet przygotowuje tę publikację wraz z IPN. Będą też inne pozycje pokazujące konkretne przykłady oraz dokumentację dotychczasowej wiedzy poświęcone tej problematyce. Również od czasu zakończenia prac nad moją książką ciągle pojawiają się nowe informacje na temat relacji polsko-żydowskich w Markowej, które są obecnie potwierdzane i będą w przyszłości omawiane.
Dziękuję za rozmowę
Sunday, March 16, 2008
Michael Heller: a thinker who bridges science and theology
The priest and philosopher from Poland wins the 2008 Templeton Prize for advancing a complex dialogue.
Michael Heller: a thinker who bridges science and theology
By Moises Velasquez-Manoff Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor
from the March 13, 2008 edition
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Staff writer Moises Velasquez-Manoff talks with CSMonitor.com's Pat Murphy about Rev. Michael Heller and his award-winning research.
New York - Polish theologian, cosmologist, and philosopher Michael Heller, who lived through both Nazi and communist rule and has long sought to reconcile science and religion, has won the 2008 Templeton Prize.
The £820,000 prize (more than $1.6 million) is awarded "for progress toward research or discoveries about spiritual realities." The John Templeton Foundation, whose stated mission is "to serve as a philanthropic catalyst for discovery in areas engaging life's biggest questions," awards the prize yearly.
Author of 30 books in Polish and five in English, Mr. Heller, an ordained Roman Catholic priest and a professor of philosophy at the Pontifical Academy in Krakow, Poland, has made the fostering of dialogue between science and religion a priority.
"He's one of the key contributors in the international scholarly community dedicated to the creative dialogue on science, theology, and philosophy," says Robert John Russell, founder and director of the Center for Theology and the Natural Sciences in Berkeley, Calif. "He's a great example of someone who bridges these fields."
For Heller, these seemingly distinct realms of human understanding actually depend on one another for stability.
"Science gives us knowledge, but religion gives us meaning," he says. "Science without religion is not meaningless, but lame…. And religion without science [slides] into fundamentalism," he says.
Heller draws on deep understanding of cosmology, religion, and philosophy to tackle questions such as, "Does the universe need to have a cause?" and "Why is there something rather than nothing?"
Those familiar with Heller's work laud his rigor of thought.
"In an era when serious scientists and serious religionists declare themselves at war with each other and claims of connections are often by superficial thinkers, Michael Heller is the exception," says Philip Clayton, professor of philosophy and religion at Claremont Graduate University in Claremont, Calif. "Rigorous thinkers seem to have fled the no man's land between the two warring factions."
Heller was born in 1936 in Tarnow, Poland, one of five children. His mother was a teacher, his father a mechanical and electrical engineer. When the Germans invaded in 1939, Heller's father sabotaged the chemical factory where he worked to keep it out of Nazi hands. The family then fled east into what is now Ukraine.
In 1940, Joseph Stalin ordered 1 million Poles, including Heller's family, to Siberia to log the forests. The hardships of exile made a lasting impression.
"[Heller] knew that many people survived the extreme Siberian situation because they found in prayer both their spiritual force and their will to survive," writes Joseph Zycinski, archbishop of Lublin, Poland, in the foreword to Heller's 2003 book, "Creative Tension: Essays on Science and Religion." "His main dream after coming back to Poland was to become a priest and to help people in finding solutions to the most basic problems of life."
Heller has a different take. On his return to Poland, "I was too ambitious," he says, smiling. "I wanted to do what was the most important thing to be done."
In his estimation, that was science and religion. In 1959, at a time when religion was officially discouraged under communism, Heller was ordained a priest. In 1966, he received his PhD in philosophy from the Catholic University of Lublin. And beginning in 1969, Karol Wojtyla, the archbishop of Krakow who later became Pope John Paul II, began inviting scientists, philosophers, and theologians – Heller included – to his residence to discuss how the disciplines interrelated. The group became known as the Center for Interdisciplinary Studies.
Heller also studied Marxist philosophy, primarily so he could rebut it. His time in Siberia had given him an all-too-close view of the reality behind the slogans. "Many young Poles were seduced by Marxism," he says. "But from the very beginning, I had no illusions."
Navigating these worlds sharpened Heller, says Professor Clayton.
"Michael had to work with the complexities of two very difficult systems – the communist system and the complexities of Vatican politics," he says. "Instead of being tempted to sell his soul, he used that complexity as a drive, as impetus to do more careful and more subtle work at the level of the science-religion dialogue where enduring connections could be discovered."
Heller plans to use his winnings to help launch the Copernicus Center in Krakow. It will offer an education in science and theology as an academic discipline
By Moises Velasquez-Manoff Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor
from the March 13, 2008 edition
Letter to the Editor
Republish
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Staff writer Moises Velasquez-Manoff talks with CSMonitor.com's Pat Murphy about Rev. Michael Heller and his award-winning research.
New York - Polish theologian, cosmologist, and philosopher Michael Heller, who lived through both Nazi and communist rule and has long sought to reconcile science and religion, has won the 2008 Templeton Prize.
The £820,000 prize (more than $1.6 million) is awarded "for progress toward research or discoveries about spiritual realities." The John Templeton Foundation, whose stated mission is "to serve as a philanthropic catalyst for discovery in areas engaging life's biggest questions," awards the prize yearly.
Author of 30 books in Polish and five in English, Mr. Heller, an ordained Roman Catholic priest and a professor of philosophy at the Pontifical Academy in Krakow, Poland, has made the fostering of dialogue between science and religion a priority.
"He's one of the key contributors in the international scholarly community dedicated to the creative dialogue on science, theology, and philosophy," says Robert John Russell, founder and director of the Center for Theology and the Natural Sciences in Berkeley, Calif. "He's a great example of someone who bridges these fields."
For Heller, these seemingly distinct realms of human understanding actually depend on one another for stability.
"Science gives us knowledge, but religion gives us meaning," he says. "Science without religion is not meaningless, but lame…. And religion without science [slides] into fundamentalism," he says.
Heller draws on deep understanding of cosmology, religion, and philosophy to tackle questions such as, "Does the universe need to have a cause?" and "Why is there something rather than nothing?"
Those familiar with Heller's work laud his rigor of thought.
"In an era when serious scientists and serious religionists declare themselves at war with each other and claims of connections are often by superficial thinkers, Michael Heller is the exception," says Philip Clayton, professor of philosophy and religion at Claremont Graduate University in Claremont, Calif. "Rigorous thinkers seem to have fled the no man's land between the two warring factions."
Heller was born in 1936 in Tarnow, Poland, one of five children. His mother was a teacher, his father a mechanical and electrical engineer. When the Germans invaded in 1939, Heller's father sabotaged the chemical factory where he worked to keep it out of Nazi hands. The family then fled east into what is now Ukraine.
In 1940, Joseph Stalin ordered 1 million Poles, including Heller's family, to Siberia to log the forests. The hardships of exile made a lasting impression.
"[Heller] knew that many people survived the extreme Siberian situation because they found in prayer both their spiritual force and their will to survive," writes Joseph Zycinski, archbishop of Lublin, Poland, in the foreword to Heller's 2003 book, "Creative Tension: Essays on Science and Religion." "His main dream after coming back to Poland was to become a priest and to help people in finding solutions to the most basic problems of life."
Heller has a different take. On his return to Poland, "I was too ambitious," he says, smiling. "I wanted to do what was the most important thing to be done."
In his estimation, that was science and religion. In 1959, at a time when religion was officially discouraged under communism, Heller was ordained a priest. In 1966, he received his PhD in philosophy from the Catholic University of Lublin. And beginning in 1969, Karol Wojtyla, the archbishop of Krakow who later became Pope John Paul II, began inviting scientists, philosophers, and theologians – Heller included – to his residence to discuss how the disciplines interrelated. The group became known as the Center for Interdisciplinary Studies.
Heller also studied Marxist philosophy, primarily so he could rebut it. His time in Siberia had given him an all-too-close view of the reality behind the slogans. "Many young Poles were seduced by Marxism," he says. "But from the very beginning, I had no illusions."
Navigating these worlds sharpened Heller, says Professor Clayton.
"Michael had to work with the complexities of two very difficult systems – the communist system and the complexities of Vatican politics," he says. "Instead of being tempted to sell his soul, he used that complexity as a drive, as impetus to do more careful and more subtle work at the level of the science-religion dialogue where enduring connections could be discovered."
Heller plans to use his winnings to help launch the Copernicus Center in Krakow. It will offer an education in science and theology as an academic discipline
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