Helena Wolińska-Brus

Helena Wolińska-Brus (born 1919 as Fajga Mindla Danielak) is a former military prosecutor from Poland, involved in Stalinist regime show trials of the 1950s. Since 1999, Poland has been striving for extradition of Wolińska from the United Kingdom to stand trial in Poland. The official charges against her were initiated by the Commission for Investigating Crimes against the Polish Nation. Wolińska is accused 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. 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, a legendary commander of the Polish underground Polish Home Army during WW II. Emil August Fieldorf was executed on February 24, 1953. Communist authorities concluded already in a 1956 report that Wolińska had violated the rule of law by her involvement in biased investigations and trials that frequently resulted in executions.

Biography

Wolińska was born in a Polish Jewish family in Warsaw.

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 first husband, Wlodzimierz Brus (born as Beniamin Zylberberg), was separated from her during the Holocaust, but they were re-united in 1944 and remarried in 1956. He was a marxist economist and member of the governing political party in communist-ruled Poland Polish United Workers' Party until 1968.

Wolińska left Poland in 1968 after Polish 1968 political crisis and now resides in the United Kingdom. Her husband, Wlodzimierz Brus was a professor of economics at Oxford University (he died in 2007). Wolińska lives in Oxford and has British citizenship.

Controversy

Two applications for Wolińska-Brus' extradition have been made by Poland (specifically, by the National Remembrance Institute and the Polish Prosecutors related to the case) in 1999 and 2001, [ [http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/law/article2910216.ece The Times, November 20, 2007. Retrieved November 22, 2007] ] both of which the British Home Office refused on humanitarian grounds; in particular her advanced age and the 50 years since the alleged crimes occurred.

In an interview with The Sunday Telegraph, Wolińska said she would not return to "the country of Auschwitz and Birkenau", claiming she would not receive fair trial in Poland. Despite her involvement in Stalinist-era crimes she called to forget that period in her life and, in her own words, "not to disrupt her with this silly prosecution" [ [http://www.anneapplebaum.com/communism/1998/12_06_tel_brus.html The Sunday Telegraph, December 6, 1998. Retrieved November 22, 2007] ] . The Polish media and government in turn criticized the inefficiency of the international extradition process.

In 2006 Polish president Lech Kaczyński revoked the Polonia Restituta decoration that Wolinska had received in 1954. In 2004, Poland joined the European Union [Foreign relations of Poland] , allowing access to the European extradition procedures. In 2007 the Commission for Investigating Crimes against the Polish Nation asked Polish prosecutors to issue an European Arrest Warrant (EAW) against Wolinska, which was duly issued on November 20, 2007 [ [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/11/21/ndon121.xml The Daily Telegraph, November 21, 2007. Retrieved November 22, 2007] ; [http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/law/article2910216.ece The Times, November 20, 2007. Retrieved November 22, 2007] ] ; this will be the third attempt at her extradition.

References

External links

* [http://www.warsawvoice.pl/archiwum.phtml/922/ EX-STALINIST ACCUSED Casting the First Stone] Warsaw Voice
* [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/288427.stm Old BBC news story]
* [http://www.law.nyu.edu/eecr/vol8num1-2/constitutionwatch/poland.html East European Constitutional Review] , New York University Law School 1999
* [http://www.anneapplebaum.com/communism/1998/12_06_tel_brus.html The Three Lives of Helena Brus] The Sunday Telegraph 1998
* [http://www.ipn.gov.pl/palm/en/19/183/Investigation_against_Ms_Helena_WolinskaBrus.html Institute of National Remembrance] (in English)
* http://www.pis.org.pl/article.php?id=4832
* [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml;jsessionid=QOGHVX0VL0303QFIQMFCFGGAVCBQYIV0?xml=/news/2007/11/25/wpoles125.xml Polish enemies fight over Gen Emil Fieldorf] The Daily Telegraph, November 25, 2007. Retrieved: November 25, 2007.
* [http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-ghosts_hundleyjan08,1,4260286.story?page=1] Chicago Tribune