Salomon Morel
Salomon Morel | |
---|---|
Born | |
Died | February 14, 2007 | (aged 87)
Citizenship | Polish, later Israeli |
Occupation | officer at the Ministry of Public Security |
Known for | Commander of Zgoda labour camp and Jaworzno concentration camp |
Salomon Morel (November 15, 1919 – February 14, 2007) was an officer in the Ministry of Public Security in the Polish People's Republic, and a commander of concentration camps run by the NKVD and communist authorities until 1956.
After Nazi Germany occupied Poland, Morel and his family went into hiding to avoid being placed in one of the
In 1944 Morel became warden of the Soviet
Beginning in the early 1990s Morel was investigated by
Background and youth
Salomon Morel was born on November 15, 1919, in the village of
World War II and early NKVD service
Morel's family went into hiding during
Morrel's two brothers died during the war, one in 1943, another in 1945.
The Israeli
Commander of Zgoda labour camp
On March 15, 1945, Morel became commander of the infamous
Sometimes children were sent to the camp along with parents.
The survivor Dorota Boriczek described Morel as "a barbaric and cruel man" who often personally tortured and killed prisoners.
Historians Nicholas A. Robins and Adam Jones note that Morel "presided over a murderous regime founded on ubiquitous assaults and atrocities against German captives."[16] Keith Lowe notes that "when millions of bruised and destitute refugees began flooding into Germany in the autumn of 1945, they brought with them some disturbing stories of places they called 'hell camps', 'death camps' and 'extermination camps'". Zgoda camp was among the most notorious of these camps, and is discussed in detail by Lowe. Lowe notes that survivors' stories of Zgoda and other camps had a profound impact on West German society and that their stories were taken extremely seriously by the German government and the general population as examples of Stalinist brutality.[1]
Commander of Jaworzno concentration camp
From February 1949 to November 1951 Morel was commander of
Later career
Morel continued working as commandant of Stalinist-era concentration camps until 1956. When the
Dismissal
Morel was dismissed from his position in May 1968 in the wake of the 1968 Polish political crisis, which saw the purging of both Jewish officials and ex-Stalinists.[21] As Morel was both Jewish and had a background as head of Stalinist-era concentration camps, he became an obvious target for the 1968 campaign. Unlike most other Polish Jews, and although the Polish communist government pressured Jews to emigrate, Morel nevertheless chose to remain in Poland, and lived there as a retiree from the age of 49.[3]
Criminal prosecution
In 1990, after the
Indictment
In 1996 Salomon Morel was formally indicted of genocide by the Polish public prosecutor's office.
Extradition controversy
In 1998, Poland requested that Morel be extradited for trial, but Israel refused.[9] A reply sent to the Polish Justice Ministry from the Israeli government said that Israel would not extradite Mr. Morel as the statute of limitations had expired on war crimes.[9]
In April 2004, Poland filed another extradition request against Morel, this time with fresh evidence, upgrading the case to "
Legacy
Anne Applebaum describes Morel as
a Holocaust victim, a communist criminal, a man who lost his entire family to the Nazis, a man consumed by a sadistic fury against Germans and Poles – a fury which may or may not have originated from his victimhood, and may or may not have been connected to his communism. He was deeply vengeful, and profoundly violent. He was awarded medals by the communist Polish state, was prosecuted by the post-communist Polish state, and was defended by the Israeli state, though he had expressed no interest in moving to Israel until half a century after the war, and even then only after he started to fear prosecution.[3]
See also
- Czesław Gęborski
- Helena Wolińska-Brus
- Lithuanian SSR
- An Eye for an Eye: The Story of Jews Who Sought Revenge for the Holocaust
- John Demjanjuk
Notes and references
- ^ ISBN 9780241962220.
- ^ ISBN 83-85338-74-8. (in Polish)
- ^ ISBN 9780385536431.
Salomon Morel war criminal.
- ^ ISBN 9780465022151.
- ^ a b c "War crime suspect stays in Israel". BBC. 7 July 2005.
- ISBN 9780786403714.
- ^ a b c "Israel protects concentration camp boss". The Independent. 29 December 1998.
- ^ Remembrance, Institute of National. "Response by the State of Israel to the application for the extradition of Salomon Morel and a report by Dr. Adam Dziurok and Prosecutor Andrzej Majcher on the subject of Salomon Morel and the history and operation of the camp at Świętochłowice-Zgoda". Institute of National Remembrance.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s "Salomon Morel". Archived from the original on February 21, 2006. Retrieved 2006-02-21.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link), Institute of National Remembrance. Retrieved from the Internet Archive. September 05, 2011. - ^ Remembrance, Institute of National. "IPN". Institute of National Remembrance. Retrieved 2018-02-20.
- ^ http://polska1918-89.pl/pdf/23-lata,-6-miesiecy-i-22-dni-salomona-morela,5751.pdf [bare URL PDF]
- ^ a b c Response by the State of Israel to the application for the extradition of Salomon Morel and a report by Dr. Adam Dziurok and Prosecutor Andrzej Majcher on the subject of Salomon Morel and the history and operation of the camp at Świętochłowice-Zgoda. Archived 2007-10-13 at the Wayback Machine, Institute of National Remembrance, 2005
- ^ a b c "Świętochłowice - Zgoda Labor Camp". Archived from the original on February 28, 2006. Retrieved 2006-02-28.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link), Institute of National Remembrance, from Internet Archive. - ^ Shoshana Olidort. Poland Gives Up Campaign To Extradite Israeli Citizen. The Forward. Jul 29, 2005.
- ^ a b Adam Dziurok, Obóz Pracy Świętochłowice-Zgoda. Archived 2011-06-11 at the Wayback Machine Instytut Pamięci Narodowej, 2010
- ISBN 9780253220776.
- ^ Wzorowy polski łagier, Polityka
- ^ Stalinowskie obozy pracy w Polsce (Polskie Radio)
- ^ Kazimierz Miroszewski, Zygmunt Woźniczka, Obóz dwóch totalitaryzmów. Jaworzno 1943-1956, Jaworzno 2007
- ^ Kemp-Welch, Tony. "Dethroning Stalin: Poland 1956 and its Legacy". Europe-Asia Studies 58(2006): 1261–84.
- ^ Dariusz Stola, Kampania antysyjonistyczna w Polsce 1967–1968, pp. 79–114
- ^ Poles Review Postwar Treatment of Germans, The New York Times, 1994
- ^ Arkadiusz Morawiec, "Jaworzno. Invisibility", Acta Universitatis Lodziensis, Folia Litteraria Polonica 8(46) 2017
- ^ "Response by the State of Israel, to the application for the extradition of Salomon Morel". Israel. 21 July 2005. Archived from the original on 20 October 2014.
- ^ "Israel Won't Extradite Polish Jew Accused of Post- WWII Genocide". Haaretz. 7 July 2005.
External links
- Response by the State of Israel to the application for the extradition of Salomon Morel and a report by Dr. Adam Dziurok and Prosecutor Andrzej Majcher on the subject of Salomon Morel and the history and operation of the camp at Świętochłowice-Zgoda.
- An official news from 2004.04.30 mentioning Salomon Morel case on the homepage of Polish Embassy
- 2003 Statement by Prosecutor Ewa Koj, Head of Divisional Commission, for Prosecution of Crimes against the Polish Nation Archived 2005-11-25 at the Wayback Machine
- Poles Review Postwar Treatment of Germans, The New York Times, 1994
- Israel protects concentration camp boss, Independent, 1998
- War crime suspect stays in Israel, BBC, 2005