POLISH-JEWISH RELATIONS

POLISH-JEWISH RELATIONS

Jewish collaboration with the Soviets provoked an outpouring of condemnation by the Polish people. They accused
the Jews of conspiring with the Soviets to destroy Poland. When the newly-created Polish Army was relocated from
Russia to the Middle East, thousands of Polish Jews, who had enlisted, deserted the army en masse. Though
General Anders granted them all amnesty, it is not surprising that resentment within the army ranks grew - but
not for reasons of anti-semetism. This desertion was a betrayal of Poland, on the very eve of battle. But with the
establishment of the Jewish Ghettos, Polish opinion began to transform from one of hatred and anger to that of
sympathy and deep compassion. Poles who had themselves been victims of German bestiality knew with what
anguish the Jews suffered. They were witness to the horrors of the ghettos and the sentence imposed upon its'
victims - slow starvation and the deportations to death camps. Many Poles felt compelled to act on the grounds of
decency and humanitarianism, overlooking past resentments, betrayal, even anti-semetism, to come to the aid of
the Jews. At great risk to their own lives, Polish men, women and children tossed bundles of food over the ghetto
walls. Polish families opened their homes to Jews fleeing Nazi persecution. Many Poles even constructed secret
bunkers beneath their basements, or erected fake wall partitions, for the purpose of hiding as many Jews as
possible. Elaborate means were used to smuggle food, clothing and medical care to the Jews in hiding, so as not
to arouse public suspicion.

Poland was the only occupied country in which the Germans issued a decree warning that anyone helping the Jews
would be executed. In house-to-house searches, the Nazis often found Jews hiding there, and shot them along
with the Poles ( and their families ) who sheltered them. That the Germans even issued such a decree is
indicative of the fact that Polish assistance to the Jews was widespread. Many Poles were so traumatized that
they chose to remain neutral for fear of their lives. Our perception of them as passive or indifferent is unwarranted.
Considering the circumstances theirs was not a decision influenced by anti-semetism. But even with the threat
of discovery, and German reprisals, many Poles continued in their mission to shelter and hide Jews.

German and Soviet propaganda distorted and magnified the facts in order to inflame Polish-Jewish hostilities
Among the countless incidences staged by the Nazis was one in which Germans in Lodz destroyed a statue of the
Polish patriot Kosciuszko, and blamed it on the Jews. The Germans forced a group of Jews to stand in front of the
rubble and photographed it as "evidence". Immediately thereafter, the Germans burned down a synagogue and
accused the Poles for having done so in retaliation. In Warsaw, on Passover, the Germans staged a riot which
lasted, ironically, for eight days. They recruited a thousand Polish youths to destroy Jewish homes and shops while
German soldiers were nearby filming the entire onslaught. The sole objective of Nazi propaganda was to bring
about Poland's self-destruction by playing on Polish fears of being conquered by the Soviets. Moreover, the
suspicion that Britain and the US had abandoned the Poles and was about to betray them to the Soviets were
reasons enough for some Poles to collaborate with the Nazis. Any illusion of acquiring special protection or
benefits by collaboration, quickly vanished, as the German terror on Polish underground continued unabated.

The Polish Underground waged a continuous battle using counter propaganda of its own to demoralize and disrupt
the German rank and file. More importantly, the Underground sought to influence Polish attitudes by instructing
them to resist German propaganda and enticements to collaborate with them. The Nazis made numerous
concessions to the Polish people including re-opening Polish theatres and museums, and elminating the
requirement of passes for Poles using the trains. The Germans sometimes succeeded in luring members
of the AK out of hiding, only to deport them to concentration camps, or execute them.

While the majority of the Poles complied with the directives of the Polish Underground, others did not. Poland
endured a siege of German terror and brutality that over time contributed to the increase in delinquency, especially
in the youth. No morals or laws prevailed other than that which ensured Nazi supremacy. Every kind of depravity
was encouraged by the Nazis to erode the moral fabric of Polish society. The Poles who collaborated with the
Germans represented only a fraction of the Polish population.

In the political sphere, the most rabid element was the ONR ( Oboz Narodowo Rady Kalny ), a radical-nationalist
party which produced much of the Polish anti-semetic propaganda. They accused the Jews of starting the war,
and claimed that the Jews were collaborating with the Nazis and the Soviets in order to destroy Poland. This
political party was not represented in the Polish Underground State, nor in the Polish Government-in-exile, in
London.

Little or no attention has been given to the sacrifices made by heroic Poles - the men, and women who made
daring attempts to shelter Jews, under extraordinary circumstances. Catholic nuns frequently sheltered Jewish
children in their convents, teaching them Catholic prayers, and catechism, so that they could pass the scrutiny of
German interrogation. Among the religious orders that gave assistance to the Jews were: the Sisters of Maria's
Family ( in Otwock, Pludy and several other Polish towns), the Ursuline Sisters ( in Warsaw-Powisle, among other
provincial convents), the Franciscan Sisters, in Lasku, the Sisters of the Lady Immaculate ( in Warsaw, Szymanow,
and Niepokalanow), the Sisters of Charity ( in the hospitals of Warsaw), and the Polish Relief Council in Otwock.


At the start of the war, there were Poles who were anti-semetic but who had changed their outlook because of the
Nazi atrocities committed against the Jews - men such as Stanislaw Piasecki, Adolf, Nowaczynski, Kozidkiewicz,
Witold Rudnicki, among many others. There are thousands of Poles who risked their lives and died in the process
of helping the Jews. Only a few of them have been documented and are honoured by Yad Vashem, in the
Righteous Among Nations. None have gained so much attention as the selfless act of one individual, Father
Maximillian Kolbe, a Franciscan monk. He was a Polish prisoner in Auschwitz, number 16670, who volunteered
to die instead of the fifteen Jews selected for death by slow starvation. The first victims of the gas chambers at
Auschwitz were 300 Poles and 700 Soviet POWs. Until 1942, Poles constituted 90% of the inmates of Stutthof.

Jan Karski, a national hero of the Polish Underground, was the first to report the news of German atrocities to the
Allied nations. He embarked on a gruelling mission through several occupied countries, transporting secret
microfilm to the Polish Government-in-exile in London - on it was documented evidence of the crimes committed
by the Germans - photographs, decrees, and statistics.

The most elaborate covert operation in saving the Jews was an organization called Zegota. Although its officical
name was Council for Aid to the Jews, it had to have been referred to in code in order to protect the organization
from blackmailers and informers. Zegota members represented a wide cross-section of Polish society. It was
an enormous network which overlapped with organizations in the Polish Underground State, Home Army, and
a countless array of individual Poles from every profession and trade. All were devoted to helping the work of
Zegota. The major scope of activity dealt with finding safe houses in which Jews could be hidden, the provision of
food, clothing, and whenever possible, medical care. They produced thousands of fake documents, such as birth
certificates, and passports, to conceal the true identity of the Jews. Many Jews were able to live on the Aryan side
(outside the ghettos) because their features were not semetic. They were the lucky few. Many others whose
appearance was obviously semetic, had to be hidden at all times, otherwise they would risk their death and the
death of the Poles sheltering them. Because of this risk, many Poles had no choice but to refuse to help them.
The largest source of aid to the Jews, which far surpassed Zegota, and the spontaneous efforts given randomly by
groups or individuals, was the Polish Underground State. Its' organization, along political, military and civilian
divisions, was devoted to the restoration of Polands freedom and independence. Among its activities was the
mission to provide the Jews with a means of escape and shelter from Nazi persecution.

In 1940-41, the Polish government-in-exile and the Underground State were the first to report the news of the
persecution of the Jews in Poland. Initially, the British government received the reports with a great deal of
skepticism, believing that the Poles may have exaggerated. It was difficult for the British to comprehend how
German Kultur could descend to such depths of depravity. Irregardless of British stonewalling, Polish interventions
were immediately set into motion. Diplomatic meetings were held in Britain, and the U.S., resolutions were drawn up
and submitted to the United Nations. Ambassador Papee made several visits to the Vatican, meeting with
Secretary of State Cardinal Maglione, and Monsignor Tardem and Montini. He presented them with a memo from
Prime Minister Sikorski, in which he discussed the persecution of the Poles and Jews under Nazi occupation, and
requested the intervention of Pope Pius XII. Issues of the Black Book were also submitted. Papee also met with the
General of the Jesuit Order, Father Wlodzmierz Ledochowski to discuss using the Church and its agencies to
shelter Poles and Jews in Poland.

The Polish Foreign Office published a White Book entitled, " The German Occupation of Poland ", printed in
English, French and Spanish. There were also two Black Books; Volume I " The German Invasion of Poland "
described the September Campaign. Volume II, " The German New Order in Poland " described the German
administration in Poland and the Soviet-German war of June 1941. It provided details concerning the fate of the
Jews, German regulations, descriptions of German atrocities, the burning of synagogues, locations of burials and
names of victims, confiscation of Jewish property, loss of freedom and rights, forced labor, ghettoes, and
death camps. Included were 30 photographs illustrating in graphic detail, life in the ghetto, as well as copies
of German decrees. This book was widely distributed in Great Britain and the US. Copies were sent to press
agencies and newspapers around the world.

Prime Minister Sikorski made several visits to the US as well as to London, and the Polish Embassy in Washington,
D.C. A flurry of telegrams between London and Warsaw document the extent of Polish efforts in pressuring the
Allies for military assistance. In 1941-42, Sikorski asked for an American declaration condemning German
oppressive policies against the Poles and the Jews. The US was unresponsive. As time passed, the situation\
grew more ominous, Sikorskis appeals became more frequent and urgent. Poles and Jews demanded that
Britain execute Germans in reprisal for Nazi atrocities committed against the Polish nation. The British refused
to intervene because it was not within the scope of their political objectives.

The American Jewish Congress and the World Jewish Congress were receptive to Sikorskis arrival in the US,
and expressed hope for the liberation of Poland, but they quickly resorted to a litany of accusations of Polands
pre-war administration. They accused the Polish military of anti-semetism and referred to the periodical issued by
the ONR, entitled " Jestem Polakiem " ( I am Polish), that was radically nationalistic. Its circulation lasted only from
August 4, 1940 to May 15, 1941, at which time the Sikorski govenment called a stop to its publication, declaring it
to be detrimental. Sikorski tried to assure the Allies that the governments position was strongly opposed to
anti-semetism and considered it foreign to its government. He stated that " the common suffering has created a
community of spirit between Poles and Jews"

The Jewish Morning Newspaper did acknowledge that the Sikorski government was moderate, but instead chose
to focus entirely on the fact that a few of its members were National Democrats. Many criticisms were made
purely on hearsay - as one by Jozef Tennenbaum, President of the American Federation of Polish Jews. He
claimed that tens of thousands of Poles helped the Germans to exterminate the Jews - it is completely
unsubstantiated. Jews were frequently at odds even with each other over the issue of anti-semetism. Rabbi Z.
Babad, who represented the Polish Agudists in Great Britain, condemed the Jews who made irresponsible
generalizations about Polish actions towards the Jews. He was a loyal supporter of the Sikorski government,
and he criticized foreign Jews, especially Zionists, for interfering in Polish internal affairs. Ludwik Grosfeld, a
Polish Jew, was appointed Minister of Treasury by Prime Minister Mikolajczyk. Grosfeld was severely criticized
by the Jews who accused him of being an " assimilationist "

After the Germans invaded Russia, the attacks on the Jews intensified. The Polish government countered German
propaganda by issuing a Declaration, entitled, " Instruction No. 2 ", dated June 23, 1941. It read as follows:

" The government lays great stress on the necessity of warning the nations not to give in to German
baiters and not to adopt an active anti-Jewish attitude in the territories freed from Soviet occupation.
This is imperative for reasons of principle and political ones such as actions would be bound to make
it terribly difficult for the government to profit from the situation in the international field. "

On Jan 13, 1942, Sikorski attended an inter-allied conference of nine countries ( which had been occupied by
Germany ), including delegates from Britain and the US. A resolution was made calling for the prosecution of
Germans who violated international law by committing violent crimes against civilians. Britain and the US
refused to sign it on the grounds that there was no verification that the reports were true.

The Polish Underground reported on the increase in German killings. One of many memos read as follows:

" I inform that the news about the murder of several thousand Jews in eastern Galicia is true. Mass
murder of Jews were also committed in the Wilno province, in Byelorussia, and in the Lublin province. In
Wilno alone, about sixty thousand Jews were murdered.... Delegate, April 8, 1942 "

As the massacres began to spread throughout eastern Poland into the General Gouvernement, Prime Minister
Sikorski sent dispatches to the Allied govenments reporting that :

" Extermination of the Jewish population is taking place at an unbelievable extent...mass slaughter
of tens of thousands of Jews is being carried out. In the ghettos of Warsaw and Krakow, mass
executions are being carried out every day. Jews ill with typhus are being shot. The Jews of Poland
are suffering the most terrible persecution in the entire history..."


Alex Lech Bajan

RAQport Inc.
2004 North Monroe Street
Arlington Virginia 22207
Washington DC Area
USA
TEL: 703-528-0114
TEL2: 703-652-0993
FAX: 703-940-8300
sms: 703-485-6619
EMAIL: polonia@raqport.com
WEB SITE: http://raqport.com

Eastern Poland property compensation deadline approaches

Eastern Poland property compensation deadline approaches
Importance: High


Dear Polish American Congress:

We seek your urgent assistance in getting this information to your branches and to Polonia in the USA.

At stake are justice and respect for the property rights of your members whose families lost property in eastern Poland during the war.

They have only one month in which to register their interest in receiving compensation for this land, and after 31 December 2008 it will be too late.

Information is found below and attached. Please contact me urgently if you have any questions or concerns.

STEFAN WIŚNIOWSKI

CHAIRMAN, KRESY-SIBERIA GROUP
3 Castle Circuit Close
Seaforth NSW 2092 Australia
Telephone +61 411 864 873
Stefan.Wisniowski@Kresy-Siberia.org
www.Kresy-Siberia.org

PRZEWODNICZĄCY, GRUPA KRESY-SYBERIA
ul. Wiśniowa 40B lokal nr 6
02-516 Warszawa, Polska
Telefon +48 22 5424090 fax +48 22 5424089
Kom. +48 517 206 491
Stefan.Wisniowski@Kresy-Syberia.org
www.Kresy-Syberia.org


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE (Polish text follows)
Eastern Poland property compensation deadline approaches

WARSAW POLAND, Thursday, Nov 6, 2008 - - Although it has not been widely publicized outside Poland, the deadline is looming for the Polish government’s offer of compensation for property left outside its present borders in connection with the Second World War.

This is in not related to restitution for property confiscated in Poland by the German Nazi and post-war Communist regimes. Rather, it is compensation offered for property left behind when Poland’s borders were shifted west after the war. Poland’s eastern territories were taken over by the Soviet Union in exchange for new western territories taken from a vanquished Germany.

Romuald Lipinski, a soldier in the Polish Army that helped drive the Germans out of Italy and who is now living in Virginia, says "it broke our hearts when our land was lost to the Soviets – we felt totally betrayed by our own Allies. We helped win the war against Hitler but lost our homeland to Stalin. But even though we could never return home after the war, we never forgot our Polish homeland. Now after all these years, we rejoice that Poland is free again and that it has not forgotten us either."

Almost 70 years after the war started, partial justice may finally be restored with the Polish government’s compensation offer of twenty percent of the current value of the lost land and buildings. The compensation is funded by the sale of government property. Already nearly $100 million has been awarded to former residents of the Eastern Borderlands ("Kresy" in Polish) and their families for their lost land and homes.

Deportation survivor and current Florida resident, Marie Gaffney, recalls "The Soviet troopers came with guns drawn in the dead of night and dragged us out into minus 40 degree temperatures, with only a few small bundles of our belongings in my father's hands and me in my mother's arms. They deported us to harsh labour camps in Siberia and seized all our property. Our homes are gone forever, but at least this is a symbolic recognition of the injustice we suffered."

The 8 July 2005 Polish law provides for compensation on an equal basis for all pre-war Polish citizens leaving land outside the present borders of Poland due to circumstances surrounding the 1939-1945 war. This includes the deported families, the soldiers who served in the Polish Forces in the West, and their families who spent the war in refugee camps around the world.

Australian second-generation survivor Louise Blazejowska says: "The story of the Soviet war-time persecution of eastern Poland's residents is a little known episode in the history of World War 2, including mass deportations to "Siberia" that resulted in starvation and death, the seizure of property and the cover-up of the Katyn massacre. But the survivors of those tragic events and their heirs now scattered across the world are to this day in the dark about their rights to justice and compensation for their seized property. They must act now before it is too late."

Applications will be accepted only until the end of 2008. Mandatory preconditions include: owners of the property had to be Polish citizens in 1939 and had to have been living in Poland at that time; owners or their heirs must be Polish citizens now (citizenship can be confirmed if parents were Polish citizens); and inheritance rights have to be proven. Some description of the property must also be provided to determine its value.

Although the initial claim must be lodged in one of Poland’s provincial offices by 31 December 2008, any additional supporting evidence can be submitted after the claim is registered, including documents obtained from various archives in Poland, Britain, the US and the former Soviet republics. The Kresy-Siberia Group has organized Polish and English-speaking volunteers to help applicants fill out and lodge their forms as well as with research, translations and navigating through administrative requirements. For more information, or to obtain claim registration forms, potential claimants can e-mail info@kresy-claims.org or visit www.kresy-claims.org.

Kresy-Siberia Group founder Stefan Wisniowski, Canadian-born and now living in Sydney, Australia, says: "For years, many Polish survivors were reluctant to claim money from their homeland as a matter of honor. However, many now understand that things have changed and that as a member of the European Union, Poland is a dynamic western economy that looks after all of its citizens’ human rights, including their property rights. Others, who do not feel the need for financial compensation, may chose to donate their compensation payments to a worthy cause, such as the Kresy-Siberia Foundation which is developing a virtual museum on the internet to preserve their history for future generations."

The Kresy-Siberia Group is the international special interest group of over 750 survivors of the Soviet persecutions and their 2nd and 3rd-generation descendants. Its objectives are to research, remember and recognize the persecution of Polish citizens of all ethnic and religious backgrounds by the Soviet Union during the Second World War. As well as supporting property claimants with information and assistance, one of its current projects is developing a state-of-the-art "virtual museum" on the internet to commemorate this little-known chapter of the Second World War.



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Media contacts

Australia & New Zealand:

Stefan Wisniowski

61-4-1186-4873 cell

Stefan.Wisniowski@Kresy-Siberia.org



UK:

George Neisser

44-12572-79145 or 44-77379-98123 cell

Jerzy.Neisser@Kresy-Siberia.org



USA & Canada:

Lynda Kraar

1-201-947-2516 or 1-551-486-3772 cell

Lynda.Kraar@Kresy-Siberia.org



Poland:

Aneta Hoffmann

48-502-870-596 cell

Aneta.Hoffmann@Kresy-Siberia.org



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Ed. Note:

The "Kresy-Siberia Group" brings into contact people from countries around the world with a special interest in the tragedy of over one million Polish citizens of various faiths and ethnicities (Polish, Ukrainian, Belorussian, Catholic, Orthodox, Jewish, etc.) either deported from eastern Poland (Kresy) in 1940-41 or otherwise arrested and sent to special Soviet labor camps in Siberia, Kazakhstan and eastern Asia. Some 115,000 of these were evacuated through Iran in 1942 as soldiers of Anders Army and their families - and eventually made their way to the West.

The circumstances of their odyssey and the tragic history of the Polish citizens under Soviet Russian occupation during the war were hushed up by the Allies during the war to protect the reputation of the Soviet Union, an important ally in the war against Nazi Germany. Almost seventy years later the survivors have aged and many have died. The group brings together surviving deportees and their descendants to remember, learn, discover and spread the word of their ordeal to the world and to future generations. We can also provide you with "local" interviews.



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DO PILNEGO UPOWSZECHNIENIA

Zbliża się końcowy termin skladania wniosków o odszkodowania

za utracone mienie na d. Kresach Wschodnich

WARSZAWA, 6 listopada 2008 r. - - Mimo, iż fakt ten nie był szeroko omawiany poza Polską, jednakże zbliża się ostateczny termin składania wniosków w odpowiedzi na ofertę rządu polskiego dotyczącą wypłaty odszkodowań za mienie utracone w wyniku II wojny światowej, a leżące obecnie poza granicami Polski.

Sprawa ta nie dotyczy zwrotu mienia skonfiskowanego na terenie Polski przez nazistowskie Niemcy czy powojenny reżim komunistyczny. Jest to odszkodowanie zaproponowane za nieruchomości utracone z powodu przesunięcia granic polskich po wojnie na zachód. Tereny byłych Kresów Wschodnich zostały włączone w 1945 r. do ZSRR, w zamian za zachodnie tereny zabrane pokonanej Rzeszy Niemieckiej.

Pan Romuald Lipinski, ze stanu Wirginia, USA, żołnierz II Korpusu Armii Polskiej, która pokonała Niemców we Włoszech, powiedział "byliśmy zrozpaczeni, gdy nasza ziemia została utracona na rzecz Sowietów – czuliśmy się całkowicie zdradzeni przez naszych sojuszników. Pomogliśmy zwyciężyć Hitlera, ale nasza ojczyzna dostała się pod władanie Stalina. I mimo, iż nie mogliśmy powrócić do naszych domów po wojnie, nigdy nie zapomnieliśmy naszej ojczyzny – Polski. Teraz po tych wszystkich latach, cieszymy się, że Polska jest znów wolna i że ona także o nas nie zapomniała".

Po prawie 70 latach, jakie minęły od czasów II wojny światowej, propozycja polskiego rządu dotycząca wypłaty odszkodowań w wysokości 20% wartości utraconej ziemi i nieruchomości może stanowić w końcu częściowe zadośćuczynienie ich właścicielom. Odszkodowania są finansowane ze sprzedaży nieruchomości należących do Skarbu Państwa. Do chwili obecnej prawie 100 milionów dolarów zostało wypłaconych dawnym mieszkańcom Kresów Wschodnich i ich rodzinom.

Sybiraczka Bożena Marie Gaffney, mieszkająca obecnie na Florydzie, wspomina "Żołnierze sowieccy wtargnęli z karabinami w środku nocy i wygnali nas z domu przy temperaturze -40 C jedynie z kilkoma węzełkami naszych rzeczy osobistych niesionych przez mojego ojca i mnie tulonej w ramionach mojej mamy. Zostaliśmy deportowani do ciężkich obozów pracy na Syberii, a cały nasz majątek został skonfiskowany. Już nigdy nie odzyskamy naszych domów, więc chociaż to odszkodowanie jest symbolicznym zadośćuczynieniem niesprawiedliwości, jakiej byliśmy ofiarami".

Na mocy polskiej Ustawy z dnia 8 lipca 2005 r. odszkodowania należą się w równej mierze wszystkim przedwojennym obywatelom polskim, którzy w wyniku II wojny światowej zmuszeni byli opuścić ówczesne terytorium Rzeczypospolitej. Dotyczy to deportowanych rodzin, żołnierzy, którzy służyli w Polskich Siłach Zbrojnych na Zachodzie oraz ich rodzin, które wojnę spędziły w obozach dla uchodźców rozsianych po całym świecie.

Przedstawicielka drugiego pokolenia Sybiraków - Pani Louise Blażejowska, mieszkająca w Australii, powiedziała : "Tragiczne losy mieszkańców d. Kresów Wschodnich w czasie okupacji sowieckiej są mało znanym epizodem w historii II wojny światowej. Dotyczy to masowych deportacji na Syberię, których konsekwencją był głód i śmierć, odbierania mienia czy ukrywania zbrodni w Katyniu. Cudownie ocaleni uczestnicy tych tragicznych wydarzeń oraz ich potomkowie do dnia dzisiejszego nie wierzą, iż kiedykolwiek spotka ich należna im sprawiedliwość i odszkodowanie za utracone mienie. Muszą oni teraz przystąpić do działania, póki nie jest jeszcze za późno".

Wnioski będą przyjmowane jedynie do końca 2008 r. Podstawowe wymogi uprawniające do złożenia wniosku to : wlaściciele nieruchomości byli obywatelami polskimi w 1939 r. i mieszkali w tym czasie na terenie Polski; wlaściciele lub ich potomkowie muszą posiadać obecnie obywatelstwo polskie (obywatelstwo może zostać potwierdzone, jeśli rodzice byli obywatelami polskimi); prawa do spadku są potwierdzone. Do wniosku powinien być dołączony opis nieruchomości – jest to niezbędne do późniejszego określenia wartości nieruchomości.

Chociaż wstępny wniosek o odszkodowanie musi zostać złożony w jednym z urzędów wojewódzkich w Polsce do dnia 31 grudnia 2008 r., to dokumenty stanowiące załącznik do wniosku mogą być dostarczone później, po rejestracji wniosku. Dotyczy to dokumentów odszukanych w różnych archiwach w Polsce, Wielkiej Brytanii, USA czy w byłych republikach ZSRR.

Grupa Kresy-Syberia stworzyła grupę wolontariuszy mówiących po polsku i po angielsku, którzy będą pomagać osobom zainteresowanym wypełnić i złożyć wniosek czy tez będą służyć pomocą przy tłumaczeniach. W celu uzyskania dalszych informacji lub niezbędnych formularzy, potencjalni wnioskodawcy mogą się kontaktować z nami drogą emailową : info@kresy-mienie.org lub odwiedzając stronę www.kresy-mienie.org.

Założyciel Grupy Kresy-Syberia – Pan Stefan Wiśniowski, Australijczyk urodzony w Kanadzie – stwierdził: "Przez lata wielu byłych polskich wysiedleńców było przeciwnych występowaniu do swojej ojczyzny o jakiekolwiek pieniądze, traktując tę sprawę w kategoriach honoru. Jednakże wielu spośród nich jest dziś świadomych, że sytuacja się zmieniła. Obecnie polska gospodarka dynamicznie się rozwija, a Polska jako członek Unii Europejskiej troszczy się o przestrzeganie praw swych obywateli, także ich praw własności. Inni, którzy nie odczuwają potrzeby finansowego odszkodowania, mogą ofiarować uzyskane pieniądze na cel charytatywny, na przykład Fundację Kresy-Syberia, która tworzy obecnie muzeum wirtualne poświęcone upamiętnieniu ich losów dla przyszłych pokoleń".

Grupa Kresy-Syberia jest międzynarodową grupą skupiającą ponad 750 byłych Sybiraków i ich potomków z drugiego i trzeciego pokolenia. Jej celem jest badanie, upamiętnianie i upowszechnianie tragicznych losów obywateli polskich różnych narodowości i wyznań pod okupacją sowiecką w trakcie II wojny światowej. Poza wspieraniem osób pragnących złożyć wnioski o odszkodowanie, jednym z jej bieżących projektów jest stworzenie "wirtualnego muzeum" w Internecie mającego za zadanie upamiętnić ten mało znany fragment historii II wojny światowej.



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Kontakty dla prasy :

Australia & New Zelandia :

Stefan Wiśniowski

tel. kom.+61-4-1186-4873

Stefan.Wisniowski@Kresy-Syberia.org



Wielka Brytania :

Jerzy Neisser

tel. kom. 44-77379-98123 oraz +44-12572-79145

Jerzy.Neisser@Kresy-Syberia.org



USA & Kanada :

Lynda Kraar

tel. kom. 1-551-486-3772 oraz +1-201-947-2516

Lynda.Kraar@Kresy-Syberia.org



Polska :

Aneta Hoffmann

tel. kom. +48-502-870-596

Aneta.Hoffmann@Kresy-Syberia.org



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Przypis: "Grupa Kresy-Syberia" łączy ludzi z różnych krajów, dla których ważny jest temat tragedii ponad miliona obywateli polskich różnych wyznań i narodowości (Polaków, Ukraińców, Białorusinów, katolików, prawosławnych, żydów itp.), którzy zostali aresztowani lub deportowani z b. Kresów Wschodnich II RP w latach 1940-41 do specjalnych obozów pracy na Syberii, w Kazachstanie i na tereny azjatyckich republik ZSRR. 115.000 spośród nich zostało ewakuowanych do Iranu w 1942 r. jako żołnierze Armii Andersa i ich rodziny. Ostatecznie znaleźli się oni na Zachodzie. Okoliczności ich odysei i tragicznych losów obywateli polskich pod okupacją sowiecką w czasie II wojny światowej były przemilczane przez aliantów w czasie wojny, aby chronić imię ZSRR – ważnego sojusznika w walce z III Rzeszą. Prawie siedemdziesiąt lat później Sybiracy zestarzeli się, wielu spośród z nich już nie żyje. Nasza grupa łączy Sybiraków i ich potomków, aby upamiętniać, nauczać, odkrywać i upowszechniać wiedzę nt. ich tragicznych losów - na całym świecie i kolejnym pokoleniom. Możemy udzielić Państwu także lokalnych wywiadów.

Alex Lech Bajan
CEO
RAQport Inc.
2004 North Monroe Street
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Washington DC Area
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Polish Diaspora Iran World War II Story

Polish Diaspora Iran World War II Story.

People in story: Jadwiga Biegus, Krystyna Biegus, Jerzy Biegus, Józef Tuczek, Katarzyna Tuczek, Maria Łotecka, Michał Łotecki
Location of story: Poland, USSR, Iran, Africa

Contributed on: 26 January 2006
Lusaka 1946 — from left to right My mother (Jadwiga Biegus), me(Jerzy), grandfather (Józef Tuczek), my sister Krysia. In the background the hut we called home

I was born on the 22 October 1940 of Polish parents in Kazakhstan. This was the last place were my mother wanted to be. Before the war, my mother and father lived comfortably in a town called Tarnopol in Eastern Poland where they had moved from their native Sambor. Father was working in the prison service while mother, a teacher by profession, was bringing up her two year old daughter Krysia in her dream ‘town centre flat with a balcony’.

Then war broke out and all hell was let loose. My father, an officer of the reserve, rejoined his regiment while my mother and her eldest sister returned to the family home in Sambor where, supported by a network of family and friends, they had the best chance of surviving the war. After Stalin’s invasion of Poland, in compliance with the Ribbentrop/Molotov pact, Poland’s defence was no longer viable and the army was ordered to disband. Having avoided capture by the invading Russians, my father returned home but immediately discovered that the NKVD (precursor to the KGB) were looking for officers and other ‘intelligencia’ so he went into hiding, moving from house to house among friends and family, never staying more than a few days in any one place.

During February and March 1940 my mother underwent several interrogations by the local NKVD both about her work as a teacher and the whereabouts of her husband. In March the NKVD declared her unfit to teach and she lost her job at school. On the 13th April 1940 the first mass deportation began. The NKVD arrived in the early morning, they read out the sentence of deportation and internal exile in Russia, allowed 30minutes to pack essentials and enough food for a journey of up to four weeks. Everyone living at the family home was arrested. My mother Jadwiga Biegus with her daughter Krystyna (Krysia), my mother’s eldest sister Maria Łotecka and their parents Józef and Katarzyna Tuczek. They were marched to the local railway station and loaded into cattle trucks. When my father heard of the arrests he gave himself up to the NKVD in the hope that he would be allowed to join his family into exile but that was the last reliable report we had of him until we found his name on the list of officers shot in the back of the head by the NKVD in Katyn wood. He was one of 4500 Polish officers and intelligencia who were murdered by our future ally the Soviet Union. A further 20000 are still missing.

After a journey of two to three weeks (my mother lost track of the days) they were taken off the train, together with five other families, at Martuk in the district of Aktubinsk in Kazakhstan. From Martuk they walked seven kilometers to a small village (posiolek) called Nagorny. This was an agricultural ‘kolchoz’ — a state owned farm — where they were immediatly set to work in the fields. Initially they were given a shepherd’s hut in which to live because in the summer the shepherd was out on the steppe with his flock. Later they were moved into a cottage at the edge of the village that belonged to a peasant who had been deported into internal exile elsewhere in Russia. The front door of the cottage opened onto a corridor with a room on either side and an attached stable. They shared the cottage with fellow Polish deportees Mrs. Smoleńska and her daughter, the Smoleńska’s occupied one room while our family, four adults and two children, lived in the other.

Everyone had to work in the kolchoz. Lenin’s nobly sounding motto, that had seduced so many English intellectuals, ‘To everyone according to their needs, from everyone according their abilities’ had been translated on the ground into a much more practical ‘nie rabotayet nie kushayet’ — don’t work, don’t eat — so those who reported for work received half a loaf of bread a day and the foreman would turn a blind eye to small amounts of produce that might be taken home at the end of the day. This food had to be shared with any member of the family who for some reason was unable to work. Each ‘Work Day’ was recorded and in the autumn everyone received farm produce for the winter according to the number of ‘Work Days’ they had put in. During the summer of 1940 our family had earned a sack of rye and a sack of potatoes. In October after I was born my mother was allocated 250gm. of bread, half a litre of full cream milk and two litres of skimmed milk a day for the baby. Her own ration was of course still subject to the ‘don’t work, don’t eat’ rule. We survived that first winter thanks to a sack of flour that my grandfather had the foresight to take when they were arrested and two food parcels sent by my mother’s two sisters who were still in Poland (mainly flour, buckwheat and a little sugar). Money came from selling anything that was not strictly necessary for survival like my grandfather’s suit, the sugar and other little luxuries that came in the food parcels.

The Kazakh villagers were indifferent to us but there were two or three Russian families without whose help we could not have survived. We don’t know why they were there. It is likely that they had been sentenced to internal exile just like we were but it was best not to ask questions. They helped in many small ways. We were not allowed to buy anything at the village shop so they bought things for us. On one occasion my aunt went to Martuk to sell grandfather’s suit, because there it would fetch a better price, and found herself in serious trouble because we weren’t allowed to leave the village without permission so, in future, they would take things to Martuk that we needed to sell. Their greatest contribution was made right at the beginning when they introduced us to ‘kiziak’. Kiziak was, possibly still is, made by collecting dried animal dung on the steppe, soaking it in water then mixing it with straw and forming into briquettes which were then dried in the sun. This was to be our fuel for the winter and, throughout the summer, any time not working for the kolhoz was spent collecting dung and making kiziak. Without it the whole family would have frozen to death in the -30°C temperatures of that winter.

Hope came with Germany’s invasion of Russia in June 1941. Suddenly and unexpectedly we became allies. A Polish army under the command of Gen. Anders was being formed in Russia and an amnesty was declared for all Poles in prisons and internal exile. We were now free to buy in the village shop and travel to Martuk. My uncle, Michał Łotecki, was released from prisoner of war camp to join the Polish army and he managed to come and see us in Nagorny just before the snows fell. He brought money and, most importantly, papers to join the army as his family. Wisely, it was decided not to travel that winter. The army was living under canvas and the Russian authorities were only providing rations for soldiers so many of those who travelled that winter perished from cold, hunger and exhaustion.

We finally left Nagorny in April 1942 and joined the Polish army in Kitabo in Uzbekistan. By the time we arrived my uncle had been moved to another army centre but none the less we were welcomed, looked after and, for the first time since the outbreak of war, felt safe. Life was still hard. We lived under canvas and the Russian authorities were providing meagre rations and only for soldiers so these had to be shared with the civilian families. A few days before we left Kitabo, to travel to Krasnovodsk from where we sailed with the army to Pahlavi in Persia (Iran), my grandmother, Katarzyna Tuczek, died. She had contracted an ear infection while still in Nagorny, untreated, it became septic and was operated on by an army surgeon when we arrived in Kitabo. It seemed to be clearing up but the surgeon warned that with the organism in such a weakened state it may not be able to fight off the infection.

Persia was very welcoming. By the sea in Pahlavi, where we disembarked, a tented city had been set up. This was a transit area where we were registered, given papers, issued with clothes and allocated to one of three camps in Teheran. We were allocated to Camp II. Like the other camps it was under canvas but well supplied, food was plentiful, schools and field hospitals had been set up. Troops were being re-equipped, trained and made ready for duty. Civilians began the long process of adjusting to a normality in which there was adequate food and even time to attend to their social and cultural needs. My mother particularly recalled a visit to the Shah’s palace gardens and walking through the shopping streets of Teheran, although there was still no money for any serious shopping of course. There was still the reality of war. All the young and able bodied were expected to join in the war effort and my aunt Maria joined the Women’s Auxiliary Service. This was a particular wrench because it was she who had been the main provider for our family. She was the one who bartered, traded and stole the food that made the difference between perishing and surviving. Unable to have children herself she made it her purpose that my sister and I survived where so many children did not. She insisted that, even after I started eating solid food, I continued to be breast fed until we left Russia and saw to it that my mother had the lion’s share of any nutritious food that she had ‘organised’.

Inevitably, given such a concentration of people and rudimentary sanitary facilities, an epidemic of dysentery broke out. Despite the best efforts of the medical staff this lead to a horrendous mortality rate, particularly among children, whose undernourished and weakened metabolisms succumbed within a day or two. When I contracted the disease my mother refused to let me be taken to the field hospital, where she had seen children dying by the dozen, and insisted on nursing me herself. She clearly understood the importance of hygiene and hydration and gave me lots of water, but only after it had been boiled, and melons which were plentiful in the camp. I survived the dysentery but it took its toll on the organism and soon afterwards my legs began to bow and I stopped walking. Rickets or ‘the English disease’, as it was known in Poland, was diagnosed. Once again home remedies were applied, cod liver oil and lots of sun, the bones strengthened once again and the only visible sign left is a ridge across my teeth where development had been temporarily impaired. By the autumn of 1943 my mother felt sufficiently confident to leave my sister and me in my grandfather’s care during the day so in December 1943 she began working professionally as a teacher at the camp school.

Once the army had moved out to their operational positions in the Middle East it was time to consider the civilians who had been left behind. The tented camps on the outskirts of Teheran were clearly not viable as a long term solution and the authorities decided to set up Displaced Persons camps in India and Africa. As a teacher my mother was able to choose where we went and she chose Africa. In the spring of 1944 we travelled by army truck down to Karachi and then by ship to Africa (she didn’t say which port) then by train to a camp called Bwana M’Kubwa in what was then Northern Rhodesia. We stayed in Bwana M’Kubwa for just four months before she was posted to Lusaka, also in Northern Rhodesia now Zambia.

My first, very ordinary, personal memories are from Lusaka: A dark eyed beauty called Jagódka sitting opposite me in the kindergarten sand pit; carrying the kindergarten totem pole in a school procession only to disgrace myself by falling over and stopping the entire procession; starting school at five but in the seven year olds class because I was the only five year old, and then being threatened with extreme violence by my older classmates for having the best marks at the end of term; the wonder of electric lighting in the camp commandant’s hut.

By 1947 the camps were being actively liquidated. First a commission from the Polish communist regime set up by Stalin arrived to persuade us to return to communist Poland. They received short shrift from people whose homes had been annexed by Russia and were no longer in Poland and who were still thanking God for delivering them from the Soviet communist paradise. The Americans came next followed by the Canadians and Australians to take their pick of the humanity on offer. In that particular market my mother; young, intelligent, educated with two young children who would grow up to be fine citizens of their country, was inundated with offers, but there was a catch. One of the members of the family was an old father who might become a burden on society so the offers were always in these terms; you and the children can come straight away and in a couple of years time you will have settled in and earned enough to bring your father across from wherever he might be at the time. To my mother’s eternal credit she turned these offers down flat.

We were the last to leave Lusaka at the beginning of 1949. By this time my mother was headmistress of the school and responsible for closing it down. She couldn’t bear to burn all the books so we acquired our first proper possessions - a tea chest full of books. She was posted to a camp called Tengeru near Arusha in what is now Tanzania. The camp was dominated by a splendid view of Mt. Meru but, unlike Lusaka which was quite close to town, so we could regularly go into town for shopping, it appeared to be in the middle of nowhere and the occasional journey by truck into Arusha seemed to take for ever. On arrival in Tengeru we were allocated a pair of mud huts; round, dark and tiny with mud floors, just like the native’s huts. These huts were quite exciting for us kids but mother didn’t seem to share our enthusiasm and she must have had some leverage because we soon moved to one of the large posh square huts with a concrete floor and windows with fine wire mesh mosquito nets and a separate outside kitchen. I can’t remember if there was any electricity in the camp, I have a feeling that even the camp commandant used paraffin lamps for lighting, primus stoves for minor cooking and, if you were in a posh square hut, you had a separate outside kitchen with a wood burning range for cooking.

Tengeru was much bigger than Lusaka, it had a primary school and two secondary schools, one for the academically inclined and another that taught vocational subjects. There was also a large boarding house for children and young people that had been either orphaned or separated from their parents. There was also considerable agricultural activity. Apart from the gardens that were springing up around people’s huts there were large fields of maize, potatoes and other vegetables like carrots and cabbage. I don’t know if these were grown under the auspices of the camp or some local farmer but a lot of the people in the camp were employed in this farming activity.

Pressure was now building to close the camps so UNRA, (United Nations Refugee Agency) which was responsible for the camps, arranged another round of visits by the American, Canadian and Australian immigration commissions which went through their selection procedures once again and took further significant numbers. By early 1950 only those that had been positively rejected by the three commissions or who, like my mother, would not accept the terms that were offered were left in the camp. That’s when the British commission arrived. It was different because I think they knew that leaving people in the middle of Africa wasn’t an option and their main concern was to know if anyone had health problems, particularly infectious diseases like TB, and needed either treatment before sailing or special provision on arrival in England. In July we travelled by rail from Arusha to Mombassa and then sailed on the Dundalk Bay to England, arriving in Hull on 2nd September 1950. After a few days in a transit camp near Hull we travelled in a fleet of coaches to Springhill Lodge camp in the beautiful Cotswold countryside. For more information on life in a U.K. displaced persons camp you can visit www.northwickparkpolishdpcamp.co.uk but essentially normality set in. Until we came to England I had never met a child of my own age, they were all either two years older or two years younger than me, so for the first time in my life I went to school with and had friends of my own age. Since coming to England I have met, among the Polish community in the U.K., just two ‘Siberian Babies’, people born in Soviet exile in 1940 or 41, so while I don’t claim to be unique, there aren’t many of us about and perhaps that justifies recounting this story.

KIM SĄ MORDERCY INKI? IPN Gdańsk

KIM SĄ MORDERCY INKI? IPN Gdańsk
Jest to wypowiedź pana Piotra Szubarczyka, pracownika naukowego Instytutu Pamięci Narodowej w Gdańsku, na temat bezkarności zbrodniarzy z Urzędu Bezpieczeństwa, komunistycznego sądownictwa i prokuratury odpowiedzialnych za śmierć INKI, bezkarności do dziś... Fragment reportażu poświęconego pamięci Danuty Siedzikówny Inki, zrealizowanego i wyemitowanego przez TV Trwam w 2007 roku

Noam Chomsky on the economy oct 2008

Noam Chomsky on the economy oct 2008

Polish Taxi driver beaten by 3 Americans Navy Servicemen in Gdynia- Gdansk Poland last Night.

Polish Taxi driver beaten by 3 Americans Navy Servicemen from USS "Hewes" in Gdynia-Gdansk Poland last Night.

We have to ask US Department od State, Department of Navy for a deep apology and compensation to the hard working and polite Polish Taxi Driver beaten by American Navy Servicemens-hooligans and of the official military duty.

This will put the bad light on the law that govern American Navy and Army stations in Poland and Europe as a whole.

Poland is not another third world country when US and Blackwater can do what ever they want! We are country of law and order.

US Navy Serviceman for act of hooliganism shall be prosecuted and arested the same night. The same way as any polish citizens.

Amerykańscy żołnierze pobili w Sopocie taksówkarza. Mężczyzna trafił do szpitala, żołnierze wrócili na okręt. To, czy uda się ich przesłuchać, praktycznie zależy od dobrej woli ich i ich przełożonych.
Żołnierze z USA pobili polskiego taksówkarza

Żołnierze z USA zbili polskiego taksówkarza fot. AP / Wilfredo Lee
10 amerykańskich żołnierzy zaatakowało taksówkarza w Sopocie. Mężczyzna jest w szpitalu. Napastników zatrzymała policja, ale już ich zwolniono, bo są wojskowymi z USA.

10 amerykańskich żołnierzy wyszło z jednej z sopockich dyskotek. Zachowywali się głośno i agresywnie. W okolicach Grand Hotelu chcieli zamówić taksówkę. Żaden z kierowców nie kwapił się jednak, żeby ich zabrać. Taksówkarze już nie raz mieli problemy z amerykańskimi marynarzami - piją, krzyczą, trzeba się z nimi kłócić o zapłatę za kurs.

"Amerykanie podeszli do jednego z kierowców. Na początku doszło do słownych utarczek. Potem jeden z nich miał uderzyć Polaka" - mówi dziennikowi.pl Barbara Kuczyńska z zespołu prasowego policji w Sopocie.

Taksówkarz upadł na ziemię i uderzy głową o chodnik. Nie podniósł się już. Żołnierze odeszli. Koledzy taksówkarza wezwali pogotowie i policję.

"Zaraz po zatrzymaniu musieliśmy przekazać żołnierzy żandarmerii wojskowej" - dodaje Barbara Kuczyńska. "Kierowca złożył właśnie zawiadomienie o popełnieniu przestępstwa, ale żołnierze są już na swoim statku. Nie możemy ich tak po prostu przesłuchać. Musimy wystąpić o zgodę na ich przesłuchanie w charakterze świadków. To oczywiście utrudnia nam postępowanie, ale takie są procedury."

Taksówkarz trafił do szpitala. Według informacji podanych przez TVN24, ma wstrząśnienie mózgu. Przeciwnicy budowy amerykańskiej tarczy antyrakietowej w Polsce wiele razy powtarzali, że obecność amerykańskich żołnierzy w Polsce będzie wiązała się z podobnymi incydentami. Teraz , od tego jak zostanie rozwiązana sprawa pobicia w Sopocie, zależeć może stosunek Polaków do amerykańskich baz.

Do incydentu doszło w pobliżu Grand Hotelu w Sopocie w piątek około 23.30. Do jednej z taksówek stojącej na postoju podeszło dwóch mężczyzn. Policja twierdzi, że byli ubrani po cywilnemu. Wsiedli do jednej z taksówek, potem do następnej, w końcu do trzeciej. Próbowali ustalić cenę za przejazd do Gdyni.

Mówili po angielsku, a kierowca znał tylko włoski. Nie zgodził się na kurs za kwotę zaproponowaną przez mężczyzn. Doszło do kłótni i przepychanek. Po chwili do pierwszej dwójki podeszła kolejna grupka mężczyzn. Jeden z nich uderzył taksówkarza w twarz.

- Piotr przewrócił i stracił na chwilę przytomność - opowiada "Gazecie" Paweł, kolega taksówkarza. - Podbiegli koledzy i powstrzymali dalszą agresję.

Koledzy taksówkarza wezwali policję. Policjanci wylegitymowali napastników. Okazało się, że to marynarze z USS "Hewes", amerykańskiej fregaty stojącej w gdyńskim porcie.

Tu jasność, co do tego, co było dalej się kończy.

- Policjanci wezwali żandarmerie wojskową, która przejęła marynarzy i przewiozła na okręt do Gdyni - informuje Kościuk z Komendy Wojewódzkiej Policji w Gdańsku.

Następnego dnia okazało się, że obecność Żandarmerii Wojskowej była zbędna.

- W sobotę około godziny 14. sprawę przekazano policji z Sopotu - mówi Kościuk.

Żandarmeria Wojskowa: To sprawa dla policji

Rzecznik Żandarmerii Wojskowej, mjr Marcin Wiącek, przedstawia odmienną wersję wydarzeń.

- My nie prowadziliśmy żadnych czynności w tej sprawie. Nie rozumiem, dlaczego policja chciała to zrzucić na nas. Prawo mówi jasno, że żołnierzy zagranicznych, którzy nie popełnili przestępstwa związanego z ich działalnością wojskową muszą ścigać służby cywilne. Po żołnierzy przyjechali ich przełożeni i zabrali na okręt - mówi rzecznik ŻW.

Z naszych informacji wynika, że amerykańskich marynarzy odwiozła na okręt polska żandarmeria.

Taksówkarz jeszcze w nocy z piątku na sobotę trafił do szpitala: - Ma wstrząśnienie mózgu, dostał kroplówkę.

Czy marynarze zgłoszą się na przesłuchanie?

Tomas Williamson, attache morski przy ambasadzie amerykańskiej w Polsce, zapewniał rano, że strona amerykańska zamierza współpracować w tej sprawie z polskimi władzami.

- Z tego, co wiem dwaj marynarze mieli się zgłosić do sopockiej policji na przesłuchanie jeszcze w niedzielę po południu - mówił Williamson.

- Tak, te czynności zostaną wykonane - mówił nam po południu podinsp. Mariusz Putno, szef sekcji dochodzeniowo śledczej w KMP Sopot.
Policjanci z Komendy Miejskiej Policji (KMP) w Sopocie wyjaśniają okoliczności pobicia taksówkarza przez grupę amerykańskich żołnierzy. Taksówkarz przebywa w szpitalu miejskim w Gdyni.
Jak powiedziała Barbara Kuczyńska z KMP, zawiadomienie o zdarzeniu sopocka policja otrzymała w nocy z piątku na sobotę.

"Powiadomiono nas, że w okolicy Grand Hotelu grupa mężczyzn zachowuje się agresywnie wobec taksówkarza jednej z trójmiejskich korporacji. Na miejscu po wylegitymowaniu okazało się, że agresywnie zachowującymi się są amerykańscy żołnierze". "Powiadomiliśmy Żandarmerię Wojskową, która wraz z opiekunem Amerykanów zabrała ich na okręt" - wyjaśniła Kuczyńska.

Świadkiem zdarzenia był Paweł Wilkicki, mieszkaniec Sopotu i jednocześnie znajomy poszkodowanego. Powiedział, że taksówkarz leży w szpitalu, ma go opuścić w poniedziałek.

Relacjonując zdarzenie Walkicki podkreślił, że "to nie było brutalne pobicie, ale przepychanka między grupą mężczyzn a taksówkarzem; w pewnym momencie jeden z agresorów przewrócił taksówkarza, który upadł na beton i na chwilę stracił przytomność".

Zastępca Komendanta Miejskiego Policji w Sopocie, mł. insp. Krystyna Stępniewska potwierdziła, że w sobotę zostali przesłuchani świadkowie zdarzenia i poszkodowany taksówkarz.

Prowadzący sprawę, Naczelnik Wydziału Dochodzeniowego sopockiej KMP, podinspektor Mariusz Putno powiedział, że policja zwróciła się do dowódcy amerykańskiego okrętu o wyrażenie zgody na przesłuchanie sprawców zdarzenia. "Teraz czekamy na odpowiedź" - dodał.

Putno poinformował, że u poszkodowanego taksówkarza "obrażenia spowodowały naruszenie czynności narządów ciała na czas nie przekraczający 7 dni". Oznacza to, że czyn ten jest zagrożony karą pozbawienia wolności do lat dwóch.


Alex Lech Bajan
Polish American

RAQport Inc.
2004 North Monroe Street
Arlington Virginia 22207
Washington DC Area
USA
TEL: 703-528-0114
TEL2: 703-652-0993
FAX: 703-940-8300
sms: 703-485-6619
EMAIL: Polonia@raqport.com
WEB SITE: http://raqport.com

Ron Paul on FOX Business w/ Cavuto 10/23/2008

Ron Paul on FOX Business w/ Cavuto 10/23/2008