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Życie i śmierć Żydów z Zachodniego Wołynia (1921–1945)

100%

Snyder T.

Pamięć i Sprawiedliwość

2015

issue 1(25)

243-275

The Life and Death of Western Volhynian Jewry, 1921–1945 This article presents the characteristics of the Jewish population living in Western Volhynia in the times of the Second Republic of Poland and during the Second World War. Polish interwar authorities enabled the Jewish communities to follow their traditional pattern of life. With time, however, Zionism and especially communism were becoming increasingly popular among the Volhynian Jews. In 1937, the Jewish community accounted for about 10 percent of the region’ s inhabitants and was outnumbered by the Ukrainian minority. Jews dominated in trade and skilled crafts and constituted half of the urban population. After 17 September 1939, Volhynia found itself under Soviet occupation. Initially, the Red Army was welcome, as the Soviet terror was mostly directed against the Polish population. Due to aggressive sovietisation, however, the Jews of Volhynia lost any illusions as to the possibility of achieving autonomy, realizing that they had simply become citizens of a totalitarian state. Their situation deteriorated dramatically in June 1941 following the German invasion of Russia. In accordance with Nazi ideology, the local Jews were to be exterminated in the Holocaust. In June and July 1941 alone, approximately 12 000 Jews were murdered by the Germans on the front lines of the war, in the autumn – 20 000 more. The collaborating Ukrainian police forces helped the German occupiers in inflicting terror. The Germans began to set up ghettos at the end of 1941, only to start their liquidation several months later. Jews were murdered on a massive scale in the so-called death pits near their homes. Most of the Volhynian Jews lost their lives during the war. Only a few managed to escape or found shelter among Poles or Ukrainians. Some decided to join partisan groups (mostly communist), who conducted their operations in the extremely difficult conditions of German occupation, Soviet counter-offensive and ethnic civil war in Volhynia.

Sądownictwo radzieckie na Wołyniu i w Galicji Wschodniej w latach 1939–1941

100%

Baran W., Tokarski W.

Pamięć i Sprawiedliwość

2015

issue 1(25)

277-302

The Soviet Judiciary in the Volhynia and in East Galicia in 1939–1941 The article reviews the formation and development of Soviet justice in Volyn and Eastern Galicia in 1939–1941. It reveals the notion of ‘political justice’ and significance of punitive and repressive authorities in Soviet totalitarian system. The paper shows the main trends of judicial and extrajudicial executions of Stalinist regime against the public of Volyn and Eastern Galicia, which was treated as socially alien and politically hostile. Following the Red Army entry in Polish eastern provinces, there were numerous instances where Red Army soldiers and KGB servicemen organized lynching against Polish law enforcement officers, gendarmes, officers, village policemen and other ‘counter-revolutionary elements.’ At the beginning of the Soviet rule Western Ukraine experienced systematic political repressions carried out almost exclusively by direct orders of the Interior Commissar of the USSR L. Beria and military tribunals. Later, all parts of the Soviet judiciary were formed in the territories annexed to the USSR: local prosecutors, court presidents were appointed. Department of Justice and the Bar Association were created. In this respect, a significant share of cases on counter-revolutionary crimes was conducted by regional courts who applied various penalties against defendants. The article analyzes the individual stages of the criminal process and presents typical examples of execution of Soviet justice in Volyn and Eastern Galicia. Based on the records of the Soviet Union Supreme Court, People’ s Commissariat of Justice and the Prosecuto’ s Office, the second half of 1940 was marked by substantial consolidation of punitive policy of the authorities in cases on counterrevolutionary crimes. The operating principle of Special Council of the Soviet Union People’ s Commissariat for Internal Affairs as the main instrument of extrajudicial repressions is revealed based on materials of Branch State Archive of the Security Service of Ukraine.

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2 Pamięć i Sprawiedliwość

1 Baran W.

1 Snyder T.

1 Tokarski W.

2 2015

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Życie i śmierć Żydów z Zachodniego Wołynia (1921–1945)

Sądownictwo radzieckie na Wołyniu i w Galicji Wschodniej w latach 1939–1941