Justice behind the Iron Curtain: Nazis on Trial in Communist Poland

Abstract

Gabriel N. Finder and the late Alexander V. Prusin examine the war crimes trials conducted by the Communist government of Poland from 1944 to 1959. They argue that the prosecutions of this period reflected Polish society’s desire for revenge and occurred within the political context of the emerging Cold War. Nor were these merely show trials: the Poles modeled them after the major trials at Nuremberg and strove for a reasonable degree of due process. But the authors also elucidate how the Polish judicial system addressed the Nazi occupation from within the context of Soviet control. Based on solid archival research, Justice behind the Iron Curtain is a must-read for anyone interested in the subject. Chapter one details the trials held from 1944 to 1947. The authors argue that pursuing Nazi criminals proved important for both the London-based Government-in-Exile and the Soviet-sponsored Polish Committee for National Liberation. The common hatred for the Germans united the two groups and made establishment of special penal courts easier. Both governments realized that such trials would garner political support. Poles appreciated swift justice, but the Government-in-Exile was forced to watch from afar as the Soviet-installed Communists rebuilt Polish justice.