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Communist Courts in Poland

Communist Courts In Poland (1944-1956): Crimes In the Majesty of "Law" - (pol. "Zbrodnie w majestacie prawa ") […] these young people whom you are judging and slanderously call “bandits” are not the criminals. They are the defenders of their country! I don’t regret what I did. My actions were dictated by what the millions of Poles, whose fate was sealed by the NKVD’s bayonets, think. I’ll gladly go to my death. What is death, after all? I believe that each and every drop of the innocent blood you spilled will give birth to thousands of others who will [raise to] oppose you […]" Excerpt from the Reverend Wladyslaw Gurgacz's statement to the communist court in 1949. Rev. Gurgacz, a Jesuit priest was condemned to death and executed by the communists in 1949. In 2008, the President of the Republic of Poland, Lech Kaczynski posthumously decorated Rev. Gurgacz with Poland's highest civilian decoration, the Krzyz Komandorski Orderu Odrodzenia Polski. In the citation letter accompanying the Commander's Cross, president Kaczynski wrote: "Father Gurgacz knew, that by joining the ranks of the Polska Podziemna Armia Niepodleglosciowa [abr. PPAN], he closed the door to any possibility of return to normal life. In the name of God's love, and in the name of love for his country, he chose the fate of the doomed; those doomed by the communist propaganda, and those stripped from the protections of law. He chose the fate of those who were unceasingly hunted by the [communist] security apparatus, those who were mercilessly attacked, and when arrested, the fate of those inhumanly tortured and remanded to execution. [Rev. Gurgacz] didn't hesitate to take this path, and remained faithfully on it until the very end. Lech Aleksander Kaczynski, President of the Republic of Poland". Preface: "Crimes in the Majesty of Law" refers to abuses of the citizens of a state, as directed by a judicial or administrative agent of the state, on the false representation that the abuse was legally authorized. This definition, while reasonably concise, is beset by the ambiguity of how to define "abuse" and "law". As "Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas" superseding "Plessy vs.. Ferguson" demonstrates, "law" can change wholly without the enactment of a contravening law. Empirically, then, law is best defined in John Austin's Utilitarian formulation "commands, backed by threat of sanctions, from a sovereign, to whom people have a habit of obedience". "Sovereign", itself, has been superseded and this might read for modern ears as "commands, backed by threat of sanctions, from a political power, to which people have a habit of obedience". This is almost, but not quite, the same as "Law is what you can get way with calling law." PRL (Polska Rzeczpospolita Ludowa - Eng., People's Republic of Poland; Polish Communist: government) and MBP (Ministerstwo Bezpieczenstwa Publicznego - Eng., Ministry of Public Security [of Poland]; Polish Communist: secret police, intelligence and counter-espionage) certainly had political power; they ventured sanctions aplenty; but the people of Poland did not have a habit of obedience to them. This is established by the long history of resistance, insurgency and hostility to them leading to the fall of the PRL, and establishment (or re-establishment) of Rzeczpospolita Polska (Eng., Republic of Poland; Polish Patriot: constitutional government pre-war, in exile and post-PRL) Photo Above: (left) Rev. Wladyslaw Gurgacz, a Jesuit Priest, and a chaplain in the Democratic Underground (executed in 1949), with Stanislaw Szajna, nom de guerre "Orzel" and "Zemsta" (right), executed on September 14, 1949. The greatest abuse was the PRL adjudication of Polish Patriotic forces as "traitors", with the object of executing them. Numerous Patriots were so "adjudged" including [list to follow]. Clearly,- facing such an adjudication in a spurious court, many Patriots determined to fight in a guerilla action. By and large, these guerillas avoided edging into the role of terrorists. That distinction has been obscured of late, but the distinction lies the target of an attack. Soldiers and police of a state, or the state's logistical basis in transportation and communications is a form of war, and here guerilla war. On the other hand, targeting civilians going about the business of farming, running a shop or teaching (as opposed to political indoctrination) is terrorism. The patriotic guerillas generally kept within the bounds of the rules of war. In truth, the Communists did not - and were more than willing to take hostages. Bogdan Wegrzynek