Trajectories of the 'August Trials' Proceedings

• In Event: The Initial Findings from USHMM's Database of Holocaust Trials for the Lublin Region in Poland

Abstract

On August 31, 1944, the newly created Polish government issued a decree to punish criminals and collaborators who, together with the German authorities, persecuted and killed Polish civilians, commencing a new era in the judicial system. Over the following years, thousands of the so-called “August trials" took place, and many of them involved Poles who denunciated or killed Jews. This paper discusses the structure of these trials, their evidentiary bases, and the typical and atypical documents and procedures found in the case files. The paper also reflects on legal inconsistencies, changes in the court system, appeals trajectories and other trial properties in the immediate postwar period in Poland.

Author

• Justyna Majewska, Jewish Historical Institute (Poland)