Cases with Jewish and Non-Jewish Witnesses before the Appellate Court in Lublin

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

Abstract

Starting in July 1949, all criminal cases in Poland that fell under the August Decree regulations were heard by appellate courts. A preliminary analysis of cases from the Lublin district indicates that a trajectory of each case differed depending on the presence of Jewish witnesses. Whenever Jewish witnesses appeared during the investigation or trial proper, they provided crucial details such as names of victims, motivations of perpetrators, and described other important circumstances. These details are often missing in cases with exclusively non-Jewish witnesses. A comparison of sample cases with and without Jewish involvement is aimed at drawing attention to differences in various stages of trials (investigation, indictment, trial, verdict, sentence). Can this insight provide a picture of Jewish experience in Poland in the immediate postwar period? Does it reveal anything new about Polish-Jewish relations in this period?

Author

• Justyna Koszarska-Szulc, Institute of Literary Research, PAN (Poland)