From Holocaust to hunted at 88

Helena Wolinska-Brus, the widow of a distinguished Oxford professor, leads a quiet, almost reclusive life in an apartment on the edge of the famous university town where she and her late husband settled in ...

[random]

hmm.. what do others think.

[Blake]

I think these types of cases taint the oil of human kindness and ability for forgiveness.
Trying people decades after the infraction seems counterintuitive to me since persecution and punishment are usually methods applied to deter further action from the punished or society at large.
These types of violations tend to occur within a framework of an organization that, right or wrong, have legitimacy at the period of time they exist.
If her actions then are considered criminal then the entire “People’s Army” would be complicit not just one person or persons.
Much like racism or various inequities of the past, prosecuting individuals today for ills of long ago can hardly be called justice, and quite possibly do more social harm than good.

[JDS]

If ex-Nazis are prosecuted, ex-Communists should be as well.

[Polska Patriot]

She, as an individual, is culpable in participating in the show trials and summary execution of innocent men who did nothing wrong but support their nation. She is/was a typical Stalinist Pole who forsook her homeland for an evil, corrupt system. It was her signature that doomed those men, not the entire People's Army, therefore, cute and cuddly at 88 years old or not, she should hang.

Were this the other way around, Stalin and communism's henchmen wouldn't give public opinion or legality the time of day...she is lucky that communism is dead and that Poland's society is once again free.

Also, given the uneducated political climate of the U.S. today, were this a case of a McCarthy (who of course has been vindicated) prosecutor facing trial, the press and wacko left would already have condemned him, just like she did in the 1950's

[Mary]

you should never be considered too old to stand trial for crimes you're accused of. period. That she had eluded justice for so long should not support the case for forgetting and forgiving what she did.

[suzyq]

To use a much over used saying: don't do the crime if you can't do the time. (sorry) She can no more hide behind the I was just following orders than the Nazi's could. If she had robbed a store and hurt no one I would be the first to say let it go and not bring her to trial. But she helped to bring about death penalties and sentences in a prison system that makes most penitentiaries look like country clubs. I can only imagine the horrors that the gulag survivors have to live with. She has to live with the consequences of her actions, regardless of her age.

[A Thought]

She should stand trial, but the Polish government should then not enforce the sentence, thereby showing a more human and humane face than the government she served after the war.

[Apparently]

Apparently, she thinks murdering Jews was bad (it was) but murdering anti-communists is ok. She needs her day in court.

[Tough Love]

What a strange period of history. She resisted the Nazis but then turned on her fellow countrymen. Jews turned on Jews, Poles on Poles...it's like people went nuts just trying to survive.

She doesn't sound very apologetic, though I would like to hear her side of the story. THAT would be a valuable lesson for all of us. I think she's escaped from the train enough and should pay the piper with at least the truth.

[Izzzza]

Well, she should stand trial, and not do the time, she is old and should have good conditions - everyone deserves that.

And I do not believe that she is being prosecuted for her heritage, there are other people Jewish or not whom the goverment tried to get for that. Also, what ticked me off poland is not "the land of Auschwitz" that is why the concentration camps were recently recalled GERMAN Natzi concentration camps.

Moral of the story, she should be trailed, and yes it will a. relieve some people, whose parents she might have prosecuted and b. teach people that you are responsible for what you do

[HealingTime]

Her statement regarding the Poland freed from Communism reads as follows:

"If they don't like you, they accuse you of being an ex-communist and a Jew," she told The Jewish Chronicle, a prominent British publication. She vowed to never return to "the land of Auschwitz and Birkenau." [sic]

That is as hateful and vengeful a statement as you will read anywhere.

The woman was a post-war Communist mass murderer with a paranoid hatred for Christian. She should be deported immediately from Britain to face charges for murder.

[ERO]

Where, exactly, do you see her hating Christians in this statement? It's well known that there is a lot of anti-Semitism STILL in Poland. Friends of mine who have visited concentration camps had small children call them Jewish Pigs and throw things at them while they were praying. He statement was talking about Polish sentiment towards Jews and Communists. She didn't say anything about Christians. Stop trying read between the lines for discrimination that isn't there.

HealingTime wrote:

Her statement regarding the Poland freed from Communism reads as follows:
"If they don't like you, they accuse you of being an ex-communist and a Jew," she told The Jewish Chronicle, a prominent British publication. She vowed to never return to "the land of Auschwitz and Birkenau." [sic]
That is as hateful and vengeful a statement as you will read anywhere.
The woman was a post-war Communist mass murderer with a paranoid hatred for Christian. She should be deported immediately from Britain to face charges for murder.

[Clarence]

She is responsible for a lot of people dying. If my Father or family member died because of Helena I would seek retribution. Either thru the legal system first or by whatever means are available. She should rot in jail until death. The people she killed can't speak.

[David Feldfman]

ERO wrote:

Where, exactly, do you see her hating Christians in this statement? It's well known that there is a lot of anti-Semitism STILL in Poland. Friends of mine who have visited concentration camps had small children call them Jewish Pigs and throw things at them while they were praying. He statement was talking about Polish sentiment towards Jews and Communists. She didn't say anything about Christians. Stop trying read between the lines for discrimination that isn't there.
<quoted text>

Your friends were called "Jewish pigs", by small children, at the concentration camps, and on top of that they were throwing stuff at them, while they were praying.......hm, very unlikely. I visited most of the concentration camps. Most of them have security, and museum workers (most of them Poles) were very nice and helpful. I highly doubt such act would ever be allowed or committed there, especially at the concentration camp, and with the number of Jews visiting Poland. I think you watch too much TV my friend, and don't believe all you hear. Or better yet, pack up and go there yourself....

[Jack]

She should face trial and if guilty spend rest of her life in prison, just like Nazi criminals do.
Are Stalinist Communist criminals better that their Nazi colleges ?
...and to ERO for Mundelein,IL
Anti-Semitism has nothing to do with this case, she is a Communist criminal and should be brought to justice. Unfortunately most Communists in Poland at that time were of Jewish origin.

[Jack]

ERO wrote:

Where, exactly, do you see her hating Christians in this statement? It's well known that there is a lot of anti-Semitism STILL in Poland. Friends of mine who have visited concentration camps had small children call them Jewish Pigs and throw things at them while they were praying. He statement was talking about Polish sentiment towards Jews and Communists. She didn't say anything about Christians. Stop trying read between the lines for discrimination that isn't there.
<quoted text>

Stop your anti-Polish propaganda.
We are talking about Communist criminal who happened to be Jewish.
Semite, Polish etc. does not matter here. She is a criminal and should face justice.

[HealingTime]

ERO wrote:

Where, exactly, do you see her hating Christians in this statement? It's well known that there is a lot of anti-Semitism STILL in Poland. Friends of mine who have visited concentration camps had small children call them Jewish Pigs and throw things at them while they were praying. He statement was talking about Polish sentiment towards Jews and Communists. She didn't say anything about Christians. Stop trying read between the lines for discrimination that isn't there.
<quoted text>

Listen friend, whenever you hear a Jewish person state that Poland is the land of Auschwitz then they are immediately making an accusation about the Poles that fits in nicely with the label that AIPAC and the Jewish Congress would dearly love to make stick, especially in the dumbed down American sub-conscious.

Now when this very dear lady states that she will not return to the land of Auschwitz, then she is implying that the real reason she does not want to return to Poland is because since the fall of communism Poland has become an anti-semitic state. Apart from the obvious real reason which is she wants to avoid being tried for mass murder, she is also doubling her buying power by also slurring the free Polish State.

Over and above all this, during this dark time following the end of the war, the communists and this includes many Jews were especially keen to punish Poland and the Poles for the defeat of the Bolsheviks that was handed to them by Pilsudski in 1919 and 1920. I will remind all those that do not know, that many Polish citizens who were also jews turned traitor at this time and sided with the Bolsheviks, as they did with the SOviets 20 years later when Poland was attacked.

This woman is particularly odious in her desire to be an active and key part of the killing machine that would have killed every member of the Polish Armia Krajowa after the war. The same people that devoted 6 years of their lives fighting to free Poland of the Nazi and Soviet insurgents. Had she been in Katyn, then she would have quite gleefully pulled the trigger herself.

Perhaps that make matters a little clearer for you. Never forget that the true value of the Law is not what is written down, but what is implied between the lines. History may be simplified in a dumbed down society, thankfully Poland has not reached that stage yet.

[HealingTime]

David Feldfman wrote:

<quoted text>
Your friends were called "Jewish pigs", by small children, at the concentration camps, and on top of that they were throwing stuff at them, while they were praying.......hm, very unlikely. I visited most of the concentration camps. Most of them have security, and museum workers (most of them Poles) were very nice and helpful. I highly doubt such act would ever be allowed or committed there, especially at the concentration camp, and with the number of Jews visiting Poland. I think you watch too much TV my friend, and don't believe all you hear. Or better yet, pack up and go there yourself....

Well said, David. Nearly all school kids in Poland were taken around at least one death camp in Poland as part of their school curriculum and clearly taught that this is the place where people were exterminated. While everything is possible, the chances of seeing people being abused by lids while praying at a death camp smacks of the same poisonous propaganda that I spoke about above.

Jewish propagandists in the USA can try to poison the Polish waters for as long as they want. In the end their own Karma will be far more poisoned than that of the Poles. The Universe has that odd way with truth, it always allows suppressed truth to float all the way to the top and show itself as it really is. All we need to do is be authentic to ourselves. If others want to lead double lives and keep up their lies, then the pain with increase by the year.

[FREE RIDE]

In the past few years, our country has deported a few men who were extraordinarily old, to face trial in Israel.

It is time that the Communist crimes against humanity be recognized and tried. Our society has such a distorted sense of justice. Just because the Communists wanted to create utopia doesn't make them good. More genocide has been created under the ideology of Communism than any other ideology.

Let's not give these criminals a free ride. And next time Steven Spielberg extols the virtues of Communist Cuba, point out his hypocrisy.

[The Bubba]

Polska Patriot wrote:

She, as an individual, is culpable in participating in the show trials and summary execution of innocent men who did nothing wrong but support their nation. She is/was a typical Stalinist Pole who forsook her homeland for an evil, corrupt system. It was her signature that doomed those men, not the entire People's Army, therefore, cute and cuddly at 88 years old or not, she should hang.
Were this the other way around, Stalin and communism's henchmen wouldn't give public opinion or legality the time of day...she is lucky that communism is dead and that Poland's society is once again free.
Also, given the uneducated political climate of the U.S. today, were this a case of a McCarthy (who of course has been vindicated) prosecutor facing trial, the press and wacko left would already have condemned him, just like she did in the 1950's

I totally agree with your first two paragraphs, but what the hell are you talking about in the 3rd.?