Anyone know 88 Helena Wolinska masterminding execution of Gen Fieldorf?

So many free to never take responsabilty from Russia and SS Ukraine yet who is this 68 year old lady and was she really given the power they say? Could she be a scape goat that had no choice but go along in order to live? I really don't know and thats why I am asking who she is and what happened? Thanks, Carol

An extract from Daily Mail 21 Nov 2007_

Widow of 88 who has lived in the UK for years is facing a trial and
being arrested and taken back to Poland over her involvement in the
death of
Gen. Emil Fieldorf.

Helena Wolinska is accused of being a signatory on a execution warrant
during the Communist era after WW2. Having escaped from a train taking
her to Treblinka she joined Communist Peoples Guard fighting the German
occupation. After the war she was involved in purges of non-Communist
resistance fighters. She is accused of masterminding the trial and
execution of Gen Fieldorf, head of the Home Army and a National Hero in
Poland. He was tried on trumped up charges of killing Soviet soldiers
and Communist Anti Nazis in 1952 and was secretely hanged in 1953.

oh yes UK should give us this murderer .... but she has British citizenship and they dont care that she killed so many people in Poland ...

No she is in Poland to stand trial now. Carol USA

This story is carried by: telegraph.

It's three pages and makes interesting reading.

RIP Emil Fieldorf aka "Nile". He is a true hero.

I heard the bastards tortured him so badly that he was wheeled to his murder in a bed and hung from there. It's good to know justice caught up with this creature.

It would be interesting to know whether other perpetrators have ben caught for these times of crimes......

Thread attached on merging:
Brought to justice?

Hi all,

The thread on Gen Fieldorf's alleged executioner compels me to ask does anyone know any other alleged or tried perpetrator who has faced justice, leaving aside the more obvious ones.

One problem is that back in the 1950's, when General Wolińska was a prosecutor, the Polish government asked Britain to send back ex AK soldiers to face trial. They didn't send even one single person back then for political reasons, so why start now?

And it's significant that she is a holocaust survivor who was granted asylum when expelled by the communists in 1968.

It seems to me thet General Fieldorf was a true hero, it also seems that he was convicted by a recognised Polish court. Whatever happened all those years ago, an 88 year old woman should never be extradited for political crimes, however vile.

Hi Cezarek,


In my view, I dont think that court can be seen as recognised if you mean in the sense of being legitimate or having jurisdiction. By this I mean legitimacy and jurisdicition come from the laws that give effect to those concepts/powers. Laws are created by government. For the law to be valid, accepted and recognised, the governement that created it must also be accepted by way of being democratically elected. Thsi was not the case in Poland at the time. Consequently, the current Polish govt (I suspect), quite correctly has passed laws that act in retrospect to bring alleged criminals to justice for these types of acts.

Age should be no barrier to facing trial. If her lawyers are astute, they can use that issue in mitigation if she is found guilty and sentenced.

The Nazis who were executing political prisoners were acting quite legally within the German Laws of the time. Nonetheless, once the war was over, they were brought to trial and condemned at Nuremberg, for crimes against humanity. If Wolinska really did what she is accused of then her crime falls well within that same category.

General Fieldorf’s “crime” was only that of fighting for a free Poland – something all loyal Poles did – he was no common criminal, whereas Wolinska, if guilty, was not only a willing participant in assassination, she was also a traitor. It was through her and people like her that a huge segment of the nation was condemned to a life in exile.


The fact that the AK members were not repatriated by the British in the 50s resulted from the British Government’s full awareness that the only “crime” of these people was one of fighting for a free country. To have allowed for their repatriation would have given the British Government a lasting and extraordinarily bad reputation world wide. And justly so. Luckily, the United Kingdom has strong democratic roots and cannot be, or even be thought to be, an accomplice of any regime such as that in power in the USSR and her satellites in that period.

That Wolinska is now old is neither here nor there. There is no expiry date for crimes of a certain magnitude. She can consider herself lucky to have lived a life in relative comfort up till now – something she, it seems (and I add “it seems” because she has yet to be condemned) denied her victims.

It was accepted (diplomatic recognition etc) by the UK and US governments.

That doesn't make it right, but it does make it legal.

And I can't help wondering, what would John Paul II have done in this situation.?

Probably something about forgiveness and mercy.

Hi Jonni

Thanks for your thoughts, but I disagree with your first post. I dont care if the US or UK recognised whatever it was they did. Poland is a sovereign country, and the legitimacty of the law and the branches of govt that flow from it stem from the democratic base that elected the executive arm of govt to put inplace those laws and institutions. There was no popular mandate from the Polish people to give the power to the Polish govt at the time to put in place the laws and "law dispensing" govt branches that led to Nile's murder.

Put simply: Laws and punishments that may effect citizens can ionly be legitimate if the citizen agreed to the giovernment having the power to put those laws in place in the first place. A democratically elected govt, by virtue of being elected, has the mandate to enact laws cosnsistent with the constitution or its policies that got it voted in in the first place.

No democracy = no democratic vote = no binding social contract between govt and people = no leigitiamte govt = no mandate to make laws able to bind the citizen= no legitimate laws.... and so on.

The above model must be stuck to religiously, otherwise we run the risk of history repeating itself and there being more show trials such as Nile's. No offence Jonni, but your view is dangerous. Govts and people must be held accountable for their actions. If nothing else, it may have a deterrent value.

As to Pope JPII, I'm sure he would have, because that was his role. That view has nothing to do though with the law, given the separation of church and state.

Cheers, Dan

Well then how about this from Amnesty International, regarding another famous case:

""The fact that Augusto Pinochet was arrested while travelling abroad -- almost unthinkable just 16 months ago -- has sent a powerful message: no one is above international law, even when national laws protect you from prosecution," Amnesty International said.

"The UK courts have confirmed that people accused of crimes such as torture can be prosecuted anywhere in the world.

They have also firmly established that former heads of state are not immune from prosecution for such crimes," Amnesty international said."

Definately no.

Conceivably (sorry Greg). Again, she could raise that argument when and if she faces trial.

I can see now why she should be held responsable. It just shows how much history I have to learn. How sad this is for her country. Carol


Wroclaw,

Thank you so much for this artical. I just finished it and pray she is held accountable. I understand 10 years is an insult when we read of her crimes. Then I must remember if she serves the full sentence it will be "life", at her age. Maybe then it shall not be quite so funny to her. Thank you, Carol

"It seems to me thet General Fieldorf was a true hero, it also seems that he was convicted by a recognised Polish court. Whatever happened all those years ago, an 88 year old woman should never be extradited for political crimes, however vile."

Political crimes? The woman had a war hero executed! Please tell me why can Jews put 90 year old concentration camp guards on trial but when Poland demands justice, all of a sudden they put a "statute of limitaion" on such matters.