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67-734: The initial UB was headed by Public Security General Stanisław Radkiewicz and supervised by Jakub Berman of the Polish Politburo . The main goal of the Department of Security was the swift eradication of anti-communist structures and socio-political base of the Polish Underground State , as well as the persecution of former underground soldiers of the Home Army ( Armia Krajowa ) and later anti-communist organizations like Freedom and Independence (WiN). The Ministry of Public Security

134-722: A division general . He was also a delegate to the first Polish Sejm under Communist rule. Radkiewicz was made head of the UB secret police in 1944, shortly after the formation of the Polish Committee of National Liberation (PKWN) "Lublin Committee" explicitly with Stalin's approval. On 31 December 1944, the PKWN was transformed into the Provisional Government of the Republic of Poland and

201-408: A category of punishment which was reserved for those who were convicted of the most serious crimes, had many of the features which were associated with labor-camp imprisonment. According to historian Anne Applebaum , katorga was not a common sentence; approximately 6,000 katorga convicts were serving sentences in 1906 and 28,600 in 1916. These camps served as a model for political imprisonment during

268-763: A public critique of his actions, he was made the Minister of State Farms. In May 1957, he was removed from the Central Committee of the PZPR and, for three years, from the Party itself. From 1960 until 1968, he served as the general director of the Bureau of State Reserves and retired in 1968. He died on 13 December 1987, aged 84, in Warsaw . Over the years, he had been awarded the Cross of Grunwald and

335-555: A result, between the spring of 1945 and January 1947, at least 140 members of the PSL were murdered by the UB, among them notable figures such as Narcyz Wiatr and Władysław Kojder . The leader of the PSL, Stanisław Mikołajczyk , in the face of widespread election fraud and growing state terror against his party, fled Poland in April 1946. As early as September 1945, Radkiewicz ordered the organisation of

402-610: A seminar entitled On the Clergy's Offensive Against Our Task at a conference for secret police chiefs and Radkiewicz was the main discussant. In her presentation, Brystiger stated that the "final time of merciless fight with the Church" was coming soon and that, in order to win it, the secret services of the Polish United Workers' Party would need to employ "any means necessary". Radkiewicz, in his follow up remarks, noted that, "The clergy

469-734: A series of reforms during the Khrushchev Thaw , the Gulag shrank to a quarter of its former size and receded in its significance in Soviet society. The Nazis first established concentration camps for tens of thousands of political prisoners, primarily members of the Communist Party of Germany and the Social Democratic Party of Germany , in 1933, detaining tens of thousands of prisoners. Many camps were closed following releases of prisoners at

536-443: Is killing, are also imprecisely referred to as "concentration camps". The American Heritage Dictionary defines the term concentration camp as: "A camp where persons are confined, usually without hearings and typically under harsh conditions, often as a result of their membership in a group which the government has identified as dangerous or undesirable." Although the first example of civilian internment may date as far back as

603-473: Is not like the PSL (The Polish People's Party). With them it won't be as easy as it was with the PSL". As a result, in the autumn of 1950 Radkiewicz split Section V of the 5th Department into its own department (also the 5th) whose purpose was exclusively the "fight against the clergy". The actions against the Catholic Church took several forms, including harassment of priests and nuns, attempts to alienate

670-533: Is sometimes conflated with the concept of an " extermination camp " and historians debate whether the term "concentration camp" or the term "internment camp" should be used to describe other examples of civilian internment. Also during World War II, concentration camps were established by Italian , Japanese , US , and Canadian forces. The former label continues to see expanded use for cases post- World War II , for instance in relation to British camps in Kenya during

737-694: The British set up camps during the Second Boer War (1899–1902) in South Africa for interning Boers during the same time period. The German Empire also established concentration camps during the Herero and Namaqua genocide (1904–1907); the death rate of these camps was 45 per cent, twice that of the British camps. The Russian Empire used forced exile and forced labour as forms of judicial punishment. Katorga ,

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804-594: The Council of Ministers decided to replace the ministry with two separate administrations: the Committee for Public Security ( Komitet do Spraw Bezpieczeństwa Publicznego or KDSBP), headed by Władysław Dworakowski , and the Ministry of Interior ( Ministerstwo Spraw Wewnętrznych or MSW), headed by Władysław Wicha . The number of employees of the Committee for Public Security was cut by 30% in central headquarters and by 40–50% in local structures. The huge network of secret informers

871-707: The Internal Security Corps ( Korpus Bezpieczeństwa Wewnętrznego , KBW), 57,000 officers in the Citizens' Militia ( Milicja Obywatelska ), 32,000 officers and soldiers in the Border guard (Wojska Ochrony Pogranicza), 10,000 prison officers (Straż Więzienna), and 125,000 members of Volunteer Reserves of the Citizens Militia (Ochotnicza Rezerwa Milicji Obywatelskiej, ORMO ), a paramilitary police used for special operations. Political penetration and military control over

938-720: The Mau Mau rebellion (1952–1960), and camps set up in Chile during the military dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet (1973–1990). According to the United States Department of Defense as many as 3 million Uyghurs and members of other Muslim minority groups are being held in China 's internment camps which are located in the Xinjiang region and which American news reports often label as concentration camps . The camps were established in

1005-643: The Ministry of Public Security of Poland ( Urząd Bezpieczeństwa or UB ) between 1944 and 1954, he was one of the chief organisers of Stalinist terror in Poland. He also served as a political commissar and was made a divisional general in Communist Poland . Unlike other individuals responsible for the Stalinist terror in the 1940s and 1950s, Radkiewicz was never held responsible for his crimes, although in 1956, after

1072-500: The Order of the Banner of Work (Order Sztandaru Pracy). Concentration camp A concentration camp is a form of internment camp for confining political prisoners or politically targeted demographics , such as members of national or minority ethnic groups, on the grounds of state security, or for exploitation or punishment. Prominent examples of historic concentration camps include

1139-423: The Polish United Workers' Party . Among other activities, Światło had been ordered to falsify evidence that was used to incriminate Władysław Gomułka , whom he personally arrested. He had also arrested and falsified evidence against Marian Spychalski , the future Minister of National Defence , who was at the time a leading politician and high-ranking military officer. The political and administrative matters of

1206-697: The Poznań protests and his official " self-critique ", he was removed from his post as Minister of Public Security and made Minister of State Agricultural Farms (PGRs). Radkiewicz was born in the village of Rozmierki in the Slonimsky Uyezd of the Grodno Governorate of the Russian Empire (present-day Belarus ). He was the son of farmer Franciszek and Paulina née Lenczewska. He finished third grade. In 1915, during World War I , together with his family he

1273-637: The Secret Office was established for Internal counter-intelligence. The Special Office conducted surveillance on members of the MPB itself. On March 2, 1949, the Special Bureau was established, renamed in 1951 simply as Department Ten . Department 10 conducted surveillance of high-ranking members of the Polish United Workers' Party and people associated with them. Josef Goldberg) (1945/47) All over Poland Ministry of Public Security had regional offices. There

1340-632: The Soviet period. In the midst of the Russian Civil War , Lenin and the Bolsheviks established "special" prison camps and "special" gas chambers, separate from its traditional prison system and under the control of the Cheka . These camps, as Lenin envisioned them, had a distinctly political purpose. These concentration camps were not identical to the Stalinist, but were introduced to isolate war prisoners given

1407-478: The anti-communist resistance , who opposed the new occupiers and attacked the Stalinist strongholds, were eventually hunted down by UB security services and assassination squads. The underground structures had been destroyed, and most members of the Armia Krajowa and WiN who remained opposed to communism, were executed after kangaroo trials (staged by Wolińska-Brus and Zarakowski among others), or deported to

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1474-744: The 1830s, the English term concentration camp was first used in order to refer to the reconcentration camps (Spanish: reconcentrados ) which were set up by the Spanish military in Cuba during the Ten Years' War (1868–1878). The label was applied yet again to camps set up by the United States during the Philippine–American War (1899–1902). And expanded usage of the concentration camp label continued, when

1541-403: The 5th Department of UB whose task was to "counter organisations and groups active against the interests of the (Communist) Party". Within the 5th Department, Section V was charged with investigating and building actions against the Catholic Church. Within the section, Sub-Section I was charged with investigating those active in the Catholic Church (including the clergy) while Sub-Section II's focus

1608-690: The British confinement of non-combatants during the Second Boer War , the mass internment of Japanese-American citizens by the US during the Second World War , the Nazi concentration camps (which later morphed into extermination camps ), and the Soviet labour camps or gulag . The term concentration camp originates from the Spanish–Cuban Ten Years' War when Spanish forces detained Cuban civilians in camps in order to more easily combat guerrilla forces. Over

1675-738: The Communal Offices of Public Security ( Gminny Urząd Bezpieczeństwa Publicznego , or GUBP), which were stationed at the local militia precincts ( MO ), with 3 UBP security officers on staff. In 1953, in the field, there were 17 Voivode Offices of Public Security (WUBP), and 2 Regional Offices of Public Security on the order of WUBP. There were 268 District Offices of Public Security (PUBP) and 5 City Offices of Public Security (MUBP), which operated as District Offices of Public Security (PUBP). Together, they employed 33,200 permanent officers, of which 7,500 were stationed in their Warsaw headquarters . According to professor Andrzej Paczkowski , in 1953, there

1742-497: The MBP remained in the committee. It therefore maintained full surveillance and repression capabilities. Several people were removed from prominent positions, but the personal continuity of the MBP-KdsBP management was maintained. In 1956 the marginally less repressive Security Service (SB) replaced the committee in 1956. All secret servicemen, functionaries, and employees were widely known by

1809-412: The Ministry came under the authority of Jakub Berman , a Stalinist from the Polish United Workers' Party . The Ministry of Public Security structure was being changed constantly from January 1945 on, as the Ministry expanded. It was divided into departments and each department was subdivided into sections entrusted with different tasks. In January 1945, the largest and the most important department in UB

1876-831: The NKVD-run militsiya during World War II. He worked as chief of the NKVD Secret Political Department, before becoming People's Commissar of Internal Affairs of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic in the USSR. In 1941–1945, he was the First Deputy People's Commissar of the State Security and later – Deputy People's Commissar of Internal Affairs of the Soviet Union. Once he became main advisor to

1943-538: The PKWN was joined by several members of the London-based Polish government in exile , among them Stanisław Mikołajczyk (later chased out of the country). PKWN was then transformed into Provisional Government of the Republic of Poland ( Polish : Rząd Tymczasowy Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej or RTRP ). All departments were renamed: the Department of Public Security became the Ministry of Public Security ( Ministerstwo Bezpieczeństwa Publicznego ) or MBP and UB. From

2010-420: The PSL which, according to him, opposed Communist rule in Poland and which supposedly supported the anti-Communist underground. The order also stated that these liquidations were to be made to look as the work of the anti-Communist underground, combined with a press campaign directed against "anti-government terrorist bandits", which would place the blame for the murders on various anti-Communist organisations. As

2077-675: The Polish church from the Vatican via the use of moles and agent provocateurs, seizure and expropriation of church property, and staging of incidents which were meant to embarrass the Catholic hierarchy in the eyes of the public and Western opinion (for example, planting of weapons in churches). In particularly "difficult" cases of politically active priests and Catholics who "didn't get the message", Radkiewicz ordered their elimination from public life, or, if all else failed, murder. In December 1954, Radkiewicz

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2144-729: The Soviet GULAG system. In November 1953, First Secretary of the Polish United Workers' Party , Bolesław Bierut , asked Politburo member Jakub Berman to send MBP Lieutenant Colonel Józef Światło on an important mission to East Berlin . Światło, deputy head of UB Department 10 , together with Colonel Anatol Fejgin , were asked to consult with the East German Ministry for State Security's chief Erich Mielke about eliminating Wanda Brońska . The two officials traveled to Berlin and spoke with Mielke. On December 5, 1953,

2211-506: The UB in March 1945, Ivan Serov oversaw the kidnapping of 16 top Polish politicians and underground resistance leaders, secretly transported them to Moscow , where they were tortured and thrown into jail after the staged Trial of the Sixteen . None survived. Infiltrated by NKGB and NKVD agents – the Ministry of Public Security was well known for its criminal nature . From January 1945 (or, July 22),

2278-497: The UB played a significant role in organising Operation Vistula , and in consolidating Communist control of the Polish education system . In December 1945, Radkiewicz directed a general action against the only legal opposition party in Poland at the time, the PSL. The purpose of the action was to ensure a Communist victory in the upcoming elections and in the Polish people's referendum of 1946 . On Radkiewicz's orders, PSL candidates in

2345-555: The UB was renamed Ministry of Public Security of Poland (MBP), although it continued to be known by its UB acronym partly because local offices continued under the old name. In the period after 1945, the secret police grew rapidly under Radkiewicz's direction, with twelve thousand agents in April 1945 and twenty-four thousand in December 1945. At its height, in 1953, the organisation had thirty-three thousand agents. Radkiewicz's UB focused its activities on several main areas: Additionally,

2412-444: The advancing Red Army. PKWN was proclaimed "the only legitimate Polish government" by Stalin, with full political control and Soviet sponsorship. Within the PKWN's internal structure, there were thirteen departments called Resorty . One of these was the Department of Public Security (Resort Bezpieczeństwa Publicznego) or RBP, headed by Stanisław Radkiewicz . It was a precursor of the Polish communist secret police. On 31 December 1944,

2479-517: The authorities in Warsaw. Światło had intimate knowledge of the internal politics of the Polish government, especially the activities of the various secret services. Over the course of the following months, American newspapers and Radio Free Europe reported extensively on political repression in Poland based on Światło revelations, including the torture of prisoners under interrogation and politically motivated executions. Światło also detailed struggles inside

2546-565: The border guard. In 1956 the Committee was dissolved, most of its functions merged into Ministry of Interior; the secret police was renamed to the 'Security Service' ( Służba Bezpieczeństwa or SB) on 28 November 1956. The order was made by Władysław Wicha , who was the incumbent Minister of Interior until 1964. In Warsaw, most of the killings were carried out at the Mokotów Prison . The victims' bodies – often placed naked in cement bags – were wheeled out at night and buried in unmarked graves in

2613-453: The camps were massively expanded and became increasingly deadly. At its peak, the Nazi concentration camp system was extensive, with as many as 15,000 camps and at least 715,000 simultaneous internees. About 1.65 million people were registered prisoners in the camps, of whom about a million died during their imprisonment. The total number of casualties in these camps is difficult to determine, but

2680-736: The core of MBP or UB in January 1945. On September 6, 1945, from the existing structure of Department II emerged three additional departments: Department IV commanded by Aleksander Wolski-Dyszko, Department V commanded by Julia Brystygier , and Department VI headed by Teodor Duda (pl) . In July 1946, further changes were enacted. UB was divided into eight (8) departments, five of which dealt with operational cases, including Counter-espionage (Dep 1), Technical operations and technology (Dep 2), Fighting underground resistance (Dep 3), Protection of economy (Dep 4), and Counteraction of hostile penetration and church influences (Dep 5). In June 1948

2747-796: The country by the Soviet Union was evident in the early years of the Polish People's Republic. The Soviet Northern Group of Forces was stationed in Poland until 1956. The command and administrative structure of the Polish Armed Forces, Intelligence , Counter-intelligence , special services and Internal security organs both civilian (UB) and military ( Main Directorate of Information of the Polish Army GZI WP) were infiltrated by Soviet intelligence and counter-intelligence officers, who served as

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2814-462: The day after meeting Mielke, Światło defected to the United States through their military mission in West Berlin . The next day, American military authorities transported Światło to Frankfurt and by December, Światło had been flown to Washington D.C, where he underwent an extensive debriefing. Światło's defection was widely publicized in the United States and Europe by the American authorities, as well as in Poland via Radio Free Europe , embarrassing

2881-423: The deliberate policy of extermination through labor in many of the camps was designed to ensure that the inmates would die of starvation, untreated disease and summary executions within set periods of time. In addition to the concentration camps, Nazi Germany established six extermination camps , specifically designed to kill millions of people, primarily by gassing . As a result, the term "concentration camp"

2948-445: The elections were harassed and removed from electoral lists, ballots sent to areas of high PSL support were intercepted and never delivered so that voting never took place, PSL town hall meetings were attacked by units of Milicja Obywatelska (MO) and UB and, finally, particularly active members of the party were murdered. Radkiewicz issued an order to his agents in which he instructed them to prepare an action of "liquidating" members of

3015-425: The end of the 1940s to 1954, the Ministry of Public Security – operating alongside the Ministry of Defence – was one of the largest and most powerful institutions in post-war People's Republic of Poland . It was responsible for internal and foreign intelligence, counter-intelligence , monitoring anti-state activity in Poland and abroad, monitoring government and civilian communications ( wiretapping ), supervision of

3082-420: The end of the year, and the camp population would continue to dwindle through 1936; this trend would reverse in 1937, with the Nazi regime arresting tens of thousands of " anti-socials ", a category that included Romani people as well as the homeless, mentally ill, and social non-conformists. Jews were increasingly targeted beginning in 1938. Following the Nazi invasion of Poland and the beginning of World War II,

3149-410: The entire country, the most infamous being Mokotów Prison . The Ministry of Public Security was replaced by a short-lived Committee for Public Security (1954–1956). Propaganda publicized these events, although the changes were in reality cosmetic. The competences of the MBP were taken over by the KdsBP, headed by Władysław Dworakowski. All operational, technical-operational and accounting departments of

3216-486: The extreme historical situation following World War 1 . In 1929, the distinction between criminal and political prisoners was eliminated, administration of the camps was turned over to the Joint State Political Directorate , and the camps were greatly expanded to the point that they comprised a significant portion of the Soviet economy. This Gulag system consisted of several hundred camps for most of its existence and detained some 18 million from 1929 until 1953. As part of

3283-461: The following decades the British during the Second Boer War and the Americans during the Philippine–American War also used concentration camps. The term "concentration camp" and "internment camp" are used to refer to a variety of systems that greatly differ in their severity, mortality rate, and architecture; their defining characteristic is that inmates are held outside the rule of law . Extermination camps or death camps, whose primary purpose

3350-600: The local governments, maintaining a militsiya , maintaining prisons, fire services, rescue services, and border patrol; as well as several concentration camps set up by the NKVD (such as Zgoda labour camp ). In July 1947, the UB absorbed Section II of General Staff of the Polish People's Army (the Polish Military Intelligence). Military and civilian intelligence merged to become Department VII of Ministry of Public Security. In 1950s Ministry of Public Security employed around 32,000 people. Also, UB had control over 41,000 soldiers, including 29,053 privates and 2,356 officers of

3417-449: The main guarantee of pro-Soviet policy of the new Polish socialist state. The Red Army provided assistance to MPB not only in the form of advisors, but also with their own paramilitary units including NKGB , NKVD , GRU , SMERSH ; and, in later years MGB , MVD and KGB . The first Russian chief advisor to the MPB was Major General Ivan Serov , a well-trained Stalinist experienced with Soviet security organs. Serov became commander of

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3484-465: The number of members of the Polish Underground State deported to Siberia and various labor camps in the Soviet Union reached 50,000. Overall, in the years 1944–1956 around 300,000 Polish citizens had been arrested, of whom many thousands were sentenced to long-term imprisonment. There were 6,000 death sentences pronounced, the majority of them carried out "in the majesty of the law". A special disciplinary legislation had been introduced, which allowed for

3551-451: The orders of Joseph Stalin , the KPP was disbanded and many of its leaders were executed as part of the Great Purge . Radkiewicz, however, was spared as he enjoyed Stalin's confidence and was in fact put in charge by Stalin of liquidating KPP's party cells . During World War II , he volunteered for the Red Army , but was later transferred and made a political commissar of the Polish 1st Tadeusz Kościuszko Infantry Division and later

3618-461: The public as Ubecy ; in English "Ubeks" and singular "Ubek/Esbek" ( pronounced: OO -beck ). In July 1944, behind the Soviet front line, a brand new Polish provisional government was formed, called the Polish Committee of National Liberation ( Polski Komitet Wyzwolenia Narodowego , PKWN). It was established in Chełm on the initiative of Polish communists, in order to assume control over Polish territories liberated from Nazi Germany by

3685-433: The secret police. From September 3, 1955 to November 28, 1956 it also controlled the Polish Army's Main Directorate of Information ( Główny Zarząd Informacji Wojska ), which ran the Military Police and counter espionage service. The Ministry of Interior was responsible for the supervision of local governments, the Milicja Obywatelska (Citizens' Militia, MO) police force, correctional facilities, fire and rescue forces, and

3752-561: The sentencing of civil persons before military tribunals including young people and children. The courts were concerned with the alleged crimes, not the age and the maturity of its victims. For many years, the public prosecutors and judges as well as functionaries of the Ministry of Public Security, Security Service of the Ministry of Interior (SB) and Main Directorate of Information of the Polish Army (GZI WP) engaged in acts recognized by international law as crimes against humanity and crimes against peace . The so-called " Cursed soldiers " of

3819-489: The surviving members of the Home Army laid down their arms, granted an official amnesty (lasting till October 15). Most were arrested by UB on the spot, tortured and tried for treason. The UB carried out brutal pacification of civilians, mass arrests (see: Augustów roundup ), as well as makeshift executions (see: Mokotów Prison murder , Public execution in Dębica ) and secret assassinations. According to depositions by Józef Światło and other communist sources, in 1945 alone

3886-422: The vicinity of various Warsaw cemeteries and in open fields. Stanis%C5%82aw Radkiewicz Stanisław Radkiewicz ( Polish pronunciation: [staˈɲiswaf ratˈkʲevit͡ʂ] ; 19 January 1903 – 13 December 1987) was a Polish communist activist with Soviet citizenship, a member of the pre-war Communist Party of Poland and of the post-war Polish United Workers' Party (PZPR). As head of

3953-402: Was Department One, responsible for counter-espionage and anti-state activities . It was headed by General Roman Romkowski . Department I was divided into Sections, each responsible for a different but specific function self-described in the following way: Two new departments were formed in addition to departments and sections created for the Resort Bezpieczeństwa Publicznego (RBP) forming

4020-405: Was also substantially reduced and the most implicated functionaries of the Ministry of Public Security were arrested. Surveillance and repressive activities were reduced; in the majority of factories, special cells of public security, set up to spy on workers, were secretly closed. The Committee for Public Security took responsibility for intelligence and counter-espionage, government security and

4087-548: Was established on 1 January 1945 and ceased operations on 7 December 1954. It was the chief secret service in communist Poland during the period of Stalinism . Throughout its existence, the UB was responsible for brutally beating, arresting, imprisoning, torturing and murdering at least tens of thousands of political opponents and suspects as well as taking part in actions such as Operation Vistula in 1947. The headquarters were located on Koszykowa Street in central Warsaw , but its branches and places of detention were scattered across

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4154-412: Was evacuated by the retreating Imperial Russian Army to Buzuluk in the Samara Governorate , where he worked on local farms. After the Bolshevik Revolution , he joined the Komsomol . After the Polish-Soviet War , in 1922, his family moved back to their home village, but Stanisław soon moved to the Soviet Union where he worked in the Polish Bureau of the Communist Party of Byelorussia . In 1925, he

4221-422: Was one UB officer for every 800 Polish citizens. Never again, in the 45-year-old history of the People's Republic of Poland , were its special services' formations so large in numbers. The highly publicized defection of Colonel Światło, not to mention the general hatred of the Ministry of Public Security among the Polish public led to changes in late 1954. In December of that year, the Polish Council of State and

4288-531: Was one, or more UB office in each voivodeship , each of them called the Voivode Office of Public Security ( Wojewódzki Urząd Bezpieczeństwa Publicznego , or WUBP). Each WUBP had 308 full-time UB officers and employees on staff. Beside WUBP, there were also City Offices of Public Security ( Miejski Urząd Bezpieczeństwa Publicznego or MUBP), with 148 MPB officers and employees; as well as District Offices of Public Security ( Powiatowy Urząd Bezpieczeństwa Publicznego or PUBP), with 51 officers and employees; and finally,

4355-433: Was removed from the position of Minister of Security, and in July 1955 he stepped down from the Political Bureau of the PZPR. After workers' unrest in Poznan in 1956 and the Polish October reforms, several other members of the security services responsible for the Stalinist terror in Poland were put on trial (among others Roman Romkowski , Józef Różański and Anatol Fejgin ), but Radkiewicz went unpunished. After he made

4422-424: Was sent clandestinely by Moscow back into Poland to take charge of the youth section of the illegal Polish Communist Party (KPP). Three years later, he was arrested for activity against the sovereignty and independence of the Polish Republic and sentenced to four years in prison. After being released, he served as a functionary of the KPP. He was arrested again in 1937 and served half a year in prison. In 1938, on

4489-411: Was to be on the Catholic press and secular Catholic organisations. The head of the 5th Department was Julia Brystiger who, together with Radkiewicz, organized the secret police's operations aimed at the Catholic Church in Poland. In October 1947, Brystiger - who was an interrogator of political prisoners widely known for her sadism and Gestapo -like methods of torture during questioning – presented

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