Studia nad Autorytaryzmem i Totalitaryzmem

Auschwitz przed sądem — jurystyczny akt ostatni

2024-01-22T09:25:52+01:00

The aim of the article is to briefly summarize the evolution of the approach of the German judiciary to the prosecution of the perpetrators directly involved in the extermination of Jews, primarily in the Auschwitz-Birkenau and Sobibór camps. Initially proposed by Fritz Bauer, the model of responsibility for aiding extermination by everyone belonging to the camp staff (the so-called Bauer formula) was immediately rejected by the judiciary, which, together with the dogma of criminal law and the legislator (the Dreher Act), dealt with searching for such interpretations and legal solutions which made it possible not to bring charges against any of the members of the death camp staff . This approach was abandoned only in three judgments, against Ivan Demianiuk in 2011, Oskar Gröning in 2015 and Reinhold Hanning in 2016. In opposition to the original approach of the German judiciary, the position of the Polish judicature remains as presented in the process of the Auschwitz-Birkenau camp in 1947. The model of responsibility adopted at that time is still valid, both in terms of the legal foundations still in force (the so-called August decree) and in terms of the dogmatic model of assessing complicity to genocide.

Postępowania karne przed wyższymi sądami krajowymi (Oberlandesgericht) w III Rzeszy

2024-01-22T09:34:02+01:00

This article presents the issue of criminal proceedings before the Highers Regionals Courts of the Third Reich. The institution had its own tradition, as it had already existed prior to Hitler’s rise to power. By virtue of its powers and its territorial scope — the territory of the federal state, during the war the occupied district (Reichsgau) or the province (Provinz) — it was within the range of influence of National Socialist ideology and the totalitarian state. In the initial years of the Third Reich, and especially during the Second World War, the legal system was in constant flux. The author begins with an analysis of case law in which Poles were charged and convicted by the Higher National Court in the given district or province under occupation. Judgments against representatives of other nationalities were also analyzed on a comparative basis. The accusations, trial and sentences submitted by the prosecutor’s office are an obvious example of the lawlessness in the legal system of the Third Reich.

The timespan of the article is 1933–1945, with special emphasis on the period of the Second World War. In the years leading to the war and during its course, the activities and functioning of the prosecutor’s office and the courts were carried out in accordance with the interests of the Third Reich. The rule of law was effectively abolished at that time. The article is based primarily on materials found in Polish and German archives. Case law of the People’s Tribunal was also put under scrutiny. The surviving file material on the activities of the higher national courts is not complete. The establishment of the People’s Tribunal was an illegal act, carried out in violation of the provisions of the Basic Law, the Constitution then in force. Similarly, the Third Reich subordinated to itself the judiciary, the highest national courts, whose decisions concerning crimes against the state system and its security are proof of an intent to violate the law. Trial proceedings, judgments of the higher national courts against Poles or people of other nationalities accused of crimes that endangered the security of the state, such as high treason or treason against their country, were unlawful. The lack of available trial files on the activities of the higher national courts makes it impossible to make a quantitative assessment or approximate the phenomenon of politically motivated trials. Alongside the institutional reconstruction of the judiciary in the Third Reich, changes were made to the Criminal Code and the Code of Criminal Procedure. Under the guise of protecting the state, the national community, the law became repressive and finally sanctioned lawlessness.

Prawnicy tylko dla Żydów. Konsulenci z okręgu Wyższego Sądu Krajowego w Katowicach

2024-01-22T09:37:58+01:00

The article is devoted to the issue of consultants, an institution introduced in the Third Reich to represent Jews in legal matters. Some of the Jewish lawyers excluded from the German bar became consultants. The article presents the legal regulation, the reasons for its issuance and its effects. Based on the personal files of three consultants from the district of the Higher National Court in Katowice, the procedure of admitting them and the conditions of their activity were presented. On the basis of court files, the manner in which they conducted their work in criminal cases was analyzed and assessed.

A significant amount of anti-Jewish legislation was passed in Germany after Hitler seized power. Some of the newly introduced regulation also targetted lawyers of Jewish origin, whose professional activities were hindered, and eventually banned. In 1938 Jews were definitively removed from the German bar. At the same time, it was ensured that Jews would be provided with legal assistance and represented by consultants, i.e. lawyers of Jewish origin. There were clearly fewer consultants than Jewish lawyers (several in the districts in which individual higher national courts operated). Their admission was discretionary. According to sparse findings in the literature, consultants were treated adequately by the German courts and were not hindered in their access to court files, contact with clients or the possibility of submitting lawsuits. Three examined cases of consultants from the district of the Higher National Court in Katowice indicate that they enjoyed similar freedoms while performing their functions in the courts, as described in the literature. In their daily activities, however, they had to struggle with difficulties of an administrative or factual nature, which were a manifestation of discrimination and bans against Jews. Based on these three cases, it could be concluded that they were admitted to consular activity due to positive opinions among the population, the judiciary and the Gestapo, as well as their patriotic attitude during the First World War and during the Silesian Uprisings. Their exemplary professional conduct, war decorations, and even injuries sustained on the front of the Great War did not prevent the consultants from sharing the tragic fate of European Jews.

Rasowa interpretacja dziejów Alfreda Rosenberga

2024-01-22T09:42:19+01:00

One of principal aims of Alfred Rosenberg’s theory of political myth was the creation of a racial interpretation of History. It was a very important issue for National Socialism, as the movement presented itself as leading force opposing Marxism and Leninism. The great strength of communist propaganda lies in its overarching teleological vision of the world, especially Marx’s singular interpretation of the aim of history as great process of human emancipation from class society to communism, which is seen as the end point of history. It was Rosenberg’s understanding that National Socialism, as the great adversary of Marxism, must produce an alternative vision of the sense and goals of history. Rosenberg himself authored one such alternative vision. His meaning of history is a great discourse of the chronology of races struggles. It’s a perpetual war between the Nordic and Semitic races, which encompassed the fabled fall of Atlantis, Antiquity, birth of Christianity, the Middle Ages, the Reformation, the French Revolution, and the beginning of the final war between Marxism and Nazism. This article is an attempt at presenting this vision, with a brief analysis and evaluation of his scientific value.

Wybrane przejawy sowietyzacji Ukraińskiej Socjalistycznej Republiki Radzieckiej na początku lat trzydziestych XX wieku w rozpoznaniu Oddziału II Sztabu Głównego Wojska Polskiego i władz politycznych II RP — część II

2024-01-22T09:45:37+01:00

The aim of this article is to expand upon the considerations initiated in the first part of the article on the manifestations of the progressive sovietization of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic in the early 1930s. The article addresses a thesis according to which the sovietization of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic in the years in question prevented the implementation of Ukrainian national liberation slogans. It was also an unfavorable direction in the broader context of Poland’s security in regard to the policy pursued by Moscow as well as the proximity of the Second Polish Republic to the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic. The presented arguments have led to the conclusion that the sovietization of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic in the early 1930s nullified the chance for implementing Ukrainian national liberation slogans. The policy pursued by the Soviet Union led to full integration of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic in the structures of the Soviet state. The sovietization methods limited the right to self-determination of the Ukrainian people. The diversity of methods and spheres covered by the phenomenon of sovietization in the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic was one of the most important determinants of the effectiveness of this process in the early 1930s.

Dyskurs strukturalnej konieczności jako czynnik totalitaryzacji polityki i prawa. Efekt cieplarniany i pandemia COVID-19 jako polityczne „hybrydy”

2024-01-22T09:49:13+01:00

This article discusses the contemporary discourse of justifying the abandonment of the protection of rights by a higher necessity, which is presented as resulting both from the indications of science and from the structural features of modern society. Such ideas are proclaimed, among others, on the occasion of the phenomena referred to as the COVID-19 pandemic and the greenhouse effect and climate crisis, and are in turn addressed by institutional and political actions. The aim of the article is to analyze this discourse and its effects on the way of understanding politics and law, and in particular the totalitarian tendencies it generates. The author adopts a hermeneutical perspective as a methodological starting point and refers to a certain understanding of politics and law as based on practical reason, which is established in the Western philosophical tradition. This then serves to outline an ideal type of discourse of structural necessity as a rejection of this type of rationality. In doing so, the author refers to the interpretation of commonly known ideological tendencies and institutional facts. The presentation of the less obvious feature of this discourse, i.e. the identification of natural and political necessity, is supported by the author with references to contemporary philosophical and political concepts dealing with the relationship between the social and natural spheres. The conclusion is that this discourse eliminates the idea of the subject, politics understood as the sphere of manifestation of subjectivity, law as an art based on practical rationality, and finally the separation of science and power.

Sektor prywatny w państwie totalitarnym — funkcjonowanie rzemiosła w Polsce w latach 1945–1956

2024-01-22T09:52:21+01:00

After 1945, Poland found itself in the Soviet sphere of influence, which resulted in the implementation of a totalitarian state system. This process had certain economic ramifications. Among them was a gradual shift from a capitalist system to a command and distribution economy. This process was closely linked to the nationalization of private enterprise. However, private property was not completely eliminated. Despite the fact that it was subject to restrictions, it perservered. One of the areas in which its functioning was possible was craft. The article aims to address the reasons for which the private sector was not entirely liquidated, even though its presence went against the socialist principles and core values of the state. How did it manage to survive and function in the conditions of a totalitarian country? The research covers the years 1945–1956, that is the period of molding, strengthening and peak of the totalitarian phase of state. The year 1956 was something of a breakthrough. The Stalinist era was ending, and thus the specter of a complete nationalization of the economy.

The research shows that the authorities had initially tried to recruit craftsmen, and therefore did not emphasize the demands of the nationalization of the workshops. Craft benefited from the short period of post-war prosperity until the year 1947. After that it contracted, which was related to the tightening of the government’s policy towards private property. This was a consequence of the increasing pressure of the USSR to unify economic systems in the socialist countries. However, it should be emphasized that authorities in the economic sphere prioritized the accelerated industrialization of the country and the development of heavy industry. Therefore, craft was tolerated, especially services deemed pertinent to fulfilling the needs of the society. This situation lasted until the year 1956. The importance of craft was emphasized by the representatives of the Democratic Party, but their actual influence on the economic policy of the state was limited.

In summary, it can be stated that the survival of craft was determined by the pragmatism of the authorities, who were willing to tolerate a weak private sector (controlled and under surveillance) while it provided scarce goods and thus reduced social tensions. In addition to that, the government’s priority was the development of heavy industry, which was at the center of the state’s attention. Nevertheless, it cannot be ruled out that if it had not been for the changes that took place after the year 1956, the private sector would have been finally liquidated.

Zlecanie wykonywania funkcji administracji państwowej organizacjom społecznym jako forma uspołecznienia działalności państwa socjalistycznego. Wybrane przykłady

2024-01-22T09:57:33+01:00

Commissioning certain state functions — which consist in transferring the competences held by the state administration to non-state actors (e.g. social organizations) while allowing them to exercise some means of governance while performing said functions — was common practice in socialist states. This led to a shift in the social and political position of organizations of that kind, which in turn strengthened the policital base of a socialist society and ensured the further development of socialist democracy.

Działalność ojców salwatorianów w Bagnie w latach pięćdziesiątych i sześćdziesiątych XX wieku w kontekście deklarowanej wolności uzewnętrzniania przekonań religijnych w Polsce Ludowej

2024-01-22T10:01:31+01:00

The overall approach of the communist authorities toward religious orders in the 1950s and 1960s hinged on the attempt to weave them into the socialist reality of the Polish People’s Republic. Religious orders in the PPR held considerable organizational and personal potential, which meant that they were of interest to both the Episcopate of Poland and the state authorities, and their activities were formed under the distinct influence of the relationship between the state and the Roman Catholic Church. Two periods can be distinguished on the basis of executing different policies of the communist authorities with regard to monastic orders and congregations in Poland: from 1945 to the early 1960s and from the 1960s to the end of 1989.

During the first period (the so-called Stalinist era) monastic orders, much like the Roman Catholic Church, were treated as an enemy of the state. During this period, in the case of the Congregation of Salvatorian Fathers in Bagno, state repression and, at the same time, limitations on their freedom to manifest religious beliefs were enforced through administrative, legal and police measures.

In the second period, the Communist authorities altered their tactics in their dealings with monastic orders. At that time, steps were taken to weaken the episcopate’s influence over monastic orders by attempting to use their autonomy to break up the unity of the Church in Poland.

Up until 1964, the Salvatorian Fathers’ Higher Seminary in Bagno was frequently inspected and required to produce suitable documentation for the authorities. After that, the government made larger-scale attempts to infiltrate the monastery by building a network of secret collaborators. They took advantage of the order’s international missionary activities in particular, forcing or encouraging monks to cooperate with the State in exchange for passports and gaining permission to leave.

In view of this, the policy towards the Salvatorian Fathers’ congregation in Bagno depended on the institution’s loyalty to the State, which also directly translated into its members’ greater freedom to express their religious beliefs, which in the case of this congregation meant, among other things, that they were allowed to educate clerics at the Lower and Higher Seminary and conduct their missionary activities in the spirit of Roman Catholic faith.