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Anatol Fejgin (25 September 1909 – 28 July 2002) was a Polish
communist Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, ...
activist before
World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...
, and after 1949, commander of the
Stalinist Stalinism is the means of governing and Marxist-Leninist policies implemented in the Soviet Union from 1927 to 1953 by Joseph Stalin. It included the creation of a one-party totalitarian police state, rapid industrialization, the theory ...
political police at the
Ministry of Public Security of Poland The Ministry of Public Security ( pl, Ministerstwo Bezpieczeństwa Publicznego), commonly known as UB or later SB, was the secret police, intelligence and counter-espionage agency operating in the Polish People's Republic. From 1945 to 1954 it w ...
,Poland: Last surviving leader of 1950s political police dies
/ref> in charge of its notorious Special Bureau (the 10th Department). During the Polish October revolution of 1956, his name – along with a number of others including his colleague Col.
Józef Różański Józef Różański (; born Josef Goldberg; 13 July 1907, in Warsaw – 21 August 1981, in Warsaw) was an officer in the Soviet NKVD Secret Police and later, a Colonel in the Polish Ministry of Public Security (UB), a communist secret police. Bo ...
, and Minister
Jakub Berman Jakub Berman (23 December 1901 – 10 April 1984) was a Polish communist politician. Was born in Jewish family, son of Iser and Guta. An activist during the Second Polish Republic, in post-war communist Poland he was a member of the Politburo of ...
– came to symbolize communist terror in postwar
Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populou ...
."Zmarl Anatol Fejgin,"
Gazeta Wyborcza ''Gazeta Wyborcza'' (; ''The Electoral Gazette'' in English) is a Polish daily newspaper based in Warsaw, Poland. It is the first Polish daily newspaper after the era of " real socialism" and one of Poland's newspapers of record, covering the ...
, 11 September 2002,
Warsaw Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officiall ...
Fejgin was born into a middle-class
Jewish family Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites"" ...
,Tomasz Stanczyk, Mniejszosc w bezpieczenstwie, Rzeczpospolita daily
/ref> and in 1927 began medical studies in Warsaw, which he never finished. In 1928, he joined the Communist Party of Poland and in 1929 was arrested and sentenced to two years in prison for communist agitation. Released, Fejgin was arrested again in 1932 and incarcerated for four years. After the outbreak of
World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...
in 1939, Fejgin escaped to
Lwów Lviv ( uk, Львів) is the largest city in Western Ukraine, western Ukraine, and the List of cities in Ukraine, seventh-largest in Ukraine, with a population of . It serves as the administrative centre of Lviv Oblast and Lviv Raion, and is o ...
in the
Soviet occupation zone The Soviet Occupation Zone ( or german: Ostzone, label=none, "East Zone"; , ''Sovetskaya okkupatsionnaya zona Germanii'', "Soviet Occupation Zone of Germany") was an area of Germany in Central Europe that was occupied by the Soviet Union as a ...
, got in touch with the
NKVD The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (russian: Наро́дный комиссариа́т вну́тренних дел, Naródnyy komissariát vnútrennikh del, ), abbreviated NKVD ( ), was the interior ministry of the Soviet Union. ...
and began working for the Soviet authorities. In May 1943 he joined the Soviet sponsored Polish 1st Tadeusz Kosciuszko Infantry Division, where he became a propaganda officer, a
paramilitary A paramilitary is an organization whose structure, tactics, training, subculture, and (often) function are similar to those of a professional military, but is not part of a country's official or legitimate armed forces. Paramilitary units carr ...
rank commonly feared. In January 1945, Fejgin took the post of the director of personal department of the political bureau of the pro-Soviet
Ludowe Wojsko Polskie The Polish People's Army ( pl, Ludowe Wojsko Polskie , LWP) constituted the second formation of the Polish Armed Forces in the East in 1943–1945, and in 1945–1989 the armed forces of the Polish communist state ( from 1952, the Polish Peo ...
.


The interrogator

In October 1949, Fejgin was moved to the
Ministry of Public Security of Poland The Ministry of Public Security ( pl, Ministerstwo Bezpieczeństwa Publicznego), commonly known as UB or later SB, was the secret police, intelligence and counter-espionage agency operating in the Polish People's Republic. From 1945 to 1954 it w ...
(MBP and UB), where he was appointed director of the Special Bureau (renamed in 1951 as the 10th Department), which was formed for ''protecting the Party from provocateurs'' (in reality, the murderous persecution of political opponents and army officers from
Polish Underground State The Polish Underground State ( pl, Polskie Państwo Podziemne, also known as the Polish Secret State) was a single political and military entity formed by the union of resistance organizations in occupied Poland that were loyal to the Gover ...
). Suspended after the 1953 defection of deputy director
Józef Światło Józef Światło, born Izaak Fleischfarb (1 January 1915 – 2 September 1994), was a high-ranking official in the Ministry of Public Security of Poland (''UB'') who served as deputy director of the 10th Department run by Anatol Fejgin. Known f ...
(Izaak Fleischfarb) who incriminated him and other Stalinists, Fejgin was fired from UB during the Polish political thaw and arrested on 23 April 1956, along with his own boss, vice-minister
Roman Romkowski Roman Romkowski born Nasiek (Natan) Grinszpan-Kikiel, Tadeusz Piotrowski ''Poland's holocaust''. Page 60McFarland, 1998. . 437 pages. (February 16, 1907 – July 12, 1965) was a Polish communist official trained by Comintern in Moscow. After the ...
. Tadeusz Piotrowski
''Poland's holocaust''. Page 60
McFarland, 1998 . 437 pages.
) He was brought to trial at the end of the Stalinist period, and on 11 November 1957 sentenced to 12 years in prison for violations of human rights law and abuse of power. Charged along with co-defendants, Romkowski and
Józef Różański Józef Różański (; born Josef Goldberg; 13 July 1907, in Warsaw – 21 August 1981, in Warsaw) was an officer in the Soviet NKVD Secret Police and later, a Colonel in the Polish Ministry of Public Security (UB), a communist secret police. Bo ...
, Fejgin was found guilty of torturing 28 named victims during interrogations, including innocent women and
Polish United Workers' Party The Polish United Workers' Party ( pl, Polska Zjednoczona Partia Robotnicza; ), commonly abbreviated to PZPR, was the communist party which ruled the Polish People's Republic as a one-party state from 1948 to 1989. The PZPR had led two other lega ...
members. His sentence was upheld by the Supreme Court in 1958. Fejgin was kept in Racibórz. He was released from prison after the 1964 amnesty, serving seven years.Barbara Fijałkowska
RÓŻAŃSKI "LIBERAŁEM"
15 December 2002, Fundacja Orientacja "abcnet"; see also: B. Fijałkowska, ''Borejsza i Różański. Przyczynek do dziejów stalinizmu w Polsce'',
In 1985 Fejgin became a member of the state-controlled veterans association, the Society of Fighters for Freedom and Democracy (ZBoWiD), and acquired privileges of a war veteran. In 1990, however, following the collapse of the Soviet empire, he was stripped of the privileges due to his Stalinist past. Fejgin appealed this decision to the
Supreme Administrative Court of the Republic of Poland The Supreme Administrative Court of the Republic of Poland ( pl, Naczelny Sąd Administracyjny, NSA) is the court of last resort in administrative cases e.g. those betweens private citizens (or corporations) and administrative bodies. This court de ...
, but his claim was rejected. The court emphasized that Fejgin's post-World-War-Two activities were harmful to the Polish nation and the Polish legal system, and as such ought to be condemned. At the time of his death in 2002, Fejgin was still the subject of investigation by the
Institute of National Remembrance The Institute of National Remembrance – Commission for the Prosecution of Crimes against the Polish Nation ( pl, Instytut Pamięci Narodowej – Komisja Ścigania Zbrodni przeciwko Narodowi Polskiemu, abbreviated IPN) is a Polish state resea ...
for the crimes he committed as an interrogator.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fejgin, Anatol 1909 births 2002 deaths Polish intelligence officers (1943–1990) Ministry of Public Security (Poland) officials 20th-century Polish Jews Jewish socialists Recipients of the Virtuti Militari (1943–1989) Recipients of the Order of Polonia Restituta (1944–1989) Recipients of the Order of the Cross of Grunwald Polish People's Army personnel