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Although his research was further revised by Holocaust scholars, Łukaszkiewicz was the first Polish scientist to challenge the evidence for the prosecution submitted in 1946 by the Soviets at the International Military Tribunal (IMT) at Nuremberg. The completely unrealistic estimate of 1.5 million people murdered at the Majdanek concentration camp was based on the theoretical capacity of Majdanek coke-fueled crematoria. This number claimed by the Soviet-led Special Commission was lowered by Łukaszkiewicz by over one million victims based on his own evidence, down to 360,000 which – at that particular time – constituted a challenge requiring a substantial amount of personal integrity.
Death camp forensic investigations (1), Poland
(historic photograph), Internet Archive 2007. {{DEFAULTSORT:Lukaszkiewicz, Zdzislaw 20th-century Polish judges 20th-century Polish historians Polish male non-fiction writers Date of birth unknown Date of death unknown Historians of the Holocaust in Poland
Judge
A judge is a person who wiktionary:preside, presides over court proceedings, either alone or as a part of a judicial panel. In an adversarial system, the judge hears all the witnesses and any other Evidence (law), evidence presented by the barris ...
Zdzisław Łukaszkiewicz was a member of the Main Commission for the Investigation of Nazi Crimes in Poland () upon the conclusion of World War II. The Commission has been replaced, upon the collapse of the Soviet-imposed communism in Poland
Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...
, with the government-affiliated Institute of National Remembrance
The Institute of National Remembrance – Commission for the Prosecution of Crimes against the Polish Nation (, abbreviated IPN) is a Polish state research institute in charge of education and archives which also includes two public prosecutio ...
(IPN) serving similar purpose at present. Łukaszkiewicz was the author of the first historical research into the Nazi German extermination camps including Majdanek and Treblinka, on the territory of occupied Poland during the genocidal Operation Reinhard
Operation Reinhard or Operation Reinhardt ( or ; also or ) was the codename of the secret Nazi Germany, German plan in World War II to exterminate History of the Jews in Poland, Polish Jews in the General Government district of German-occupied ...
of the Holocaust
The Holocaust (), known in Hebrew language, Hebrew as the (), was the genocide of History of the Jews in Europe, European Jews during World War II. From 1941 to 1945, Nazi Germany and Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy ...
.
Holocaust research
Łukaszkiewicz conducted his research at the time when virtually nothing was known about the scale and the exact way in which these atrocities were committed. He published his first findings already in 1946 along with the results of legal and medical inquiries, sworn affidavits of land surveyor T. Trautsolt, Dr H. Wakulicz, the evidence collected by railway workers but most importantly, the testimonies of former prisoners of Treblinka extermination camp who managed to survive the revolt and took part in the Commission's forensic work. Łukaszkiewicz examined the selected graves exhumed at Treblinka I '' Arbeitslager''. His estimate of the total number of the victims of gassing was based on the already proven record of 156 transports with an average of 5,000 prisoners each. Many published results of his enquiries are still considered paramount to the understanding of the Final Solution, even though some specifics have also been revised by modern science. Łukaszkiewicz is being quoted by the Encyclopedia of the Holocaust, the Britannica Polish edition, and the Polish Nowa Encyklopedia Powszechna PWN among others. Also, many professional historians including Wolfgang Scheffler and Czesław Rajca used his publications as the source of pertinent data.Challenges
Łukaszkiewicz was the first Polish researcher to study the 1943 massacre committed at the Majdanek concentration camp under the codename Operation Erntefest. The more substantial revisions to his early research (published in 1948) have been made only in the 1960s and 1970s, when the first testimonies of the Holocaust perpetrators appeared in German court documents during trials.
Although his research was further revised by Holocaust scholars, Łukaszkiewicz was the first Polish scientist to challenge the evidence for the prosecution submitted in 1946 by the Soviets at the International Military Tribunal (IMT) at Nuremberg. The completely unrealistic estimate of 1.5 million people murdered at the Majdanek concentration camp was based on the theoretical capacity of Majdanek coke-fueled crematoria. This number claimed by the Soviet-led Special Commission was lowered by Łukaszkiewicz by over one million victims based on his own evidence, down to 360,000 which – at that particular time – constituted a challenge requiring a substantial amount of personal integrity.
Selected works
* "Obóz zagłady Treblinka" (The Extermination Camp Treblinka) by Zdzisław Łukaszkiewicz, a thirty-page article in: Biuletyn Głównej Komisji Badania Zbrodni Hitlerowskich w Polsce, I, 1946. * ''Obóz straceń w Treblince'' by Zdzisław Łukaszkiewicz (book), published by Państwowy Instytut Wydawniczy, 1946 in Polish, 5 editions, * ''Hitlerowskie obozy koncentracyjne'' (Nazi Concentration Camps) by Zdzisław Łukaszkiewicz (book), published by Polski Instytut Spraw Międzynarodowych, 1955 in Polish, 3 editions * ''Regulamin czynności sądów wojewódzkich i powiatowych w sprawach cywilnych i karnych'' by Z. Łukaszkiewicz with Tadeusz Górski; Janusz Pietrzykowski .a.(book), 1 edition published in 1956 in Polish * ''Chuligaństwo'' by Z. Łukaszkiewicz with J. Sawicki, G. Auscaler, A. Pawełczyńska, T. Cyprian. Ed. by J. Sawicki (book), 1 edition published in 1956 in Polish * ''Obóz koncentracyjny i zagłady Majdanek'' by Zdzisław Łukaszkiewicz (book), Biuletyn Głównej Komisji Badania Zbrodni Niemieckich” 1948, vol. 4, in Polish,See also
* Majdanek trialsNotes
References
* Ghetto Fighters' HouseDeath camp forensic investigations (1), Poland
(historic photograph), Internet Archive 2007. {{DEFAULTSORT:Lukaszkiewicz, Zdzislaw 20th-century Polish judges 20th-century Polish historians Polish male non-fiction writers Date of birth unknown Date of death unknown Historians of the Holocaust in Poland