Suchergebnisse

The purpose of this article is to present issues related to capital punishment in the jurisprudence of the Special Criminal Court in Katowice — one of nine special courts established to try "fascist and Nazi criminals" and traitors to the Polish nation. Records of death penalty trials, prisoners' files from penal institutions, convict records, and articles in regional press were subject to scrutiny, which enabled establishing the names of 57 (or 58) people sentenced to death by the Special Criminal Court in Katowice between March 1945 and November 1946. The majority of the convicts were accused of denunciation to the German authorities, participation in arrests, and, in just three cases, murder. The Katowice Court was one of the special courts with the fewest instances of capital punishment. Thirty-two death sentences were carried out, and the remaining convicts (who constituted 40% of the total) were pardoned by the decision of the President of the National Council and left prison no later than in 1956.

In the years 1944–1948, the authorities of communist Poland, for tactical reasons abstained from direct attacks on the Catholic Church. After the establishment of the authorities' structures and once the political opposition and armed forces underground were defeated, systematic restriction on the influence of the Church begun. Back then, the Catholic Church was the only independent social institution in the country. What was attacked then was, among others, religious education in schools (religious education, crosses and catechists were removed from schools, Catholic education was limited), catholic organisations, charitable and care activities of the Church (at the beginning of 1950, the state took over "Caritas" and kindergartens, children's homes, hospitals were taken from the Church) as well as publishing activities (Catholic press releases were being restricted). The repressions were hindered by the signature of the Church-State Agreement in April 1950. When in 1952, the activities aimed at the removal of religious education from schools were intensified, several dozens of theological seminaries were dissolved and some of the boarding-schools run by the Church were taken over, then Primate Stefan Wyszyński defined the relations between the Church and the State as a "state of emergency". ; In the years 1944–1948, the authorities of communist Poland, for tactical reasons abstained from direct attacks on the Catholic Church. After the establishment of the authorities' structures and once the political opposition and armed forces underground were defeated, systematic restriction on the influence of the Church begun. Back then, the Catholic Church was the only independent social institution in the country. What was attacked then was, among others, religious education in schools (religious education, crosses and catechists were removed from schools, Catholic education was limited), catholic organisations, charitable and care activities of the Church (at the beginning of 1950, the state took over "Caritas" and ...