Salomon Morel

Salomon Morel (November 15,

1919 – February 14, 2007) was an
officer in the Ministry of Public
Security in the Polish People's
Republic, and a commander of
concentration camps run by the
NKVD and communist authorities
until 1956.

Salomon Morel
 Salomon Morel

Salomon Morel in 1948

Morel was accused of war crimes
and crimes against humanity in
1995 in absentia

Born November 15,

1919
Garbów, Poland

Died February 14,

2007 (aged 87)
Tel Aviv, Israel

Citizenship Polish, later

Citizenship Polish, later
Israeli

Occupation officer at the

Ministry of Public
Security

Known for Commander of

Zgoda labour
camp and
Jaworzno
concentration
camp

After Nazi Germany occupied

Poland, Morel and his family went
into hiding to avoid being placed
in one of the Jewish ghettos in
German-occupied Poland. Both
Salomon and his brother survived
part of the war and Holocaust
under the protection of a local
Polish farmer, before joining
communist partisans.

In 1944 Morel became warden of

the Soviet NKVD prison at Lublin
Castle. During most of 1945, he
was commander of the Zgoda
labour camp in
Świętochłowice.[1][2] In 1949 he
was made commander of
Jaworzno concentration camp
and remained a commandant of
numerous concentration camps
until they were all closed down in
1956 following the Polish
October. He then worked as head
of prison in Katowice and was
promoted to the rank colonel in
the political police, the MBP. He
was dismissed during the 1968
Polish political crisis which saw
the purging of ex-Stalinists.[3]

Beginning in the early 1990s

Morel was investigated by
Institute of National
Remembrance for war crimes and
crimes against humanity,
including the revenge killings[4] of
more than 1,500 prisoners in
Upper Silesia, most of whom were
either native speakers of Silesian
German or Polish political
prisoners.[5][1][6][7] In 1996, he
was indicted by Poland on
charges of torture, war crimes,
crimes against humanity and
communist crimes.[3] After his
case was publicized by the Polish,
German, British, and American
media, Morel fled to Israel and
was granted citizenship under the
Law of Return. Poland twice
requested his extradition, once in
1998 and once in 2004, but Israel
refused to comply and rejected
the more serious charges as
being false and again rejected
extradition on the grounds that
the statute of limitations against
Morel had run out and that Morel
was in poor health.[8] Polish
authorities responded by
accusing Israel of applying a
double standard, and the
controversy over Morel's
extradition continued until his
death.[5]

Background and youth

Salomon Morel was born on
November 15, 1919, in the village
of Garbów near Lublin, Poland, the
son of a Jewish baker who owned
a small bakery. During the Great
Depression, the family business
began to falter. Therefore, Morel
moved to Łódź where he worked
as a sales clerk, but returned to
Garbów following the outbreak of
war in September 1939.[9]

World War II and early

NKVD service
Morel's family went into hiding
during World War II to avoid being
placed in the ghetto.[9] Morel's
mother, father and one brother
were killed by the Blue Police
during Christmas of 1942.[10]
Solomon Morel and his brother
Izaak survived the Holocaust
hidden by Józef Tkaczyk, a Polish
Catholic. In 1983, Józef Tkaczyk
was designated as one of the
Righteous Among the Nations by
Yad Vashem for saving the Morel
brothers.[9]

Morrel's two brothers died during

the war, one in 1943, another in
1945.[9] According to the IPN, as
the Eastern Front advanced, Morel
and other communist partisans
came out of hiding. In the summer
of 1944, Morel joined the Milicja
Obywatelska in Lublin.[9] Later, he
became a warden at the Lublin
Castle, where many soldiers of
the anti-communist Armia
Krajowa (Home Army) were
imprisoned and tortured.[9][11]

The Israeli mass media and

government presented yet a
different version of his life.[12] The
Israeli letter rejecting extradition
states that Morel joined the
partisans of the Red Army in
1942, and was in the forests when
his parents, sister-in-law, and one
brother were allegedly killed by
Blue Police.[12][13] According to a
number of media sources,[14]
Morel claimed that he was at one
point an inmate in Auschwitz and
over thirty of his relatives were
killed in the Holocaust.[12]

Commander of Zgoda
labour camp

Memorial to the victims of

"totalitarian violence
inflicted by the Nazi and the
Communist regimes" in front
of the former main gate of
Zgoda camp, with text in
Polish, German and English
On March 15, 1945, Morel
became commander of the
infamous Zgoda camp in
Świętochłowice.[9] The Zgoda
camp was set up by the Soviet
political police, or NKVD, after the
Soviet Army entered southern
Poland. In February 1945 the
camp was handed over to the
Polish Ministry of Public Security.
Most prisoners in the camp were
Silesians and German citizens,
while a small number were from
"central Poland", and about 38
foreigners.
Sometimes children were sent to
the camp along with parents.[15]
Prisoners were not accused of
any crime, but were sent by
decision of Security Authorities.
Authorities tried to convince
society that prisoners were only
ethnic Germans and former Nazi
war criminals and
collaborators.[15] Keith Lowe
notes that "in reality almost
anyone could end up there" and
the memorial in front of the
camp's main gate describes the
prisoners as mainly local
population.[1] It is estimated that
close to 2,000 inmates died in the
camp where torture and abuse of
prisoners were chronic and
rampant[13] and resulted in an
average 100 inmate deaths a day.
Solomon Morel's preferred
method of torture was the ice
water tank where prisoners would
be put in with freezing water up to
their necks until they died. The
camp was closed in November
1945.[13]

The survivor Dorota Boriczek

described Morel as "a barbaric
and cruel man" who often
personally tortured and killed
prisoners.[7] Gerhard Gruschka, a
local Upper Silesian of Polish
descent, was imprisoned in Zgoda
when he was 14 years old and
wrote a book about his
experiences, detailing the
endemic torture and abuse in the
camp.[2] Morel was also accused
of an extensive pattern of sadistic
torture in John Sack's book An
Eye for an Eye: The Untold Story
of Jewish Revenge Against
Germans in 1945, which
contributed to publicizing his case
in the Anglophone world in the
1990s.[4]

Historians Nicholas A. Robins and

Adam Jones note that Morel
"presided over a murderous
regime founded on ubiquitous
assaults and atrocities against
German captives."[16] Keith Lowe
notes that "when millions of
bruised and destitute refugees
began flooding into Germany in
the autumn of 1945, they brought
with them some disturbing stories
of places they called 'hell camps',
'death camps' and 'extermination
camps'". Zgoda camp was among
the most notorious of these
camps, and is discussed in detail
by Lowe. Lowe notes that
survivors' stories of Zgoda and
other camps had a profound
impact on West German society
and that their stories were taken
extremely seriously by the
German government and the
general population as examples of
Stalinist brutality.[1]
Commander of
Jaworzno concentration
camp

Memorial plate at the

Stalinist-era Jaworzno
concentration camp (1945–
1956)

From February 1949 to November

1951 Morel was commander of
Jaworzno concentration camp, a
Stalinist-era concentration camp
for political prisoners (designated
"enemies of the nation") in
Poland. By that time he already
had a reputation in Poland as an
"exceptional sadist."[17] During
Morel's time as the commandant
the prisoners were primarily Poles
who were arrested for their
opposition to Stalinism, and
included soldiers of the Polish
Home Army and members of
other Polish underground
resistance organisations such as
Freedom and Independence that
was active from 1945 to 1952.
Prisoners were often tortured and
subjected to forced labor. Morel
left the camp when it was turned
into a camp for adolescent
political prisoners.[18][19]

Later career
Morel continued working as
commandant of Stalinist-era
concentration camps until 1956.
When the Polish October
weakened the hard-line Stalinist
faction in Poland, the Stalinist
concentration camps were closed
down.[20] After 1956, Morel
worked in various prisons in
Silesia and was promoted to the
rank of colonel in the political
police, the MBP. In the 1960s he
was head of a prison in
Katowice.[9] In 1964 he defended
his master's degree with a thesis
on the economic value of forced
labor at Wrocław University's Law
School.[9] During the 1950s, the
Polish communist government
awarded him the Cavalry Cross of
the Polonia Restituta and the
Golden Cross of Merit.[9]
Dismissal

Morel was dismissed from his

position in May 1968 in the wake
of the 1968 Polish political crisis,
which saw the purging of both
Jewish officials and ex-
Stalinists.[21] As Morel was both
Jewish and had a background as
head of Stalinist-era
concentration camps, he became
an obvious target for the 1968
campaign. Unlike most other
Polish Jews, and although the
Polish communist government
pressured Jews to emigrate,
Morel nevertheless chose to
remain in Poland, and lived there
as a retiree from the age of 49.[3]

Criminal prosecution
In 1990, after the fall of
communism, the General
Commission for the Investigation
of Crimes against the Polish
Nation, precursor to the Institute
of National Remembrance, started
investigating the abuses carried
out at the Zgoda camp.[9][22]
Fearing prosecution, Morel
emigrated to Israel in 1992.[9][3]

Indictment

In 1996 Salomon Morel was

formally indicted of genocide by
the Polish public prosecutor's
office.[23] The indictment was
later amended to include war
crimes, crimes against humanity
and communist crimes. The latter
charge was added in 2004 and
constitutes a specific crime under
Polish criminal law.[3]
Extradition controversy

In 1998, Poland requested that

Morel be extradited for trial, but
Israel refused.[9] A reply sent to
the Polish Justice Ministry from
the Israeli government said that
Israel would not extradite Mr.
Morel as the statute of limitations
had expired on war crimes.[9]

In April 2004, Poland filed another

extradition request against Morel,
this time with fresh evidence,
upgrading the case to
"communist crimes against the
population."[9] The main charge
against Salomon Morel was that,
as commandant of the Zgoda
camp at Świętochłowice, he
created for the prisoners in this
camp, out of ethnic and political
considerations, conditions that
jeopardised their lives, including
starvation and torture.[9] The
charges against Morel were
based primarily on the evidence
of over 100 witnesses, including
58 former inmates of the Zgoda
camp.[9] In July 2005 this request
was again formally refused by the
Israeli government. The response
rejected the more serious charges
as being false, potentially part of
an antisemitic conspiracy, and
again rejected extradition on the
grounds that the statute of
limitations against Morel had run
out, and that Morel was in poor
health.[9] Ewa Koj, a prosecutor
with the Polish Institute of
National Remembrance, criticized
the decision. “There should be
one measure for judging war
criminals, whether they are
German, Israeli or of any other
nationality,” Koj said. Morel died in
Tel Aviv on February 14, 2007,
seventeen years after the
investigation and prosecution of
him started.[9][24][25][7][5]

Legacy

Anne Applebaum describes Morel

as

a Holocaust victim, a
communist criminal, a
man who lost his entire
family to the Nazis, a
man consumed by a
sadistic fury against
Germans and Poles – a
fury which may or may
not have originated
from his victimhood,
and may or may not
have been connected to
his communism. He was
deeply vengeful, and
profoundly violent. He
was awarded medals by
 the communist Polish
state, was prosecuted by
the post-communist
Polish state, and was
defended by the Israeli
state, though he had
expressed no interest in
moving to Israel until
half a century after the
war, and even then only
after he started to fear
prosecution.[3]

See also
 Czesław Gęborski
Helena Wolińska-Brus
Nachman Dushanski,
Lithuanian SSR
John Sack, An Eye for an Eye:
The Story of Jews Who Sought
Revenge for the Holocaust
John Demjanjuk

Notes and references

1. Lowe, Keith (2012). "The new
'extermination camps' ". Savage
Continent: Europe in the
Aftermath of World War II.
London: Penguin Books.
ISBN 9780241962220.
 ISBN 9780241962220.
2. Gerhard Gruschka, Zgoda -
miejsce grozy: obóz
koncentracyjny w
Świętochłowicach, Wokół Nas
publishing, Gliwice 1998,
ISBN 83-85338-74-8. (in
Polish)
3. Applebaum, Anne (2012). Iron
Curtain: The Crushing of
Eastern Europe, 1944–1956 (ht
tps://archive.org/details/ironcur
taincrush00appl_0) . Knopf
Doubleday Publishing Group.
ISBN 9780385536431.
"Salomon Morel war criminal."
4. Sack, John (1995). An Eye For
An Eye: The Untold Story Of
 An Eye: The Untold Story Of
Jewish Revenge Against
Germans In 1945 (https://book
s.google.com/books?id=VJOxA
QAACAAJ&q=Salomon+Morel+
war+criminal) . Basic Books.
ISBN 9780465022151.
5. "War crime suspect stays in
Israel" (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2
/hi/europe/4659985.stm) .
BBC. 7 July 2005.
6. Piotrowski, Tadeusz (1998).
Poland's Holocaust: Ethnic
Strife, Collaboration with
Occupying Forces and
Genocide in the Second
Republic, 1918-1947 (https://b
ooks.google.com/books?id=hC
 ooks.google.com/books?id=hC
0-dk7vpM8C&q=Salomon+Mo
rel+war+criminal&pg=PA314) .
McFarland.
ISBN 9780786403714.
7. "Israel protects concentration
camp boss" (http://www.indepe
ndent.co.uk/news/israel-protect
s-concentration-camp-boss-11
94791.html) . The
Independent. 29 December
1998.
8. Remembrance, Institute of
National. "Response by the
State of Israel to the application
for the extradition of Salomon
Morel and a report by Dr. Adam
Dziurok and Prosecutor Andrzej
 Dziurok and Prosecutor Andrzej
Majcher on the subject of
Salomon Morel and the history
and operation of the camp at
Świętochłowice-Zgoda" (https:/
/ipn.gov.pl/en/news/71,Respon
se-by-the-State-of-Israel-to-th
e-application-for-the-extraditio
n-of-Salomo.html) . Institute of
National Remembrance.
9. "Salomon Morel" (https://web.a
rchive.org/web/20060221162
029/http://www.ipn.gov.pl/eng/
eng_swietoch_sm.html) .
Archived from the original on
February 21, 2006. Retrieved
2006-02-21., Institute of
National Remembrance.
 National Remembrance.
Retrieved from the Internet
Archive. September 05, 2011.
10. Remembrance, Institute of
National. "IPN" (https://www.ip
n.gov.pl/en/news/71,dok.html) .
Institute of National
Remembrance. Retrieved
2018-02-20.
11. http://polska1918-
89.pl/pdf/23-lata,-6-miesiecy-
i-22-dni-salomona-
morela,5751.pdf
12. Response by the State of Israel
to the application for the
extradition of Salomon Morel
and a report by Dr. Adam
Dziurok and Prosecutor Andrzej
 Dziurok and Prosecutor Andrzej
Majcher on the subject of
Salomon Morel and the history
and operation of the camp at
Świętochłowice-Zgoda. (http://
www.ipn.gov.pl/portal.php?serw
is=en&dzial=2&id=71&search=
10599) Archived (https://web.
archive.org/web/20071013170
000/http://www.ipn.gov.pl/port
al.php?serwis=en&dzial=2&id=
71&search=10599) 2007-10-
13 at the Wayback Machine,
Institute of National
Remembrance, 2005
13. "Świętochłowice - Zgoda Labor
Camp" (https://web.archive.org
/web/20060228092635/http:/
 /www.ipn.gov.pl/eng/eng_swiet
och_histor.html) . Archived
from the original on February
28, 2006. Retrieved
2006-02-28., Institute of
National Remembrance, from
Internet Archive.
14. Shoshana Olidort. Poland Gives
Up Campaign To Extradite
Israeli Citizen (http://www.forwa
rd.com/articles/2461/) . The
Forward. Jul 29, 2005.
15. Adam Dziurok, Obóz Pracy
Świętochłowice-Zgoda. (http://
www.ipn.gov.pl/portal.php?serw
is=pl&dzial=239&id=3758&po
z=3) Archived (https://web.arc
 hive.org/web/2011061120360
6/http://www.ipn.gov.pl/portal.p
hp?serwis=pl&dzial=239&id=3
758&poz=3) 2011-06-11 at
the Wayback Machine Instytut
Pamięci Narodowej, 2010
16. Robins, Nicholas A.; Jones,
Adam (2009). Genocides by
the Oppressed: Subaltern
Genocide in Theory and
Practice. Indiana University
Press. p. 192.
ISBN 9780253220776.
17. Wzorowy polski łagier (https://
www.polityka.pl/tygodnikpolityk
a/historia/1566235,1,przymuso
wy-oboz-pracy-w-jaworznie.re
 ad) , Polityka
18. Stalinowskie obozy pracy w
Polsce (https://www.polskieradi
o.pl/39/156/Artykul/817104,St
alinowskie-obozy-pracy-w-Pols
ce) (Polskie Radio)
19. Kazimierz Miroszewski,
Zygmunt Woźniczka, Obóz
dwóch totalitaryzmów.
Jaworzno 1943-1956,
Jaworzno 2007
20. Kemp-Welch, Tony.
"Dethroning Stalin: Poland
1956 and its Legacy". Europe-
Asia Studies 58(2006): 1261–
84.
21. Dariusz Stola, Kampania
21. Dariusz Stola, Kampania
antysyjonistyczna w Polsce
1967–1968, pp. 79–114
22. Poles Review Postwar
Treatment of Germans (https://
www.nytimes.com/1994/11/01/
world/poles-review-postwar-tre
atment-of-germans.html) , The
New York Times, 1994
23. Arkadiusz Morawiec,
"Jaworzno. Invisibility", Acta
Universitatis Lodziensis, Folia
Litteraria Polonica 8(46) 2017
24. "Response by the State of
Israel, to the application for the
extradition of Salomon Morel" (
https://web.archive.org/web/20
141020150522/http://ipn.gov.p
 141020150522/http://ipn.gov.p
l/en/news/2006/response-by-t
he-state-of-israel-to-the-applic
ation-for-the-e) . Israel. 21 July
2005. Archived from the
original (http://ipn.gov.pl/en/ne
ws/2006/response-by-the-stat
e-of-israel-to-the-application-f
or-the-e) on 20 October
2014.
25. "Israel Won't Extradite Polish
Jew Accused of Post- WWII
Genocide" (https://www.haaret
z.com/1.4919210) . Haaretz. 7
July 2005.

External links
Response by the State of Israel
to the application for the
extradition of Salomon Morel
and a report by Dr. Adam
Dziurok and Prosecutor Andrzej
Majcher on the subject of
Salomon Morel and the history
and operation of the camp at
Świętochłowice-Zgoda. (https:/
/web.archive.org/web/2007101
3170000/http://www.ipn.gov.pl
/portal.php?serwis=en&dzial=2
&id=71&search=10599)
An official news from
2004.04.30 mentioning
Salomon Morel case on the
homepage of Polish Embassy (
https://web.archive.org/web/20
050314192323/http://www.pol
andembassy.org/News/Biuletyn
y_news/News_2004/p2004-0
4-30.htm)
2003 Statement by Prosecutor
Ewa Koj, Head of Divisional
Commission, for Prosecution of
Crimes against the Polish
Nation (http://www.ipn.gov.pl/e
ng/eng_news_high_morel.html
)
Poles Review Postwar
Treatment of Germans (https://
www.nytimes.com/1994/11/01/
world/poles-review-postwar-tr
eatment-of-germans.html) ,
The New York Times, 1994
Israel protects concentration
camp boss (https://www.indepe
ndent.co.uk/news/israel-protec
ts-concentration-camp-boss-1
194791.html) , Independent,
1998
War crime suspect stays in
Israel (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/
hi/world/europe/4659985.stm
) , BBC, 2005
Retrieved from
"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?
title=Salomon_Morel&oldid=11854059
28"

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