A CONTRIBUTION TO THE HISTORY OF COMMISSION ESTABLISHED TO EXPLORE THE AFTERMATH OF THE MILITARY CAMPAIGN OF 1939. TADEUSZ CYPRIAN VERSUS, JERZY GIERTYCH – CASE STUDY

The paper discusses an unknown episode in the history of Polish political emigration during World War II. In order to bring to accountability the members of the former government there were established, under the auspices of government in exile, the special investigation commissions. They were designed to determine the causes of the defeat suffered by Poland in the war of 1939. The commissions collected documents and information but frequently exceeded the boundaries of their competence resorting rather to political vendetta than amassing the archival material. The paper explores an individual case but both the persons involved in it as well as its context may arouse our interest. Both personae dramatis were the functionaries of one of the investigation commissions. It was in the course of the work of the Commission that T. Cyrian – who, before the war, was a judge of the Poznań Apellate Court – become accused of having collaborated with the German intelligence. While retorting the blames laid on him, the accused filed an action with the court against the slanderer. The description of the trial shows the atmosphere prevalent both in the millieu of Polish emigration as well as in the commissions themselves. Even the members of the commissions were not protected against the blames that might be laid on them or defamations as produced by the most impassioned devotees of the policy that tended to make the members of the previous regime answerable.

A CONTRIBUTION TO THE HISTORY OF COMMISSION ESTABLISHED TO EXPLORE THE AFTERMATH OF THE MILITARY CAMPAIGN OF 1939. TADEUSZ CYPRIAN VERSUS, JERZY GIERTYCH – CASE STUDY

The paper discusses an unknown episode in the history of Polish political emigration during World War II. In order to bring to accountability the members of the former government there were established, under the auspices of government in exile, the special investigation commissions. They were designed to determine the causes of the defeat suffered by Poland in the war of 1939. The commissions collected documents and information but frequently exceeded the boundaries of their competence resorting rather to political vendetta than amassing the archival material. The paper explores an individual case but both the persons involved in it as well as its context may arouse our interest. Both personae dramatis were the functionaries of one of the investigation commissions. It was in the course of the work of the Commission that T. Cyrian – who, before the war, was a judge of the Poznań Apellate Court – become accused of having collaborated with the German intelligence. While retorting the blames laid on him, the accused filed an action with the court against the slanderer. The description of the trial shows the atmosphere prevalent both in the millieu of Polish emigration as well as in the commissions themselves. Even the members of the commissions were not protected against the blames that might be laid on them or defamations as produced by the most impassioned devotees of the policy that tended to make the members of the previous regime answerable.