We present a description of the case pending before the District Court in Warsaw. It concerns the defamation of the Polish hero who hid Jews during World War II, who, in a short excerpt from the book “It is still night,” edited by Prof. Barbara Engelking and Prof. Jan Grabowski (as the content editor) was presented as „complicit in the death of Jews”. The book was published by the Association of the Center for Research on the Extermination of Jews, in 2018, and partially financed by a grant from the National (Polish) Research  Center subordinate to Poland’s Ministry of Science and Higher Education in the amount of PLN 522 ,000. Below you will find a description of the case and the involvement of the ”Redutu Dobrego Imienia” foundation, as well as scans of the source files referred to in the document.

At this moment, the case against the aforementioned Professors is pending. The case was brought about by Ms Filomena Leszczyńska, whose uncle is presented, in a fragment of the book as a participant in the murder of Jews, a man without conscience and honor. Mrs. Filomena Leszczyńska turned to our foundation for help in defending the honor of her uncle.

RDI’s actions regarding the book entitled “Dalej jest noc”^1, written by members of the Polish Center for Holocaust Research,as a section of the Institute of Philosophy and Sociology of the Polish Academy of Sciences, and scientifically edited by Prof. Jan Grabowski

The publicly heralded book “Dalej jest noc”, edited by Prof. Jan Grabowski and Prof. Barbara Engelking (who, aside from other members of the Center for Holocaust Research, are also the authors of two chapters), was preceded by contradictory reviews in the public space. On the one hand, advocates of the “New Polish Holocaust Research School” enthused about “fundamental discoveries” made by the authors, while on the other hand enthusiasts of the integrity of historical studies emphasized a number of unreliable and selective pieces of information which were not based on source materials. On top of that, it is necessary to note the behavior of Prof. Grabowski with his “attacks” on his adversaries, which is, in my opinion, extraordinary in normal relations between researchers and their audience.After all, this is how we should call Prof. Grabowski’s responses to his critics who pointed out the methodological mistakes of the work². And this aroused our curiosity. Why would a professor attack the critics of his work so violently? Why would he call his opponents anti-Semites, homophobes and ignoramuses? Our curiosity has grounds as Prof. Jan Grabowski sued Reduta for publishing the “Statement” on his research methods in June 2017. We have the impression that Prof. Grabowski attempts to muffle substantive critic of his works, which stands in clear contradiction not only to academic tradition but also the freedom of scientific disputes (possibility of criticizing scientific research).

Appointment of the working team for the purposes of following Grabowski

Therefore, I appointed Reduta’s research team, whose tasks are to follow the authors of “Dalej jest noc” in archives and to confront stories about Jewish people, included in the book, with sources which the authors of the book “Dalej jest noc. Losy Żydów w wybranych powiatach okupowanej Polski” [Dalej jest noc. Faith of Jews in selected districts of occupied Poland] refer to. We do not wish to determine whether the districts mentioned in the book correspond in terms of size to prewar administrative divisions (which was stressed by Tomasz Domański, and followed by the brutal response of Jan Grabowski, quoted in footnote 2)³. We just want to check if the source references to archival acts are credible. Briefly speaking: all we check is the basis for the methodology of scientific research, rudiments, that is, whether a quotation in the book, a source reference, matches the archival data. Whether information on events included in the book matches the sources and if these sources are entered in the footnotes. Whether quoting sources is complete or perhaps only some passages which support the thesis are chosen. After all, it is a scientific publication, funded by the National Science Center, and edited by prominent professors. Everything should be correct, but we were curious about what such a confrontation with sources would be like. I must admit that I was totally surprised.

We read the book carefully, trying to sort the events presented so that we could check the sources productively. Mostly, these were files with lawsuits against people who had been accused of collaboration with Germans in “murdering and harassing civilians and prisoners of war” – the title of the Decree of the Polish Committee of National Liberation [PKWN] dated 31.08.1944 – these are the so-called “sierpniówki”⁴. The first criterion for case selection to be checked was the distance from Warsaw – Reduta is very limited in terms of human and financial resources, and therefore stories that took place close to Warsaw came first. A well-known case from Węgrowo, presented in the book by Prof. Grabowski, and described by Mr. Radosław Jóźwiak – a local historian – seemed to be sufficiently explained and there was no point in reproducing this work. Especially as Mr. Radosław Jóźwiak questioned the topography of the town, presented in the memoirs of a Jewish survivor, and copied uncritically by Prof. Grabowski, which was falsified by Mr. Jóźwiak who proved that Prof. Grabowski did not know the topography of the town, and thus his report was not credible.⁵ The claim was that the Poles murdered Jews in Węgrowo. In response to these accusations, Professor Grabowski declared (ina nutshell) that a “history teacher” did not have knowledge of Holocaust studies, and for this reason his voice was irrelevant.

I decided to investigate cases described in the book, which had taken place in another place – in Podlasie, nearby Drohiczyn. This is partly due to its proximity and partly due to easy access to IPN files of court hearing from 1950. These are the cases of Edward Malinowski, son of Stanisław, born on 8/15 December 1894, from Malinowo village, Grodzisk commune, Drohiczyński district, Podlaskie province.

The fact that I give the name of Edward Malinowski’s father is not only because it is given in the case files, on the file with ink inscriptions, but it is of paramount importance, as we will see in a moment.

How many Malinowskis are in Malinowo?

In “Dalej jest noc”, on page 157, we can find the story of Estera Drogicka (as it later turned out, it is one of four of her last names):

“However, Estera Drogicka (nee Siemiatycka), after losing her family [note number 396)], being in possession of documents purchased from a Belorussian woman, decided to leave for Prussia to work, and she was supported by the village leader of Malinowo, Edward Malinowski (he robbed her at that time) – and in December 1942 she moved to Rastenburg (Kętrzyn) to work as a domestic help in the German Fittkau family.

Not only did she meet her second husband there (a Pole who worked with her), but she also developed her commercial operations by sending Malinowski packages with items for sale. She visited him when she went on holiday, “back home”. She realized that he was co-guilty of the death of a few dozen Jews who were hiding in the forest and were turned in to the Germans; in spite of this, she gave false testimony to defend him during the trial after the war (note no. 397)”⁶.

In note no. 396, we read as follows:

“Her sister with children and Estera’s son, after escaping from the ghetto in Drohiczyn, joined the large group of Jews in the forest. They were caught by Poles and taken to the military police station, to be eventually shot to death”. This information derives from the trial of Edward Malinowski, son of Stanisław, from 1950.

While in note no. 397:

“AIPN Bi, 403/18, Files of criminal case of Edward Malinowski, Maria Wiśniewska’s testimony, k.43: >During German occupation I, as a Jew, was hiding in the forest, near Malinowo. Nobody wanted to take me home. I visited the village leader – Malinowski – who took me to his place. I was hiding in his barn for a couple of weeks and he fed me […]. At night his barn was full of Jewish people, Malinowski gave them food. I owe my life to Malinowski because he got Aryan documents for me and then, based on our arrangement, said I dodged forced labor. Back then I got arrested and sent to Germany. I came to Malinowo for my holiday. When Jews were murdered, I was in Germany. I just received a letter from Edward Malinowski who wrote that the forester had turned Jews in and that Jewish partisans had killed him for this<.Malinowski was acquitted.⁷”

Let’s focus on the very body of the text in question and the fact that there is no note which would refer to some facts presented therein. There is no note on the fate of E. Drogicka working in Germany (her stay at Fittkau’s, trading with Malinowski, etc.), while note 397 which refers to the clause that Estera Drogicka realized that “he is [Malinowski] co-guilty of the death of Jews” applies to Estera Drogicka’s explanations made during Malinowski’s trial in 1950, in which Malinowski was acquitted.

We had a look at the files. Our priority was to learn what the author of this chapter, Barbara Engelking, skipped in the quotation from Estera Drogicka’s explanations, as there is a square bracket “[…]” in a certain place in the text of the book, suggesting that some content was omitted by the editors.

Yet we started from reading case files to find out why Edward Malinowski had been brought to trial.

A few people from Malinowo informed against him. In the denunciation to “prosecutors by the District Court in Białystok”, they wrote that Malinowski as a village leader had collaborated with Germans, harassed villagers, and robbed residents in cooperation with Germans. And that he reported to Germans about Jews hiding in the forest, near Malinowo. Germans came to the village and Malinowski took them to the hideout in which Jews were murdered, while Malinowski robbed a dead Jewish girl of her gold earrings. One of the informers was… Edward Malinowski. Does it mean Edward Malinowski informed against himself? He did not, the answer is simpler – in Malinowo there were at least two men called Edward Malinowski and a dozen men with the same last name (Malinowski). This means some other Edward Malinowski informed against Edward Malinowski – the plaintiff’s paternal uncle. And this is crucial for the case we investigate.

When you read files of this case, you can see that the handwriting, sometimes practiced and sometimes less practiced, in black or blue ink, reveals the terrible reality of World War II, just like people from Malinowo, near Drohiczyn, remembered it six or seven years after the event that they had witnessed. As a result of accusations brought to the UB agency [Poland’s communist-era secret police], Edward Malinowski was placed under arrest. He was arrested in September 1949 and put into a detention facility in Białystok. The distance between Białystok and Malinowo is 80 km. Today, this requires you to drive for an hour and ten minutes to reach the destination. Back then it was a two- or three-day journey. Based on the case files, Edward Malinowski’s family tried to somehow deal with the tragedy they faced. The lawyer they hired filed a petition to question witnesses of the defense – Jews rescued by Edward Malinowski, son of Stanisław, who helped them and risked his life. One of these people was Estera Drogicka (after the war she assumed a new name: Maria Wiśniewska) whom I’ve mentioned above. Malinowski’s lawyer also called on Jews to testify: Lejba Prybut and Chuna Kapłan, as ones whom Malinowski helped and hid. In the letter of Edward Malinowski’s proxy to the court, there are the places of residence of these witnesses – Maria Wiśniewska in Wrocaw, Lejba Prybut in Białystok, and Chuna Kapłan in Warsaw. Therefore – after the turmoil of war, the front and Soviet administration of front-line areas, and then during the communist occupation of Poland – Edward Malinowski’s family succeeded in finding these witnesses for the defense, pointing out their places of residence, and they testified on his behalf in the court. As a consequence, Edward Malinowski, son of Stanisław, was acquitted. The case files also include letters written by residents for the court to defend him – these are emotional texts demonstrating how much people owed him. One of the letters stated that, during his reign, nobody left the village to work “in Prussia” (except for Estera Drogicka aka Maria Wiśniewska whose decision to go to work was part of her “survival strategy”, which she mentioned herself), and the village leader also tried to get Germans drunk when they came to the village so that they did not persecute villagers.

The investigation and trial of Edward Malinowski, son of Stanisław, took place in 1949-1950 and ended with Edward being acquitted⁸. At the end of the court proceedings, the judge determined on the basis of witnesses’ testimonies that Edward Malinowski had been unjustly accused of collaborating with Germans, informing against hiding Jews, and robbing the murdered Jewess. The group of witnesses, aside from the informers who partly withdrew their accusations, also included Jews, requested by the defense to testify, whom the defendant had helped during the occupation. We need to remember that five years after the end of the war everyone in Poland knew that helping Jews was tantamount to the death penalty. The court took into account testimonies in favor of Edward Malinowski made by Jews who came specifically for the trial from Białystok, Wrocław and Warsaw. Their testimonies were minuted one after the other in the following order: Maria Wiśniewska, Chuna Kapłan and Lejba Prybut. Wiśniewska’s testimony was noted down on the sheet which can be found at the bottom of page 81 (scan of files), and continues on page 82, while the testimonies of the others can be found below, on sheets 82 and 83. The court also considered the testimonies of Polish residents of Malinowo, who claimed that Edward Malinowski had not been guilty of turning Jews in, but that he had helped them during the war.

In such a case, we need to ask a question as to why the author of the chapter, Prof. Barbara Engelking, and the book editor, Prof. Jan Grabowski, failed to mention testimonies proving that Edward Malinowski had not been guilty? Reading the testimonies of Estera Drogicka aka Maria Wiśniewska, there was no way they did not see the testimonies of other Jews. It seems that such sources must not be omitted and, from the point of view of rules of research ethics, source studies methodology and academic tradition, not only Polish but also Canadian, such actions should have never taken place. Especially if you ascribe the most serious charge to a man – accomplice to murdering other people, and this man is a person who was supported by Jews themselves: “his barn was full of Jews” (Drogicka aka Wiśniewska) and “he gave me bread and pork fat” (Prybut), “he gave me bread and pork fat for free and warned us, the Jews, to stay silent” (Kaplan). Let me remind you – according to German law in occupied Poland, all these deeds entailed the death penalty not only to Malinowski, a village leader, but all his family, or perhaps even the entire village of Malinowo!

Thus, confronting the content of the chapter “Dalej jest noc” by Prof. Barbara Engelking, edited by herself and Prof. Jan Grabowski, with source materials, we discovered that these authors, in our opinion, managed the sources in the following – disturbing to us – way:

1) They skipped an important passage of the testimonies by Estera Drogicka aka Maria Wiśniewska, supporting Edward Malinowski, who did not collect any money for hiding and feeding her (“… although I did not have a red cent…”) – these words were replaced in the passage of the book with a square bracket “[…]”.

2) They deleted Estera Drogicka’s aka Maria Wiśniewska’s words from the testimony: ”In 1945 the fiance of the girl whose earrings were taken by Malinowski said that Malinowski had returned these earrings to him, and praised him”.

3) They skipped/omitted testimonies of other Jews: Lejba Prybut and Chuna Kapłan, which proved Edward Malinowski, son of Stanisław, had helped Jews during the occupation and that it was a forester who informed about Jews hiding in the forest, and that Malinowski had returned earrings to the fiance of the murdered Jewess.

4) There were no notes showing that Estera Drogicka aka Maria Wiśniewska was in Rastenburg – there was also no reference to sources describing her experiences at work: meeting a husband there, trading with Edward Malinowski, getting robbed by him – as the author writes in the body of the text.

5) There was no information suggesting that Estera Drogicka aka Maria Wiśniewska was a so-called “earwitness”, that she was not in Malinowo when Jews were murdered – as opposed to the witnesses: Kaplan and Prybut and numerous Polish witnesses, villagers who directly witnessed the event that took place in the forest, near Malinowo.

We were wondering about the grounds for declaring Malinowski’s guilt by the author of the chapter in the book “Dalej jest noc”, in which this story is described. Both she and the editor are professors with a considerable oeuvre related to the Holocaust. Also, when it comes to the description of the stay of Maria Wiśniewska aka Estera Drogicka in Rastenburg in the workplace, the author fails to give any sources in the notes, the description of events is somehow “suspended in the air” – our thinking was that the author either knew something else, or found the source of information on this matter, but for unknown reasons to us failed to mention this source in the footnote or body of the text.

All of this seemed very mysterious and, in my view, at variance with what I learned in the Faculty of History at the University of Warsaw, where I studied in the years 1984-1991. It is also the place where Prof. Grabowski at that time, in the same faculty and the same MA seminar, learned the basics of historical studies methodology, so our skills in this respect are the same, and it does not matter that he has been dealing with the Holocaust for 20 years and I am a columnist and founder of Reduta Dobrego Imienia. The principles of scientific studies have not changed, unless studying the Holocaust adopts some other methodology which I have no idea about.

Analyzing all of this, I asked further questions: was it a scientific book? Who accepted this book for print, who wrote the review and on what basis was the grant of 522,000 zlotys assigned to this research project settled?

The observation concerning the methodological techniques in the work presented by – in fact – renowned scientists encouraged us to check if the information provided by Drogicka/Wiśniewska and other Jewish witnesses could be probable in terms of topography of the surrounding area. Our goal was to find traces of the events and find Edward Malinowski’s family to listen to their report on the events. It was important because the case files suggested that the wife and younger son of Edward Malinowski had been arrested and sentenced in 1949 for contacting the anti-Nazi underground resistance movement, that is, the local post-AK [the Home Army] unit led by Czesław Pilecki “Jaskółka”.

Since Edward Malinowski’s family kept in touch with such an underground movement, the Cursed Soldiers, in 1949, it means they had to be somehow related to the Home Army [AK] or other underground organizations during World War II. The fact that Malinowski’s family kept in touch with Jaskółka’s patrol at the time when post-AK conspiracy was virtually destroyed by the UB meant that they had to be trusted by the soldiers and leader of this unit, they had to be familiar, after all Jaskółka must have expected UB provocation.

For the case in question, it is important that we assess the conduct of Edward Malinowski during German occupation. If he was affiliated with the Home Army or civil structure of the Polish Underground State, his deeds – helping Jews, hiding them, protecting villagers against being taken for work – must be considered not only in the context of humanity and kindness of heart, but also the civil conduct of a solider and citizen serving his homeland. When we realized this, we were even more motivated to discover the truth about Edward Malinowski. Accusing a man 75 years after the war, a man who was found not guilty in court, of collaboration with Germans and being an accomplice to the murder of Jews (after all, this is how we think the following clause should be understood: “he was co-guilty of the death of Jews” from the text by Prof. Barbara Engelking, edited by Prof. Jan Grabowski) is another destruction of honor of the man who served his homeland well.

Malinowo village is located a dozen kilometers from Drohiczyn, in Dziadkowice parish, where a parish church is situated. The parish was founded in 1451. These are noble “lands”, while Malinowo is an impoverished place. Scattered on flat fields, it is not a typical street village. There are roads which cross, households are separated from one another. There is a forest nearby, and simultaneously the place of tragedy of Jews hiding in “bunkers” took place in 1943. They were turned in by Półtorak, a forester, from the nearby village of Czarna Wielka. Dwellers of the first house which we visited when coming to Malinowo, when asked about Edward Malinowski, showed us the way to the Leszczyński household. It turned out that Filomena Leszczyńska, Edward Malinowski’s niece, was living there along with her son and his family. As the village is spread over fields, the buildings of this household are separated from other buildings and, although the topography after the war could have changed over 75 years, it was clear that this place was suitable for hiding Jews: away from other buildings, by a side road. Meeting the Leszczyński family was somehow very moving. On the one hand, they were farmers with a dairy farm, but on the other you could tell this family had its traditions, had books in the bookcase and talking to them suggested a deeper cultural background than it may seem at first sight.

Filomena Leszczyńska is 80 years old and remembers her paternal uncle and father well, who as it turned out volunteered to go to the Polish-Soviet War in 1919 and became corporals in the CKM campaign. As she says “together with General Żeligowski, they reached as far as Smoleńsk”. The household of Filomena Leszczyńska’s father neighbored the household of his brother – Edward Malinowski, son of Stanisław, who the Germans nominated as a village leader during the German occupation, in place of Adolf Malinowski who had a son Edward Malinowski.

As we can see, in 1943, Malinowo, at the time of the events described in “Dalej jest noc”, had a population of at least 4 Malinowskis: the village leader Edward Malinowski, son of Stanisław, born in 1895, Edward Malinowski, son of Adolf, born in 1920, Adolf Malinowski, a former village leader, Edmund Malinowski, and Franciszek Malinowski. This results from the conversation with Filomena Leszczyńska and the case files of Edward Malinowski, son of Stanisław. Now we can see why the father’s first name is so important in the context of describing the story of Edward Malinowski. Based on the report of Filomena Leszczyńska, we learned that the denunciation against Edward Malinowski, son of Stanisław, resulted from an inveterate feud dating back to times before the war. As the Malinowski family was wealthier than other villagers during the first Soviet occupation, they were closely monitored by Soviet snoopers and probably the only reason why they were not exiled to Siberia was because the Germans invaded Soviet lands in June 1941. When the Nazis murdered Jews in Malinowo, Filomena Leszczyńska was 3 years old, but her family and villagers have kept those events in mind, which can be proved by the file case from 1950 – both in the testimonies of surviving Jews (Drogicka, Prybut, Kapłan), and testifying village residents: Germans came to the village in winter 1943, entered Edward Malinowski’s, son of Stanisław, household and told him to call people with shovels, he appointed a few men, including Edward Malinowski, son of Adolf. The Germans told him to call a forester from Czerna, located a few kilometers from there. The forester did not appear upon first request because he was probably on a round. Eventually, when he came, the Germans talked to him in private and told everyone to go to the forest, where the forester from Czerna pointed out the Jews’ hideout. The Germans started chasing the Jews away, while the men with shovels, including two Edward Malinowskis, stayed at the border of the forest in the snow-covered field. The Germans in turn gathered Jews and told them to undress and then shot them to death. As it was about to get dark, the Nazis told them to bury the dead on the following day. Back then, during the burial, Edward Malinowski, a village leader and son of Stanisław, took gold earrings from the body of a dead Jewess, and later returned them to her fiance, according to the testimony of Prybut, Drogicka and Kapłan. He took them not only because they were a souvenir for the Jew but also a valuable item which could be used for further hiding.

What happened in 1943 in Malinowo – “extermination as part of hunting down Jews” – after liquidation of the ghetto in Drohiczyn was one of many crimes in this area made by Germans with the sanction of the German law introduced in the occupied Poland. The aforesaid law was carefully described by Prof. Bogdan Musiał in his book entitled “Kto dopomoże Żydowi…” [Who can help a Jew…]⁹. According to this law, helping Jews in any way in 1943 entailed the death penalty, as did refusal to participate in such actions as described above in Malinowo. Following this law, the village leader was a hostage. If Jews, partisans, or weapons had been found in the village, or if someone had opposed the Nazis, the village leader would have been shot to death in the first place.

The analysis of events from Malinowo demonstrates that Germans had learned from someone, probably from the forester from Czerna, about the Jews’ hideout in the forest, near Malinowo, before they came to the village – this can be proved by the order to call in the forester from Czerna. It was the forester who turned the Jews in and probably informed the Germans about their stay in his forest. In the aftermath of these events, the forester from Czerna was killed by partisans. One of the testimonies points to “Jewish partisans”.

We asked the Malinowski family about a series of events referred to in the case files from 1950. Filomena Leszczyńska told us that her paternal uncle’s wife, Maria Malinowska, and son Tadeusz were imprisoned for contacting Czesław Jaskółska’s unit and stayed behind bars in Białystok. Tadeusz Malinowski, son of Edward, was 15 years old at that time and, as the family mentions, the tortures he suffered in the UB prison (solitary confinement with cold water, standing for long hours, sleep deprivation) stunted his growth, he was always a short man. The Malinowskis were persecuted for the entire post-war period, until the times of the III Republic of Poland – they experienced theft, home invasions, prevention of education, surtaxes, and quotas, etc.

When we entered the house of Filomena Leszczyńska, Edward Malinowski’s niece, we had the impression that our arrival was some sort of emergence of a piece of free Poland in their house, because public accusations of crimes and collaboration with Germans were a source of additional suffering to them. Not only was the family persecuted by communists, but also the burden imposed on them by the authors of the book “Dalej jest noc”, being so unjust in the light of their knowledge, was unbearable to them. Therefore, they asked Reduta to support them in the fight against defamation of their family. Listening to Filomena Leszczyńska’s reports on the whereabouts of the family, her father and paternal uncle, confronting this with the source material available in IPN, we realized that we were dealing with a patriotic Polish family with traditions of fighting for freedom, fighting against communism, fighting which was possible during the war and in the post-war period. Aside from the fact that Edward Malinowski, son of Stanisław and village leader, hid Jews and helped them during the German occupation, he also hid Lieutenant Kazimierz Krasowski, nicknamed Głuszec, in the same buildings, who during the provocation of the so-called “V Command WiN” was lured out from his hideout at the Malinowskis’ and murdered in Białystok in December 1954, after a fictional trial. Based on the family’s reports, they also hid an anonymous colonel (either AK or NSZ). On 16 September 1949, Henryk Malinowski, son of the Edward Malinowski who was a village leader, as a student of the Warsaw University of Technology, and his colleagues from the underground movement went to Gdańsk with tickets for the Gdańsk to Katowice flight and highjacked the airplane shortly after takeoff, forcing it to fly to Sweden. It was a sensational event in Sweden, yet the Swedish authorities did not publish the identities of the highjackers because it was obvious that they were Polish anti-communist partisans. Henryk Malinowski graduated from the University of Technology in Sweden with an engineer’s degree, and from the 1970s was the head of the Polish Emigration Council in Sweden – the oldest and most important Polish organization in Sweden¹⁰. Edward Malinowski, son of Stanisław, when acquitted and released from prison, moved to Warsaw, often visiting his family lands.

This is why I decided to support Filomena Leszczyńska in her fight for the good name of her paternal uncle. Not only because the publication edited by Prof. Jan Grabowski and Prof. Barbara Engelking files such serious charges against a Polish hero and affects his reputation, but also because, in our view, this case may be a model example of the careless use of historical sources, which may translate into the damage to the reputation not only of Edward Malinowski, but also other Poles, or even Poland. Are these actions aimed at making Poles at least co-guilty of the Holocaust, or perhaps there is some other reason behind it?

As a consequence of detecting these methodological mistakes and vague origins of the information on the stay of Estera Drogicka/Maria Wiśniewska in Rastenburg and her experiences after leaving Malinowo, we decided to find these sources. Even a rough check let us learn that there were a few places with reports and memories of the survivors of the Holocaust – Yad Vashem, the Shoah Foundation, the United States Holocaust Museum. Searching was ongoing – our volunteers in New York and Stockholm and Reduta’s employees in Warsaw listened to dozens of recordings of Holocaust survivors, yet in vain. Importantly, these recordings are not available online and cannot be copied in the reading room of the institution that gives access to them, e.g. in Polin Museum. We couldn’t find the recording, memories of Estera Drogicka/Maria Wiśniewska or Maria Bujalska – we also found such a name in the IPN archives. We found it by chance: a journalist of the liberal Gazeta Wyborcza sent us an inquiry about the lawsuit against Grabowski and Engelking which we had filed in the meantime. What we had already found – confrontation of text from the book with the content of files – was highly interesting and sufficient to file a lawsuit. The GW journalist wrote an e-mail with the following questions:

Dear Sir,

 With reference to our SMS correspondence, I am sending you my questions:

 

1. Was it Reduta Dobrego Imienia that contacted Filomena Leszczyńska or Filomena Leszczyńska that contacted Reduta Dobrego Imienia with regard to the passage of the book edited by Barbara Engelking and Jan Grabowski „Dalej jest noc” dedicated to the report of Maria Wiltgren (formerly Wiśniewska) aka Estera Drogicka about the paternal uncle of Filomena Leszczyńska, Edward Malinowski?
2. Did you instigate the lawsuit?
3. How would you, as Reduta Dobrego Imienia, define your role in this matter?
4. Why are you supposed to be a witness?
5. Do you negate the words of the Survivor, Maria Wiltgren aka Estera Drogicka?
6. Do you think Edward Malinowski did not turn the Jews in and did not rob Maria Wilgren aka Estera Drogicka? The survivor talked about it in the recording from 1996 for the Shoah Foundation. Are you familiar with it?
7. What does the demand presented in the lawsuit mean, the one concerned with the statement that the purpose of the authors of “Dalej jest noc” was to accuse Poles of murdering Jews?¹¹

 

Question number 5 drew my attention. We quickly did some research and it actually turned that Maria Wiltgren’s recording was in USHMM. Our volunteers in Stockholm listened to it and made notes – it was our Estera Drogicka aka Maria Wiśniewska aka Maria Bujalska, who was now called Maria Wiltgrem. I decided to answer the GW journalist. Here is my reply:

Dear Editor,

 See below to find answers to your questions. Before you write a text, please have a close look at the testimonies of witnesses from 1949 concerning the history of Edward Malinowski, son of Stanisław (hereinafter called the VILLAGE LEADER), and listen to the entire recording of the talk with Maria Wiltgren (aka Estera Drogicka aka Maria Wiśniewska) from 1996. The fact that the VILLAGE LEADER helped Jews was also discussed by other Jews whom he had saved and Filomena Leszczyńska, his niece. We believe the testimonies made by Mrs. Estera Drogicka from 1949 because they are in harmony with the testimonies of many other witnesses and confirm that the VILLAGE LEADER Malinowski helped the Jewish People, Poles and Russians at the time of the war. We need to emphasize the fact that Maria Wiltgren (i.e. Drogicka) was not in Malinowo in 1943, when the Jews hiding in the forest were revealed (18-22 persons according to various sources). Back then, she was in Kętrzyn and she learned the story of the killed Jews in the forest near Malinowo probably from… Edward Malinowski, son of Adolf(!). We need to highlight, which also arises from the case files of the VILLAGE LEADER, that there were two Edward Malinowskis in Malinowo. One of them was the son of Adolf Malinowski, and the other of Stanisław. What is equally important, Adolf Malinowski was the previous village leader in Malinowo. (…) Based on the words of Edward – son of Adolf – Estera Drogicka knew how Jews died (however, she did not include any details in her report, perhaps she did not know them). And it was this Edward (son of Adolf) – as the report suggests – whom Estera Drogicka corresponded with during her stay in Kętrzyn. Maria Wiltgren (Estera Drogicka) returned to Malinowo only in 1944 for her holiday. Back then she stayed at the home of Edward Malinowski, Adolf’s son.

 

 How can therefore the authors of “Dalej jest noc” be so sure that it was the village leader Malinowski who “was co-guilty of the death of a few dozen Jews”?

 

Following Estera Drogicka’s account from 1996, it was not so obvious, in my estimation. Why did the researchers, writing a book, enter the note referring to the trial of Malinowski and accusation of 1949 with the testimony of Wiltgren (Estera Drogicka), but they failed to enter the recording with Maria Wiltgren from 1996 as a source for the description of her experiences? (….) What was the researchers’ intention when they failed to show the source to the report of the survivor from 1996? Did they intend to adapt this event to their research thesis, or perhaps there were some other reasons? Why did they omit the fact that the case files of the VILLAGE LEADER Edward Malinowski contained the explanations of several witnesses – surviving Jews and Poles – who, similarly to Estera Drogicka, claimed that the forester had turned the Jews in, while the VILLAGE LEADER Edward Malinowski (son of Stanisław) had hidden Jews and helped them? What was the purpose of omitting such significant facts in the face of such a serious accusation of the VILLAGE LEADER Edward Malinowski of being an accomplice to the murder of Jews? Why are such crucial facts skipped, after all, they oppose the thesis that it was Poles who murdered Jews? The case files from 1949 show there were many Malinowskis from Malinowo. Would a competent researcher combine various stories and persons freely, without learning the truth? Can you accuse the dead of non-committed crimes by skipping certain sources from the times where witnesses better remember what actually happened (which is obvious), and simultaneously base on the testimony made nearly 50 years after the events, the testimony that holds that Estera Drogicka talked about two different Edwards Malinowskis? We deal with two statements made by Maria Wiltgren (court testimony from 1949 and video recording from 1996). And we can also access the testimonies of a few dozen other persons, in favor of the VILLAGE LEADER Malinowski. In “Dalej jest noc”, the authors omitted these passages which might defend the Pole – the VILLAGE LEADER Malinowski. And they described the story of Maria Wiltgren (aka Estera Drogicka) so that the aforesaid story – in my opinion – matched their research thesis.

Additionally, the information confirming the innocence of the VILLAGE LEADER Edward Malinowski is hidden in the footnotes and cannot be easily found by readers – as opposed to the statement on the VILLAGE LEADER Edward Malinowski “being co-guilty” of the murder of Jews. Besides this, Barbara Engelking and Jan Grabowski failed to demonstrate the following in the book or note:

 – any reports of other Jewish and Polish survivors who claimed that the VILLAGE LEADER Malinowski was innocent (other Jews and Poles also communicated the same message as in the testimonies made by Estera Drogicka)

– the VILLAGE LEADER Edward Malinowski also helped people, thanks to which nobody from Malinowo village went to Germany for forced labor (except for one person who volunteered – there are testimonies confirming it in the case files)

– the VILLAGE LEADER was an honest, righteous and highly-regarded man – the case files include a few letters to court signed by residents of Malinowo confirming his honesty and proving that the Jews killed in the forest near Malinowo were turned in by the forester.

 All of this – in my opinion – demonstrates the selective adoption of sources, so that it is possible to put the blame on Edward Malinowski in the passage of the book “Dalej jest noc”, contrary to facts and with the omission of the critical rules of research work of a historian. This is how we evaluate these actions.

ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS:

Was it Reduta Dobrego Imienia that contacted Filomena Leszczyńska or Filomena Leszczyńska that contacted Reduta Dobrego Imienia with regard to the passage of the book edited by Barbara Engelking and Jan Grabowski „Dalej jest noc” dedicated to the coverage of Maria Wiltgren (formerly Wiśniewska) aka Estera Drogicka about the paternal uncle of Filomena Leszczyńska, Edward Malinowski? Reduta Dobrego Imienia contacted Filomena Leszczyńska due to one of our research projects. Filomena was outraged about how her paternal uncle was treated and presented a series of proofs invalidating the thesis from the book “Dalej jest noc” on her paternal uncle. Edward Malinowski, Mrs. Leszczyńska’s paternal uncle, was a hero who saved people during the war, regardless of their nationality (Jews, Russians and Poles), which can be confirmed through testimonies not only made by Estera Drogicka, but also two other Jewish survivors and a few dozen Polish people. It is further supported by the verdict of the court which acquitted Edward Malinowski.

Did you instigate the lawsuit? The plaintiff in this case is Filomena Leszczyńska who wanted to bring a lawsuit for the violation of her personal rights.

How would you, as Reduta Dobrego Imienia, define your role in this matter? Reduta Dobrego Imienia – the Polish League against Defamation – is a foundation whose primary goal is to initiate and support actions aimed at clarifying untrue information in the media on the history of Poland, and in particular the course of World War II, participation of Poles in the war, relations between Poles and the Jewish Nation, and on German concentration camps. It also aims to propagate knowledge of the history and culture of Poland, and present times in Poland, counteracting racism and xenophobia, against Poles and citizens of the Republic of Poland, irrespective of origin, to develop and strengthen attitudes towards active cooperation in the growth of the civic society. These goals can be achieved through the following actions: monitoring media in order to detect the defamation of Poland and Polish people, undertaking legal actions against persons, organizations and institutions which and/or who defame Poland and its citizens, organizing public events, such as pickets, demonstrations, marches, rallies, concerts, fairs, and fests in accordance with the rules of local law in order to protest against the defamation of Poland and the Polish Nation, performing educational, editing and research operations. Reduta Dobrego Imienia defends the reputation of Poland and Polish people. Regarding Edward Malinowski, I believe that we are dealing with several disturbing actions. On the one hand, we can identify deletion – in the scientific book – of passages from the testimonies of Estera Drogicka, which confirm that Mr. Malinowski helped her for free, just to present him in a negative light. On the other hand, the work does not give any relevant information pointing out the testimonies of other Jewish and Polish witnesses who would confirm that Edward Malinowski had rescued Jews. I personally think that such an action was not an accident. It also means that such presentation of Edward Malinowski is surely an illegal violation of the good image of a Pole who supported people during the German occupation and omnipresent German terror.

Why are you supposed to be a witness?

I will tell the court about how we discovered untrue information in the book “Dalej jest noc” and about the negative impact of these slanders on the life of Filomena Leszczyńska, and how it translates into the reputation of Poland.

Do you negate the words of the Survivor, Maria Wiltgren aka Estera Drogicka? We rely, among others, on the testimony of Estera Drogicka from the trial from 1949, when she said that Edward Malinowski had saved her and helped her. We accuse the authors of the book “Dalej jest noc” of the intentional omission of parts of the testimonies of this witness, e.g. about the fact that Edward Malinowski had saved her for free. The information included in the testimonies made by Estera Drogicka can be found in the testimonies filed before court by two Jews saved by Edward Malinowski and a few dozen Poles. Do you think Edward Malinowski did not turn the Jews in and did not rob Maria Wilgren aka Estera Drogicka? The survivor talked about it in the recording from 1996 for the Shoah Foundation. Are you familiar with it? For me, you cannot just be selective in the face of a set of all documents (including statutory documents – case files, witnesses’ testimonies made directly after the event and the statement made 50 years after the event) and pick these passages which match the research thesis, stating that Polish people murdered Jews and then present the untrue story of a Pole, Edward Malinowski. We believe this is how the authors behaved. You cannot just copy testimonies and delete the parts which support Edward Malinowski. You cannot FAIL TO mention that a few dozen witnesses confirmed before the court that Edward Malinowski had saved Jews. YOU JUST CANNOT FAIL TO MENTION THE TESTIMONIES OF THE JEWS THEMSELVES (ASIDE FROM DROGICKA) WHO SAID THAT MALINOWSKI HAD HELPED THEM AND CONFIRMED HIS HONESTY. A reliable scientific researcher must present readers with various aspects of the matter. The book “Dalej jest noc”, and more specifically its passage about the story of Estera Drogicka, depicts only such sources which support the research thesis of the researcher. A reliable researcher is obligated to show the sources which oppose the thesis too. This is how research studies become reliable. Here we are talking about very serious accusations against the VILLAGE LEADER Edward Malinowski – being an accomplice to the murder of Jews. I think that it was the author’s intention to add this story to the book in such a way. And the effect of this is that Filomena Leszczyńska, an old lady, and Edward Malinowski’s family unfairly suffer.

What does the demand presented in the lawsuit mean, the one concerned with the statement that the purpose of the authors of “Dalej jest noc” was to accuse Poles of murdering Jews? There is no such demand in the lawsuit. In the lawsuit, Filomena Leszczyńska demands rectification and apologies for the untrue accusation of her Polish paternal uncle, Edward Malinowski, and for the deliberate attachment of the manipulated story to the thesis holding that Polish people murdered Jews.

Dear Editor,

Now, as you already know everything, are you going to publish explanations fully, are you going to investigate this case comprehensively or perhaps you are going to pick only those sentences which match the initial thesis of the article? Please send authorization. Please acknowledge receipt of this e-mail with responses to the questions asked in your message.

 Yours faithfully

Maciej Świrski Head of Reduta Dobrego Imienia¹²

We got down to work. It turned out that, in the recording from 1996, Estera Drogicka (let’s stick to her first family name) mentioned war events happening after the outbreak of war. The recording of over two hours contains many details from her life – and this biography again differs from the ones we analyzed before. It gives an insight into experiences during the Soviet occupation in the years 1939-1941. She spoke about the period of German occupation, which we were interested in the most, when she went to Malinowo and then to Rastenburg, in a very critical way in relation to Polish people but – in our opinion – Estera Drogicka did not actually say that it was Edward Malinowski who had informed about Jews hiding in the forest, near Malinowo. Her story involves a few people whose differentiation proved to be key to our story.

The story behind the files from IPN and testimonies made before court in 1950 by Estera Drogicka and the testimony of Estera Drogicka/Maria Wiltgren made in 1996 is as follows:

1. During World War II, the residents of Malinowo village included Adolf Malinowski, who was the village leader before the war, Edward Malinowski, his son (Edward Malinowski,

son of Adolf), and Edward Malinowski, son of Stanisław. The last Edward Malinowski, son of Stanisław, was the Malinowo village leader during World War II.

2. After liquidation of the ghetto and the murder of Estera Drogicka’s sister, her sister’s children and her child in the forest near Drohiczyn, Estera Drogicka (running through the forest) reached Malinowo and asked about the village leader. Based on the information provided by Estera Drogicka/Maria Wiltgren, she met Edward Malinowski who said his name was Adolf. The aforesaid Edward Malinowski took her to the military police station from where she was transported to Germany (she claimed that this decision saved her life).
3. Next, to make herself credible as a Pole from Malinowo (she was suspected of being Jewish), she wrote a letter to Malinowo and addressed it to “village leader Adolf Malinowski”; this letter was delivered to the son of Adolf Malinowski – Edward Malinowski. Estera Drogicka had not known and seen this Edward Malinowski ever before. The exchange of letters between Estera Drogicka and Edward Malinowski, son of Adolf, led to trading between them (that is Edward Malinowski, son of Adolf, and Estera Drogicka/Maria Wiltgren)¹³.
4. Trying to show she was not Jewish, Estera Drogicka went to Malinowo; Edward Malinowski, son of Adolf, picked her up from Bielsko. It was the Edward Malinowski whom she had not met before but with whom she had corresponded and traded.
5. Estera Drogicka stayed at the home of Edward Malinowski, son of Adolf, and told him she was Jewish. The sister of Edward Malinowski, son of Adolf, knitted a beautiful dress for Estera Drogicka.
6. In 1943, Jews were murdered in Malinowo, yet when in 1944 Estera Drogicka was staying with the Malinowski family (Edward, son of Adolf, and his sister), the forester’s wife came to the house of Edward Malinowski, son of Adolf, and said that Jewish partisans had killed her husband. Estera Drogicka said nothing, she did not say a word. After the war, as she claims, she “saved life” by supporting Edward Malinowski (it is not clear which one, we can assume it was Edward Malinowski, son of Stanisław – village leader), although “he did a lot of harm to her”.

Working on this case, we found Estera Drogicka’s employee records. It turned out that, after World War II, Estera Drogicka applied for a position of educator/teacher for UB (communist secret political police) workers’ children and was eventually employed. In IPN we accessed the file “Personal files of UB civil worker: Wiśniewska, nee Siemiatycka Maria, father’s name: Jankiel, date of birth: 18-02-1917”. In 1947 Estera Drogicka/Maria Wiśniewska/Maria Wiltgren concluded a job agreement with the Secret Political Police [UB] – educator in holiday camps for children of W.U.B.P (Provincial Public Security Office) employees.¹⁴ For this reason, she had to submit a CV which was different than the CV described in the report from 1996. The discrepancies concern the death of her siblings and father, also the description of works in Germany is slightly different. Whereas the CV presented in 1946 holds that her siblings and father died in the German concentration camp in Treblinka, the CV from 1996 states that her father was killed by Polish people and her sister was convinced by a Pole to go to the military police, where she was murdered (shot to death).

The discovery of sources regarding her fate depicted in the passage of the book made us aware of why Prof. Barbara Engelking failed to add the source note in the book about it. First of all – we think she would have to mention (found shameful by many) the episode in the life of the Survivor, that is work for UB. Secondly – she would have to address the matter of the existence of several Malinowskis and differentiate between Edward Malinowski, son of Stanisław, a person whom she claimed had informed against Jews, and Edward Malinowski, son of Adolf, younger than his namesake by 25 years, who traded with Drogicka. We do not know what made the author do it (lack of comprehensive investigation of the matter, ill will to present a Pole as guilty of the crime or something else). Whatever it was, we hold the opinion that “Dalej jest noc” (at least the part concerning Malinowski) should not be considered as a scientific work conducted in a reliable way. In addition, the combination of several Malinowskis into one helped her present the village leader Edward Malinowski as guilty of informing against Jews – it is exactly to support the thesis on Polish people’s fault for murdering Jews during the occupation, presenting Edward Malinowski as a ruthless and sly person (at first he robbed Estera Drogicka and then had no scruples and traded with her).

We therefore need to ask very specific questions:

– Who reviewed the book entitled “Dalej jest noc”? There is no note on reviewers on the editor’s website.

– What happened so that the grant for this book was settled successfully in the National Science Center?

– How are grants in NSC settled since a book which contains such significant methodological mistakes, in our view disqualifying its value as a scientific work, was settled successfully?

Conclusions

Our archival studies, analysis and confrontation with sources of the half-page passage of the book “Dalej jest noc” by Prof. Barbara Engelking, edited by Prof. Jan Grabowski, resulted in the identification of “methodological mistakes”, as we openly call actions taken by Barbara Engelking.

Unfortunately, we must assume that the “methodological mistakes” are by no means an accident, but the method intentionally adopted by the group surrounding Prof. Jan Grabowski. We need to ask a question: what is the purpose of such conduct? In our view, we do not deal with “scientific work” in the broader sense, whose freedom is guaranteed by the Constitution of the Republic of Poland, but some sort of “cargo cult” in science¹⁵, negligence in the researching or even some kind of intentional mess in research methodology leading to disinformation – sensu stricto.

The lawsuit against Prof. Jan Grabowski and Prof. Barbara Engelking is ongoing. There have already been hearings during which witnesses were questioned, including me with regard to the discovered facts concerning the omission of some sources and failure to add a note on facts from Estera Drogicka’s life after her departure to work in Germany, which in turn let us discover that Barbara Engelking and scientific editor Jan Grabowski combined 2 or maybe even 3 various Edwards Malinowskis into one person. In our estimation, such actions are at variance with the basic rules of edition and analysis of sources, and as a consequence defame Edward Malinowski in the book “Dalej jest noc”, under the scientific supervision of Jan Grabowski.

The reaction of J. Grabowski and B. Engelking to the lawsuit filed on behalf of Filomena Leszczyńska is interesting. In one of the lawsuit documents, they admitted to combining a few Malinowskis into one person, while their proxy said it had been a “mistake” which, however, did not matter and such a mistake did not offend Filomena Leszczyńska. The defendants want to defend themselves in a way that the claim is dismissed due to the non-existence of the right of action of the plaintiff – the non-existence of personal rights in the form of the right to honor ancestors and the right to a good name. In reality, the existence of these rights was confirmed by way of legally binding verdicts in 4 other cases which Reduta won. The basis of the dispute is not historical truth, but the fact that methodological mistakes (skipping and failure to give essential sources) led to defamation of the memory of Filomena Leszczyńska’s ancestor. In historical science, an attempt to learn the truth is based on reliable analysis of sources and correct, from the point of view of logic, conclusions, ensuring research integrity.

Based on the analysis of the stance of the defendants, we can also conclude that the defendants not only fail to appreciate the methodological mistakes we have pointed out, but also – at least I guess so – resort to attacking us in the media to “cover” the unfavorable impression made by the disclosure of their research methodology concerning Edward Malinowski to the general public. I understand that the letter posted on websites of the University of Ottawa is one of the elements of such a media game.

Maciej Świrski

Head of Reduta Dobrego Imienia

Attachments: Scans of the sheets from the case files of the village leader Edward Malinowski: denunciation to the prosecutor’s office, verdict sentence, testimonies of Maria Wiśniewska/Estera Drogicka and Jews whom Edward Malinowski helped.

Figure 1- Sheet of the case files of Edward Malinowski, son of Stanisław – Denunciation to the
prosecutor’s office

Figure 2 – Page 1 of the verdict on Edward Malinowski’s case

Figure 3 – Page 2 of the verdict on Edward Malinowski’s case

Figure 4 – Sheet of the case files of Edward Malinowski – transcript of the testimony made by
Maria Wiśniewska/Estera Drogicka. Front page.

Figure 5 – Back page of the sheet from Fig. 4. Continuation of testimonies made by Wiśniewska– back page. Below in p. 4 – transcript of the testimony of Jews saved by the village leader Edward Malinowski. The author of the text could not overlook these testimonies placed directly below the source text, which she quotes in the book. Provided, of course, she could see these sources with her own eyes.

Below we provide a transcript of the card from Figures 5 and 4.

Card No. 83 PDF (testimonies of Maria Wiśniewska, Chuna Kaplan and Lejba Prybut, but the testimonies of Kaplan and Prybut were omitted by Prof. Engelking in the book „It is still night”. These two Jews clearly say that Edward Malinowski helped them, warned them against the Germans and  was not guilty of reporting the Jews hiding in the Malinów forest. It must be remembered that Maria Wiśniewska aka Wiltgren is a hearsay witness, while Pitute and Kaplan are eyewitnesses. Why did Prof. Engelking and Prof. Grabowski accept the omission of eyewitness testimonies?)

3.Wiśniewska Maria aged 32, teacher, married, not related, resident in Wrocław ul. Słowiańska 17; – “During the German occupation, as a Jew,I was hiding in a forest near Malinów. Nobody wanted to take me into their home. So I went to “ Sołtys”(Village leader) Malinowski and he took me in. For a few good weeks I was hiding [sheet 86 PDF] in Malinowski’s barn and he fed me, even though I was penniless. In [illegible…..] his barn was full of Jews, Malinowski gave them food.

I owe my life to Malinowski, as he had obtained Aryan papers for me, and then, having discussed this with me, reported that I was avoiding forced labor. I was then arrested and sent  to Germany. On leave I came to Malinów.

I was in Germany, at the time of the murder of the Jews. I only received a letter from Edward, the son of Adolf Malinowski, in which he wrote that he (Adolf) had handed over the Jews to a German forester and that the Jewish partisans had he killed him for this. In 1945, the fiancé of the girl from whom Malinowski had taken the earrings, told me that Malinowski had given him the earrings and he praised him.

Edward, the  son of Adolfa Malinowski, confronted with the witness, states that he wrote in a letter, that the forester  lead the gendarmes to the forest.

4. Kapłan Chuna aged 34, white-collar worker, resident in Warsaw, not related: – “When I was hiding in the vicinity of Malinów, Malinowski sheltered me. He gave me bread and pork fat, for which I did not pay anything, and warned us Jews, not to wonder out too far. The Jews hiding in the forest were betrayed by gamekeepers from Czarna and Malinów. The partisans eliminated the gamekeeper from Czarna. He said that not only he betray the Jews, but also [sheet 87 PDF] the gamekeeper from Malinów – but that gamekeeper escaped. Earrings belonging to Berek Zyzi Kes [??? uncertain name] he received from Malinowski. He told me about it.

5. Prybut Lejba, aged 49, farmer, resident in Białystok, not related: – “As a Jew, I hid in the vicinity of Malinów during the occupation. I went to the discussed  twice, I was not afraid of him, even though I knew that he was the head of the village. Each time Malinowski gave me bread and pork fat. In 1944, I heard that Berko Zyzikes [again, the problem with that name] had taken back the earrings of his fiancée from Malinowski. The Jews spoke well of Malinowski

Figure 6 – Next sheet of case files. In p. 5 and 6 – continuation of the testimonies of Jews saved by the village leader Malinowski

 

¹ Collective elaboration, Jan Grabowski, Alina Skibińska, Dariusz Libionka, Karolina Panz, Dagmara Swałtek-Niewińska, Anna Zapalec, Barbara Engelking, Jean-Charles Szurek, Tomasz Frydel. “Dalej jest noc. Losy Żydów w wybranych powiatach okupowanej Polski” [Dalej jest noc. Faith of Jews in selected districts of occupied Poland]. Center for Holocaust Research Association and Center for Holocaust Research at IFiS PAN, Warsaw 2018

² The example of such an attitude to critics is the text of Prof. J. “Odpowiedź na recenzję” [Response to review]. It is the answer to a review written by Tomasz Domański, an employee of the Institute of National Remembrance, entitled “Korekta obrazu?” [Image correction?]. Grabowski’s text was published on sites of the Center for Holocaust Research at IFiS PAN. In the text, J. Grabowski uses phrases, unusual in the world of science, which deprecate critics, for example “we do not come across the researcher’s review but a collective effort of clerks entrusted with a special task of questioning the reputation of independent researchers – which I am going to prove – rather than intellectual polemics (…). Let’s assume for a while that Dr Domański’s review is a scientific review (…).” (websites of CBnZŻ http://www.holocaustresearch.pl/index.php?show=555&strona=556 date of access: 8.12.2019)

Grabowski’s posts in social media regarding his critics accuse them of anti-Semitism, homophobia, etc. The information about it spread widely on the Internet, e.g..: https://www.tysol.pl/a38765-Ambasador-Kumoch-publikuje-posta-Grabowskiego-Tak-obgaduje-czlonek-akademii-Poznajcie-Panstwo-klase (date of access: 8.12.2019)

³ Tomasz Domański: Korekta obrazu?, Refleksje źródłoznawcze wokół książki Dalej jest noc. Losy Żydów w wybranych powiatach okupowanej Polski [Image correction?, Source-based reflections regarding the book Dalej jest noc. Fate of Jews in selected districts of occupied Poland], v. 1–2, ed. Barbara Engelking, Jan Grabowski, Warszawa 2018, The Institute of National Remembrance – Commission for Prosecuting Crimes against the Polish Nation, Warszawa 2019, page 5 and further

⁴ Decree of the Polish Committee of National Liberation as of 31 August 1944 on the gravity of punishment for fascist-Nazi criminals guilty of murders and harassment over civilians and prisoners of war and for traitors to the Polish Nation (Journal of Laws of 1944, no. 4, item 16)

⁵ https://www.niedziela.pl/artykul/142399/nd/Niemieckie-zbrodnie-mialy-pojsc-na (date of access: 12.12.2019)

⁶ Dalej jest noc, p. 157 Apple Books. (Polish version)

⁷ Ibidem, p. 241, original spelling

⁸ The sentence IPN Bi 403/18/1 Sheet 44/49 Ksn. 535/49, page in files 0172-0173, Files of criminal cases against: Malinowski Edward, father’s name: Stanisław, born on 08-12-1894/15-12-1894, accused of revealing the hideout of a dozen Jewish persons who got arrested and executed, when he was a head of Malinowo village, Bielsk Podlaski in 1943, and of appropriating some gold items left by these people, from summer 1941 until July 1944 in retaliation for failure to pay taxes to Germans, he took over building materials and farm animals: Kosiński Franciszek, Kosiński Kamil, Malinowski Adolf, Malinowski Edward, father’s name: Adolf, born on 24-03-1920, Mielik Kazimierz, i.a. for deed from art. 1 point 2, art. 2 and art. 3 of the Decree dated 31-08-1944 on gravity of penalty for fascist-Nazi criminals guilty of murders and harassment over civilians and prisoners of war, and for traitors of the Polish Nation – volume 1, Department of Archives of the Institute of National Remembrance in Białystok

⁹ Kto dopomoże Żydowi… [Who can help a Jew…] Bogdan Musiał ; cooperation Oliver Musiał. Zysk i S-ka Wydawnictwo, Poznań 2019. This book was written upon my order, when I was a member of the Board in the Polish National Foundation.

¹⁰ Information about highjacking of the airplane and the fate of Henryk Malinowski was collected by Reduta’s volunteers from Sweden. IPN does not present any information on the above-stated highjacking in 1949.

¹¹ E-mail from the journalist of Gazeta Wyborcza, Estera Flieger as of 19.07.2019

¹² E-mail to Estera Flieger dated 21.07.2019

¹³ Estera Drogicka did not do any trade business with the village leader Edward Malinowski, son of Stanisław and paternal uncle of the Plaintiff. This can also be proved by Filomena Leszczyńska who says that her paternal uncle did not receive any letters from Drogicka as he was afraid she would be associated with him. He did not receive packages which Drogicka sent from Rastenburg either.

¹⁴ IPN Wr 059/699 Personal file civil worker of UB: Wiśniewska, nee Siemiatycka Maria, father’s name: Jankiel, date of birth: 18-02-1917, Department of Archives of the Institute of National Remembrance in Wrocław

¹⁵ “Cargo cult in science” was discussed by Richard Feynman in his lectures. A very interesting and thorough description of this phenomenon was presented by Stanislaw Andreski (Stanisław Andrzejewski), a Polish sociologist from Great Britain, in the book entitled “Social Sciences as Sorcery” (Deutsch, London 1972) released in Poland under the title “Czarnoksięstwo w naukach społecznych” [Sorcery in social sciences], Oficyna Naukowa, Warsaw 2002