Salomon Morel
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Salomon Morel was, between February and November 1945, the commander of the Communist Stalinist-era concentration camp Zgoda in Swietochlowice, Silesia, Poland and a member of the Urzad Bezpieczenstwa secret police. The camp held political prisoners: German citizens, Volksdeutsche, and Silesians. Morel is allegedly responsible for the deliberate murder of up to 1695 people (over half of the camp's inmates). In 1992, he emigrated to Israel when media publicized his case. He refused to return for his trial which begun in 1996, which in Poland is treated as a crime against humanity. Isreal has rejected Polish request for extradition. Morel has remained in Isreal since 1992.
Zgoda camp was set up by the Soviet NKVD, the forerunner of the KGB, after the Red Army's 'liberation' of southern Poland. The camp was later handed over to the Polish secret service, the notorious Urzad Bezpieczenstwa. Already in 1945 Salomon Morel’s superiors from Ministry of Public Security – Prison System Department affirmed his responsibility for the spread of epidemic and penalized him for 3 days of house arrest. Current research shows that most of the 1695 deceased prisoners died due to the epidemic of dysentery, typhus and typhoid fever which resulted from hunger and bad sanitary conditions in the camp, and that Morel not only did nothing to prevent the spread of their diseases but in fact created conditions to facilitate their spreed. He is charged with creating unbearable life conditions threatening of biological annihilation, specifically starvation, deliberate infection with contaigous diseases, torture and physical and psychological abuse.
In 1998 an extradition request for Morel was rejected by Israel. A reply sent to the Polish Justice Ministry from Israeli authorities said that Israel would not extradite Mr Morel, as the crimes with which he is charged are not perceived in Israel as genocide, and so are subject to the statute of limitations. In April 2004, Poland filed another extradition order against Morel; however, as a matter of policy, Israel does not grant extraditions in such cases. Solomon himself states that he's innocent of any wrongdoing, dismissing the allegations as an anti-semitic plot.
External links
- 'Elderly Jewish man accused of postwar revenge rampage', The Sydney Morning Herald, Monday, January 3, 2005 (http://www.fpp.co.uk/online/05/01/Morel_2005.html)
- An official news from 2004.04.30 mentioning Salomon Morel case on the homepage of Polish Embassy (http://www.polandembassy.org/News/Biuletyny_news/News_2004/p2004-04-30.htm)
- 2003 Statement by Prosecutor Ewa Koj, Head of Divisional Commission, for Prosecution of Crimes against the Polish Nation (http://www.ipn.gov.pl/eng/eng_news_high_morel.html)
- 'Poland blames Jews for the crimes of Communism', The Indepedent from January 10, 1999 (http://www.fpp.co.uk/online/99/01/Morel100199.html)
- 'Israelis Protect Concentration Camp Boss', The Indepedent from December 29, 1998 (http://www.revisionisthistory.org/hypocrisy.html)
- Translation of Polish article 'Only a few managed to survive Morel's rules.' from ZYCIE WARSZAWY, Friday, September 4, 1998 (http://www.fpp.co.uk/online/98/09/Morel040998.html)
- CBS News Nov 24, 1993 on Killer Morel (http://www.fpp.co.uk/Auschwitz/docs/KillerMorel.html)pl:Salomon Morel