Poland to probe 1940s murder after Israeli meets alleged killer

[IndianaGreen]

Sun., April 02, 2006 Nisan 4, 5766

Poland to probe 1940s murder after Israeli meets alleged killer

By Amiram Barkat , Haaretz

In 1943, at the height of World War II and the systematic annihilation of European Jewry, Gitl Lerner, a 45-year-old Jewish woman, hid with five of her children in the home of a Polish farmer. The six managed to escape a transport to the Majdanek death camp and found shelter along with two Jewish youths. On the night of October 30, Polish farmers in the area stabbed Lerner and the five children to death.

Sixty years later Roni Lerner, an Israeli businessman and Gitl's grandson, set out to track down his family's murderers. In the course of his investigation, Lerner, pretending to be a historian, met the sole surviving murderer and uncovered the horrific case, which the prosecution in Poland has now reopened as a result.

Under Polish law, there is no statute of limitations on murders committed during World War II or the country's Communist era. However, the director of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Israel, Dr. Efraim Zuroff, who assisted Lerner in his contacts with the Polish prosecution, says that despite admirable Polish willingness to bring criminals to trial, the proceedings drag on and convictions have been exceedingly few, in view of the number of suspects still alive.

With the help of an Israeli film crew and local researchers, Lerner managed to locate the last remaining suspect in the murder. The suspect, Joseph Radchuk, a 92-year-old farmer, led Lerner and his people to the place where the victims were buried 60 years ago. Lerner is going to Poland today at the head of a delegation to exhume the skeletons and bring them for burial in Israel, alongside his father's grave. "I won't leave my family members in that cursed land of Poland," he said before departing Israel.

http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/spages/701236.html

[shenmue]

1. I hope there's justice

It's important, no matter the year.

[IndianaGreen]

2. Justice delayed is justice denied

may be an old cliche but it is still true.

[saigon68]

3. CHECK OUT THIS THREAD

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x2201593


Some people want the past to simply "FADE AWAY"

[IndianaGreen]

4. and some people don't believe that following orders is a crime

that only the leaders are culpable but that their subordinates that carried out the criminal orders are exempt.

[saigon68]

6. We do hear that a lot from the "Support the Troops" people here

Please excuse their frat pranks-- they only joined to get a job, they joined to get a college education they joined because they had nothing else to do, etc etc..

Excuse them they are sorry they blew up that kid's head with 3 rounds 0f 5.56mm to the forehead

[Orrin_73]

5. There was also a jewish village that was

entirely murdered by its polish neighbours in 1945 after the germans had left poland. It was reported that many of such accidents happened after the war.