ŻYDOWSCY KACI BEZPIEKI - JÜDISCHE HENKER DER UB

 Edward Reid - Polish Truth

The murderous Ministry of Public Security (Polish: Ministerstwo Bezpieczeństwa Publicznego), commonly known as UB or later SB, was the secret police, intelligence and counter-espionage agency operating in Polish People's Republic. From 1945 to 1954 it was known as the Department of Security (UB), and from 1956 to 1990 as the Security Service (SB).

The initial UB was headed by Public Security General Stanisław Radkiewicz and supervised by Jakub Berman of the Polish Politburo. The main goal of the Department of Security was the swift eradication of the anti-communist structures and socio-political base of the Polish Underground State, as well as the persecution of former underground soldiers of the Home Army (Armia Krajowa) and later anti-communist organizations like Freedom and Independence (WiN).

From the end of the 1940s to 1954, the Ministry of Public Security – operating alongside the Ministry of Defense – was one of the largest and most powerful institutions in the post-war People's Republic of Poland. It was responsible for internal and foreign intelligence, counter-intelligence, monitoring anti-state activity in Poland and abroad, monitoring government and civilian communications (wiretapping), supervision of the local governments, maintaining a militia, maintaining prisons, fire services, rescue services, and border patrol; as well as several concentration camps set up by the NKVD (such as Zgoda labor camp).

In July 1947, the UB absorbed Section II of General Staff of the Polish People's Army (the Polish Military Intelligence). Military and civilian intelligence merged to become Department VII of the Ministry of Public Security.

Infiltrated by NKGB and NKVD agents – the Ministry of Public Security was well known for its criminal nature. From January 1945 (or, July 22), the surviving members of the Home Army laid down their arms, granted an official amnesty (lasting till October 15). Most were arrested by UB on the spot, tortured, and tried for treason.

The UB carried out brutal pacification of civilians, mass arrests, like the Augustów roundup, as well as makeshift executions in the Mokotów Prison, murder, Public execution in Dębica, and secret assassinations. According to depositions by Józef Światło and other communist sources, in 1945 alone the number of members of the Polish Underground State deported to Siberia and various labor camps in the Soviet Union reached 50,000.

Overall, in the years 1944–1956 around 300,000 Polish citizens had been arrested, of whom many thousands were sentenced to long-term imprisonment. There were 6,000 death sentences pronounced, the majority of them carried out "in the majesty of the law". A special disciplinary legislation had been introduced, which allowed for the sentencing of civil persons before military tribunals including young people and children.

The courts were concerned with the alleged crimes, not the age and the maturity of its victims. For many years, the public prosecutors and judges as well as functionaries of the Ministry of Public Security, Security Service of the Ministry of Interior (SB) and Main Directorate of Information of the Polish Army (GZI WP) engaged in acts recognized by international law as crimes against humanity and crimes against peace.

The so-called "Cursed soldiers" of the anti-communist resistance, who opposed the new occupiers and attacked the Stalinist strongholds, were eventually hunted down by UB security services and assassination squads. The underground structures had been destroyed, and most members of the Armia Krajowa and WiN who remained opposed to communism were executed after kangaroo trials (staged by Wolińska-Brus and Zarakowski among others), or deported to the Soviet GULAG system.

Notable MBP and UB personnel

• Antoni Alster (b. Nachum Alster)

• Jakub Berman

• Józef Bik (vel Jozef Bukar, vel Jozef Gawerski)

• Julia Brystiger (née Prajs)

• Józef Czaplicki (b. Izydor Kurc)

• Anatol Fejgin

• Adam Humer (b. Adam Umer)

• Julian Kole

• Julian Konar (b. Jakub Kohn)

• Grzegorz Korczyński

• Mieczysław Mietkowski (b. Mojżesz Bobrowicki)

• Salomon Morel, commander of Zgoda labour camp

• Henryk Pałka

• Julian Polan-Haraschin

• Józef Różański (b. Józef Goldberg)

• Roman Romkowski (b. Natan Grunspan – Kikiel)

• Stanisław Radkiewicz

• Leon Rubinstein

• Józef Światło (born Izak Fleischfarb)

• Helena Wolińska-Brus (b. Fajga Mindla Danielak)

• Piotr Smietanski

• Stanisław Zarakowski

Notable people murdered by the MBP and UB

In Warsaw, most of the killings were carried out at the Mokotów Prison. The victims' bodies – often placed naked in cement bags – were wheeled out at night and buried in unmarked graves in the vicinity of various Warsaw cemeteries and in open fields.

• Major Łukasz Ciepliński

• Colonel Karol Chmiel

• Major Adam Lazarowicz

• Captain Józef Rzepka

• Captain Józef Batory

• Comdr. Mieczysław Kawalec

• Captain Franciszek Błażej

• Comdt. Hieronim Dekutowski

• Brigadier General Emil August Fieldorf

• Bolesław Kontrym (Cichociemni)

• Cavalry Captain Witold Pilecki

• 1st Lieutenant Jan Rodowicz (Szare Szeregi)

• Danuta Siedzikówna

• Feliks Selmanowicz "Zagończyk"

• Commander Zygmunt Szendzielarz

• Capt. Stanisław Sojczyński

• Corporal Józef Franczak