Seventy-five year-old Polish man accused of killing refugee camp prisoners

The Prosecutor's Office in Opole has accused the former commander of an internment camp for Germans from Silesia in Labinowicach, 75 years old Czeslaw G., of killing 48 prisoners on Oct. 4, 1945. According to eyewitnesses the commander ordered the guards to set one of the empty barracks on fire and forced the prisoners to put it out without giving them any equipment. When the prisoners started fleeing they were shot by the guards, others were forced into the burning building. Czeslaw G. was arrested by the communist-era Secret Police (UB), but the investigation was discontinued twice in 1956 and 1969 when all the documents were destroyed. At present, Czeslaw G. could face life imprisonment. It is the first such case in Poland. (Rzeczpospolita, July 8-9, page A2) P.S