Stalinist show trial of the Kraków Curia

The Stalinist show trial of the Kraków Curia was a public trial of four Roman Catholic priests – members of the Kraków diocesan Curia – including three lay persons, accused by the Communist authorities in the People's Republic of Poland of subversion and spying for the United States. The staged trial, based on the Soviet formula, was held before the Military District Court of Kraków from January 21 to 26, 1953 at a public-event-hall of the Szadkowski Plant. The court, headed by the hardline Stalinist judge Mieczysław Widaj, announced its verdict on January 27, 1953 sentencing to death Father Józef Lelito, Fr. Michał Kowalik, and Fr. Edward Chachlica. The priests were stripped of all civil and constitutional rights, but their death penalties were subsequently not enforced. The remaining defendants were sentenced to sentences ranging from 6 years in prison to life (Fr. Franciszek Szymonek). The fear-inspiring court judgments were endorsed politically by the Resolution of the Polish Writers Union in Kraków on February 8, 1953, signed by many prominent members. A series of similar trials followed.

The "war against religion", in which in the one year of 1950, a total of 123 Roman Catholic priests were thrown in jail, became the responsibility of the Ministry of Public Security of Poland and its 5th Department created in July 1946 specifically for that purpose. Since the late 1940s, it was headed by interrogator Julia Brystiger (née Prajs) who personally directed the operation to arrest and detain the Primate of Poland, Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński. The department specialized in the persecution and torture of Polish religious personalities. Brystygier, born to a Jewish family in Stryj (now Ukraine), dedicated herself to ideological struggle against all forms of religion. Nicknamed Bloody Luna by the victims of her torture techniques, Brystygier was responsible for the arrest of 2,000 Jehovah's Witnesses for their religious beliefs.

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