Stefan Michnik

Stefan Michnik
Stefan Michnik's place of work at Koszykowa Street in Warsaw, Regional Military Court (Wojskowy Sąd Rejonowy, WSR)
Born	28 September 1929 Drohobycz, prewar Second Polish Republic (now Ukraine)
Other names	Karol Szwedowicz nom de guerre Kazimierczak
Citizenship	Polish, Swedish
Occupation	Stalinist judge, security agent.
Known for	State Security Services (Urząd Bezpieczeństwa)

Stefan Michnik - born 28 September 1929 in Drohobycz (Second Polish Republic, now Drohobych, Ukraine), captain Polish People's Army, is a communist former Stalinist judge operating in postwar Poland; implicated in the arrest, internment and staged execution of a number of Polish resistance fighters. Accused of communist crimes. He lives in Sweden.

Stefan Michnik was the son of Helena Michnik and Samuel Rosenbusch nicknamed "Emil" or "Miłek" (born around 1904). His mother was a Polish-Jewish teacher in Drogobych and the activist of the Communist Party of Western Ukraine as well as the Communist Party of Poland, and the Stalinist Union of Polish Patriots. His father was a Jewish lawyer and communist activist, executed around 1937 in the Soviet Union during the Great Purge.

Michnik's half-brother (on his mother's side) is Adam Michnik.

Stefan Michnik became a Stalinist judge in postwar Poland after completing an 8-month course for communist military judges in Jelenia Góra, his only relevant education. He was first recruited by the Information Bureau under the pseudonym Kazimierczak but fired 11 months later for his ineptitude with severance pay of 1,000 zloty. At the beginning of 1951 Michnik was assigned a position with the Regional Military Court (Wojskowy Sąd Rejonowy, WSR) in Warsaw and – only two weeks later – imposed his first sentence against Stanisław Bronarski, charged with membership in the AK, NSZ and NZW. Bronarski (exonerated in post-communist Poland) was given 5 consecutive death sentences and executed on 18 January 1951 at the Mokotów Prison. Michnik took part in the so-called Trial of the Generals dubbed a judicial murder by historians, with 40 death sentences pronounced in the fall of 1951, half of them carried out (see list of the 21 executed officers by name, with Stefan Michnik as one of the sentencing judges). After the collapse of communism he was formally implicated by Poland in the arrest, internment and staged execution of a number of Polish resistance fighters charged with anti-communist activities. Most of them were officers of the Polish Army who fought against Nazi Germany in World War II.