Weryfikacja adwokatów śląskich po II wojnie światowej

Abstract

Verification of the national attitudes presented during World War II by the Upper Silesian lawyers was based on the decree from the 24th of May 1945 about the temporary regulations that supplemented the law of the legal profession. According to the regulations of the decree, lawyers who were disloyal to the Polish reason of state could be punished with the interdiction of exercising the profession. The verification was conducted in the entire Poland. In the area subject to the Katowice law society, the lawyers went before the commission mainly for two reasons. Lawyers who stayed in the Upper Silesia during the occupation were accused of voluntarily applying for the registration on the German People’s List. After the completion of the proceedings, however, it was concluded that it always happened under threat of arrest and that none of the lawyers was granted category higher then the third. The circumstances were considered justificatory and in the consequence the lawyers were allowed to continue their professional work. The case was similar with the charges of working in the official jurisdiction in the General Government. It concerned those Upper Silesian lawyers who moved to the East during the war. In this case, help offered to the Polish defendants was considered as extenuating circumstances. As a result, also in this group, there were only few lawyers who were removed from the Bar for the offences that they committed during the war.