The case of the late Rabbi Chaim Shapiro, court martialed thirteen years ago on the charge of being involved in a Bolshevist plot against the government, has once again been unearthed here.
The issue at stake is the honor of the deceased as well as the name of Polish Jewry, still wearing the stigma of Bolsheviki sympathies.
The evidence which sent Rabbi Shapiro to his death was limited to the swaying motion he made during the Soviet invasion of Plotzk. His accusers described the motion as a signal to the host. This was the talisman upon which the prosecution hinged and was successful.
The circumstances surrounding the indictment are as follows. On August 18, 1920, during the Bolsheviki invasion, three persons hiding in a cellar of 50 Trulewska Street in Plotzk saw the rabbi bending back and forth in a swaying motion. He was standing on the balcony of his house. The three, Joseph Maruschevski, Maria Maruschevski and Cazimierz Varminski, said that the spirited street gun battle which followed was directly provoked by the rabbi’s movements. In spite of the shooting, Rabbi Shapiro remained on the platform. The witnesses insisted that he showed much satisfaction when the bombardment started.
There was no evidence showing the rabbi to be in any way affiliated with the invading host. Witnesses for the defense declared for the rabbi’s innocence. There were many who testified as to the nobility of his character. Cardinal Kowalski, Archibshop of Warsaw, expressed his view that the late rabbi was innocent.
At the time of the execution, feeling was very strong against the Jews in Poland.
The trial was reopened in Warsaw in 1922, with Deputy Hartglass as defending attorney. But circumstances prevented completion of the hearing. Technical evidence was presented at another reopening of the trial in 1925, but no decision was reached on a new verdict.
The family of Chaim Shapiro has reopened the case in the hope that justice to the late rabbi and to the Jews in Poland, will be done.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
