Draft:Szymon Serafinowicz

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Instructions · What links here · Szymon Serafinowicz (talk: + · bio) · (log) · Copyvios report · reFill · Citation Bot · (Search: Google, Wikipedia) · Submitted 17 days ago by Philip Czaplowski (talk: D · +) · Last edited 17 days ago by GeorgiaHuman

Szymon Serafinowicz (19 Dec 1910 - 1997) was the first person to be prosecuted under the War Crimes Act 1991 in the United Kingdom. During World War II he was a commander in the Schutzmannschaft (Auxiliary Police) in Belarus under Nazi occupation.^[1]

Serafinowicz, who was a carpenter by trade, was granted refugee status when the War ended and migrated to the UK with his Polish wife Jadwega. In 1995 he was arrested and charged with three counts of murder in respect of Jews in Mir in 1941. During the commital hearing that followed, sixteen witnesses testified that Serafinowicz played a role in the extermination of more than 3,000-Jews in and around Minsk, the capital of Belarus.^[2]

The case against Serafinowicz was withdrawn when a jury reached the view that he was unfit to be tried because of reduced mental capacity resulting from dementia.^[3] Serafinowicz died soon after the trial ended, in 1997 at the age of 86.^[4]

References

^ Safe Haven: The United Kingdom’s Investigations into Nazi Collaborators and the Failure of Justice. Jon Silverman and Robert Sherwood, Oxford University Press, 2023.
^ Mirror.co.uk 23rd October 2007. https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/i-was-devastated-my-grandad-was-branded-a-nazi-515481.
^ War Crimes Case Abandoned: FINAL Edition. (1997). The Washington Post.
^ England & Wales, Civil Registration Death Index, 1916-2007

[1] Safe Haven: The United Kingdom’s Investigations into Nazi Collaborators and the Failure of Justice. Jon Silverman and Robert Sherwood, Oxford University Press, 2023.

[2] Mirror.co.uk 23rd October 2007. https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/i-was-devastated-my-grandad-was-branded-a-nazi-515481.

[3] War Crimes Case Abandoned: FINAL Edition. (1997). The Washington Post.

[4] England & Wales, Civil Registration Death Index, 1916-2007

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