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07/11/2005
Nazi war criminal dies in British prison
Anthony Sawoniuk, the only person to be convicted in Britain for Nazi war crimes, has died in Norwich Prison at the age of 84.
Police said that it was believed that Sawoniuk had died from natural causes and that the death was not being treated as suspicious.
Sawoniuk was given two life sentences in 1999 after being found guilty of the murder of 18 Jews in Belarus.
The murders took place in Sawoniuk’s hometown of Domachevo in Belarus. At his trial, the court heard how Sawoniuk had joined the police force established by the Nazis shortly after they invaded the Soviet Union in 1941.
The jury heard evidence from witnesses who described the murders. One man said that he was forced to watch Sawoniuk order three Jews – two men and a woman – to strip beside an open grave, before shooting them in the head.
Another man told the jury how he saw Sawoniuk execute fifteen Jewish women with a machine gun, before pushing their bodies into an open grave.
Sawoniuk had denied the charges against him, insisting that he did not kill anyone. He told the court: “I am not a monster. I am an ordinary, working class, poor man.”
Sawoniuk switched sides towards the end of the Second World War, fighting with the Polish Army alongside the Allies.
After the war, he came to England as a Polish patriot. He worked as a ticket inspector on British Rail, while living in Bermondsey, south London.
His past was revealed, following the collapse of the Soviet Union. The KGB had intercepted a letter Sawoniuk sent to his brother in Poland in the early Fifties. His name was passed to British authorities in the 1990’s following the end of the Cold War.
Sawoniuk had been transferred from Kingston Jail in Portsmouth, to be held in a unit for elderly prisoners in Norwich Prison earlier this year.
A police spokesperson said that a post-mortem and coroner’s inquest would take place, in accordance with normal procedure for inmates who die in prison.
A Home Office spokesperson said that Sawoniuk’s body would be released to his family, as normal.
(KMcA/SP)
Police said that it was believed that Sawoniuk had died from natural causes and that the death was not being treated as suspicious.
Sawoniuk was given two life sentences in 1999 after being found guilty of the murder of 18 Jews in Belarus.
The murders took place in Sawoniuk’s hometown of Domachevo in Belarus. At his trial, the court heard how Sawoniuk had joined the police force established by the Nazis shortly after they invaded the Soviet Union in 1941.
The jury heard evidence from witnesses who described the murders. One man said that he was forced to watch Sawoniuk order three Jews – two men and a woman – to strip beside an open grave, before shooting them in the head.
Another man told the jury how he saw Sawoniuk execute fifteen Jewish women with a machine gun, before pushing their bodies into an open grave.
Sawoniuk had denied the charges against him, insisting that he did not kill anyone. He told the court: “I am not a monster. I am an ordinary, working class, poor man.”
Sawoniuk switched sides towards the end of the Second World War, fighting with the Polish Army alongside the Allies.
After the war, he came to England as a Polish patriot. He worked as a ticket inspector on British Rail, while living in Bermondsey, south London.
His past was revealed, following the collapse of the Soviet Union. The KGB had intercepted a letter Sawoniuk sent to his brother in Poland in the early Fifties. His name was passed to British authorities in the 1990’s following the end of the Cold War.
Sawoniuk had been transferred from Kingston Jail in Portsmouth, to be held in a unit for elderly prisoners in Norwich Prison earlier this year.
A police spokesperson said that a post-mortem and coroner’s inquest would take place, in accordance with normal procedure for inmates who die in prison.
A Home Office spokesperson said that Sawoniuk’s body would be released to his family, as normal.
(KMcA/SP)
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