Naftali Botwin Collection, Existential realities and the fate of his own, 1925-1925 | Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust

Title: Naftali Botwin Collection, Existential realities and the fate of his own, 1925-1925

ID: RG-106/RG-106

Extent: 1.0 Folders

Predominant Dates: 1925

Abstract

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Administrative/Biographical History

On 28 July 1925, Naftali Botwin, acting allegedly on the party order shot dead a police agent and informant, the former communist Cechnowski. Botwin was apprehended at the scene, while not offering any resistance. He was also tried by the summary tribunal. His trial was a speedy and merciless. The court disregarded the personal circumstances and humane norms. No Jewish community group, political organization, or officials had shown support or compassion to the plight of the young Jewish man.

Botwin’s biography was rather typical for the given time. He was the eighth child in a poor Jewish family. Naftali had no memories of his early died father. From the childhood, he was of poor health and started walking only at the age of seven. His education ended up with a three-year people’s school. From the young age, he had to support himself by taking any available job. His last job was that of a tailor assistant. In 1921, Botwin joined a labor union and soon became a member of the Polish communist party [Communist Party of Western Ukraine]. Answering to the court’s question of how he became communist, he said: “I read, listened to the discussions, however, the grievances of life made him realized the fairness of a communist idea as the solution to social injustice.”

Staying in front of the summary tribunal, Botwin gave simple and clear answers. Judges, defense, and public probably felt that this young man had come to his last limits, indifferently accepting all the consequences, and a value of life was something foreign to him now. In the matter of the homicide, Botwin answered:

Presiding Judge: Do you regret of your deed?

Botwin: As for the human being – yes; I learned he had a wife and children, I regret that I have killed a man, although, I do not regret for the provocateur.

Presiding Judge: Did you have then communist leaflets?

Botwin: Yes, I had.

Judge Angielski: You are a member of the Communist party from 1923. Are you a convinced communist?

Botwin: Out of practice and of the mundane life.

Judge Angielski: Did you read some communist books?

Botwin: No, I did not.

Judge Angielsi: Do you know, what are the goals of communism?

Botwin: I cannot tell as an intelligent person would, just from the every day life.

Judge Angielski: Did you read magazines and which ones?

Botwin: Yes, Dziennik Ludowy [People’s Journal], Trybuna Robotnicza [Workers’ Tribune], and others.

Judge Angielski: Did you receive subsidies from the Party.

Botwin: No, never.

The defense team—Dr. Shukhevych and Dr. Aksner, asked the court to attend to Botwin’s hard life, the milieu he grew up in, and to his real age—18, not as it officially was documented 20-year-old, since his birth certificate bore the incorrect date of birth—1905, instead of 1907. The court rejected the motions of the defense all together. Dr. Aksner drew a historical parallel to the Polish revolutionary movement in the tsarist Russia. He argued: “Botwin was driven by political ideology. His deed was comparable to those committed by Polish terrorists of the Polish Socialist Party in 1905 on the barricades of Warsaw. Indeed, Cechnowski was on Polish police service, although, this fact alone could not warrant him sympathy of honest people. To save Botwin’s life, the defense was pleading for regular proceeding in the court of jury. Had this request been granted there would have been a chance for Naftali Botwin to survive.

The verdict was announced on the next day. The summary tribunal unanimously sentenced Naftali Botwin to death. The last hope was Presidential pardon. The defense attorney asked presiding judge to grant the right to petition for the presidential pardon on behalf of the convicted and his family. The right of petition was granted. The Tribunal had submitted petition to the presidential civil chancellery. Three more hours had been given for the response. The time was 10 o’clock in the morning. At 11 o’clock Botwin had been transported to the Brygidki prison on Kazimierzowska Street, to the place of execution. He was placed in the cell. At 11: 30 before noon, Rabbi Dr. Freund entered the cell. Botwin refused his presence. At 1 o’clock after noon, the members of the Tribunal arrived to the prison. At 11: 15 after noon, Botwin had been taken to the place of execution. It was announced that President Stanisław Wojcechowski had rejected petition for the pardon. Policemen and soldiers escorted Botwin to the execution site. A song was heard. Botwin was singing “The Red Banner.”

…A jednak przyjdze dzień zaplaty

Sędziami wówczas będzim my...

(...Indeed, the day of reckoning shall come

And we will take the judges’ seats...)

Botwin took his place in front of the firing squad. The sentence was read one more time. Botwin exclaimed: “Down with bourgeoisie! Long live the social revolution!” He was not letting his eyes be covered. Silence fell. Then shots had been fired. Botwin had fallen dead. At the time of execution, a courier was trying to pass inside the prison a bouquet of white flowers. In the day of the execution, people saw a red banner raised over the Lublin Union Summit, the highest point in the city at the High Castle Park. The Jewish community remained silent, in fact, distancing itself with Naftali Botwin. The circumstances of the Steiger case were quite different from that of Botwin in September 1924, if the summary tribunal had taken a unanimous decision of finding him guilty, he would have been also standing in front of the firing squad in the yard of the Brygidki Prison. In the Steiger trial of the three judges did not support a guilty verdict and saved his life, as well as renommée of Polish Justice system .

Author: Dr. Vladimir Melamed

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Scope and Contents:

This collection comprises narratives from Jewish, Ukrainian and Polish periodicals reflecting the fate of Naftali Botwin, Jewish communist in Lviv (Lwow). Naftali Botwin, acting on the order of the Communist Party of Western Ukraine, assassinated an informant of Polish political police, Josef Cenhnowski on Trybunalska Street in Lviv (Lwow) on July 28, 1925.

He was tried by Summary Tribunal and sentenced to death. Polish President Stanislaw Wojcechowski rejected his right of pardon.

Jewish establishment of Lviv (Lwow), largely concerned with the Steiger Affair (Trial) distanced from interventions on behalf of Naftali Botwin. For them it was politically harmful to recognize a Jewish communist as a Jew. They would see him as a communist.

Summary trial of Botwin contrasted with a long lasted Jury trial over Stanislaw Steiger in 1925.