Feigin, Anatole

Born in a wealthy family of Warsaw Jews . From adolescence he joined the Marxist youth organizations. He studied at the Medical Faculty of the University of Warsaw . During his studies, he met a law student, Jakub Berman , the future head of the communist punitive organs (later Berman gave a high rating to Feigin’s intellectual abilities).

Since 1928 - a member of the Communist Party of Poland . Twice - in 1929 and 1932 he was sentenced to imprisonment for belonging to the communist underground; he spent a total of about five years in prison. He was a full-time functionary checkpoint.

After the capitulation of Warsaw in September 1939, Feigin moved into the territory occupied by Soviet troops . He worked as an accountant and economist at the enterprises of Lviv . In June 1941 , after the start of the Soviet-German war, was evacuated to Kuibyshev .

In May 1943, Feigin joined the Romuald Traugutt Polish Infantry Division and served in the divisional political department. Since May 1945 - a member of the Communist Party . In September 1945 he was appointed deputy head of the General Directorate of Information of the Polish Army . He was engaged, in particular, in the systematization of the archives of the General Staff ^[1] .

He was awarded the orders of the Virtuti Militari , the Renaissance of Poland , the Grunwald Cross .

In October 1949, Anatole Feigin joined the Ministry of Public Security . However, he remained in the staff of the Ministry of National Defense, was in the leadership of military intelligence.

From December 1951, Feigin headed the X Department of the International Bureau of Defense (“to combat provocations in the labor movement”). This unit occupied a special place in the state security system, since it led the surveillance of functionaries of the PUWP and controlled the situation in the ruling Communist Party. Feigin was a prominent figure in party cleansing, participated in the interrogations of Vladislav Gomulka and Marian Spikhalsky ^[2] , together with Yuzef Rozhansky applied to them measures of physical pressure and psychological pressure. He also played a prominent role in ensuring power control and obtaining the necessary results of the PUWP election to the Polish Communist Party in 1952 .

Colonel Feigin was ranked among the "Jewish group" in the state security organs ^[3] , headed by Yakub Berman. It is believed that he influenced the policies of the top party-state leadership, since his brother Méchislav Feigin was the personal doctor of Boleslav Beruta . Feigin was also actively involved in the internal struggle in the MOB apparatus. Interestingly, one of Feigin's main service competitors was Rozhansky, the relationship between them was characterized by mutual hatred ^[4] .

After escaping to West Berlin Lieutenant Colonel Joerf Svatlo ^[5], Anatol Feigin was dismissed from his posts at the Ministry of Defense and the Ministry of Defense as responsible for a major failure. In February 1954, he was dismissed from the Ministry of Defense, in March 1954 transferred to the reserve along the army line. Then excluded from the PUWP.

In April 1956, Feigin was arrested, the next year he appeared before the court. Together with General Romkovsky and Colonel Rozhansky, he was accused of abuse of power, arbitrary arrest and torture. With regard to Feigin, at least 28 episodes of unlawful deprivation of liberty and physical influence during interrogation were revealed ^[6] . In 1957, the court sentenced Anatol Feigin to 12 years in prison. The conviction of Romkovsky, Rozhansky and Feigin was a noticeable act in the process of Polish de-Stalinization .

Released under an amnesty (along with Romkovsky and Rozhansky) in 1964 .

Since 1966, Anatole Feigin worked in the design office of the Institute for Nuclear Research under the leadership of Wilhelm Billig , the founder of the broadcasting of Poland. During the anti-Semitic campaign of 1968, Billig was accused of espionage and fired. Together with him, Feigin was also dismissed, and since then has been retired.

In 1985, Anatoly Feigin applied for membership in the Union of Fighters for Freedom and Democracy . He was admitted to the organization, received the status of a veteran of military service with appropriate benefits.

Anatole Feigin survived Berman, Radkevich , Romkovsky, Rozhansky, Mochar , Bristiger and most of the other functionaries of the Polish punitive bodies of the 1940-1950s. In 1992 - 1994 he was a witness at the trial of Adam Humera . In 1990, he was expelled from the Union of Fighters for Freedom and Democracy, transformed into the Union of Veterans of the Republic of Poland and former political prisoners .

Feigin appealed the decision on expulsion to the Supreme Administrative Court of Poland . However, the court rejected the petition, motivating it with the fact that “after the end of the Second World War, Feigin committed actions that deserve particular condemnation and brought great harm to Polish society and individuals” ^[7] .

As a participant in the war, Feigin was buried in the Military Investigations cemetery.