Jan Kobylanski
Encyclopedia
Jan Kobylański is a Polish-Paraguayan businessman. He is the founder of the Union of Polish Associations and Organizations in Latin America (pol.
Unia Stowarzyszeń i Organizacji Polskich w Ameryce Łacińskiej, USOPAŁ) the largest Polish immigrant organization of South America
. He was a founder of one of the world's largest companies involved in editing postage stamps, and coins mintage. He has written books on philately
, as well as on the mediation policy of the Roman Curia
. He was formerly the honorary consul of Poland to Paraguay
, and the honorary consul of Paraguay to Spain
.
Stanisław Kobylański. In 1943 he was arrested by the Nazis, and imprisoned at Warsaw's infamous Pawiak
prison. He was a prisoner in the German concentration camps Mauthausen
and Gross Rosen. After the World War II
, he moved to Italy
, where he produced toothbrush
es, and sold kitchen appliances. He became co-owner of the Astral Metal Technica company in Milan
.
In 1952, he arrived in Paraguay, taking advantage of President Federico Chaves' immigration program, which allowed 18,000 families from Europe
to settle in that country. Soon he won a contract to import kitchen appliances, and another to print postage stamps for the National Postal Service. In the next few years, he developed one of the world's largest stamp printing and coin minting companies.
According to Polish journalists Jerzy Morawski and Mikołaj Lizut, Kobylański had a good relationship with Paraguayan president, General Alfredo Stroessner
. Kobylański, however, denies this.
From 1989 to 2000, Kobylański was an honorary Polish consul in Argentina
. He was removed from office by Polish minister of foreign affairs Władysław Bartoszewski, after former Polish ambassadors to Uruguay
and Costa Rica
accused Kobylański of antisemitism and of acting against Polish interests Right wing Polish senators Jan Szafraniec, Ryszard Bender and Czesław Ryszka have since spoken up in his defence. He is a long time sponsor of privately owned broadcast station Radio Maryja
in Poland.
Kobylański helped to establish 8 June as the "Day of the Polish Settler in Argentina". He helped to fund monuments to John Paul II in Buenos Aires
and Montevideo
, as well as a monument to Frederic Chopin
in Punta del Este
. He is a sponsor and patron of an elementary school in the region of Podlasie in Poland.
were true. A person named Janusz Kobylański was supposedly involved.
In April 2006 the chief of the investigative section of the IPN, Witold Kulesza, reported: "so far, we have not found any evidence of the charges that... Jan Kobylański, handed over to the Germans a married Jewish couple."
In January 2007, the section of IPN in Warsaw reported that it had refused to re-open the investigation. In his explanation, the leading prosecutor recalled the testimonies of witnesses who decided not to testify against Kobylański:
Stanisław Kobylański worked in Warsaw as a lawyer for the remainder of his life. Jan Kobylański, however, escaped from Poland to Western Europe, probably in 1945.
According to documents collected by the Prosecutor's Office in Warsaw, the evidence that Jan Kobylański was the perpetrator in the denunciation of the Szenkers family cannot be proved. Legal proceedings against Stanisław Kobylański were denied, and those against Janusz Kobylański were suspended by the Regional Court in Warsaw on 31 June 1948. On April 19, 1955, prosecutors decided to cancel the case of Janusz Kobylański. Prosecutor Paweł Karolak of the IPN investigative section in Warsaw stated that his office was looking for evidence not only in Poland (archives, Museum of Auschwitz-Birkenau, Ministry of Foreign Affairs), but also in Germany (KL Gross-Rosen), Israel
, and the USA as well. Furthermore, they found no evidence that "Janusz Kobylański" and "Jan Kobylański" were the same person.
In 2005, Mikołaj Lizut wrote in the Gazeta Wyborcza that Jan Kobylański falsified documents of the Red Cross
, that he was a prisoner at Auschwitz, Mauthausen, Gusen, Gross Rosen, and Dachau concentration camps. Documents used by Kobylański, are different from those in the Auschwitz Museum.
In December 2007, the minister of Foreign Affairs, Radosław Sikorski, sent a message to Polish embassies abroad to discontinue contact with Kobylański. In late November 2008, two independent internet services reported that Kobylański was going to open a legal case against Polish politicians and journalists (among others against Adam Michnik, Jerzy Baczyński and Ryszard Schnepf) on charges of slander.
Polish language
Polish is a language of the Lechitic subgroup of West Slavic languages, used throughout Poland and by Polish minorities in other countries...
Unia Stowarzyszeń i Organizacji Polskich w Ameryce Łacińskiej, USOPAŁ) the largest Polish immigrant organization of South America
South America
South America is a continent situated in the Western Hemisphere, mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere. The continent is also considered a subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east...
. He was a founder of one of the world's largest companies involved in editing postage stamps, and coins mintage. He has written books on philately
Philately
Philately is the study of stamps and postal history and other related items. Philately involves more than just stamp collecting, which does not necessarily involve the study of stamps. It is possible to be a philatelist without owning any stamps...
, as well as on the mediation policy of the Roman Curia
Roman Curia
The Roman Curia is the administrative apparatus of the Holy See and the central governing body of the entire Catholic Church, together with the Pope...
. He was formerly the honorary consul of Poland to Paraguay
Paraguay
Paraguay , officially the Republic of Paraguay , is a landlocked country in South America. It is bordered by Argentina to the south and southwest, Brazil to the east and northeast, and Bolivia to the northwest. Paraguay lies on both banks of the Paraguay River, which runs through the center of the...
, and the honorary consul of Paraguay to Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
.
Biography
Kobylański was the son of Polish attorney at lawLawyer
A lawyer, according to Black's Law Dictionary, is "a person learned in the law; as an attorney, counsel or solicitor; a person who is practicing law." Law is the system of rules of conduct established by the sovereign government of a society to correct wrongs, maintain the stability of political...
Stanisław Kobylański. In 1943 he was arrested by the Nazis, and imprisoned at Warsaw's infamous Pawiak
Pawiak
Pawiak was a prison built in 1835 in Warsaw, Poland.During the January 1863 Uprising, it served as a transfer camp for Poles sentenced by Imperial Russia to deportation to Siberia....
prison. He was a prisoner in the German concentration camps Mauthausen
Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp
Mauthausen Concentration Camp grew to become a large group of Nazi concentration camps that was built around the villages of Mauthausen and Gusen in Upper Austria, roughly east of the city of Linz.Initially a single camp at Mauthausen, it expanded over time and by the summer of 1940, the...
and Gross Rosen. After the World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, he moved to Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
, where he produced toothbrush
Toothbrush
The toothbrush is an oral hygiene instrument used to clean the teeth and gums that consists of a head of tightly clustered bristles mounted on a handle, which facilitates the cleansing of hard-to-reach areas of the mouth. Toothpaste, which often contains fluoride, is commonly used in conjunction...
es, and sold kitchen appliances. He became co-owner of the Astral Metal Technica company in Milan
Milan
Milan is the second-largest city in Italy and the capital city of the region of Lombardy and of the province of Milan. The city proper has a population of about 1.3 million, while its urban area, roughly coinciding with its administrative province and the bordering Province of Monza and Brianza ,...
.
In 1952, he arrived in Paraguay, taking advantage of President Federico Chaves' immigration program, which allowed 18,000 families from Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
to settle in that country. Soon he won a contract to import kitchen appliances, and another to print postage stamps for the National Postal Service. In the next few years, he developed one of the world's largest stamp printing and coin minting companies.
According to Polish journalists Jerzy Morawski and Mikołaj Lizut, Kobylański had a good relationship with Paraguayan president, General Alfredo Stroessner
Alfredo Stroessner
Alfredo Stroessner Matiauda, whose name is also spelled Strössner or Strößner , was a Paraguayan military officer and dictator from 1954 to 1989...
. Kobylański, however, denies this.
From 1989 to 2000, Kobylański was an honorary Polish consul in Argentina
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
. He was removed from office by Polish minister of foreign affairs Władysław Bartoszewski, after former Polish ambassadors to Uruguay
Uruguay
Uruguay ,officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay,sometimes the Eastern Republic of Uruguay; ) is a country in the southeastern part of South America. It is home to some 3.5 million people, of whom 1.8 million live in the capital Montevideo and its metropolitan area...
and Costa Rica
Costa Rica
Costa Rica , officially the Republic of Costa Rica is a multilingual, multiethnic and multicultural country in Central America, bordered by Nicaragua to the north, Panama to the southeast, the Pacific Ocean to the west and the Caribbean Sea to the east....
accused Kobylański of antisemitism and of acting against Polish interests Right wing Polish senators Jan Szafraniec, Ryszard Bender and Czesław Ryszka have since spoken up in his defence. He is a long time sponsor of privately owned broadcast station Radio Maryja
Radio Maryja
Radio Maryja is a Polish religious, conservative, anti-post-Communist and pro-life Roman Catholic radio station and media group, describing itself as patriotic. It was founded in Toruń, Poland, on December 9, 1991 and has been run since its inception by the Redemptorist rector doctor Tadeusz...
in Poland.
Kobylański helped to establish 8 June as the "Day of the Polish Settler in Argentina". He helped to fund monuments to John Paul II in Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires is the capital and largest city of Argentina, and the second-largest metropolitan area in South America, after São Paulo. It is located on the western shore of the estuary of the Río de la Plata, on the southeastern coast of the South American continent...
and Montevideo
Montevideo
Montevideo is the largest city, the capital, and the chief port of Uruguay. The settlement was established in 1726 by Bruno Mauricio de Zabala, as a strategic move amidst a Spanish-Portuguese dispute over the platine region, and as a counter to the Portuguese colony at Colonia del Sacramento...
, as well as a monument to Frederic Chopin
Frédéric Chopin
Frédéric François Chopin was a Polish composer and virtuoso pianist. He is considered one of the great masters of Romantic music and has been called "the poet of the piano"....
in Punta del Este
Punta del Este
Punta del Este is a resort town on the Atlantic Coast in the Maldonado Department of southeastern Uruguay. It is located on the intersection of Route 10 with Route 39, directly southeast of the department capital Maldonado and about east of Montevideo...
. He is a sponsor and patron of an elementary school in the region of Podlasie in Poland.
Accusations
In 2004, a reporter for Gazeta Wyborcza, Mikołaj Lizut, accused Kobylański of collaborating with the Nazis when Poland was occupied by German forces during World War II, which Kobylański denies. In 2005, the allegations were repeated by a columnist for Rzeczpospolita, Jerzy Morawski. In 2004, the investigative section of the Instytut Pamięci Narodowej (IPN) began legal proceedings to determine if the accusations of handling over a Jewish family named Szenker to the GestapoGestapo
The Gestapo was the official secret police of Nazi Germany. Beginning on 20 April 1934, it was under the administration of the SS leader Heinrich Himmler in his position as Chief of German Police...
were true. A person named Janusz Kobylański was supposedly involved.
In April 2006 the chief of the investigative section of the IPN, Witold Kulesza, reported: "so far, we have not found any evidence of the charges that... Jan Kobylański, handed over to the Germans a married Jewish couple."
In January 2007, the section of IPN in Warsaw reported that it had refused to re-open the investigation. In his explanation, the leading prosecutor recalled the testimonies of witnesses who decided not to testify against Kobylański:
In the winter of 1942-1943 Leokadia Sarnowska met Janusz Kobylański(...) During the conversation Janusz Kobylański said, that he was earning money producing false documents for Jews trying to hide themselves. Sarnowska soon sent the Szenker family to Kobylański, which consisted of three people - a married couple and their relative (...) Leokadia Sarnowska arranged the meeting of the two parties, during which Janusz Kobylański told Sarnowska and the Szenkers that false identity documents would be delivered for a certain sum of dollars in gold. The money was delivered to Judge Stanisław Juński, known to Sarnowska, who promised to give them to Kobylański after he delivered the money. Some days after the meeting Kobylański called Sarnowska and said, that the Szenker family had been arrested, and probably executed by the Germans, so he had to destroy the false documents that he had prepared.
Kobylański informed Sarnowska that Judge Juński, on the request of one of Szenkers, handed the money over to a "Polish policeman". Then Kobylański demanded payment from Sarnowska under threat of calling the Germans. Sarnowską delivered a part of the sum to Kobylański at once, and the second part was sent to an office of the father of Janusz Kobylański, att. Stanisław Kobylański (...) After some time one of the Szenker family called Judge Juński, and asked to arrange a meeting with Sarnowska, who immediately came to Warsaw to meet Szenker. Szenker told her that Kobylański denounced them to the Gestapo. According to his version, Gestapo officers went to the hostel where he stayed with his family, and showed him his personal notes, which he handed to Kobylański, hoping that it would help in the preparation of false documents. The Gestapo men ordered a Polish policeman to escort the Szenkers to the ghettoGhettoA ghetto is a section of a city predominantly occupied by a group who live there, especially because of social, economic, or legal issues.The term was originally used in Venice to describe the area where Jews were compelled to live. The term now refers to an overcrowded urban area often associated...
. On their way, Szenker convinced the policeman that he should free them for the money held in the judge's office. Policeman took the money from Juński and freed the Szenkers.
Stanisław Kobylański worked in Warsaw as a lawyer for the remainder of his life. Jan Kobylański, however, escaped from Poland to Western Europe, probably in 1945.
According to documents collected by the Prosecutor's Office in Warsaw, the evidence that Jan Kobylański was the perpetrator in the denunciation of the Szenkers family cannot be proved. Legal proceedings against Stanisław Kobylański were denied, and those against Janusz Kobylański were suspended by the Regional Court in Warsaw on 31 June 1948. On April 19, 1955, prosecutors decided to cancel the case of Janusz Kobylański. Prosecutor Paweł Karolak of the IPN investigative section in Warsaw stated that his office was looking for evidence not only in Poland (archives, Museum of Auschwitz-Birkenau, Ministry of Foreign Affairs), but also in Germany (KL Gross-Rosen), Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
, and the USA as well. Furthermore, they found no evidence that "Janusz Kobylański" and "Jan Kobylański" were the same person.
In 2005, Mikołaj Lizut wrote in the Gazeta Wyborcza that Jan Kobylański falsified documents of the Red Cross
International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement
The International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement is an international humanitarian movement with approximately 97 million volunteers, members and staff worldwide which was founded to protect human life and health, to ensure respect for all human beings, and to prevent and alleviate human...
, that he was a prisoner at Auschwitz, Mauthausen, Gusen, Gross Rosen, and Dachau concentration camps. Documents used by Kobylański, are different from those in the Auschwitz Museum.
In December 2007, the minister of Foreign Affairs, Radosław Sikorski, sent a message to Polish embassies abroad to discontinue contact with Kobylański. In late November 2008, two independent internet services reported that Kobylański was going to open a legal case against Polish politicians and journalists (among others against Adam Michnik, Jerzy Baczyński and Ryszard Schnepf) on charges of slander.