Maria Trzcińska


Maria Trzcińska was a Polish judge employed for over 30 years in the People's Republic of Poland at the Main Commission for the Investigation of Nazi Crimes in Poland. She investigated and researched the Nazi German World War II crimes in Poland.
Trzcińska was the author of a monograph about the Warsaw concentration camp set up by the SS in occupied Poland, which was rejected by historians.

Controversy

After the collapse of the Soviet empire in 1989, Trzcińska asserted that the number of victims of KL Warschau was ten times greater than previously assumed by historians. She had propagated the claim that the camp operated gas chambers, which was rejected by the IPN as unproven. She also argued that the number of victims in the camp was 200,000, about ten times greater than accepted by mainstream historians.
Trzcińska appeared on Radio Maryja and in nationalist media speaking about the fact that the Nazi German camp in the capital was used in Stalinist Poland as detention facility for the anti-Nazi resistance. She engaged in a conflict with the IPN regarding the content of her research and opposed its further publication. Her copyright request was rejected by the IPN as concerning state property already paid for, including historical documents and testimonies of survivors. Her additional claims made on behalf of the new public monument committee, about the alleged much greater size of the German camp extending beyond Warszawa Zachodnia station, were refuted by the IPN.