Romuald Rajs

Romuald Rajs, nom de guerre "Bury", was a Polish soldier, a member of Home Army (AK) and National Military Union (NZW), an anti-communist insurgent and war criminal. In 1946 the unit under his command burned several Belarusian villages in the region of Białystok and massacred about 79 villagers. He was sentenced to death in a show trial held by the Polish communist government in 1949, charged with membership in delegalized NZW. Following the trial, he was executed in 1949. The verdict was nullified by the Military Court of Warsaw in 1995. In 2005, the Polish Institute of National Remembrance conducted an investigation which revealed that his actions bear the marks of genocide against Orthodox Belarusian community in post-war boundaries of Poland. Rajs is revered by regional nationalist Polish groups as a hero which creates tensions with the local Belarusian and Eastern Orthodox inhabitants.