The Katowice branch of the Institute of National Remembrance has filed for the re-opening of an investigation into the death of general Wladyslaw Sikorski, Commander-In-Chief of Polish Armed Forces in the West during World War Two and Prime Minister of the Polish Government-In-Exile. 

Slawek Szefs reports

On July 4th, 1943 general Sikorsky made a stop over in Gibraltar on his way back to London after an inspection of Polish troops in the Middle East. Right after take off from The Rock the Liberator of the Royal Air Force fell into the sea. The tragedy claimed the life of the general and several accompanying people.

A hasty investigation by British specialists concluding the crash had been an accident and quick burial services gave rise to speculations that general Sikorski had actually been assasinated. Some Polish politicians in London suggested the implication of Soviet secret services. It was no secret that general Sikorski had been despised by Stalin, if only because of his insistence on revealing the truth about the Ribbentrop-Molotov pact or regarding the 1940 massacre in Katyn of thosuands of Polish officers held as POW's by the Soviets. The British investigation into the case provided little answers to such allegations. 

Polish MEP and a noted historian, professor Wojciech Roszkowski says there are two important reasons for re-launching the investigation concerning the circumstances of general Sikorski's tragic death: 'It was, after all, death of the Polish PM during a very crucial moment of the Second World War. Second, is simply the neglect. The 65 years that have passed since his death proved the inability of responsible organizations or institutions to explain the tragedy. So, I think, the passage of time is a strong argument FOR this investigation.'  

Historian Andrzej Suchcitz from the Sikorski Intitute in London shares this view: 'This question has been alive for a long time and its importance lies in the fact that, despite the 65 year having passed, the general's death has always been surrounded in a controversy. There were various theories as to how he was killed, or how he died and whether it was an accident or was it a deliberate sabotage or murder. That's the question of the investigation. Around this is still the importance to Poles and to historians.' 

There is a feeling among Polish historians that the wartime investigation carried out by the British revealed more than what had been made public at the time of general Sikorski's death. Over the post war decades this information had not been made available to the Polish authorities which then represented a Soviet satellite regime. However, the situation has not changed to date, even after Poland became a democratic state in 1989. Doctor Andrzej Suchcitz hopes the trend will be reversed, but this will not be easy: 'Well, if there are documents which have been kept back in British archives, these are probably not held at national archives but within various secret service institutions. So it will be necessary first to identify the documents and where they are held. And then hopefuly manage to request the relevant British authorities to release or make available any documents which to date haven't been made open for inspection and research.' 

Another mystery is the reason for not conducting an autopsy on general Sikorski's remains, which have been brought back to his native land fifteen years ago. Polish president Lech Kaczynski and PM Donald Tusk have promised to take action on this, yet even the Institute of National Remembrance has not officially filed for such procedure as there are some strong opinions the general's body should remain at rest in the Royal Wawel cathedral in Krakow. 

Father Robert Necek, spokesman for the Krakow metroplitan cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz, who must give his consent for the exhumation, says: 'The Krakow metropolitan has repeatedly declared readiness to comply with such a request. But so far this is only a theoretical discussion as formally it is still an empty notion.'     

Professor Roszkowski thinks that an autopsy report would shed new light on the cold case: 'The remains of general Sikorski were brought in a sealed coffin and we have no direct information on what it includes, nor on the state of the remains or whether there are any clues on the remains as to the nature of the general's death. So, despite the natural hesitations connected with respect for the remains of a dead person, a coroner's examination must be carried out to find possible hints.'  

Andrzej Suchcitz adds that an autopsy report with new findings presented by Polish investigators may be a stimulus for the British side to unveil confidential information posessed in its archives: 'This could very well do. An autopsy of general Sikorski's body by medical experts could also solve, or at least give partial answers to some of the questions which have arisen and some of the claims as to the assasination, that he was actually shot.' 

Scientists from the Jagiellonian University in Krakow have expressed their readiness to perform the tardy autopsy.