Only reporters have to date made use of an infoline gathering information about Polish Nazi collaborators and participants in Jewish pogroms opened Wednesday by the Jerusalem- based Simon Wiesenthal centre. Information transmitted via such lines will be analyzed in Jerusalem, and transferred to the Institute of National Remembrance (IPN).

Callers whose information leads to the seizure and conviction of Nazi collaborators will be paid 10,000 euros. Polish archbishop Jozef Zycinski said today that revealing such information for money and not for elementary human reasons was morally wrong. I value the Wiesenthal Centre highly but (...) here I have to say no, Zycinski said, stressing that the true motive for bringing collaborators to justice should be human solidarity and not money.

Marek Edelman, last surviving commander of the 1943 Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, told PAP Wednesday that he saw nothing wrong in offering money for informarion about Nazi collaborators and pogrom participants. All over the world if you're looking for a killer you pay for information. Besides, money gives you a better chance of getting it. [Saddam - PAP] Hussein was caught only after U.S. president George W. Bush offered millions of dollars for information about him and Osama bin Laden. So I see nothing wrong with the idea or the whole project, Edelman opined.

Efraim Zuroff from the Wiesenthal Centre in Jersualem said the offering money for information about offenders was "normal practice". In democracies it is normal practice to offer payment for information leading to the seizure of a criminal offender, Zuroff said.


News Bulletin of the Polish Embassy in Washington, June 16, 2004