A monster in exile?
Stanislaw Chrzanowski came to the UK to work as a machine operator in the wake of the Second World War. Known as “Mr Stan” in the Shropshire village of Hadley, where he lived in a retirement bungalow in his later years, Chrzanowski was a keen gardener and a familiar figure, \ipping around on his mobility scooter.
Yet it seems all too likely that in the Belarusian town of Slonim, where the Nazis slaughtered as many as 10,000 Jews in a single day, Chrzanowski was known to his neighbours as a collaborator: an auxiliary policeman who committed war crimes – a “butcher”.
That’s the idea at the heart of a powerful documentary presented by journalist Nick Southall, which draws on the archive compiled by John
Kingston, Chrzanowski’s stepson. During his childhood, Kingston was allegedly told bedtime stories by %hr\anowski s tales that terrified him, and which later made him suspicious. Kingston, who died in 2018 after suʘering from leukaemia, spent long hours researching his stepfather’s life. The results make for a chilling story.
Chrzanowski, who himself died in 2017, aged 96, was never tried for his alleged crimes. The oʛcial line of British authorities is that, though he was investigated, there was insuʛcient evidence to provide a realistic prospect of conviction. But, Southall asks, could there be another reason why he never faced justice?