Wojciech Jaruzelski September 1939 with the invasion of Poland by Germany, aided by the Soviet invasion of Poland sixteen days later. These resulted in the complete defeat of Poland by October, and a partition between Soviet and German zones of control. Jaruzelski and his family fled to Lithuania and stayed with some friends there. However, a few months later, after Lithuania and the other Baltic states were forcibly incorporated into the Soviet Union, Jaruzelski and his family were captured by the Red Army and deported to Siberia. In June 1941, Jaruzelski and his family were deprived of all the valuable possessions and
Wojciech Jaruzelski August 1968 invasion had been a great "political and moral mistake". On 28 March 2006, Jaruzelski was awarded a Siberian Exiles Cross by Polish President Lech Kaczyński. However, after making this fact public Kaczyński claimed that this was a mistake and blamed the bureaucracy for giving him a document containing 1293 names without notifying him of Jaruzelski's presence within it. After this statement, Jaruzelski returned the cross. On 31 March 2006, the Institute of National Remembrance (IPN) charged him with committing Communist crimes, mainly the creation of a criminal military organization with the aim of carrying out criminal acts —