Jan Nowak-Jeziorański
Jan Nowak-Jeziorański: (2 October
1914 – 20 January 2005) was a Polish journalist, writer, politician, social
worker and patriot. He served during the Second World War as one of the most
notable resistance fighters of the Home Army. He is best remembered for his
work as an emissary shuttling between the commanders of the Home Army and the
Polish Government in Exile in London and other Allied governments which gained
him the nickname "Courier from Warsaw", and for his participation in
the Warsaw Uprising. After the war he worked as the head of the Polish section
of Radio Free Europe, and later as a security advisor to the US presidents
Ronald Reagan and Jimmy Carter. In 1996, President Bill Clinton awarded him
with America's highest civilian award the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
He was born Zdzisław Antoni
Jeziorański, (Jeziora Coat of Arms) in Berlin, but used a number of noms de
guerre during the war, the best known of which was Jan Nowak which he later
added to his original surname.
Biography Zdzisław
Jeziorański was born in Berlin. He attended Gimnazjum i Liceum im. Stefana
Batorego in Warsaw. After finishing his studies in economics in 1936, he worked
as a teaching assistant at Poznań University. Mobilized in 1939, he fought in
the Polish Army as an artillery NCO. He was taken prisoner of war by the
Germans in Volhynia, but managed to escape and returned to Warsaw. Most of his
colleagues were taken prisoners of war by the Soviets and later killed in the
Katyn massacre. He quickly joined the Polish resistance. After 1940 he
became the main organiser of the Akcja N, a secret organisation preparing
German-language newspapers and other propaganda material pretending to be
official German publications, to wage psychological warfare against German
troops.He also served as an envoy between the commanders of the Home Army and
the Polish Government in Exile and other allied governments. his
first trips to Sweden and Great Britain he informed the Western governments of
the fate of Poland under German and Soviet occupation. He was also the first to
report of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising. During one of such missions, in July
1944, he returned to Warsaw only a few days before the Warsaw uprising broke
out.
During the Uprising he took an
active part in the fights against the Germans and also organised the Polish
radio that maintained the contact with the Allied countries through daily
broadcasts in Polish and English. Shortly before the capitulation of the Polish
capital, he was ordered by Home Army's commander-in-chief Tadeusz
Bór-Komorowski to leave the city and find his way to London. He managed to
evade being captured and reached Great Britain, bringing with him large
quantities of documents and photos. For his bravery and his travels through the
German-occupied Europe he was awarded with the Virtuti Militari, the highest
Polish military medal.
After the war Jan
Nowak-Jeziorański stayed in the West, initially in London and then in Munich
and Washington. Between 1948 and 1976 he was one of the most notable personalities
of the BBC Polish Section. In 1952 he also became head of the Polish section of
the Munich-based Radio Free Europe. Through his daily radio broadcasts he
remained one of the most popular radio personalities, both in communist-held
Poland and among the Polish diaspora in the West. After giving up his posts in
1976 he became one of the most prominent members of the Polish American
Congress. He was also working as an advisor to the American National Security
Agency and the presidents of the USA Ronald Reagan and Jimmy Carter. Through
his contacts with many notable politicians in the USA, he was one of the
proponents of Poland's membership in NATO (achieved in 1999).
In the 1990s he started his
cooperation with the Polish Radio and wrote a series of broadcasts titled
Polska z oddali (Poland from a Distance). Since 1990 he was also present on
Polish television as writer/presenter of monthly programs. In July 2002 he
returned to Warsaw for the final time. He was an active supporter of Poland's
entry into the European Union. Most of his books, published abroad as well as
those published in Poland after 1989, were best-sellers and gained him even
more popularity.
For his writings he was awarded
some of the most prestigious Polish literary awards, including the Kisiel Award
(1999), Ksawery Pruszyński Memorial Prize of the Polish Pen Club (2001) and the
Superwiktor award for television personalities. In 2003 he was also awarded the
Człowiek Pojednania prize by the Polish Council of Christians and Jews for his part
in the Polish-Jewish dialogue. Finally, he was made the doctor honoris causa of
many Polish universities, including the Warsaw University, Jagiellonian
University and his alma mater, the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań.
He died in Warsaw on 20 January
2005.He donated all his archives to the Ossolineum Institute.
(Monument to Jan
Nowak-Jeziorański in Warsaw, sculptor: Wojciech Gryniewicz)
Censorship in Russia A
selection of Nowak's texts has been confiscated in Saint Petersburg, Russia by
the FSB.
Awards Knight's Cross of
the Virtuti Militari (1944, highest Polish military award), Cross of
Valour (Krzyż Walecznych), Officer's Cross of the Order of Polonia
Restituta, Commander's Cross with Star of the Order of Merit of the
Polish Republic (1993), Order of the White Eagle (highest Polish award,
1994), Presidential Medal of Freedom (highest civilian award in the
United States, 1996), Grand Cross of the Order of the Lithuanian Grand
Duke Gediminas (the highest Lithuanian civilian award, 1998), King's Medal for
Courage in the Cause of Freedom (United Kingdom), Kisiel Prize (1999), Lumen
Mundi (2001), Ksawery Pruszyński Award (2001), Man of
Reconciliation (2002), awarded by the Polish Council of Christians and Jews for
his contribution to Christian-Jewish dialogue in Poland, Wiktor Award
and Superwiktor (2003) Awards of the Academy of Television, Gold Statue
of the Business Centre Club for his contribution to the development of Polish
democracy awarded by Business Centre Club (2003), Honorary citizen of
Warsaw, Gdansk and Kraków, Prize. Xavier Pruszynski, granted by the
Polish PEN Club, Golden Microphone, Diamond Microphone
Bibliography
Among other books, he wrote: Polska
droga ku wolnosci, 1952–1973, London, 1974. ISBN 0-901342-19-X, Courier from
Warsaw (Kurier z Warszawy, published in London 1978, Polish underground edition
1981, official edition in 1989, published in English in 1982 by Wayne State
University Press) ISBN 0-8143-1725-1, Ideological competition in United States'
strategy, Polish American Congress, 1980., Polska została sobą, 1980. ISBN
0-902352-16-4, Wojna w eterze (War on the Radio, memoirs 1948–1956), 1986. ISBN
0-903705-53-2, Kryptonim "Odra" (Code-name Odra), Warsaw, 1986. ISBN
83-11-07358-9, Polska z oddali. Wspomnienia 1956–1976 (Poland from the
distance), 1988, Poland and Germany (Occasional paper / East European Studies),
Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, 1991., Z dziejów Armii
Krajowej w inspektoracie Płocko-Sierpeckim, Płock, 1992. ISBN 83-900609-0-6, W
poszukiwaniu nadziei (In Search for Hope), 1993, Rozmowy o Polsce, Warsaw,
1995. ISBN 83-07-02466-8, Polska wczoraj, dzis i jutro (Poland today, tomorrow
and the day after), Warsaw, 1999. ISBN 83-07-02680-6, Listy 1952–1998 (Letters
1952–1998), Wrocław, 2001. ISBN 83-7095-052-3, Poland's Road to NATO, Towarzystwo
Przyjaciół Ossolineum, Wrocław 2006, ISBN 83-7095-079-5
In popular culture A
dramatic feature film about the wartime experiences of Nowak-Jeziorański and
the Warsaw Uprising, entitled Kurier (The Messenger; U.S. title: The Resistance
Fighter), was released in Poland in 2019 and in the United States in 2020.
Directed by Polish filmmaker Wladyslaw Pasikowski, it stars Philippe Tłokiński
as Nowak-Jeziorański.
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