January 21, 2005
BETTER ALLY THAN WE DESERVED:
Jan Nowak-Jezioranski, Polish wartime hero, dies at 91 (MONIKA SCISLOWSKA, January 21, 2005, Associated Press)
Jan Nowak-Jezioranski, a wartime courier for the Polish anti-Nazi resistance and the director of Radio Free Europe's Polish service during the Cold War, has died, Polish officials said Friday. He was 91.Posted by Orrin Judd at January 21, 2005 7:34 PMNowak-Jezioranski died Thursday in a Warsaw hospital. The cause of death was not immediately given.
"A great Pole, a hero and a great authority has gone," Tadeusz Mazowiecki, Poland's first democratic prime minister after communism's end, said on state radio.
Nowak-Jezioranski fought in the brief 1939 campaign after Nazi Germany's invasion of Poland. After Poland's defeat and occupation, he joined the resistance movement and fought in the 1944 Warsaw uprising against the Nazis.
He risked his life as a courier between the Polish government-in-exile in London and the Polish underground resistance in German-occupied Poland, completing five trips -- including risky parachute jumps.
The uprising began Aug. 1, 1944, and lasted 63 days, leaving about 200,000 insurgents and civilians dead. Nowak-Jezioranski sneaked back out of Nazi-occupied Poland after the uprising failed, carrying intelligence material and film showing the struggle.
In Washington, the White House said President Bush mourned the passing of "a great Polish freedom fighter and American patriot."
"Jan Nowak-Jezioranski pursued his values tenaciously, and contributed greatly to the building of a Europe whole, free, and at peace," the statement said.
I normally think most foreigners hate America for no good reason. But, considering how we've repeatedly sold them out, Poles really do have reason to hate us. But they don't. In fact, many of them positively love us.
Isn't that odd?
Posted by: Matt Murphy at January 21, 2005 8:37 PMMatt
"In fact, many of them positively love us"
Would that perhaps give you reason to question your original premise that we "sold them out"?
Posted by: h-man at January 22, 2005 6:16 AMh:
The Iranians love us too, despite selling them out repeatedly. Some peoples just love liberty.
Posted by: oj at January 22, 2005 8:53 AMNowak lived long enough to see a Poland that more or less accepts his beliefs in freedom, opportunity, reverence, and basic decency. Perhaps, the biggest miracle in post-Communist Poland is its transformation from fascist horror show before WWII to slave labor camp and crematorium in WWII to Communist hellhole until the late 80s early 90s, to being a modern, forward looking good place.
Millions of decent people like Nowak did it with little help from the West and they cannot be congratulated enough. Think of them as Poland's Greatest Generation.
Posted by: Bart at January 22, 2005 2:51 PMh-man:
We covered up Katyn Forest, refused to pistol-whip the Soviets (or at least administer a tongue-lashing to Stalin) when they stopped their troops at the Vistula during the Warsaw uprising, and gave our assent to the redrawing of their nation's boundaries. We probably didn't do enough to counter the puppet government at Lublin, either.
I reiterate: We sold them out.
I don't like to say that, because most of the time these kinds of accusations are just America-hating pap. But this time, it's true.
Posted by: Matt Murphy at January 23, 2005 4:40 AM