Antoni Macierewicz

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Antoni Macierewicz
Minister of Internal Affairs
In office
23 December 1991 – 20 June 1992
Prime MinisterJan Olszewski
Preceded byHenryk Majewski
Succeeded byAndrzej Milczanowski
Head of the Military Counterintelligence Service
In office
4 October 2006 – 5 November 2007
PresidentLech Kaczyński
Prime MinisterJarosław Kaczyński
Preceded byPosition established
Succeeded byJanusz Nosek
Minister of State in the Ministry of National Defence
In office
1 July 2006 – 1 November 2007
PresidentLech Kaczyński
Prime MinisterJarosław Kaczyński
Chairman of the Verification Commission
In office
21 July 2006 – 9 November 2007
PresidentLech Kaczyński
Prime MinisterJarosław Kaczyński
Preceded byPosition established
Succeeded byJan Olszewski
Member of the European Parliament
In office
23 April 2003 – 19 July 2004
Personal details
Born (1948-08-03) 3 August 1948 (age 75)
Human rights activist
Signature
Websitemacierewicz.com

Antoni Macierewicz (Polish pronunciation:

Minister of Internal Affairs, Head of the Military Counterintelligence Service, and Minister of State in the Ministry of National Defence
.

Employing

Workers' Defense Committee, a major anti-communist opposition organization that was a forerunner of Solidarity. During the 1980s Macierewicz directed the Centre for Social Research of Solidarity and was one of the trade union's key advisors. A former political prisoner, he escaped from incarceration and was in hiding until 1984, directing work and issuing underground publications.[1][2][3]

Macierewicz served as the

Law and Justice, the largest party in the Parliament of Poland
.

Early life

Macierewicz was born in Warsaw on 3 August 1948. He is the youngest of three children of Zdzisław and Maria Macierewicz, both scientists. His father, a noted researcher in chemistry, a soldier in the Home Army during World War II, and a member of the Christian democratic Labor Party, committed suicide in 1949.

Anti-communist activities

Macierewicz was expelled from

Polish 1970 protests, Macierewicz launched the campaign to help victims of state oppression. In 1971 he earned a master's degree
from the Institute of History of the University of Warsaw. His thesis was titled Hierarchy of Power and the Structure of Land Ownership in Tawantinsuyu in the First Half of the Sixteenth Century’’.

As a

PhD under the supervision of Tadeusz Łepkowski, which was interrupted by the authorities in mid-October 1976 because of Macierewicz’s dissident activities. Moreover, publication of his book and a trip to Argentina
in order to conduct archival research were both blocked.

Stanisław Lewek (second from left), the physician who enabled Macierewicz’s 1982 escape from incarceration

After the pacification of workers in June 1976, he organized relief in Radom and Ursus.[6] Along with some of his colleagues from "Black One", he created underground structures, which dealt with the monetary, legal, and medical aid for the oppressed. Macierewicz founded the Workers' Defence Committee (KOR), the forerunner of Solidarity. “Macierewicz, more than anyone else, was responsible for the formation of KOR”, notes David Ost, a Professor of Political Science at Hobart and William Smith Colleges.[1]

In September 1976 he co-authored the organization's first appeal and began publishing the Komunikat „KOR”, working closely with Piotr Naimski and Jan Olszewski. From 16 May to 23 July 1977, and again in December 1979, Macierewicz was held as a political prisoner. In 1977 he started Głos, one of the first magazines of the democratic opposition in the communist era.[7] In October 1979 he was a member of the Solidarity hunger strike at the Holy Cross Church in Warsaw. In connection with his opposition activities, he was kept under surveillance by the security services of communist Poland and, from 1976 until 1980, he was detained at least 23 times and his residence regularly searched.

From September 1980, Macierewicz directed the Centre for Social Research of Solidarity.[8] He also began to publish the independent newspaper News Day Warsaw. Since October 1980 he was a member of the National Coordination Committee of Advisors, and later the National Commission of Solidarity. On 27 September 1981 Macierewicz was one of the signatories of the founding declaration of Independence Service Clubs. In the autumn of 1981, he joined the faculty at the Jagiellonian University. After the introduction of martial law in Poland, Macierewicz was part of the strike committee at the Gdańsk Shipyard. After the pacification of the protest of 16 December 1981, he was arrested but escaped from prison. Macierewicz was in hiding until 1984, directing work and issuing underground publications.

Political career

Member of the Sejm

Macierewicz remains a Member of the Sejm, where he has served from 25 November 1991 to 31 May 1993, from 20 October 1997 to 18 October 2005 and from 5 November 2007 to present. He represents the Piotrków Trybunalski district. He is the Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee for the Investigation of the Causes of the 2010 Polish Air Force Tu-154 Crash. Macierewicz is also a member of the National Defense Commission and the Subcommission for the Polish Defense Industry and Technical Modernization of the Armed Forces.

Minister of Internal Affairs

He was

Minister of Internal Affairs in Jan Olszewski's government. As a minister responsible for the police and security services, he was afforded full access to the former communist documentary archives, including records of communist intelligence and secret service agents. On 28 May 1992 the Parliament of Poland passed a law that the Minister of Internal Affairs had to provide the Sejm with a list of then senators, representatives, ministers, voivodes, judges and prosecutors who had been secret communist agents between 1945 and 1990.[9] On 4 June 1992, Macierewicz provided a list, commonly known as the Macierewicz List, of 64 members of the government and parliament that had been identified as secret agents in the archives of the communist secret police to the Convent of Senior Parliamentarians. He also provided a second list containing the two names of highest importance, that of than President Lech Wałęsa and Marshall of Sejm Wiesław Chrzanowski.[10][11][12][13][14]

As the crisis had been unfolding, prior to the lists' presentation, on 29 May 1992, the opposition parties submitted a motion of no confidence, asking for a vote on the fate of Olszewski's government. On the night of 4 June 1992, after the presentation of the lists, the motion of no confidence passed and Olszewski's government was dismissed.[15] This situation was depicted in a documentary film, Nocna zmiana.

Activity between government posts

In 1993 Macierewicz founded his own party,

President of Warsaw
.

Member of the European Parliament

Macierewicz was a Member of the European Parliament during the fifth term. He served on the Committee on Development and Cooperation.

Secretary of State in the Ministry of National Defence

Following the

Secretary of State in the Ministry of National Defence
.

Chairman of the Verification Commission

In July 2006, Macierewicz was appointed as the Chairman of the

Military Information Services (WSI), an alleged "vestige of the communist era."[17][18] Macierewicz also established new intelligence and counterintelligence agencies.[19] On 16 February 2007 the closure report, known as the Macierewicz Report
, was published in the Polish Monitor.

In its analysis, global intelligence company Stratfor noted:[20]

The move both removes Soviet influence and consolidates the twins' power in the government. The release of the WSI report is one of the largest and most decisive moves along these lines. By naming people in the WSI who are connected to Soviet intelligence, Kaczynski ensures their names will forever be known for — alleged or real — Soviet ties. The move undermines the entire structure of the WSI and all of its former personnel, ensuring that it and those attached to it can never recover.

The report contained list of members of the WSI (military intelligence service), which included dozens of current and former Polish military counterintelligence contacts, some active in highly sensitive places like Afghanistan. Polish ambassadors to Austria, China, Kuwait and Turkey were recalled to Warsaw. At least ten of the names, including the military attaché in Moscow, were fiercely contested.[21]

Head of the Military Counterintelligence Service

In October 2006, Macierewicz became Head of the Military Counterintelligence Service, in office until the end of the Kaczyński government.

Polish Air Force Tu-154 crash investigation

Macierewicz at World Youth Day 2016 in Kraków

Since 20 July 2010 Macierewicz is the Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee for the Investigation of the Causes of the

Katyń massacre, has already been analyzed and documented by Committee for Investigation of National Aviation Accidents. Since the first days after the crash, Macierewicz claimed the crash was an assassination. Established on 8 July 2010, the goal of Macierewicz Commission was to disprove the official report. As the state investigation moved to exhumation of President Kaczyński's and others' bodies in late 2016, the New York Times summarized that "Macierewicz claimed over the years to have 'irrefutable evidence' of explosives [having caused the crash, but] his experts have yet to produce it."[22]

Deputy Leader of Law and Justice

Since 23 November 2013 Macierewicz has been the Deputy Leader of

Law and Justice, the largest party in the Parliament of Poland
.

Minister of National Defence

James Mattis
talks with Antoni Macierewicz, Poland's defense minister, prior to a meeting at the NATO Headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, 29 June 2017

Macierewicz paid an official visit to

Holocaust survivors.[24]

Honors and awards

On 3 May 1990,

orders. News magazine Gazeta Polska
named Macierewicz the 2010 Man of the Year.

On 23 September 2022 Macierewicz was awarded the Order of the White Eagle, the highest state decoration.[25]

Controversies

Following Macierewicz's designation as Minister of National Defence, he faced allegations of

Anti Defamation League.[26] In 1996, Macierewicz wrote that Poles did not murder Jews in the Kielce pogrom in 1946.[27] In 2001, Macierewicz wrote: "Is the hubbub surrounding Jedwabne intended to eclipse the responsibility of Jews for Communism and the Soviet occupation?"[27]

In a radio interview in 2002 Macierewicz said, in response to a caller's question, that he had read the

Jewish American former legislative assistant to Macierewicz and a student leader at Rutgers University, stated, “As a Jewish American, I am outraged by false and outlandish rumors and innuendos accusing Antoni Macierewicz, Poland’s Minister of National Defence-designate, of antisemitism… I hope that all factions in Poland will forcefully condemn the use of Judaism for political infighting.”[31] Anna Chipczynska, the President of the Jewish Community of Warsaw, said, "the latest statement by Mr. Macierewicz denouncing all forms of anti-Semitism could be a positive signal that the new Polish government will stand strongly against manifestations of hatred toward Jews."[32]

In July 2016, Antoni Macierewicz said that the "real enemy", Russia, shares responsibility for the massacres of Poles and Jews in German-occupied Volhynia and Eastern Galicia by the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA).[27] Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said that "the Polish government is moving from Russophobia to inciting national hatred," and asked Macierewicz if "there are any historical events and natural disasters for which Russia is not the one to blame."[33] Macierewicz's claim was also criticized by the Federation of Jewish Communities of Russia.[27]

In the comical webseries The Chairman's Ear (2017), implicit references are made to an alleged homosexual relationship between "Minister of War" Antoni and a younger man. This pun refers to Macierewicz's close ties with the much younger politician Bartłomiej Misiewicz (born in 1990).

Footnotes

  1. ^
    ISBN 978-1-4399-0351-3
    .
  2. ISBN 978-1-135-92701-1
    .
  3. ISBN 978-0-520-05243-7
    .
  4. ISBN 978-0-7391-7487-6
    .
  5. ISBN 978-0-313-31193-2
    .
  6. ISBN 978-0-231-08093-4
    .
  7. ISBN 978-0-7391-7487-6
    .
  8. ISBN 978-1-135-92701-1
    .
  9. ISBN 978-0-7425-4903-6
    .
  10. ISBN 978-1-84545-541-5
    .
  11. ISBN 978-1-136-30143-8
    .
  12. ISBN 978-1-134-72447-5
    .
  13. ISBN 978-0-307-77358-6
    .
  14. ISBN 978-0-521-51445-3
    .
  15. ISBN 978-1-136-65096-3
    .
  16. ISBN 978-1-4833-7155-9
    .
  17. ISBN 978-1-137-45223-8
    .
  18. ^ Boyes, Roger (25 February 2015). "Polish twins to widen purge of communists". The Australian.
  19. ISBN 978-1-904113-36-2
    .
  20. ^ Geopolitical Diary (20 February 2007). "Trying to Redefine Poland". Stratfor. Retrieved 9 November 2015.
  21. ^ "Of questionable intelligence", The Economist, 22 February 2007.
  22. ^ Berendt, Joanna, "Poland Exhumes Ex-President’s Body in Inquiry of 2010 Plane Crash", The New York Times, 14 November 2016. Retrieved 15 November 2016.
  23. ^ "Macierewicz reklamuje za darmo Izraelczyków!?". fakt.pl. 9 July 2016. Retrieved 2 November 2016.
  24. ^ Wroński, Paweł. "Jak senator D'Amato oskarżał Polskę o czerpanie korzyści z Holocaustu". wyborcza.pl. Retrieved 2 November 2016.
  25. ^ The official website of the President of the Republic of Poland (23 September 2022). "Order of the White Eagle on the 46th anniversary of the establishment of the Workers' Defense Committee". Archived from the original on 23 September 2022. Retrieved 27 September 2022.
  26. ^ Gera, Vanessa, "Jewish group protests appointment of Polish defense minister", AP via huffingtonpost.com, 13 November 2015. Retrieved 15 November 2016.
  27. ^ a b c d "Polish officials rapped for perceived revisionism of Holocaust history". Jewish Telegraphic Agency. 21 July 2016.
  28. ^ Polish defence minister condemned over Jewish conspiracy theory, Guardian, 10 November 2015
  29. ^ Rashty, Sandy (11 November 2015). "Poland's new defence minister 'agreed with antisemitic conspiracy theory'". The Jewish Chronicle. Retrieved 12 November 2015.
  30. ^ a b Sokol, Sam (12 November 2015). "Polish ministerial nominee said there's some truth in Protocols of Elders of Zion". The Jerusalem Post. Retrieved 12 November 2015.
  31. ^ "Oświadczenie rzecznika Macierewicza. "Minister został pomówiony"" [Macierewicz's Press Secretary Issues Statement. "The Minister was defamed"]. Wprost (in Polish). 12 November 2015. Retrieved 12 November 2015.
  32. ^ Gera, Vanessa (13 November 2015). "Jewish group protests appointment of Polish defense minister". ABC News. Retrieved 13 November 2015.
  33. ^ "Poland and Russia Clash Over World War II Massacre Claims". Newsweek. 13 July 2016.

External links

Political offices
Preceded by
Henryk Majewski
Minister of Internal Affairs

1991–1992 		Succeeded by
Andrzej Milczanowski
Preceded by Minister of National Defence
2015–2018 		Succeeded by
Government offices
New office Chairman of the Verification Commission
2006–2007 		Succeeded by
Head of the Military Counterintelligence Service
2006–2007 		Succeeded by
Janusz Nosek
Party political offices
Preceded by
—
 Deputy Leader of
Law and Justice

2013–present 		Incumbent
Honorary titles
Preceded by Senior Marshal of the Sejm
2019–2023 		Succeeded by
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