Kazimierz Leski
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Kazimierz Leski,
He is credited, during World War II, with at least 25 journeys across
After the war, he was imprisoned by
Early life
Kazimierz Leski was born in
Engineer
Immediately on graduating in 1936, he was offered a job at the Nederlandse Verenigde Scheepsbouw Bureaus B.V. design bureau (NVSB) in The Hague. The company was the leading design bureau in the Netherlands, working for all the major naval shipyards in the country. Initially working as a draughtsman, Leski learned the Dutch language, enabling him to rise quickly through the ranks of the design bureau.
His career in Dutch shipbuilding was sped up by the Netherlands having won a contract to build two modern
– and deputy to lead constructor Niemeier.After work on the submarines was complete, Leski returned to Poland, where he joined the
War begins
Mobilized prior to the 1939
The organization, which was later integrated into the
His most important achievements included a complete list of German military units, their insignia, numbers and dispositions. He and his cell also prepared detailed reports on the logistics and transport of German units bound for the
Disguises
In 1941 Leski made his first trip as a courier to France. In his first trip, he posed as a Lieutenant of the Wehrmacht. However, he decided to promote himself to the rank of Generalmajor for all other trips in order to be able to travel first class, as his wounds made it impossible for him to travel in crowded, third-class railway cars.[4] As General Julius von Halmann he managed to cross Europe several times in a row without his true identity being revealed. The disguise, his fluent knowledge of several languages and his excellently forged documents also allowed him to witness several events he did not plan. Among them was his 1942 visit to the Atlantic Wall construction site, which was made possible because he convinced one of the passengers in his car that his superiors might want to build a similar line of fortifications in Ukraine.[5] On another occasion he visited the field staff of Field Marshal Gerd von Rundstedt.[5] Apart from his service in intelligence and counter-intelligence, he also took over a cell focused on smuggling information and people in and out of German prisons in occupied Poland, notably the infamous Pawiak.[6]
Warsaw Uprising
At the outbreak of the
After the Uprising's capitulation, Leski managed to escape from a column of prisoners and, pretending to be a civilian, returned to the underground.[8] He became commander of the Home Army Western Area and later the chief of the Armed Forces Delegation for Poland.
Communist prison
After
Charged with attempting to overthrow the regime, he was sentenced to 12 years in prison. The sentence was later commuted to six years. However, in 1951 he was not released. Instead, he was charged with having collaborated with the German occupation forces and held in solitary confinement and brutally tortured.
Rehabilitation
After the deaths of Soviet leader Joseph Stalin (1953) and Polish leader Bolesław Bierut (1956), Leski was freed and soon rehabilitated. Still, he could not find a job, as Poland's communist authorities continued to view former Home Army soldiers with suspicion. He had to give up work in the shipbuilding industry and worked as a clerk at the PWT publishing house. Eventually he became a member of the Polish Academy of Sciences. Awarded a doctorate, for political reasons he could not receive the rank of professor for his work on computer analysis of natural language codes. Nevertheless, he continued his scientific work, publishing seven books and over 150 other publications. He also patented inventions. In 1995 he was honored by Yad Vashem as a Righteous Among the Nations.
Largely unknown to the public, in 1989 — after
He died on 27 May 2000 and was interred with
See also
- Jan Karski
- Jan Nowak-Jeziorański
- Krystyna Skarbek (was in contact with the "Musketeers" organization)
- List of Poles
Notes
- model 35) – or 'musket' – unit, with which he [Stefan Witkowski] had briefly served, he established an intelligence organization known, not very cryptically, as the Musketeers."[3]
References
- ^ "Rok Amerykański - Muzeum Lotnictwa Polskiego w Krakowie". www.rokamerykanski.muzeumlotnictwa.pl. Retrieved 2023-03-19.
- ^ Among other things, he founded the Pocisk munitions works in Warsaw, the explosives factories at Rembertów and Boryszew, and the predecessor of the PZL works at Okęcie.
- ISBN 978-0-230-7595-10, p. 61.
- ^ Jerzy Stefan Stawiński (July 2006). "Stawiński nie do zobaczenia". Gazeta Wyborcza (in Polish) (2006–07–01). Retrieved 2006-10-20.
- ^ a b ELEM (October 2000). "Kazimierz Leski". Gazeta Wyborcza (in Polish) (255). Retrieved 2006-10-20.
- ISBN 83-05-11813-4.
- ^ Named after Leski's nom-de-guerre. Throughout the war, he used several dozen false names and pseudonyms
- ^ "Kazimierz Leski: honorowy obywatel Warszawy". Official website of the city of Warsaw (in Polish). City of Warsaw. 2005. Retrieved 2006-10-19.
Bibliography
- Kazimierz Leski. (1989). Życie niewłaściwie urozmaicone: wspomnienia oficera wywiadu i kontrwywiadu AK (A Checkered Life: Memoirs of a Home Army Intelligence and Counterintelligence Officer) (in Polish). Warsaw: ISBN 83-01-08351-4. 600 pp.
- Cpt. Stanisław Wielebski (2003). "Kazimierz Leski". ORP Orzeł (in Polish). Retrieved 2006-10-19.
- "Kazimierz Leski". Gazeta Wyborcza (in Polish) (4/07/2001): 11. July 2001. Retrieved 2006-10-20.
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