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Current group: alt.obituaries
Jan Nowak-Jezioranski, Wartime Courier, 91
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| | From: | DGH | | Subject: | Jan Nowak-Jezioranski, Wartime Courier, 91 | | Date: | 23 Jan 2005 18:15:51 -0800 |
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It was reported from Warasw, Poland, that 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, died Thursday,
January 20, 2005, Polish officials said Friday, at the age of 91.
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, England, and the Polish underground resistance in
German-occupied Poland, completing five trips - including risky
parachute jumps.
The uprising began August 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.
After the war, Nowak-Jezioranski worked in Munich, Germany, for Radio
Free Europe, a U.S.-funded station that broadcast to countries behind
the Iron Curtain during the Cold War.
In 1976, he moved to Washington, where he served as a consultant to the
National Security Council. In 1996, President Clinton awarded him the
Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor, for
his service during the war and at Radio Free Europe.
AP
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