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Revealing our involvement with the Home Army

RELATED STORIES

Folly of registering my participation with AK
Jan Józef Lipski Social activist
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No to ogromny rozdział sam dla siebie, kiedy była ta... pierwsze i to zasadnicze ujawnianie się, ten... największe, te które właściwie można powiedzieć rozbiło podziemie w dosyć zasadniczy sposób. Ja byłem jeszcze przed maturą. Zasady ujawniania się były sformułowane tak niejasno, że przez własną głupotę poszedłem i się zarejestrowałem, chociaż dzisiaj widzę, że było to idiotyczne, po co się było rejestrować w sytuacji, jeżeli się po wojnie już nie konspirowało, czyli zarejestrowałem swój udział w Armii Krajowej kiedyś w czasie wojny. Po co to mi było? O tej akcji ujawniania się dzisiaj wiem bardzo wiele. Między innymi ze względu na moją przyjaźń z Józefem Rybickim, który... komendantem warszawskiego Kedywu, a potem w WiN-ie Komendantem Obszaru Centralnego i przez pewien czas szefem nawet. Kluczową postacią był tutaj „Radosław” w tej akcji ujawniającej się. Nie mam wątpliwości, że pan Józef Rybicki miał rację, powiadając, że decyzji tego rodzaju nie podejmuje się w więzieniu. Decyzji, które mają potem... bardzo daleko idące konsekwencje mogą mieć dla ludzi.

An important chapter in itself was that first and fundamental exposure which was the biggest, and which you could say decidedly broke up the underground movement. I hadn't yet taken my school leaving exams. The rules about revealing ourselves were so unclear that out of sheer stupidity I went and registered even though today I can see that it was an idiotic thing to do. Why did I need to register in a situation where, the war having ended, I was no longer involved in clandestine activities since I had registered my participation in the AK [Armia Krajowa (Home Army)] at some point during the war? What did I need this for? Today, I know a great deal about this whole operation, among other things, thanks to my friendship with Józef Rybicki who was the commander of Kedyw [Kierownictwo Dywersji (Directorate for Diversion)] in Warsaw and later commander of the Central Region in Wino where for a while he was even the chief. A key character in this operation to expose AK fighters was Radosław. I have no doubt that Józef Rybicki was right when he said that decisions like this should not be taken in prison, decisions which later could have very far-reaching consequences for people.

Jan Józef Lipski (1926-1991) was one of Poland's best known political activists. He was also a writer and a literary critic. As a soldier in the Home Army (Armia Krajowa), he fought in the Warsaw Uprising. In 1976, following worker protests, he co-founded the Workers' Defence Committee (KOR). His active opposition to Poland's communist authorities led to his arrest and imprisonment on several occasions. In 1987, he re-established and headed the Polish Socialist Party. Two years later, he was elected to the Polish Senate. He died in 1991 while still in office. For his significant work, Lipski was honoured with the Cross of the Valorous (Krzyż Walecznych), posthumously with the Grand Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta (1991) and with the highest Polish decoration, the Order of the White Eagle (2006).

Listeners: Marcel Łoziński Jacek Petrycki

Film director Marcel Łoziński was born in Paris in 1940. He graduated from the Film Directing Department of the National School of Film, Television and Theatre in Łódź in 1971. In 1994, he was nominated for an American Academy Award and a European Film Academy Award for the documentary, 89 mm from Europe. Since 1995, he has been a member of the American Academy of Motion Picture Art and Science awarding Oscars. He lectured at the FEMIS film school and the School of Polish Culture of Warsaw University. He ran documentary film workshops in Marseilles. Marcel Łoziński currently lectures at Andrzej Wajda’s Master School for Film Directors. He also runs the Dragon Forum, a European documentary film workshop.

Cinematographer Jacek Petrycki was born in Poznań, Poland in 1948. He has worked extensively in Poland and throughout the world. His credits include, for Agniezka Holland, Provincial Actors (1979), Europe, Europe (1990), Shot in the Heart (2001) and Julie Walking Home (2002), for Krysztof Kieslowski numerous short films including Camera Buff (1980) and No End (1985). Other credits include Journey to the Sun (1998), directed by Jesim Ustaoglu, which won the Golden Camera 300 award at the International Film Camera Festival, Shooters (2000) and The Valley (1999), both directed by Dan Reed, Unforgiving (1993) and Betrayed (1995) by Clive Gordon both of which won the BAFTA for best factual photography. Jacek Petrycki is also a teacher and a filmmaker.

Tags: Armia Krajowa, Józef Rybicki

Duration: 1 minute, 45 seconds

Date story recorded: October 1989

Date story went live: 09 March 2011