[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 172 (Tuesday, December 21, 2010)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E2220-E2221]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         HONORING PAUL ZALESKI

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. MARCY KAPTUR

                                of ohio

                    in the house of representatives

                       Tuesday, December 21, 2010

  Ms. KAPTUR. Madam Speaker, I would like to bring to the attention of 
my colleagues a tribute to Mr. Paul Zaleski who passed from this life 
on November 24 at the age of 95. This tribute was written by noted 
author and historian, Allen Paul, whose books include ``Katyn: Stalin's 
Massacre and the Triumph of Truth.'' As Mr. Paul points out, Mr. 
Zaleski epitomized the courage of his generation of extraordinary Poles 
who came to the U.S. after the terror and broken dreams unleashed by 
World War II. I, too, had the privilege of meeting him on May 5 of this 
year at a 70th anniversary observance of the Katyn Forest Massacre, at 
the Library of Congress. Paul Zaleski may well have been the last link 
here in the U.S. to the Polish Government in Exile. May his family and 
friends be comforted in the knowledge he lived to see the fall of the 
Berlin Wall, Solidarity whose 30th anniversary we commemorate this 
year, and Poland admitted to NATO.

                       A Tribute to Paul Zaleski

       Paul Zaleski led the most interesting life of anyone I have 
     ever known. Such a quiet unassuming man, imbued with old 
     world grace and dignity, never bitter despite the slings and 
     arrows of outrageous fortune--who could have guessed his 
     escape in a hail of bullets, how he and others returned that 
     fire by pinging the American conscience, how we eventually 
     came to see that Poland, the land he loved and lost, must be 
     reborn independent and free. He laid no claim to great deeds, 
     but the memorable title of Dean Acheson's autobiography--
     ``Present at the Creation''--almost perfectly fits his life.
       Paul and I were close friends for twenty years. His death 
     on November 24 leaves a notable void: a direct link is lost--
     perhaps the last--to the Poles' ill-fated Government in Exile 
     and to the heroic gamble after the end of the war to save 
     Poland from Stalin. Paul was longtime secretary to Stanislaw 
     Mikolajczyk, prime minister of the Government in Exile in 
     London. In 1945 Mikolajczyk decided to go back to Poland to 
     join a communist-controlled coalition government and Paul 
     went with him. Both men were gambling with their lives but 
     took the chance to achieve two main objectives: first, to 
     keep the communists from stealing the ``free and unfettered'' 
     elections promised at Yalta; and second, to prevent Stalin 
     from liquidating and/or deporting nearly 400,000 partisans 
     who were still in the forests of Poland waiting to fight. The 
     elections were stolen through blatant fraud; but aim two was 
     achieved: Mikolajczyk ``bought'' safe passage for the 
     partisans and averted a bloodbath.
       Along the way thugs from the infamous UB (security service) 
     made two attempts on Paul's life; and soon it became clear 
     that Mikolajczyk, himself, would be tried as a traitor or 
     liquidated. Both men escaped in 1947 and returned to the west 
     where they launched a high-profile campaign to warn the west 
     about the fate of Poland. Archbishop Francis Spellman 
     arranged for rooms at the Waldorf Astoria where Mikolajczyk 
     wrote his bestseller--``The Rape of Poland.'' The famous 
     sports writer, Bob Considine, helped as did Paul. The book 
     and the heavy speaking schedule Mikolajczyk kept up were 
     influential in getting Congress to investigate the Katyn 
     Forest Massacre in 1951-52. That probe established a record 
     and body of evidence that stands even today. It concluded 
     that the Russians had brutally murdered thousands of Polish 
     officers in the spring of 1940.
       Paul's symbiotic relationship with Mikolajczyk heavily 
     influenced his life. Not long before the war Paul earned a 
     law degree from Jan Kazimierz University in Lwow and became 
     an organizer with the Peasant Party (Stronnictwo Ludowe) then 
     headed by Mikolajczyk. After his escape from Poland, Paul 
     went to France where Mikolajczyk was serving in the 
     leadership of the Government in Exile. He sent Paul as an 
     emissary to Bucharest and later to Istanbul. When the Germans 
     invaded Russia in 1941, the Poles and Russians reestablished 
     diplomatic relations; and Paul was sent to help open the new 
     embassy in Kuybyshev. Two years later the relationship fell 
     apart over the Katyn crisis and Paul helped get the embassy 
     staff out of the U.S.S.R. They took the southern route which 
     meant the convoy had to cross ``The Roof of the World''--the 
     Pamir Mountains--to get to Persia. Paul then crossed the 
     Middle East and rejoined Mikolajczyk where the Government in 
     Exile moved after Dunkirk. He was at Mikolajczyk's side--
     often when he met Churchill and other world leaders--and 
     remained there until Mikolajczyk died in 1966.
       His exploits notwithstanding, Paul still had to earn a 
     living after immigrating to the United States. His Polish law 
     degree gave him no standing here, so he went to law school 
     for the second time at George Washington University and later 
     became an attorney with the U.S. Maritime Commission. After 
     he retired he practiced law on his own specializing in estate 
     work. He was executor for many members of the expatriate 
     community and seldom if ever charged for his services.
       I saw in Paul many qualities that epitomized the Poles who 
     got stranded in the west when Stalin swallowed their country 
     whole. They found the courage to rebuild shattered lives, 
     became intensely proud and loyal Americans and remained 
     unswerving in their commitment to Polish freedom and 
     independence. I talked to Paul often and we spoke only a few 
     days before he died. I know it gave him great satisfaction--
     much comfort in fact--that the torch was passed, that the 
     ideals of his generation survived the long dark years of 
     communism, that they are strongly embraced today by a new 
     generation of leaders who have guided Poland to a remarkable 
     position in which it has one of the strongest economies and 
     most stable democracies in all of Europe.
       From their near-miraculous escape in 1947 to their 
     messianic campaign to win the minds and hearts of Americans, 
     Paul and his

[[Page E2221]]

     mentor, Stanislaw Mikolajczyk, came to represent one of the 
     aspects of Polish character I admire most: the concept of 
     ``Victory in Defeat.'' The very idea may strike most 
     Americans as peculiar, but from 1795 to 1989--when Poles were 
     ruled from abroad except for the brief interwar period--it 
     meant that honor came first, that the Poles would never give 
     up, that they would persevere without fail to win back their 
     independence. When I think of Paul I think of this first; and 
     it gives me great satisfaction to know that he lived to see 
     freedom restored and a vibrant Poland reborn.
       When I last talked to Paul he told me, as he often did, 
     that: ``I am so thankful that I am able to live in my own 
     home.'' His courage could be measured in matters great and 
     small. Despite crippling conditions he managed to take care 
     of himself until the last four days of his life. To say that 
     he will be missed feels like a gross understatement to me. He 
     was the product of an unusual place and time; he never shrank 
     from the difficulties that came his way. And he would 
     certainly chide me for praising him even to this extent.

                          ____________________