- Jędrzej Giertych
Jędrzej Giertych (b.
January 7 ,1903 ,Sosnowiec , d.October 9 ,1992 ,London ) was a Polish politician, journalist and writer, son ofFranciszek Giertych , father ofMaciej Giertych and grandfather ofRoman Giertych .He was a war correspondent during the
Spanish Civil War , supportive of the Nationalists, especially of theCarlists . His reports were later published in book form, "Hiszpania bohaterska" (Heroic Spain). He fought the Nazis during theSecond World War ; after Polish defeat, he exiled himself to England, together with his family.Active mainly in 20 years between the world wars, Giertych was an ally of
Roman Dmowski and a prominent activist of the National Democratic Party (Endecja). Jędrzej Giertych spent his political life aiming to build a Poland made of nationalist traditionalist Catholic citizens ready to sacrifice their life for the greater good ofPoland . Giertych was against prewartotalitarian movements; he explicitly condemned the deification of the state and race, characteristic offascism andNazism , as forms of historical materialism. Giertych, however, held an imperialistic view. In a series of newspaper articles he suggested in 1939 that "in the on-coming war" Poland ought to annex parts of East Germany ("the city of Danzig, East Prussia, Upper and Central Silesia, including the city of Breslau, and Central Pommerania, including Kolberg"); moreover, Poland ought to create "a bunch of buffer states" between the rest of Germany and Poland along the rivers Oder and Neisse. Duringcommunist rule in Poland Giertych lived in London, where he was expelled from an emigration partyStronnictwo Narodowe because of his extremism andantisemitism . He strongly criticised theWorkers' Defence Committee (KOR) and supported the introduction ofmartial law in Poland in 1981.References
*Chodakiewicz, Marek Jan & Radzilowski, John, ed. "Spanish Carlism and Polish Nationalism: The Borderlands of Europe in the 19th and 20th Centuries". Charlottesville, Virginia: Leopolis Press, 2003.
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