Jędrzej Giertych

Jędrzej Giertych (b. January 7, 1903, Sosnowiec, d. October 9, 1992, London) was a Polish politician, journalist and writer, son of Franciszek Giertych, father of Maciej Giertych and grandfather of Roman Giertych.

He was a war correspondent during the Spanish Civil War, supportive of the Nationalists, especially of the Carlists. His reports were later published in book form, "Hiszpania bohaterska" (Heroic Spain). He fought the Nazis during the Second 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 of Poland. Giertych was against prewar totalitarian movements; he explicitly condemned the deification of the state and race, characteristic of fascism and Nazism, 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. During communist rule in Poland Giertych lived in London, where he was expelled from an emigration party Stronnictwo Narodowe because of his extremism and antisemitism. He strongly criticised the Workers' Defence Committee (KOR) and supported the introduction of martial 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.