Compiled from Wire Service and Staff Reports
(From the issue of 1/27/05)

Jan Nowak, a World War II hero who spent his life fighting for an independent democratic Poland, died Jan. 20 at age 91.

Nowak, a symbol of Polish patriotism, was revered by his countrymen alongside anti-communist icon and Poland's first post-communist President Lech Walesa and Pope John Paul II.

"He, together with other great Poles, was an example of how to fight, how to behave, how to perceive the fatherland," Walesa said.

Born Zdislaw Jezioranski on May 13, 1913, he assumed the name Jan Nowak after joining the underground resistance to German occupation during World War II and took part in the failed 1944 Warsaw Uprising, in which 150,000 civilians were killed.

His most famous achievement was as the "Courier from Warsaw," making death-defying trips to London from Warsaw to bring news of the Polish resistance's activities to the government-in-exile and the Allies. He wrote a book about his war-time experiences with the same title.

He remained in London after the war working for the British Broadcasting Corporation before heading the Polish section of Radio Free Europe for 20 years during the Cold War. Despite efforts by the Soviet Union to jam its signal, he turned the station into the main source of outside news for Poles whose media were under the gaze of communist censors.

Nowak moved to the Washington area with his wife Greta upon his retirement in 1976. They were members of St. Michael Parish in Annandale. Nowak remained active in Polish affairs and spent almost 20 years as national director of the Polish American Congress. He also was a consultant to the National Security Council.

An active campaigner for improved Polish-Jewish relations, he repeatedly called for Poland to apologize for the 1941 massacre of hundreds of Jews in a northern town, Jedwabne.

After communism collapsed in 1989, Nowak used his influence in Washington to lobby for his homeland's NATO entry, which took place in 1999.

"For the first time in its history, my old country was not only free but also secure," he said shortly afterwards.

Nowak received the U.S. Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1996 for his work to promote democracy around the world and was also awarded two of Poland's top honors. He visited Poland regularly after 1989 and decided to return there to live in 2002. His wife died in 2000.

President Aleksander Kwasniewski paid tribute to his, tolerance, openness and kindness to political opponents. "Jan Nowak is an outstanding Pole who has earned a place in history. I would like him to remain an example for generations to come," he said.

"Jan Nowak was a devout Catholic who lived quietly among us for nearly 30 years," said John Adams, who worked with Nowak at Radio Free Europe in the 1950s. "He was a man of great modesty, charm and good humor, yet played two very dramatic roles in world events.

"Few individuals achieved more in a single lifetime," Adams said, "yet there is a personal coda to Nowak’s story that will be of particular interest to readers of the Arlington Catholic Herald, and perhaps to Catholics everywhere."

Nowak once told Adams that he might never have been born if his mother had not defied her doctor, who had advised her that her lungs were so weak that she might die in childbirth. The doctor strongly recommended an abortion. Nowak’s mother replied that she would not even think of an abortion. She would leave it to God to decide whether she and her son would live. Following the birth, her lungs were found to be perfectly healthy and she lived well into her 90s.

Adams said readers interested in knowing more about Nowak’s life can still find his book, Courier from Warsaw, on Amazon.com.