a story lives forever
Register
Sign in
Form submission failed!

Stay signed in

Recover your password?
Register
Form submission failed!

Web of Stories Ltd would like to keep you informed about our products and services.

Please tick here if you would like us to keep you informed about our products and services.

I have read and accepted the Terms & Conditions.

Please note: Your email and any private information provided at registration will not be passed on to other individuals or organisations without your specific approval.

Video URL

You must be registered to use this feature. Sign in or register.

NEXT STORY

Death of Janek Rodowicz

RELATED STORIES

Revealing our involvement with the Home Army
Jan Józef Lipski Social activist
Comments (0) Please sign in or register to add comments

At that time, there were many activists belonging to Freedom and Independence which was a political organisation, not a military one although it followed the AK [Armia Krajowa (Home Army)] line, carrying on its activities but in a political context rather than a military one. Successive command structures were destroyed and people found themselves in prison. Suddenly, Radosław adopted the notion of exposing the AK fighters – an appeal for the fighters to identify themselves in a situation where no one was able to give any... no one wanted to give any guarantees that the people who would make themselves known would be safe. Today we know that those guarantees would have been worthless but in any case, no one really tried to present the situation to him in a way that would have been credible. He made this decision in prison, which meant he was in a psychological condition in which this kind of decision ought not to be made, and in a situation where he wasn't able to negotiate with the very people who were meant to reveal themselves. And this we could say marked the start of Radosław's moral decline which lasted for years. I agree totally with Mr Rybicki who was his companion during the Winkowski trial and who was his co-defendant. Nevertheless, initially it seemed that this was bringing about closure of a particular phase, giving people the chance to come out into the open, out of the woods. As always in this situation, even if a person is very sceptical, this kind of situation raises hopes that perhaps it marks a change for the better.

No wtedy wielu działaczy organizacji „Wolność-Niepodległość”, która była organizacją polityczną, a nie wojskową, ale kontynuującą linię Armii Krajowej, podejmującą jej działania tylko już w płaszczyźnie politycznej, a nie militarnej. Kolejne komendy były rozbijane. I ludzie znajdowali się w więzieniach. I w pewnym momencie „Radosław” przyjął tę koncepcję ujawnienia się – apelu o ujawnienie, w sytuacji kiedy nikt nie był mu w stanie stworzyć żadnych... kiedy nikt mu nie chciał dać żadnych gwarancji bezpieczeństwa dla tych ludzi, którzy będą się ujawniać. Dzisiaj wiemy, że te gwarancje byłyby i tak mało warte. Ale nawet nikt nie próbował mu właściwie ich... tak naprawdę jakoś tej sprawy, jakoś tak ułożyć, żeby to miało jakąkolwiek wiarygodność. On tę decyzję podjął w więzieniu, czyli w warunkach psychicznych, w których się tego rodzaju decyzji podejmować nie powinno. W sytuacji kiedy nie był w stanie się porozumieć z tymi, którzy się mają właśnie ujawniać. I był to taki początek, można powiedzieć takiej degrengolady „Radosława”, która potem już trwała przez lata. O, tutaj się z panem właśnie Rybickim – jego kolegą z procesu zresztą, WiN-owskiego, z tej... na tej samej ławie siedzieli oskarżonych – zupełnie... zupełnie z tą oceną zgadzam. No niemniej jednak z początku to wyglądało w ten sposób, że to jakby kończy pewien etap, ludzie mają możność wyjścia z podziemia, wyjścia z lasu, prawda, no. Jak zawsze tutaj, nawet jeżeli jest się najbardziej sceptycznym, to tego rodzaju sytuację wiąże się z pewnymi nadziejami jednak, że może to właśnie jest zwrot ku lepszemu.

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: Jacek Petrycki Marcel Łoziński

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.

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.

Tags: guarantees of safety, prison, exposure, activists, hope

Duration: 2 minutes, 26 seconds

Date story recorded: October 1989

Date story went live: 09 March 2011