Waclaw Gilewicz

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Waclaw Gilewicz (born January 10, 1903 in St. Petersburg , † October 20, 1998 in Rockville MD) was a Polish-American intelligence service .

Life and activity

Gilewicz was the son of a Polish father and a Russian mother. During the Russian Revolution of 1917 the family fled to Warsaw . During the Russo-Polish War , which broke out shortly after the end of the First World War , Gilewicz joined the Polish army, in which he made it up to the captain of the cavalry . From 1927 to 1947 Gilewicz then served as an agent in the intelligence service of the Polish Army. In the late 1930s he headed Polish counterintelligence.

After the German invasion of Poland in autumn 1939, Gilewicz fled via Paris and Scandinavia to London , where he worked for the Polish government-in-exile and the British military during the war years and in the first post-war years. In particular, he was from 1940 to 1941 head of the branch of the Polish intelligence service for Polish support efforts for the benefit of the Allies in Northern Europe (Polish Allied Assistance Operations in Northern Europe) in Stockholm (Station Pln ["North"]). Outwardly, he was disguised as the second secretary of the Polish diplomatic mission in Sweden. In the further years of the war Gilewicz carried out missions in Istanbul , Cairo and London. For his support of the Allied counter-espionage efforts during the war, the US Army awarded him the Bronze Star.

Gilewicz was classified as an enemy of the state by the police forces of the Nazi state : in the spring of 1940 he was placed on the special wanted list by the Reich Security Main Office , a list of people who would be detained by the occupying forces in the event of a successful invasion and occupation of the British island by the Wehrmacht The SS should enter the country, should be located and arrested with special priority.

In 1947 Gilewicz moved to the United States, where he worked as an analyst and researcher for the CIA (or its predecessor organization OSS) until 1952 . From 1952 to 1954 he lived as a co-owner and manager of a farm in Johannesburg. He then was the manager of a restaurant in Arlington until the late 1960s . From 1965 to 1974 he worked as a factory manager for Apollo Thermal Products Co. in Beltsville and then as assistant to the manager of Ida Mai Co. in Brentwood .

In 1983 he retired. He died in 1998 at the Collingswood Nursing Home of a cardiovascular disorder.

family

Gilewicz was married to Hanna-Marie Gilewictz, who died in 1987. They had a daughter and a stepdaughter.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ https://www.collingswoodnursing.com/Reach-Us.aspx
  2. ^ Entry on Gilewicz on the special wanted list GB (reproduced on the website of the Imperial War Museum in London).
personal data
SURNAME Gilewicz, Waclaw
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Polish-American intelligence officer
DATE OF BIRTH January 10, 1903
PLACE OF BIRTH St. Petersburg
DATE OF DEATH October 20, 1998
Place of death Rockville, Maryland