| I am an avid watcher of documentaries about liberty. After years of reading I have absorbed sufficient factual knowledge to know, generally speaking, that British productions, through sins of omission and commission, are biased against Poland; occasionally, however, this is not the case. The History channel this year commissioned a series titled “Heroes of War: Poland” screening soon in the UK, Poland and the rest of Europe. Hopefully Australia will not miss out. Since Marianna Bukowski is the Associate Producer and historians and authors Władyslaw Bartoszewski and Halik Kochanski are expert contributors, perhaps the public will have their eyes opened to what we of Polish heritage already know; namely, the resilience, scale, importance and heroism of Poland, ‘for your freedom and ours’, in helping the allies win World War II.
The five one hour episodes cover:
Captain Witold Pilecki – ‘Volunteer for Auschwitz’
Cichociemni – ‘The Dark and Silent (WW2 Special Ops paratroops)
Enigma – The Polish mathematicians who broke the code
Code Name: Żegota – Polish Council to Aid Jews
Krystyna Skarbek/Christine Granville – WW2 Special Agent extraordinaire
The last episode should be particularly interesting because Skarbek’s incredible and incomparable intrepidity is less well known than the other topics of the series, even amongst the Polish community. Things are changing. Nearly forty years ago, Madeleine Masson published ‘Christine: a search for Christine Granville’ based on interviews the author conducted with Skarbek’s colleagues, associates, friends and family. At the time of her writing, Britain’s Special Operations Executive (SOE) files remained secret and inaccessible. Masson’s book was re-released in paperback form in 2005.
Clare Mulley, however, is the expert contributor for episode five and with more sources available to her she authored ‘The Spy Who Loved’ which was published in 2012, the sixtieth anniversary of Skarbek’s death. In 2001 Polish writer, Maria Nurowska, used the character and life of Christina Granville as the model for her story “Miłosnica” about an amazing woman struggling with a cruel fate and full of contradictions. An English translation of Nurowska’s work has appeared in 2011.
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This sixtieth anniversary of Skarbek’s death seems to have inspired a lot of interest because Ron Nowicki, an American author living in London working with Bletchley Park Research Co., has written ‘The Elusive Madame G: A Life of Christine Granville’ and it will be hitting the bookshelves very soon. Furthermore, in April, 2011 a fifty minute episode of the documentary series ‘Secret War’ titled ‘Christine Granville: Polish Spy’ was released by Acorn Media in the US. I also note that the Kosciuszko Foundation screened Mieczysława Wasacz’s documentary film about Skarbek called ‘No Ordinary Countess’ on November 17, 2012; and Polish film maker, Agnieszka Holland was supposed to release a movie in 2010, titled ‘Christine: War My Love’ but as far as I can tell no such film has yet been produced. Not surprisingly then, Skarbek’s gravesite was renovated in time to honour the sixtieth anniversary of her death with a special ceremony at Kensal Green cemetery, London, attended by many dignitaries and was honoured with coverage by various news channels in Britain.
What did Christine Granville do in her short life to inspire so much interest sixty years after her death?
Skarbek's Coat of Arms |
Krystyna Skarbek was born on May 1st, 1908, the daughter of Polish nobleman, Jerzy Skarbek whose wife, Stephania Goldfeder was the daughter of a wealthy Jewish banker. Growing up she was very close to her father, mesmerised by the wonderful and engaging stories he spun that kept Krystyna at the edge of her seat, arousing passions, sadness, hardships, joys interwoven with Polish history.
She grew up pretty much a ‘tomboy’ becoming a champion horsewoman, leading a life of adventure enjoying her outdoor pursuits on her father’s country estate, hiking and skiing the slopes of the Tatra mountains, exploring nature, not in a schoolroom. Clare Mulley describes her as "the ‘Spy Who Loved’ freedom and adventure, adrenalin and excitement, she loved men – she had two husbands and many lovers – and she loved life in its fullest sense, and above all she loved freedom and independence; freedom for her country and freedom for herself.”
British Intelligence described her as “a flaming Polish patriot and a great adventuress as well as absolutely fearless.” She truly was a passionate Polish patriot prepared to die for freedom whilst carrying a medallion of the Black Madonna of Czestochowa throughout her life.
Christine was one of Britain’s first World War II agents, as well as one of its most daring, valuable and longest serving during a critical point in humankind’s struggle for liberty. She was said to be Winston Churchill’s favourite spy. Clare Mulley gave several interviews in promoting her book and in the following audio extracts she provides several sensational anecdotes of Skarbek’s successful feats of daring. Her father’s penchant for story telling had rubbed off and it was one of her most useful attributes in her undercover operations in the secret service. Part way through this clip Mulley speaks about Skarbek’s story telling skills:
PR Skarbek1 dur. 4 mins 48 secs
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Krystyna Skarbek & Andrzej Kowerski, Syria 1942 |
Cammaerts SOE agent saved by Krystyna |
A sketch by Pawlikowska |
Skarbek’s charm not only worked on men, but it affected animals too. In clip 2 Mulley describes how a vicious German shepherd dog let loose by the Germans found her hiding in a bush but instead of barking to sound his discovery the dog befriended Krystyna and refused to answer his handler’s whistles. The shepherd had switched his allegiance from the Germans to the French for the rest of the war!
ITV Skarbek2 dur. 2 mins 25 secs
In the last clip the author of ‘The Spy Who Loved’ describes how Granville gambled her life to rescue three leading SOE agents in France just hours before they were to be shot. She used her ability to think on her feet and spin a convincing story to win their rescue. She saved them by herself because the authorities had refused to send a team to do the job because they concluded that the danger was too high and success was impossible! Mulley here also explains how James Bond novelist, Ian Fleming, was inspired by Skarbek’s deeds of derring-do to use her as the model for the character of Vesper Lynde in ‘Casino Royale’.
BBC Skarbek3 dur 3 mins 44 secs
Shelbourne Hotel |
Krystyna with friends |
Tragically, at the end of the war, this heroic woman was considered to be of no further use by British authorities and was abandoned, Stateless, to fend for herself in Cairo with just a month’s payout. For the next seven years Christine struggled to make ends meet working various low paying jobs including that of Stewardess for the Union-Castle ocean cruise liners working the UK, South Africa, Australian route. On the evening of June 14th, 1952, Skarbek was staying at the Shellbourne Hotel, Lexham Gardens, in London because the flight she had booked to Liege, Belgium had been cancelled. She was looking forward to happier times by reuniting on the morning of the 15th with her soul mate and lifelong love, Andrew Kennedy (Andrzej Kowerski). But late in the evening she was murdered in the Hotel’s Foyer by schizoid Dennis Muldowney. He had been stalking her ever since she rejected his advances. After his conviction and on the way to the gallows on September 30th, 1952 the deranged Muldowney stated “to kill is the final possession.”
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The “Heroes of War: Poland” should bring Krystyna’s story to light and provide the world with yet another example of the truth behind the Polish motto of ‘for your freedom and ours’. Poland was not only the first to fight; it brought to the War what was the fourth largest defence force at the time, serving with distinction on all its fronts. Polish pilots had bested the German’s in the battle for Poland, and they did the same in France. They were crucial in winning the Battle of Britain, accounting for a substantial proportion of the ‘few’ in Churchill’s quote of ‘never in the course of human history has so much been owed by so many to so few’. Polish pilots had the highest shoot down rates yet they had the lowest casualty rates in this battle due to their great teamwork and tactics. From the Enigma episode we can expect to see how Poles were responsible for providing the Allies not only the most but also the highest value intelligence by breaking the Enigma Machine and sharing with their Allies the methods they had painstakingly developed to decrypt German messages in a timely manner. Krystyna Skarbek the fearless ‘flaming Polish Patriot’ made a difference in this war but so too did another amazing Polish agent who operated under the pseudonym Brutus, (Roman Garby-Czerniawski), but more about him some other day.
Felix Molski
Read more about Krystyna Skarbek at these websites
Skarbek on wikipedia
Nigel Perrin about Christine Granville
Notes on Christine Granville
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