Escaped British Airman Was Hero of Warsaw Uprising
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Page 6 News of Polonia Pasadena, California September 2010 Escaped British Airman Albin Obal Halina Polek–Vernon Moscow’s Shadow War Was Hero of Warsaw Philanthropist, business mogul and By: Marcin Karpiel Playing Now in Poland friend of Polonia, passed away Sept. 8 in Uprising Saddle River, NJ. Albin was the President A September 22, 2010 article by Thor By: Kamil Tchorek of the highly successful Real Estate Halvorssen on the Huffington Post Reprinted from Development Company, Midland website reports… Alexander Litvinenko, a former KGB/FSB operative, was August 1, 2004 Times Online. Enterprises in New Jersey. He was a founding member of The American murdered in one of the most sensational Details have emerged of the heroic role Center of Polish Culture, Inc., in assassination plots in history. In played by a British airman in the failed Washington DC, where he was Chairman November of 2006 he was poisoned in a 1944 Warsaw uprising, in which 200,000 of the Board from 1998 to 2005. Mr. Obal London hotel by two KGB agents. The Poles were slaughtered by the Nazis after was active with the Felician College in killers inserted a highly toxic radioactive Stalin’s Red Army refused to come to Lodi, NJ, served as Chairman of its Board compound, polonium-210, into his tea. their aid. of Directors for many years and was a The world was captivated as he lay dying Documents released ahead of today’s leader in its development, where he was in a hospital, completely bald from commemoration of the 60th anniversary honored with a building in his name, radiation, mumbling conspiracy theories of the start of the uprising reveal how Albin Obal Hall. about how Putin had ordered the hit. Flight Lieutenant John Ward sent more Mr. Obal was a promoter of Poland and Anna Politkovskya, a Russian-American than 100 messages to London describing Polish Culture. In his tenure as Chairman journalist published in Novaya Gazeta and the two months of bitter fighting in of the American Center of Polish Culture, outside of Russia exclusively in Norway’s Warsaw. Albin, together with Mrs. Yolanta Ny Tid (full disclosure, I have an Ward, who arrived in Warsaw after Kwasniewska, 1st Lady of Poland, started ownership stake in this news magazine), escaping from a German prisoner of war a Summer of Dreams Program for 30 was shot four times in the elevator of her camp, urged Winston Churchill to use his Polish Orphans to visit the United States Moscow apartment building--one bullet influence with Franklin D Roosevelt, the for a two-week vacation. into her head at point blank range and US president, to secure intervention by Halina Vernon- Polek, my Godmother, a Albin was also active in many other three into her upper body. The date was Stalin. He wanted the Russians to help the Polish Armia Krajowa (“AK”) veteran, activities, earning for him the Officers October 7, 2006. Polish resistance, led by the pro-western was born in Łódź, Poland to Antonio and Natalya Estemirova, a Russian human Cross of the Order of Merit from the th Home Army. Marina Książek on December 27 1919. rights activist known in the field as a Republic of Poland. President Alexander th The officer’s appeals fell on deaf ears. She died in Los Angeles on August 17 , Kwasniewski described him as “an legend for her fearlessness and good The advancing Soviet army stayed 2010. outstanding man of many genres, an humor, was kidnapped on the morning of camped on the east bank of the Vistula, After her brother was released from outstanding businessman, a leader, a July 15, 2009. She was found later that watching the slaughter through their Pawiak Prison by the Gestapo in 1943 she philanthropist, and a volunteer who day near the Caucasian village of Gazi- binoculars. took him to Budapest where she reported devoted his time and energy to Polish Yurt in Ingushetia with bullet wounds in Stalin wanted to make Poland part of to the head of AK Courier Section, my Traditions and a positive image of her chest and head. She had been Moscow’s sphere of influence and, in a father Capitan Stanisław Karpiel. She Poland”. executed. letter to his two wartime allies, dismissed transferred documents all over Central Mr. Obal was born on January 14, 1925 What did these three Russians have in the Home Army, which was directed by Europe during the remainder of the war. in the United States to a family of Polish common? The first two were murdered on the Polish government in exile in London, After the Russian takeover of Budapest Immigrants and served in World War II. the orders of Vladimir Putin and the third as “a handful of criminals”. most of the AK members escaped through He was a man with a caring heart, great was killed on the orders of Russia’s Zofia Korbońska, 90, a former encoder Austria and joined General Anders’ Army sense of humor and responsibility. He was puppet government in Chechnya. A spy, a from the Home Army, known as the in Italy. instrumental in sponsoring the creation of journalist, and a human rights activist. Armija Krajowa (AK), said Ward played After the war she married a wonderful a bronze statue of Jan Karski, the great Why were they killed? Because they were a vital role in alerting the world to events man Anthony Polek a Polish Air Force hero of the Holocaust, on the campus of disgusted with the Russian government’s in the city. officer who fought in 1939 over Warsaw Georgetown University and was a slow-motion genocide in the Chechen “He took it upon himself to contact and during the Battle of Britain. In 1954 promoter of Polish Jewish Relations. Republic of Ichkeria and were actively London to get us help,” she said. “They they moved to the United States to New Mr. Obal received many awards and exposing it. The sheer number of killings didn’t believe our reports of Nazi York. In 1960 they moved to Southern honors during his lifetime, including the in Chechnya is unfathomable and atrocities and that our supposed Soviet California where they enjoyed a vibrant Prestigious Ellis Island Medal of Honor sometimes includes entire villages. The allies positioned nearby were letting it life. While Halina immensely enjoyed all on May 17, 2003. He will be missed by actual details (mutilation of ears and happen. John made sure London knew that Los Angeles offered, she never got many of his friends. Funeral Services genitals, torture, electric shocks, eye- about it.” over her love of New York City. Halina were private. gouging) and the photographic evidence Revelations of the part played by Ward adored all forms of art and was a member available are impossible to ignore. came as John Prescott, the deputy prime __________ of several area art museums. She and Chechnya has been suffering from minister, prepared to join Gerhard Tony were active members of the Polish Russian aggression for centuries. Most Schröder, the German chancellor, Colin community in Los Angeles. She worked notoriously, Stalin deported the entire Powell, the American secretary of state, wrote on September 4. “She produced no as a travel agent and loved to travel. She population of Chechnya to Kazakhstan in and Polish leaders at a wreath-laying government to co-operate with the especially enjoyed Paris. She has been to 1944. One fifth of them died in the forced ceremony in Warsaw today. Marek Belka, Germans . To end I would like to make every continent other than the South Pole. relocation and were only allowed to return the Polish prime minister, yesterday urged an appeal to the British nation. It is short: A memorial mass will be held in her th after Stalin’s death. In 1990, when Britain and Poland’s other wartime allies HELP FOR WARSAW.” honor on October 9 at 10:00am at Our Georgia, Azerbaijan, and Uzbekistan to apologise for not doing more. Only a handful of flights took place, Lady of the Bright Mount Parish in Los proclaimed their independence, so did Ward, from the Birmingham suburb of however, and RAF pilots on one run from Angeles. They had no children and she is Chechnya. Two wars with Russia have Ward End, joined the RAF in 1937, aged the Italian port of Brindisi to Warsaw survived by cousins in Paris and Poland. been fought since, the first between 1994 18, as a wireless operator. Three years were shot at by the Soviets. High-level Her ashes will be buried along with her and 1996 and the second since 1999. later he was shot down and captured by telegram exchanges from husband in the Tęgoborze cemetery, a Several Chechen presidents have been the Germans. He was sent to a camp in Starving, wounded and out of small highland town outside of Nowy murdered by the Russian government, and occupied Poland. ammunition, Ward used one of his last Sącz. in 2007 the legitimate government of He finally escaped in April 1941 and dispatches to warn that the Nazis were In lieu of flowers, please send tax Chechnya was forced into exile. Moscow while on the run sought out a Polish priest planning to destroy the Auschwitz deductible donations to Friends of John installed a puppet government in its place. who put him in touch with the AK. Ward extermination camp to wipe out evidence Paul II Foundation c/o Our Lady of the At the same time, a rebel Islamist terrorist became its only British recruit and stayed of the mass killings carried out there.