drawn by bedraggled horses. At one point, he left the caravan and rode a train that was carrying Poles back into Warsaw. He found the city leveled, and his apartment building reduced to rubble. There was no sign of his parents. Kuklinski hiked for two days to Niedabyl, where his uncle’s farm was located. He found his aunt in the front yard. She looked up and began to scream, “Ryszard! Ryszard! Ryszard!” and then his mother’s name, “Anna! Anna! Anna!”
Anna came running and embraced her son for the first time in two years. But in their tearful reunion, she told him that his father had not returned. She showed him three postcards from his father, who had been held in the Pawiak Prison in Warsaw and later sent to the Oranienburg-Sachsenhausen concentration camps near Berlin.
After the German surrender on May 7, 1945, Kuklinski took a Soviet military transport train to Berlin and hitched a ride to the camps, which were almost empty. Kuklinski found a prisoner who led him into Block 4A, where his father had been held and where sick prisoners still lay. Kuklinski walked from one bed to the next, talking to each survivor, but none of them knew his father. They reported that dozens of infirm prisoners had been hanged before the war ended, and thousands of others had been taken on a death march to the north.
Kuklinski walked for several days along a country road that led north. He saw bodies of former prisoners scattered along the path. He slept in barns or in the homes of friendly farmers. But there was no trace of his father, and he finally turned back.
Kuklinski felt no special claim as a victim; his father was one of 6 million Poles―including virtually all of the country’s 3 million Jews―exterminated by the Nazis. But he concluded that his country had to become strong again, in order to defend itself against outside aggression. Poles could never let an invading power cross their borders again.
In the first years after the war’s end, Kuklinski moved to Wroclaw in the southwestern part of Poland and took a job as a night watch-man in a soap factory, attending school in the daytime. He loved to draw and dreamed of becoming an architect. On September 25, 1947, at the age of seventeen, he decided to enlist in the army. But he soon discovered Poland had a new oppressor, the Soviet Union. During his three years in officers school in Wroclaw, Kuklinski’s commanding officer and the school’s commandant, both of whom had served in the prewar Polish Army, were replaced by Soviets who could not even speak Polish. The deputy commandant for political matters―a Polish Jew―was replaced with a Soviet who quickly imposed the new order. In 1949, Moscow installed a new Polish defense minister: Polish-born Konstanty Rokossowski, Marshal of the Soviet Union and a career Soviet officer. Members of the Home Army were tried on trumped-up espionage charges.
When Kuklinski joined the army, he did not believe that it would necessarily end up being Communist. The new army was made up not only of Polish officers from the eastern front, who had served under command of the Soviet Army and helped it liberate Poland, but also of other officers who had served with the western forces and returned home. The result was a struggle between officers who were indoctrinated by the Soviets and gradually accepted communism, and those who wanted Poland to be independent and believed that the army should serve the national interest, not the party interest.
Kuklinski hoped that in spite of the Soviet dominance and the purging of dissent, young officer candidates like him might someday replace their Soviet commanders. He threw himself into his studies and quickly became the top-ranked student in his class. He excelled in shooting drills and in track, regularly winning races of 3, 5, and 10 kilometers. He also completed 15-kilometer marches while carrying a heavy backpack and other equipment.
But Kuklinski quickly
Anna came running and embraced her son for the first time in two years. But in their tearful reunion, she told him that his father had not returned. She showed him three postcards from his father, who had been held in the Pawiak Prison in Warsaw and later sent to the Oranienburg-Sachsenhausen concentration camps near Berlin.
After the German surrender on May 7, 1945, Kuklinski took a Soviet military transport train to Berlin and hitched a ride to the camps, which were almost empty. Kuklinski found a prisoner who led him into Block 4A, where his father had been held and where sick prisoners still lay. Kuklinski walked from one bed to the next, talking to each survivor, but none of them knew his father. They reported that dozens of infirm prisoners had been hanged before the war ended, and thousands of others had been taken on a death march to the north.
Kuklinski walked for several days along a country road that led north. He saw bodies of former prisoners scattered along the path. He slept in barns or in the homes of friendly farmers. But there was no trace of his father, and he finally turned back.
Kuklinski felt no special claim as a victim; his father was one of 6 million Poles―including virtually all of the country’s 3 million Jews―exterminated by the Nazis. But he concluded that his country had to become strong again, in order to defend itself against outside aggression. Poles could never let an invading power cross their borders again.
In the first years after the war’s end, Kuklinski moved to Wroclaw in the southwestern part of Poland and took a job as a night watch-man in a soap factory, attending school in the daytime. He loved to draw and dreamed of becoming an architect. On September 25, 1947, at the age of seventeen, he decided to enlist in the army. But he soon discovered Poland had a new oppressor, the Soviet Union. During his three years in officers school in Wroclaw, Kuklinski’s commanding officer and the school’s commandant, both of whom had served in the prewar Polish Army, were replaced by Soviets who could not even speak Polish. The deputy commandant for political matters―a Polish Jew―was replaced with a Soviet who quickly imposed the new order. In 1949, Moscow installed a new Polish defense minister: Polish-born Konstanty Rokossowski, Marshal of the Soviet Union and a career Soviet officer. Members of the Home Army were tried on trumped-up espionage charges.
When Kuklinski joined the army, he did not believe that it would necessarily end up being Communist. The new army was made up not only of Polish officers from the eastern front, who had served under command of the Soviet Army and helped it liberate Poland, but also of other officers who had served with the western forces and returned home. The result was a struggle between officers who were indoctrinated by the Soviets and gradually accepted communism, and those who wanted Poland to be independent and believed that the army should serve the national interest, not the party interest.
Kuklinski hoped that in spite of the Soviet dominance and the purging of dissent, young officer candidates like him might someday replace their Soviet commanders. He threw himself into his studies and quickly became the top-ranked student in his class. He excelled in shooting drills and in track, regularly winning races of 3, 5, and 10 kilometers. He also completed 15-kilometer marches while carrying a heavy backpack and other equipment.
But Kuklinski quickly
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