The recent crackdown of the Polish government on that country's year-old Union movement represents a
logical sequence of Soviet goals, a member of the Polish underground during World War II contends.Crackdown follows goals
[Written by David Adamski, The Holland Sentinel, 29 December 1981]
The recent crackdown of the Polish government on that country's year-old Union movement represents a
logical sequence of Soviet goals, a member of the Polish underground during World War II contends.
Waclaw Bakierowski [photographed for this interview], who has lived near Holland[, Michigan] since moving from Poland in 1952, said that under Soviet control Poland represents an open door to the rest of Europe that the Soviets cannot afford to lose by granting too many freedoms to the people.
"They can't afford to lose their grip on the Polish throat," he said. "The Russians control the Polish army and are using it to squeeze the liberty movement of Solidarity."
The 67-year-old Bakierowski, who was born in Russia, moved to Poland with his family in 1922 where he attended school and studied law until his country was invaded in 1939.
After the invasion, he joined the Polish resistance movement, assuming duties that included getting information from Nazi Gestapo officers about their knowledge of the resistance movement and transferring it to London. While he tried to develop a friendly atmosphere with the Nazis for intelligence purposes, he always felt that his life was in danger.
"There was the possibility to die 24 hours a day," he said of his time during the Axis occupation of his country. "There were public executions in the streets."
An estimated 6 million Poles were killed by the Nazis during the occupation, about half of them Jews. After the war, Bakierowski was one of two members of his family left alive. The rest — eight uncles and cousins — died in concentration camps.
"I think I am very lucky to have survived," he said.
Bakierowski spent approximately seven months as a prisoner of war after the Polish insurrection in 1944 before being liberated by Allied troops in May 1945.
"There was hunger, just hunger," he said of his time as a prisoner of war. "Otherwise, I cannot complain. The Germans were careful to comply with the rules of the Geneva Convention."
Since coming to the United States in 1952, Bakierowski has remained closely attuned to developments in Poland. And although he has not sought public office in this country, he is an ardent letter-writer and is not afraid to speak his mind on issues that are of importance to him.
The present situation in Poland, he said, stems directly from President Franklin Roosevelt's signing of the Yalta agreement in 1945. That agreement, he said, divided the world into two hemispheres, with the Soviets dominant in the east and the United States in the west. Since the signing of that pact, he said, the Soviet Union has been constantly expanding its sphere of influence, with an ultimate goal of world domination.
But there is misunderstanding of the situation in the west, he said, at least in part because Americans do not comprehend the strategic importance Poland holds for the Soviets or the history of the area. In addition, he faults the news media for not reporting what he sees as dangerous implications of the situation for the United States.
"The American public is not informed about the danger — why?" he questioned.
His reaction to the current unrest in Poland is one of hopelessness, he said. He feels that the United States has not the military capability to enforce non-intervention warnings to the Soviets, and that the people of Poland dare not increase the intensity of the Solidarity movement without risking an invasion.
"I assume that if the Russians entered Poland there will be bloodshed with the Polish army," he said.
The outcome of the situation is difficult to predict, Bakierowski said. Since declaring martial law in Poland Dec. 14, Polish premier Gen. Wojciech Jaruzelski has reportedly cracked down on Solidarity. Sketchy reports from Poland indicate that thousands of union members have been arrested.
"These are only my suppositions," Bakierowski said. "But the possibility is that Gen. Jaruzelski was confronted with a simple question (by the Soviet Union): 'Will you get order in Poland or will we go in?'
"I may assume that Jaruzelski's thrust in this hopeless situation is to get order in Poland to avoid Russian intervention."
After order is restored, Bakierowski said, only time will tell if the budding labor movement will be allowed to function.