Deputy head of Poland’s security Department X whose 1953 defection and broadcasts exposed the ministry’s torture and purges
Born Izaak Fleischfarb into a Jewish family in Medyn in Galicia, he worked as a shoemaker in Kraków and moved from a Zionist group to the Communist Youth. Captured by the Germans in 1939, he escaped, only to be deported into the Soviet interior; in 1943 he married and took his wife’s surname. A political officer in Berling’s army, he joined the Ministry of Public Security, took part in arresting Home Army members and in falsifying the 1946 referendum, and as deputy director of its Department X arrested Gomułka and others on Bierut’s personal orders. On 5 December 1953, on official business in East Berlin, he defected to the US military mission in West Berlin. His revelations on Radio Free Europe about torture and the struggles inside the party led to the break-up of the ministry and contributed to the Polish October. He died in the United States in 1994.
Activities and affiliations
- 1945–1953 Security, intelligence and policing · Poland
- 1943–1945 Military command · Poland
Career Timeline
- 1943Political officer in Berling’s army
- 1945Joined the Ministry of Public Security
- 1950First deputy director of Department X
- 1953Defected to the US in West Berlin
- 1954Revelations on Radio Free Europe