Why did you decide to leave Poland?
I wanted to be free; free in the choice of my profession, in my choice of travel, in what I read, do, and most of all in what I think.
When did you make this decision?
I was about 11 years old, playing with other children in the forecourt of our house when I saw a plane high in the sky. I thought to myself: “I would love to fly like this one day”. Later, I talked to my mother and she said “you never will”. I couldn’t understand why not. She then explained a few things to me about the so-called “system”. I was shocked and disappointed, and I felt very strongly that no system would stop me from flying if I wanted to. Not very long afterwards, I happened to read Darwin’s The Voyage of the Beagle where he describes his journey to the Galapagos Islands, which fueled my appetite for adventure even more, and then his Origin of Species where he describes one of the greatest scientific discoveries in the history of science. Darwin was an adventurer in soul and body, and so was I. He immediately became my hero.
How did you make plans do leave Poland and the “system”?
I was about 14 when I acquired several addresses of various young people abroad through a magazine called Radar. It was widely read by young people around the world, and it included adverts for pen-pals. Over the years, I must have corresponded with at least a dozen of youngsters: there was an Australian, a French girl, an Irish boy from Cork, and there was Cassie from Surry in the UK. Of all these contacts, only one endured for many years until I qualified in medicine in Poland – and it was Cassie. The only way to get out of Poland was to have an invitation from a private person or an institution abroad. Cassie invited me to her wedding in 1973, having guessed my innermost wishes. She also sent me the tickets (I later returned her the money with my first salary in England). And so I left Poland, being prepared that I might never see my motherland again.
What were the greatest obstacles you had to overcome in order to leave?
I had no great difficulty in obtaining a passport, especially that I had traveled once Scandinavia as a student two years previously (a special dean’s prize for my academic achievements), and I had returned. The passport application had to be made each time one intended to travel abroad. One had to surrender it to the Police on return. Obviously I must have appeared innocent to the (not very intelligent) Communist authorities as they gave me the passport without any problems. I was, however, somewhat surprised they didn’t try to recruit me as an informer then. Many of my colleagues and friends had been offered a ‘job’ of an informer in exchange for passport. My brother declined such an ‘offer’ and was refused a passport.
Describe your journey from Poland to England.
It was quite long, as I traveled by train and then by boat to Hoek van Holland, and from there to Liverpool Street station, where Cass and her fiancé met me. They took me to her parents’ home in Surry where we stayed a couple of days. I will never forget how her mother brought me a cup of lovely English tea to my bedroom, on a cold October morning. “What a country this is. I’m stopping here”, I thought to myself. I this is just what I did – for the next 42 years.
What do you consider to be the most important tools to a successful immigration?
An excellent education. In my case, Gdańsk Medical School, was one of the top medical schools in the country. Secondly, I think courage and determination. Also being able to take a calculated risk – my risk was calculated as I did allow for the possibility of failure; I knew no one except Cassie and also a Polish friend who was working in London as an au-pair. It was a big risk so I definitely didn’t want to burn any bridges, until I was sure I could work in my profession.
Were you unusual in this undertaking or was there a general exodus at the time?
Yes, I think I was unusual. There were very few people leaving Poland in the early seventies, possibly because Poland was relatively prosperous at the time. For several years my colleagues were earning more in Poland than I was in England, and that apparent wealth was a powerful silencer to their conscience. There was a large Jewish exodus in the late sixties, another exodus in the 80s on account of Solidarity (some people falsely claimed political persecution) and a labor exodus, once Poland joined the EU. You ask any Pole “when did you leave Poland?” and it tells you absolutely everything about them.
How easy was it for you to stay in the UK?
I was appointed to a doctor’s position within four months of my arrival in UK and I had a fantastic support from my Consultant and the hospital administration. The problem was extending the British visa which was contingent upon having a valid passport, and this was rapidly coming to an end. Short validity of the passport was serving as a ‘dog’s leash’ for the Communist regime. I didn’t want to make a decisive rupture with Poland and applied for a passport extension a few times; they usually gave me no more than 2-3 month extensions. On the last occasion, the officer at the Polish Consulate asked me whether I visited the Polish cultural center (POSK) and other Polish establishments, mostly in West London. I hadn’t. The officer was surprised, stressing that he would “appreciate information about some people who go there”. While he was tightening his fishnet, I still tried to wiggle out of it pretending I didn’t understand. But eventually he put it upfront: “either you inform on your fellow countrymen or you won’t get the extension”. I felt a rush of blood to my head, coupled with intense nausea. I got up and left, slamming the door behind. I had no further contact with the Polish Communist authorities.
Tell me more about those who chose to be informers. How does one spot an informer?
There was quite a network of informers in Poland and in the West, who were mingling with the crowd of their compatriots and informing the Communists on their plans, movements, thoughts and such like, pretending to be “friendly”. They had no problems with extending their Polish passport; they had it extended because they were doing a “job” for the government. Their passports would have a long validity and they would often travel back and forth to Poland. In informer would be someone who ‘had it easy’, as some of them foolishly boasted. Also, typically, the Communists would never allow a married couple to leave Poland, just in case they settled in the West. They would only let individual people travel to the West, so the other family members were kept behind like hostages.
Informers were mostly uneducated, mediocre individuals whose life was meaningless and this gave them a sense of power. Some of these informers were bold enough to develop heroic claims that they were of some significance in Poland, and boasted that they were a threat to the Polish establishment. To my knowledge Polish Communist Authorities never expelled dissidents, as Sovits had done. And even in Soviet Russia one had to be of Solzenitsin, Sacharov, Bukovsky statue to be expelled. These eminent people were more dangerous inside than outside Soviet Union; dangerous because they spoke truth and word was their weapon. As they could not be quietly exterminated, they had to be expelled.
There is an important distinction between a spy and an informer. Spy can often be an intelligent, well-educated, patriotic person who risks his life by venturing into the enemy’s territory to gather intelligence. Alternatively, he may betray his country for ideological reasons, and the famous ‘Cambridge Four’ would probably be a good example of that. (They soon found out what their idols were made of, though!) Personally, I condemn such spying against one’s own nation as immoral, even though it is less ignoble than the activity of informers; at least there is an element of sincerity and passion behind it.
An informer is a nobody who yearns to be a somebody. Informing on one’s compatriots makes them feel important and clever. I have come across one such informer who was regularly boasting of her great talent to ‘suss out’ people. Informers mingle with their own breed, listen to unimportant conversations, and indiscriminately report what they hear. To assume that anyone would divulge sensitive information about themselves to a random nobody, is a delusion of a primitive mediocrity. With a passion of their overblown egos, the Polish informers were absurdly insignificant pawns in the hands of a ‘Big Brother’. And the ‘Big Brother’ (at least in Poland) was equally incapable ‘filtering’ the important from unimportant information. They certainly missed on me! The ultimate tragedy was that the informers spent their lives doing highly immoral job of no significance. I have often pondered why intelligent people tend to overestimate others and think them more intelligent than themselves, while idiots tend to think that others are much less “intelligent” and can be easily manipulated. What is the cut-off point? Does anyone have any idea?
How would you compare this system to the one described in 1984?
It’s a complete devaluation of values – to paraphrase Nietzsche’s famous saying. Betrayal is patriotism, stupidity becomes intelligence, surreptitious eavesdropping becomes clever ‘deduction’, and being a nobody becomes being a hero. The ultimate travesty of values! But incredibly, there are people in the west who would believe these deceivers. These ‘moral cockroaches’, as I call them, impress those who are willing to be impressed. Ultimately, only a rotten interior can assimilate rot without any revulsion.
