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Honorary Patron:
Sponsor:
Guardian: Jacek Taylor, Ossoliński National Institute
A second reserve lieutenant of Polish Army (horse-artillery), an emissary of Home Army Headquarters and the Government of Republic of Poland in London, a many years’ director of Polish Broadcasting Station of Free Europe Radio.
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Jan Nowak-Jeziorański (Zdzisław Antoni Jeziorański as a matter of fact) was a legendary courier from the period of the World War II who brought though with secret materials from the occupied Poland to London three times.
After the war, he managed Polish Broadcasting Station of Free Europe Radio with its registered office in Munich for almost a quarter of a century; then he was one of directors of American Polish Colony Congress and a consultant of National Security Council of U.S.A.
He couldn’t go to his motherland for 45 years; he didn’t even know if he can ever see Poland. He was considered as one of the biggest enemies of PRL.
While returning to Poland, he said proudly that their generation had performed their mission. He could leave because Poland had won.
He was born in Berlin on 02 October 1914. At a grammar school in Warsaw, he met Jan Kwiatkowski, a son of the vice-premier and the minister of economy, Eugeniusz Kwiatkowski.
It was him to tempt Zdzisław to study economy in Poznań at Prof. Edward Taylor.
To finance his studies, he had to sell his father’s memorabilia. After graduation, he stayed at the academy to research; he planned to obtain a travelling fellowship. Between 1936 and 1937, he performed military service at the Artillery Reserve Cadet School in Włodzimierz Wołyński. Then he started working on his doctor’s thesis ‘Economic business cycle in Poland 1929-1936’ but its continuation was interrupted by the war.
He partook of the September campaign a a soldier of 2nd Horse-Artillery Unit; he was taken German prisoner but he escaped luckily. (…)
Read more… (click to go to the Polish Digital Equestrian Library)
Author: Mateusz Palka
Ossolineum | Pan Tadeusz Museum | Facebook page – Gabinetów Świadków Historii
Jan Nowak Jeziorański died in Warsaw on January 20, 2005, at the age of 91. He was buried in the Jeziorański family grave at the Powązki Cemetery (plot 7-4-30).
Polish Digital Equestrian Library:
Click the links below to go to the Polish Digital Equestrian Library (will open in a new tab):
„Jan Nowak-Jeziorański – kurier z Warszawy i Waszyngtonu” (2020) – Mateusz Palka
„Kurier z Warszawy” [fragmenty] (2019) – Jan Nowak Jeziorański
Zwiastun filmu „Kurier” | FILM
„Artyleria konna” (1938) – Karol Koźmiński
„Artylerja konna. Szkic dziejów, organizacji i taktyki” [link] (1917) – Janusz Gąsiorowski
Gallery:
„I was very proud then, it was the first time after this recruiting period, when it was already allowed to leave „- remembered the Cadet Jeziorański at the Artillery Reserve Officer Cadet School, Jan Nowak-Jeziorański Archive, Ossoliński National Institute. 
The Scouting Team named after Prince Józef Poniatowski. A wandering camp in Szczawnica, 1930. Fourth from the right – Zdzisław Jeziorański, behind him Ryszard Matuszewski, at the end Jan Kott, Archive of Jan Nowak-Jeziorański, Ossoliński National Institute. 
In January 1944, 2nd Lt. Jan Nowak received the Order of Virtuti Militari from the Commander-in-Chief of the Polish Armed Forces, Gen. Kazimierz Sosnkowski, photo: Czesław Datka, Jan Nowak-Jeziorański Archive, Ossoliński National Institute. 
While preparing to return to the country after completing the second courier mission, Scotland, spring 1944, Jan Nowak-Jeziorański Archive, Ossoliński National Institute. 
While jumping with a parachute during exercises in the English military base for Cichociemni, Jan Nowak-Jeziorański broke his arm, Jan Nowak-Jeziorański Archive, Ossoliński National Institute. 
Wedding rings of Jadwiga and Jan engraved with the names of both: Janek and Wiśka and the date on September 7, 1944, when they got married. This is what Nowak wrote about that day: „Greta got two copper rings for a can of canned food from an air drop. […] The chapel was full. The Germans were sitting 300 meters away in Aleje Ujazdowskie. We were walking to the altar on the floor covered with broken glass”, Jan Archive Nowak-Jeziorański, Ossoliński National Institute. 
With his wife in London in the spring of 1945. „[…] on Nowak there was quite a deserved aura of heroic exploits, although he did not emphasize this aura at all; neither he nor his wife mentioned their wartime experiences. I knew about it, but not from them” – recalled Marek Rudzki, Archive Jan Nowak-Jeziorański, Ossoliński National Institute.
