Jan Gralewski (3 March 1912 – 4 July 1943) was a Polish philosopher, essayist and soldier. Member of Polish resistance ( Home Army) during World War II, he died in the controversial

1943 Gibraltar B-24 crash The 1943 Gibraltar Liberator AL523 crash was an aircraft crash that resulted in the death of General Władysław Sikorski, the commander-in-chief of the Polish Army and Prime Minister of the Polish government-in-exile. Sikorski's Liberator II ...

Life

Gralewski was born on 3 March 1912 in Warsaw. He graduated from the University of Warsaw's philosophy department where he studied under Władysław Tatarkiewicz. He researched topics related to philosophy and literary theory, publishing several articles and essays on those topics even before graduating the university. Before World War II he published some essays in ''Arkady'' and ''Życie Sztuki''. He continued writing and publishing during the war, while at the same time joining Polish resistance (

ZWZ Związek Walki Zbrojnej ( abbreviation: ''ZWZ''; Union of Armed Struggle;Thus rendered in Norman Davies, ''God's Playground: A History of Poland'', vol. II, p. 464. also translated as ''Union for Armed Struggle'', ''Association of Armed Strug ...

, Home Army) where he became a courier travelling between the occupied Poland and the

Polish government in exile The Polish government-in-exile, officially known as the Government of the Republic of Poland in exile ( pl, Rząd Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej na uchodźstwie), was the government in exile of Poland formed in the aftermath of the Invasion of Pola ...

in the West. He was also involved in the underground education initiatives. In 1942 he married poet and scholar

Alicja Iwańska Alicja Iwańska (also known as Alicia Iwanska, 13 May 1918 – 26 September 1996) was a Polish sociologist, academic and writer. Born into the landed gentry of Poland, her family were members of the intelligentsia and encouraged Iwańska to pur ...

, then also a resistance member.

Death and remembrance

On 4 July 1943, Gralewski most likely died in the

, together with the Polish Prime Minister and commander-in-chief, Władysław Sikorski. Due to the controversy surrounding Sikorski's death, some conspiracy theories surrounding this incident have raised questions regarding the role and fate of Gralewski in this incident, with suggestions by historians Dariusz Baliszewski and that he might have been shot by an assassin, and died ashore, not in the airplane crash, and that the assassin entered the airplane acting as his doppelganger. His wife, who after the war became a sociologist in the United States, wrote about her belief that he was murdered as a part of an assassination plot in her 1987 book ''Niezdemobilizowani''. In late 2000s and early 2010s the Polish Institute of National Remembrance considered exhumation of Gralewski's body to address this issue, but eventually decided against it. Gralewski's and his wife's war time diary was published in 1982 in Poland as ''Wojenne odcinki. Warszawa 1940–1943''.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gralewski, Jan 1912 births 1943 deaths Home Army members University of Warsaw alumni Military personnel from Warsaw Victims of aviation accidents or incidents in Gibraltar Victims of aviation accidents or incidents in 1943 20th-century Polish philosophers Polish military personnel killed in World War II