Józef Światło, born Izaak Fleischfarb (1 January 1915 – 2 September 1994), was a high-ranking official in the
Ministry of Public Security of Poland
The Ministry of Public Security ( pl, Ministerstwo Bezpieczeństwa Publicznego), commonly known as UB or later SB, was the secret police, intelligence and counter-espionage agency operating in the Polish People's Republic. From 1945 to 1954 it w ...
(''UB'') who served as deputy director of the 10th Department run by
Anatol Fejgin. Known for supervising the torture of political prisoners, he was nicknamed "the Butcher" by the detainees.
After the 1953 death of
Joseph Stalin and arrest of
Lavrentiy Beria, Światło traveled to
East Germany on official business. While on the Berlin subway with Fejgin, passing through
West Berlin, on 5 December 1953, he "slipped away" and defected to the West.
Afterwards he worked for the American
Central Intelligence Agency
The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gathering, processing, ...
and
Radio Free Europe. Światło's written and broadcast denunciations shook the
Polish United Workers' Party. This ultimately contributed to post-Stalinist reforms of the Polish security apparatus and to Poland's political liberalisation in the socialist
Polish October
Polish October (), also known as October 1956, Polish thaw, or Gomułka's thaw, marked a change in the politics of Poland in the second half of 1956. Some social scientists term it the Polish October Revolution, which was less dramatic than the ...
revolution.
Biography
Józef Światło was born on 1 January 1915 as Izaak Fleischfarb (also Fleichfarb, Licht, or Lichtstein, sources vary), into a
Jew
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...
ish family in Medyn village near
Zbarazh in
Galicia (now
Ukraine).
[Józef Światło - biography, photos, documents]
at Institute of National Remembrance
The Institute of National Remembrance – Commission for the Prosecution of Crimes against the Polish Nation ( pl, Instytut Pamięci Narodowej – Komisja Ścigania Zbrodni przeciwko Narodowi Polskiemu, abbreviated IPN) is a Polish state resea ...
. Retrieved 6 April 2011 In the
Second Polish Republic he was first a
Zionist and later, a communist activist. He was arrested twice for his illegal activities.
Conscripted in 1939, he served in the
Polish Army (
Polish 6th Infantry Division)
during the
German invasion that year.
Taken prisoner by the
Germans, he escaped, only to be taken prisoner by the
Red Army,
which
invaded
An invasion is a military offensive in which large numbers of combatants of one geopolitical entity aggressively enter territory owned by another such entity, generally with the objective of either: conquering; liberating or re-establishing con ...
Eastern Poland
Eastern Poland is a macroregion in Poland comprising the Lublin, Podkarpackie, Podlaskie, Świętokrzyskie, and Warmian-Masurian voivodeships.
The make-up of the distinct macroregion is based not only of geographical criteria, but also econo ...
where his family lived and
deported east along with hundred thousands of others.
It was also in that period that, on 26 April 1943, he married Justyna Światło, taking her more Polish-sounding surname.
Światło eventually joined the
Polish Forces in the East
The Polish Armed Forces in the East ( pl, Polskie Siły Zbrojne na Wschodzie), also called Polish Army in the USSR, were the Polish military forces established in the Soviet Union during World War II.
Two armies were formed separately and at ...
(
Polish 1st Tadeusz Kościuszko Infantry Division,
Berling's Army),
becoming a
political officer;
he was also promoted to junior lieutenant (''
podporucznik
''Podporuchik'' ( sh-Cyrl-Latn, потпоручник, potporučnik, cs, podporučík, pl, podporucznik, russian: подпору́чик, bg, подпоручик, sk, podporučík) is the most Junior officer in some Slavic armed forces, an ...
'') and became involved in organising state administration in areas taken from the Germans.
In 1945, he was transferred to the newly formed
Ministry of Public Security of Poland
The Ministry of Public Security ( pl, Ministerstwo Bezpieczeństwa Publicznego), commonly known as UB or later SB, was the secret police, intelligence and counter-espionage agency operating in the Polish People's Republic. From 1945 to 1954 it w ...
(officially ''MBP'', but commonly abbreviated to ''UB'').
In his work, Światło, like many other communist secret police agents, used
torture and forgery.
He was involved in arresting hundreds of members of Polish underground organization,
Armia Krajowa
The Home Army ( pl, Armia Krajowa, abbreviated AK; ) was the dominant resistance movement in German-occupied Poland during World War II. The Home Army was formed in February 1942 from the earlier Związek Walki Zbrojnej (Armed Resistance) est ...
, its leadership (the
Trial of the Sixteen
The Trial of the Sixteen ( pl, Proces szesnastu) was a staged trial of 16 leaders of the Polish Underground State held by the Soviet authorities in Moscow in 1945. All captives were kidnapped by the NKVD secret service and falsely accused of v ...
) and falsifying of the
1946 Polish referendum.
[ In time he was promoted to Lieutenant colonel (pol.Podpułkownik) and served in various offices and departments, eventually in 1951 ending up in the 10th Department,] where he was one of the leading officers. The 10th Department was responsible for handling the Party members themselves. He received orders personally from the First Secretary of the Polish United Workers' Party
The Polish United Workers' Party ( pl, Polska Zjednoczona Partia Robotnicza; ), commonly abbreviated to PZPR, was the communist party which ruled the Polish People's Republic as a one-party state from 1948 to 1989. The PZPR had led two other leg ...
Bolesław Bierut
Bolesław Bierut (; 18 April 1892 – 12 March 1956) was a Polish communist activist and politician, leader of the Polish People's Republic from 1947 until 1956. He was President of the State National Council from 1944 to 1947, President of Pola ...
, and arrested such notable people as politicians Władysław Gomułka and Marian Spychalski
Marian "Marek" Spychalski (, 6 December 1906 – 7 June 1980) was a Polish architect in pre-war Poland, and later, military commander and a communist politician. During World War II he belonged to the Polish underground forces operating within ...
,[ General ]Michał Rola-Żymierski
Michał Rola-Żymierski (; 4 September 189015 October 1989) was a Polish high-ranking Communist Party leader, communist military commander and NKVD secret agent. He was appointed as Marshal of Poland by Joseph Stalin, and served in this position ...
and Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński
Stefan Wyszyński (3 August 1901 – 28 May 1981) was a Polish people, Polish prelate of the Catholic Church. He served as the bishop of Lublin from 1946 to 1948, List of bishops and archbishops of Warsaw, archbishop of Warsaw and archbishop o ...
. He had access - sometimes unique - to many secret documents. He interrogated Noel Field
Noel Haviland Field (January 23, 1904 – September 12, 1970) was an American communist activist, diplomat and spy for the NKVD, whose activities before and after World War II allowed the Eastern Bloc to use his name as a prosecuting rationale dur ...
on 27 August 1949 in Budapest
Budapest (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Hungary. It is the ninth-largest city in the European Union by population within city limits and the second-largest city on the Danube river; the city has an estimated population o ...
as well as his brother, Herman Field (a US citizen who went to Poland to look for his brother). Herman would be secretly imprisoned for five years, until the information on him was revealed - by Światło himself.
Defection to the West
In November 1953, the First Secretary of the Polish United Workers' Party
The Polish United Workers' Party ( pl, Polska Zjednoczona Partia Robotnicza; ), commonly abbreviated to PZPR, was the communist party which ruled the Polish People's Republic as a one-party state from 1948 to 1989. The PZPR had led two other leg ...
Bolesław Bierut
Bolesław Bierut (; 18 April 1892 – 12 March 1956) was a Polish communist activist and politician, leader of the Polish People's Republic from 1947 until 1956. He was President of the State National Council from 1944 to 1947, President of Pola ...
asked Politburo member Jakub Berman
Jakub Berman (23 December 1901 – 10 April 1984) was a Polish communist politician. Was born in Jewish family, son of Iser and Guta. An activist during the Second Polish Republic, in post-war communist Poland he was a member of the Politburo of ...
to send UB Lieutenant Colonel Józef Światło on an important mission to East Berlin. Światło, deputy head of UB's ''Department X'', together with Colonel Anatol Fejgin, were asked to consult with Stasi
The Ministry for State Security, commonly known as the (),An abbreviation of . was the state security service of the East Germany from 1950 to 1990.
The Stasi's function was similar to the KGB, serving as a means of maintaining state authori ...
chief Erich Mielke about eliminating Wanda Brońska. Światło, however, after the death of Stalin in March 1953 and arrest of Lavrentiy Beria in June that year, became afraid for his own life. He suspected that Bierut in Poland might turn on him and other members of the Ministry, attempting to make them into scapegoats.[
The two officers traveled to Berlin and spoke with Mielke. On 5 December 1953, the day after meeting the Stasi chief, Światło defected to the U.S. military mission in West Berlin.] He left family - wife and two children - in Poland. The next day, American military authorities transported Światło to Frankfurt and by Christmas Światło had been flown to Washington, D.C., where he underwent an extensive debriefing. It has been reported that his interrogations were compiled into about fifty long reports. The United States gave him political asylum with the full knowledge that "he would have to be protected for the rest of his life because the number of his victims and relatives of victims sworn to exact retribution was so great."
Aftermath
Światło's defection was revealed in Poland by the Polish Press Agency
The Polish Press Agency ( pl, Polska Agencja Prasowa, PAP) is Poland's national news agency, producing and distributing political, economic, social, and cultural news as well as events information.
The agency has 14 news desks in its headquarters ...
on 25 October 1954, with Światło labelled a traitor
Treason is the crime of attacking a state authority to which one owes allegiance. This typically includes acts such as participating in a war against one's native country, attempting to overthrow its government, spying on its military, its diplo ...
and provocateur
An agent provocateur is a person employed to act undercover to entice or provoke another person to commit an illegal or rash act.
Agent provocateur or Provocateur may also refer to:
* ''Agent Provocateur'' (album), by Foreigner
* Agent Provocat ...
. It was, however, widely publicised in the United States and Europe by the US authorities, as well as in Poland via Radio Free Europe, embarrassing the Communist authorities in Warsaw - the first international press conference with Światło took place on 28 September 1954. Światło had intimate knowledge of the internal politics of the Polish government, especially the activities of the various secret services. Over the course of the following months, US newspapers and Radio Free Europe (in the "Behind the scenes of the secret service and the party" cycle) reported extensively on political repression in Poland based on Światło's revelations.[Jan Skorzynski]
"1956 - a european date" From Thaw to Restoration: A Chronology
. Retrieved 13 April 2007
Capitalising on them, in what was known as "Operation Spotlight", RFE broadcast some 140 interviews by Światło, and 30 programs on him. Światło's RFE broadcasts were not only serialized but even distributed over Poland by special balloon
A balloon is a flexible bag that can be inflated with a gas, such as helium, hydrogen, nitrous oxide, oxygen, and air. For special tasks, balloons can be filled with smoke, liquid water, granular media (e.g. sand, flour or rice), or light s ...
s. Światło detailed the torture of prisoners under interrogation and politically motivated executions and struggles inside the Polish United Workers' Party.[ Leszek Szymowski]
Brawurowa ucieczka najsłynniejszego zbiega
', Onet.pl
Onet.pl is one of the largest Polish web portals. It is owned by the Kraków-based Grupa Onet.pl S.A. It was founded in 1996 by Optimus company. According to Alexa rankings, as of October 2017, it was the 45th most popular website worldwide an ...
, 26 January 2010. Retrieved 6 April 2011 None of the Polish Communists intelligence, counterintelligence and public security agencies escaped unscathed and without some of their secrets being revealed.
The highly publicised defection of Colonel Światło, not to mention the general hatred of the Ministry of Public Security among Poles, led to changes in late 1954, as first the 10th Department and soon afterwards, the entire Ministry, was broken up and reorganised; many officials were arrested.[ Paweł Machcewicz, "Social Protest and Political Crisis in 1956", which appears on pp. 99-118 of ''Stalinism in Poland'', 1944-1956, ed. and tr. by A. Kemp-Welch, St. Martin's Press, New York, 1999, .] Światło's scandal contributed to the events of political liberalisation in Poland, known as the Polish October
Polish October (), also known as October 1956, Polish thaw, or Gomułka's thaw, marked a change in the politics of Poland in the second half of 1956. Some social scientists term it the Polish October Revolution, which was less dramatic than the ...
.
For a long time, it was uncertain if Światło was dead or still alive.[ Piotr Zychowicz]
''Poszukiwany Józef Światło''
Rzeczpospolita, 18 December 2008. Retrieved 6 April 2011 Information on him was protected by the US witness protection
Witness protection is security provided to a threatened person providing testimonial evidence to the justice system, including defendants and other clients, before, during, and after a trial, usually by police. While a witness may only require p ...
program; there were rumours that he died in the late 1960s, 1975 or 1985.[ In 2010, the United States government stated that he had died on 2 September 1994.][''Światło zmarł w 1994 roku'']
Rzeczpospolita, 18 December 2008. Retrieved 6 April 2011 Documents relating to him are still classified in the United States and not available to researchers.[
]
Awards
See also
* List of Eastern Bloc defectors
A ''list'' is any set of items in a row. List or lists may also refer to:
People
* List (surname)
Organizations
* List College, an undergraduate division of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America
* SC Germania List, German rugby union ...
Notes
a Sources vary in giving his original surname. IPN lists it as Fleischfarb, noting that this name was used by Światło himself in some documents; this name is used most commonly in the sources. Several sources, such as Gluchowski, use an alternative spelling - Fleichfarb. Piotrowski and several other sources also list one or two other name variants, namely: Licht and Lichtstein.
References
Further reading
* Sobor-Swiderska A., "Jozef Swiatlo - Myth and Reality", ''Studia Historyczne'' (Historical Studies), year: 2006, vol: 49, number: 1(193), pages: 41–63
(abstract).
* Zbigniew Błażyński: ''Mówi Józef Światło. Za kulisami bezpieki i partii 1940–1955'' ózef Światło speaking. Behind the scenes of secret police and party 1940-1955'. Wydawnictwo LTW, Warszawa, 2003.
* Roger Faligot, Remi Kauffer, ''Służby specjalne'' pecial services ISKRY, Warszawa 1998, , originally in French: Roger Faligot, Remi Kauffer, ''Histoire mondiale du renseignement 1870-1939'' ''Les maitres espions. Histoire mondiale du renseignement. De la guerre froide a nos jours''. Editions Robert Laffont SA, Paris 1993, 1994
{{DEFAULTSORT:Swiatlo, Jozef
1915 births
1994 deaths
People from Ternopil Oblast
People from the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria
Jews from Galicia (Eastern Europe)
Austro-Hungarian Jews
Ukrainian Jews
Jewish socialists
Polish military personnel of World War II
Polish People's Army personnel
Polish intelligence officers (1943–1990)
Polish defectors
Ministry of Public Security (Poland) officials
Defectors to the United States
People sentenced to death in absentia
Knights of the Order of Polonia Restituta
Recipients of the Gold Cross of Merit (Poland)
Recipients of the Silver Cross of Merit (Poland)