Leszek Gondek ( Włodzimierz Wołyński,

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populou ...

, 22 March 1939 – 22 March 2013, Gdańsk, Poland)) was a Polish lawyer, historian, essayist, and writer specializing in 20th-century European and Polish history. He was a professor at the Gdansk University of Physical Education and Sport.

Life

Leszek Gondek's parents were Zdzisław, an artillery captain murdered by the

Soviets Soviet people ( rus, сове́тский наро́д, r=sovyétsky naród), or citizens of the USSR ( rus, гра́ждане СССР, grázhdanye SSSR), was an umbrella demonym for the population of the Soviet Union. Nationality policy in ...

in March 1940 in the Katyn Forest Massacre; and Janina, née Wałęga, a Polish and Ukrainian teacher. Leszek Gondek served for some years as a lieutenant in Polish counterintelligence.

Research

Gondek's fields of research included the

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

Polish Underground State's

justice system The contemporary national legal systems are generally based on one of four basic systems: civil law, common law, statutory law, religious law or combinations of these. However, the legal system of each country is shaped by its unique history and ...

; Polish postwar

military mission A military operation is the coordinated military actions of a state, or a non-state actor, in response to a developing situation. These actions are designed as a military plan to resolve the situation in the state or actor's favor. Operations ma ...

s; the political, economic, and military consequences of the War for

occupied Germany Germany was already de facto occupied by the Allies from the real fall of Nazi Germany in World War II on 8 May 1945 to the establishment of the East Germany on 7 October 1949. The Allies (United States, United Kingdom, Soviet Union, and Franc ...

; and the postwar role of air sports and physical training in the development of defense strategies by Poland's armed forces. Gondek's analysis of the Polish Underground State's special military courts, civil courts, and special commissions is based on legal papers and documents published during the World War II occupation of Poland. He devotes much attention to legal and structural changes experienced by these organizations over the course of the war, as in the case of the

National Armed Forces National Armed Forces (NSZ; '' Polish:'' Narodowe Siły Zbrojne) was a Polish right-wing underground military organization of the National Democracy operating from 1942. During World War II, NSZ troops fought against Nazi Germany and communist p ...

and the Tatra Confederation ('' Konfederacja Tatrzańska'') behind the Soviet front. Gondek seeks to present the many challenges faced by the Underground judiciary across the territory of the prewar

Polish Second Republic The Second Polish Republic, at the time officially known as the Republic of Poland, was a country in Central and Eastern Europe that existed between 1918 and 1939. The state was established on 6 November 1918, before the end of the First World ...

Works

* Co-author with Barbara Kosiorek-Dulian, ''Działalność Abwehry na terenie Polski 1933-1939'' ( Abwehr Operations in Poland, 1933–1939), Warsaw, 1974, 414 pp. * ''Wywiad polski w III Rzeszy 1933-1939. Zarys struktury, taktyki i efektów obronnego działania'' (Polish Intelligence in the

Third Reich Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

, 1933–1939: An Outline of the Structure, Tactics, and Effects of Defensive Operations), Warsaw, Wydawnictwo Ministerstwa Obrony Narodowej ( olishMinistry of National Defense), 1978 and 1982, 344 pp. * ''Polskie misje wojskowe 1945-1949: polityczno-prawne, ekonomiczne i wojskowe problemy likwidacji skutków wojny na obszarze okupowanych Niemiec'' (Polish Military Missions, 1945–1949: Political-legal, Economic, and Military Problems in the Remediation of the War's Consequences in Occupied Germany), Warsaw, Wydawnictwo Ministerstwa Obrony Narodowej ( olishMinistry of National Defense), 1981, 329 pp. * ''Na tropach tajemnic III Rzeszy'' (In Pursuit of Third Reich Secrets), 1987, 204 pp. * ''Polska karząca 1939-1945: Polski podziemny wymiar sprawiedliwosci w okresie okupacji niemieckiej'' (Poland Punishes, 1939–1945: Polish Underground Dispensation of Justice under German Occupation), Warsaw, Instytut Wydawniczy Pax, 1988, , 202 pp. * ''Agresja Stalina na Polskę'' (

Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili; – 5 March 1953) was a Georgian revolutionary and Soviet political leader who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. He held power as General Secretar ...

's Aggression on Poland), Wydawnictwo Agencja, 1990, , 106 pp. * ''W imieniu Rzeczypospolitej: wymiar sprawiedliwości w Polsce w czasie II wojny światowej'' (In the Name of the olishRepublic: the Dispensation of Justice in Poland during World War II), Wydawnictwo Naukowe PWN ( Polskie Wydawnictwo Naukowe), 2011, ,

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gondek, Leszek 1939 births 2013 deaths 20th-century Polish historians Historians of World War II Polish academics Polish non-fiction writers Polish male non-fiction writers

Life

Research

Works

Further reading

Notes