Edward Kossoy
Encyclopedia
Edward Kossoy (born June 4, 1913 in Radom
) is a Polish lawyer
, publicist
and an activist for victims of Nazism
.
where his parents moved to during World War I
.
and the Peace of Riga
in 1921 he moved back to Poland
. In 1930 he finished the Tytus Chałubiński National Gymnasium in Radom and then studied at the Law School
of Warsaw University. He graduated in 1934.
In 1939, in the wake of the Nazi invasion of Poland, Kossoy fled Warsaw and escaped eastward to Lviv
which was taken over by the Soviet Union
after the Soviet invasion of Poland
. He was hoping to locate his family there and he himself planned on making his way through Romania
to France
to join the Polish army
that was being recreated there. However, in 1940 he was arrested by the Soviet militia on the charge of smuggling
watches which he was trying to sell to raise money for his family and for travel to France. During interrogation he admitted to having higher education and as a result was handed over to the NKVD
which charged him with espionage and "counter revolutionary activity". He was sentenced, according to the famous Article 58, to eight years in the Gulag
and sent to one of the sub-camps of Vorkuta
, Pechora
. There he worked on the construction of the railway which connected the mouth of the Pechora River
with the southern end of the Urals - according to the Russian inmates, the railway had two dead bodies under every rail. According to Kossoy, who contracted typhus
in the camp, out of the 20,000 Poles who arrived at the camp in 1941, only 6,000 were left two years later.
Kossoy was released after two years because of the Sikorski–Mayski Agreement. He evacuated the Soviet Union together with the Anders Army
. During World War II
his whole family was killed by the Germans: his father, wife and daughter. He was officially discharged from the Anders Army in 1943, in Teheran, because of illness; in addition to the typhus he also contracted malaria
. By the end of 1943 he made his way to the British mandate of Palestine where he stayed.
in 1944, he wrote and published a series of essays based on his experiences in the gulag, entitled "Stołypinka" (named after the rail cars used to transport prisoners to the gulag). The essays were not published in book form until 2003.
Kossoy was a member of Menachem Begin
's underground Irgun
organization in 1948 and participated in the Israeli War of Independence in its ranks. After end of World War II Kossoy remarried. His wife had been born in Warsaw and took part in the Warsaw Uprising
. He lived in Israel
until 1954, at which point he moved to Europe
. He studied in Munich
, Cologne
and Geneva
and obtained a PhD
in law
and political science
.
, a former member of the Polish Home Army and a United Nations
functionary, and the two quickly became friends. It was Micuta who first told him about the liberation of the Gęsiówka concentration camp by Polish resistance during the Warsaw Uprising. At first Kossoy was skeptical but he decided to investigate the matter farther and soon found some survivors of the camp among his clients, who confirmed Micuta's story. As a result Kossoy wrote several historical articles on the subject, which were published by Yad Vashem
and in Polish emigre press (with the help from Jerzy Giedroyc
).
. His memoirs, entitled "On the Margin..." were published in 2006, and nominated for the Nike Award
in 2007.
He is currently an honorary senator of the University of Tübingen. He lives in Goms, Switzerland.
Radom
Radom is a city in central Poland with 223,397 inhabitants . It is located on the Mleczna River in the Masovian Voivodeship , having previously been the capital of Radom Voivodeship ; 100 km south of Poland's capital, Warsaw.It is home to the biennial Radom Air Show, the largest and...
) is a Polish lawyer
Lawyer
A lawyer, according to Black's Law Dictionary, is "a person learned in the law; as an attorney, counsel or solicitor; a person who is practicing law." Law is the system of rules of conduct established by the sovereign government of a society to correct wrongs, maintain the stability of political...
, publicist
Publicist
A publicist is a person whose job is to generate and manage publicity for a public figure, especially a celebrity, a business, or for a work such as a book, film or album...
and an activist for victims of Nazism
Nazism
Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...
.
Early life
Kossoy was born in Radom but spent his childhood in Yekaterinoslav in UkraineUkraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
where his parents moved to during World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
.
World War II
After the Polish-Soviet WarPolish-Soviet War
The Polish–Soviet War was an armed conflict between Soviet Russia and Soviet Ukraine and the Second Polish Republic and the Ukrainian People's Republic—four states in post–World War I Europe...
and the Peace of Riga
Peace of Riga
The Peace of Riga, also known as the Treaty of Riga; was signed in Riga on 18 March 1921, between Poland, Soviet Russia and Soviet Ukraine. The treaty ended the Polish-Soviet War....
in 1921 he moved back to Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
. In 1930 he finished the Tytus Chałubiński National Gymnasium in Radom and then studied at the Law School
Law school
A law school is an institution specializing in legal education.- Law degrees :- Canada :...
of Warsaw University. He graduated in 1934.
In 1939, in the wake of the Nazi invasion of Poland, Kossoy fled Warsaw and escaped eastward to Lviv
Lviv
Lviv is a city in western Ukraine. The city is regarded as one of the main cultural centres of today's Ukraine and historically has also been a major Polish and Jewish cultural center, as Poles and Jews were the two main ethnicities of the city until the outbreak of World War II and the following...
which was taken over by the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
after the Soviet invasion of Poland
Soviet invasion of Poland
Soviet invasion of Poland can refer to:* the second phase of the Polish-Soviet War of 1920 when Soviet armies marched on Warsaw, Poland* Soviet invasion of Poland of 1939 when Soviet Union allied with Nazi Germany attacked Second Polish Republic...
. He was hoping to locate his family there and he himself planned on making his way through Romania
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...
to France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
to join the Polish army
Polish Army in France (1939-1940)
The Polish Army in France formed in France under the command of General Władysław Sikorski in late 1939, after the fall of Poland resulting from the Polish Defensive War...
that was being recreated there. However, in 1940 he was arrested by the Soviet militia on the charge of smuggling
Smuggling
Smuggling is the clandestine transportation of goods or persons, such as out of a building, into a prison, or across an international border, in violation of applicable laws or other regulations.There are various motivations to smuggle...
watches which he was trying to sell to raise money for his family and for travel to France. During interrogation he admitted to having higher education and as a result was handed over to the NKVD
NKVD
The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs was the public and secret police organization of the Soviet Union that directly executed the rule of power of the Soviets, including political repression, during the era of Joseph Stalin....
which charged him with espionage and "counter revolutionary activity". He was sentenced, according to the famous Article 58, to eight years in the Gulag
Gulag
The Gulag was the government agency that administered the main Soviet forced labor camp systems. While the camps housed a wide range of convicts, from petty criminals to political prisoners, large numbers were convicted by simplified procedures, such as NKVD troikas and other instruments of...
and sent to one of the sub-camps of Vorkuta
Vorkuta
Vorkuta is a coal-mining town in the Komi Republic, Russia, situated just north of the Arctic Circle in the Pechora coal basin at the Usa River. Population: - Labor camp origins :...
, Pechora
Pechora
Pechora is a town in the Komi Republic, Russia, situated on the Pechora River, near the northern Ural Mountains. Population: It is served by Pechora Airport and is affiliated with the nearby Pechora Kamenka military air base....
. There he worked on the construction of the railway which connected the mouth of the Pechora River
Pechora River
The Pechora River is a river in northwest Russia which flows north into the Arctic Ocean on the west side of the Ural Mountains. It lies mostly in the Komi Republic but the northernmost part crosses the Nenets Autonomous Okrug. It is 1,809 km long and its basin is 322,000 square kilometers...
with the southern end of the Urals - according to the Russian inmates, the railway had two dead bodies under every rail. According to Kossoy, who contracted typhus
Typhus
Epidemic typhus is a form of typhus so named because the disease often causes epidemics following wars and natural disasters...
in the camp, out of the 20,000 Poles who arrived at the camp in 1941, only 6,000 were left two years later.
Kossoy was released after two years because of the Sikorski–Mayski Agreement. He evacuated the Soviet Union together with the Anders Army
Anders Army
The Anders Army was the informal yet common name of the Polish Armed Forces in the East in the period 1941-1942, in recognition of its commander Władysław Anders...
. During World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
his whole family was killed by the Germans: his father, wife and daughter. He was officially discharged from the Anders Army in 1943, in Teheran, because of illness; in addition to the typhus he also contracted malaria
Malaria
Malaria is a mosquito-borne infectious disease of humans and other animals caused by eukaryotic protists of the genus Plasmodium. The disease results from the multiplication of Plasmodium parasites within red blood cells, causing symptoms that typically include fever and headache, in severe cases...
. By the end of 1943 he made his way to the British mandate of Palestine where he stayed.
In Israel
In Tel AvivTel Aviv
Tel Aviv , officially Tel Aviv-Yafo , is the second most populous city in Israel, with a population of 404,400 on a land area of . The city is located on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline in west-central Israel. It is the largest and most populous city in the metropolitan area of Gush Dan, with...
in 1944, he wrote and published a series of essays based on his experiences in the gulag, entitled "Stołypinka" (named after the rail cars used to transport prisoners to the gulag). The essays were not published in book form until 2003.
Kossoy was a member of Menachem Begin
Menachem Begin
' was a politician, founder of Likud and the sixth Prime Minister of the State of Israel. Before independence, he was the leader of the Zionist militant group Irgun, the Revisionist breakaway from the larger Jewish paramilitary organization Haganah. He proclaimed a revolt, on 1 February 1944,...
's underground Irgun
Irgun
The Irgun , or Irgun Zevai Leumi to give it its full title , was a Zionist paramilitary group that operated in Mandate Palestine between 1931 and 1948. It was an offshoot of the earlier and larger Jewish paramilitary organization haHaganah...
organization in 1948 and participated in the Israeli War of Independence in its ranks. After end of World War II Kossoy remarried. His wife had been born in Warsaw and took part in the Warsaw Uprising
Warsaw Uprising
The Warsaw Uprising was a major World War II operation by the Polish resistance Home Army , to liberate Warsaw from Nazi Germany. The rebellion was timed to coincide with the Soviet Union's Red Army approaching the eastern suburbs of the city and the retreat of German forces...
. He lived in Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
until 1954, at which point he moved to Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
. He studied in Munich
Munich
Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...
, Cologne
Cologne
Cologne is Germany's fourth-largest city , and is the largest city both in the Germany Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia and within the Rhine-Ruhr Metropolitan Area, one of the major European metropolitan areas with more than ten million inhabitants.Cologne is located on both sides of the...
and Geneva
Geneva
Geneva In the national languages of Switzerland the city is known as Genf , Ginevra and Genevra is the second-most-populous city in Switzerland and is the most populous city of Romandie, the French-speaking part of Switzerland...
and obtained a PhD
PHD
PHD may refer to:*Ph.D., a doctorate of philosophy*Ph.D. , a 1980s British group*PHD finger, a protein sequence*PHD Mountain Software, an outdoor clothing and equipment company*PhD Docbook renderer, an XML renderer...
in law
Law
Law is a system of rules and guidelines which are enforced through social institutions to govern behavior, wherever possible. It shapes politics, economics and society in numerous ways and serves as a social mediator of relations between people. Contract law regulates everything from buying a bus...
and political science
Political science
Political Science is a social science discipline concerned with the study of the state, government and politics. Aristotle defined it as the study of the state. It deals extensively with the theory and practice of politics, and the analysis of political systems and political behavior...
.
Geneva
It was in Geneva where he met Wacław MicutaWacław Micuta
Wacław Micuta, also known as Wacek was a Polish economist, functionary of the United Nations and a soldier – participant in the Polish September Campaign and a commander of one of two Polish tanks in the Warsaw Uprising with the rank of first lieutenant.-Life:Micuta was born to a...
, a former member of the Polish Home Army and a United Nations
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
functionary, and the two quickly became friends. It was Micuta who first told him about the liberation of the Gęsiówka concentration camp by Polish resistance during the Warsaw Uprising. At first Kossoy was skeptical but he decided to investigate the matter farther and soon found some survivors of the camp among his clients, who confirmed Micuta's story. As a result Kossoy wrote several historical articles on the subject, which were published by Yad Vashem
Yad Vashem
Yad Vashem is Israel's official memorial to the Jewish victims of the Holocaust, established in 1953 through the Yad Vashem Law passed by the Knesset, Israel's parliament....
and in Polish emigre press (with the help from Jerzy Giedroyc
Jerzy Giedroyc
Jerzy Giedroyc was a Polish writer and political activist....
).
Work as an attorney
As an attorney in his twenty five year career, he has represented around sixty thousands victims of the Holocaust and Nazi terror in cases involving restitution and reparations from the German government. His clients have been Jews, Poles and Roma.Publications
He has published several books in various languages (English, German and Polish) and historical articles related to restitution for Nazi crimes, contemporary international relations and Polish-Jewish dialogue. Many of these were published in the "Zeszyty Historyczne" (The Historical Journals) published by the Literary Institute in ParisParis
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
. His memoirs, entitled "On the Margin..." were published in 2006, and nominated for the Nike Award
Nike Award
The NIKE Literary Award is one of the most prestigious awards for Polish literature. Established in 1997 and funded by Gazeta Wyborcza, Poland's second largest daily paper, and the consulting company NICOM, it is conferred annually in October for the best book of a single living author writing in...
in 2007.
He is currently an honorary senator of the University of Tübingen. He lives in Goms, Switzerland.