„Adam Tarnowski – nasz poseł w Sofii”. Przyczynek do dziejów współpracy polskobułgarskiej w latach 1939–1941
Pamięć i Sprawiedliwość, Tom 24 Nr 2 (2014), strony: 227-251
Data publikacji: 2014-12-30
Abstrakt
The article describes diplomatic operations carried out by Poland’s MP and executive
minister in Sofia Adam Tarnowski, one of the leading representatives of Polish
diplomacy in the Second Republic of Poland. He was the longest serving Polish diplomat in the
Kingdom of Bulgaria (1930–1941). Later he emigrated to London to hold prominent
functions: a general secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, an MP in the
Czechoslovakian government in exile, Minister of Foreign Affairs during and after the war in the
governments of Tomasz Arciszewski and Tadeusz Bor-Komorowski. Chronological dividing
lines of the study are: the fall of Poland in September 1939 and Bulgaria breaking off its
diplomatic relations with Poland in March 1941. At that time, the Polish diplomatic post
in Sofia was one of the very few legations which dealt with diplomatic issues despite the
German seizure of Poland. When the war had broken out, Tarnowski began conducting
a serious diplomatic campaign towards establishing contacts with his occupied
motherland, helping people threatened by Nazi repressions, and informing foreign governments
of crimes and destruction taking place in Poland. Tarnowski was supported by a group
of Bulgarian diplomats sympathising with Poland. They stayed in Berlin and occupied
Warsaw and provided priceless services to our country by carrying money, letters, and
information about the Nazi crimes in the occupied Poland in their diplomatic bags. Our
MP in Sofia would give shelter to Polish refugees, protect valuable objects belonging to the
national heritage, and organize redeployment of Polish troops from Bulgaria into Turkey.
The most spectacular operation managed by Tarnowski was the evacuation of a group of
several dozen Polish airmen (in September 1940) by sea from the Black Sea coast to
Turkey . A very important element of Tarnowski’s operations was the intervention with the
Bulgarian government to help Polish scientists from the Jagiellonian University and the
AGH University of Science and Technology arrested by Germans in November 1939.
Tarnowski talked to Professor Bogdan Fiłow, President of the Bulgarian Academy of
Science, a world famous archaeologist, who was about to become Prime Minister of Bulgaria.
The sources of the article include: unknown historical documents from AAN, published
diplomatic and intelligence documents, journals and recollections. Bulgarian sources and
analyses, including video footage, were also used.