Jerzy Iwanow-Szajnowicz was born on 14 December 1911 in Warsaw. He was the son of a Russian man and a Polish woman. Jerzy’s mother Leonarda, however, separated from her first husband, married a Greek businessman Jannis Lambrianidis and moved to Thessaloniki. Jerzy remained in the country and began his education at the school of the Marian Fathers.
After passing his matriculation exam, his mother sent him to Belgium, where he began to study diplomacy at the University of Louvain. After a year, however, George transferred to colonial agronomy. After his studies, he intended to go to the Congo, a Belgian possession in Africa.
Jerzy was deeply attached to his homeland. He always came home to Poland for holidays.
During one of his stays in Poland, he joined the Warsaw Academic Sports Association (AZS). He was a leader in a water polo section, with which he won the championship of Poland in 1937.
In 1938, he completed his studies in Belgium and returned to Greece. He abandoned his plans to go to the Congo, deciding to take the exam to become an agronomy engineer in Paris. He received his engineering diploma the following year.
After the outbreak of war in 1939, he started working with the Polish military mission in Thessaloniki. He assisted Polish soldiers who found their way to Greece from Romanian and Hungarian camps fleeing through Bulgarian and Yugoslav territories.
In 1940 he was recruited as an officer of the Polish intelligence and later joined the British service.
As a British agent, Iwanow-Szajnowicz organised reconnaissance and diversionary work; one of his main tasks was to eliminate sources of provisions and military supplies for the Afrika Korps.
In 1941, he prevented Heinrich Himmler’s arrival in Athens, which was cancelled after a Pole planted an explosive device at the Athens headquarters of the NSDAP.
In 1942, he infiltrated the Malziniotti factory in New Faleron, where aircraft engines were assembled. Thanks to his brilliant action some 400 aircraft were damaged or crashed which paralysed the Luftwaffe in Africa right during the dramatic battle of El Alamein.
The effectiveness of the diversionary actions carried out by the Polish agent led the Germans to send out letters of introduction after him. A reward of 500,000 drachmas was set for information helping to capture him.
Jerzy was first arrested by the Germans in December 1941 but managed to escape from the car that carried him to a German prison.
The second time he was stopped on the island of Faros by Italian carabinieri. However, he got them drunk in a roadside tavern and escaped wearing their uniform. He was last arrested on 8 September 1942 in Athens, after his hideout apartment was surrounded by the Germans.
The German authorities charged him with possession of weapons, a broadcasting station, attempted murder, espionage and sabotage. He told the German court that he was Polish and that although he was working for the British he was also fighting on behalf of his homeland.
On 2 December 1942, he received a triple death sentence.
On 4 January 1943, in Kesariani, he managed to break handcuffs and started to escape. However, he was shot, tied up and then shot dead by a firing squad.
He was posthumously awarded the Order of Virtuti Militari by the Polish authorities in exile. In Greece, he is recognised as a national hero; with a statue in Thessaloniki.
Source: Dzieje.pl, PAP
Photo: X @ipngov
Tomasz Modrzejewski
