Acknowledgements
In writing this book I am grateful for the trust in which Z. Anthony Kruszewski has placed in me, believing that in telling me his life story I will be able to recount it in proper manner. Whether I have done so will be for the reader to judge. The first great test was that Dr. Kruszewski read the entire biography, making only a small number of corrections, clarifying facts and authorising quotations. Here, Tony, dear Dr. Kruszewski, I would sincerely like to thank you for this.
The transcription of the conducted interviews took over 850 pages. This work, as well as a range of other forms of help connected with the search for reading material, the establishment of particular facts, the putting together of hundreds of biographical entries of the people the subject of this book encountered, as well as the work of reading through the manuscript was conducted by Dr. Magdalena Abraham-Diefenbach to whom I would like to give my sincere thanks.
Professors Jan M. Piskorski and Leszek Zasztowt agreed to read the finished manuscript and give their comments. I am very grateful for their valuable observations, the opportunity to discuss contentious issues and, as a result, positive reviews.
In accordance with accepted methods, the information acquired during interviews was supplemented with the study of reading material concerning the issues described, as well as archival research in numerous archives. For the help I received in my search for archival sources, I would like to thank the employees of the Association of the Kultura Literary Institute in Paris, especially its director, Wojciech Sikora, along with Annie Bernardt and Leszek Czarnecki, as well as the employees of the Polish Library in Paris and the Gen. Sikorski Museum in London. In Chicago, I conducted my work in the archive of the Polish Museum of America and would like to thank its director Małgorzata Kot and Ms. Halina Misterka for their help with my archival research. Moreover, I received helpful clues from Antonio Spera at Cannon Hall Museum in Cawthorne in the United Kingdom. Consultations with Izabella Maliszewska and Julian Borkowski of the Museum of Warsaw turned out to be of valuable support. I would to thank Mr. Borkowski in particular for providing access to the Archive of the Association of the Grey Ranks, help in establishing numerous facts regarding the Warsaw Rising, as well as his insightful reading of the chapter concerning the war and occupation. In addition, I had consultations regarding certain chapters with the following people: Dr. Kathleen Staudt, Dr. Sandra Deutsch, Dr. Oscar Martínez, Dr. Dominic Pacyga, Dr. Mary Patricia Erdmans, Dr. Lidia Zessin-Jurek, Prof. Ruth Leiserowitz, Dr. Magdalena Syriusz-Wolska, Hubert Cioromski, Maciej Morawski, Prof. Dieter Bingen, Witold Sartorius, Andrzej Kotula, Dr. Jolanta Aniszewska, Ambassador Henryk Litwin, the lawyer Czesław Okińczyc and Dr. Zbigniew Siemienowicz. To all of them, as well as those I have not named, I extend my sincere thanks for their help. I have had the opportunity to present the concept of the book and the research project related with it during the World Congress of the Polish-American Historical Association in Krakow, a conference concerning Polish migrants organised by the PAN Centre of Historical Research in Berlin, as well as part of the academic colloquiums of the German Historical Institute in Warsaw which gave me very generous support in the form of a fellowship for my research trips and archival research. The conducting of research in the USA was made possible by support from the German Centre for Academic Exchange (DAAD) while the entire project was carried out under the auspices of my alma mater, namely Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan.
I would also like to offer my sincere thanks to the translator, Dr. Paul McNamara, for his excellent work, as well as to the proof-reader, Marzena McNamara. I am also very grateful to the Kosciuszko Foundation which financed the costs of translation and especially its president, Mr. Marek Skulimowski. My great thanks also go to the publishing house Brill/Ferdinand Schöningh and to the editor, Dr. Diethard Sawicki, both for the incorporation of this book in the publishing programme and his editing work.