Edmund Ferdynand Radziwiłł (1906-1971) - arystokrata, działacz, oficer Armii Krajowej
Streszczenie
The article presents the history of the life and work of Prince Edmund Ferdynand Radziwiłł. Edmund was born in 1906 in Berlin as the oldest child of Janusz Franciszek Radziwiłł and Anna Lubomirska. He had a younger sister Krystyna and brothers Ferdynand and Stanisław Albrecht. Raising the children was associated with frequent trips to family estates in Szpanów, Ołyka and Nieborów.
After graduating from high school in 1926, Edmund took up law studies at the University of Poznań. In 1930, he graduated in law and history from Oxford. After graduation, he returned to Poland and in the years 1931-1932 did his military service in the Cadet School of Cavalry in Grudziądz. From 1933 he helped his father in the administration of the huge estate. He quickly became involved in societal and political activities. In 1934 he married Izabella (Ballala) Radziwiłł and settled in Ołyka. He ran a stable of purebred English Thoroughbred horses, opened a dairy cooperative, and Izabella founded a kindergarten.
In September 1939, Edmund and his father Janusz helped refugees. After the Red Army entered both were imprisoned for a time. At the beginning of 1940, Edmund became the administrator of the Nieborovian estates. He engaged in underground activities, initially in the Peasant Battalions, and later as a lieutenant in the Home Army. His wife, Izabella, also was active in the Underground. After the war she received the medal Righteous Among the Nations for helping the persecuted Jewish population.
After the Warsaw Uprising, Janusz and Anna Radziwiłł came to Nieborów. In January 1945, after the arrival of the Red Army, Janusz and Edmund together with their families were deported to Moscow and then to a camp in Krasnogorsk. On February 16, 1947, Anna Radziwiłł died in the camp hospital; her grave was later destroyed and never again found.
In September 1947, after numerous protests and petitions, the family was released and arrived by train to Warsaw. After attaining freedom there was a problem with finding a job. Edmund knew foreign languages, thus he was employed at the Foreign Head Office of the "Czytelnik" Cooperative as the head of the Department of Handicrafts and the Art Industry, later he worked in design offices. Izabella worked at the State Publishing Institute in Warsaw, and later was director of the PEN Club Office. They both took care of his father, Janusz, who was living in Warsaw and who died in 1967.
For his work during the war, Edmund received the Cross of Valor, the Polish Army Medal and the Home Army Cross. Gravely ill, he went to his brother to London to seek help in English hospitals. He died in 1971 in London.
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