Polish · 1909–1983
Andrzejewski spent the occupation in Warsaw, sheltered Jews, and was recognised by Yad Vashem. After the war he joined the Party, wrote the book that justified the choice, and then spent thirty years walking it back. Miłosz put him in The Captive Mind as Alpha, the Moralist — the writer whose need to be on the side of History led him into serving a regime he privately despised — and the portrait was accurate enough that the friendship ended. He resigned from the Party in 1957 over censorship, signed the Letter of 34, co-founded the Workers' Defence Committee in 1976, and became one of the intellectuals the Solidarity generation looked to. Ashes and Diamonds, written in 1948, was filmed by Andrzej Wajda in 1958 and became the defining Polish film about the moment the war ended and the next occupation began.