Aleksander Makowski: “Bez przebaczenia” (Without Forgiveness, 2015)

The work

“Bez przebaczenia” came out on 22 April 2015. The Polish Literary Bibliography (PBL) describes it as a thriller, the first volume of the “Szpiedzy” series, with the subject headings: special services, intelligence, murder, investigation; setting – New York, period – 1958–1963.^1,2

According to the publisher’s description, a rubbish lorry rams a car on a New York street, killing two people. It looks like an accident, but the victim, a Pole, attracts the interest of senior officials, intelligence services and a criminal organisation preparing a large drug shipment. The players include the smuggler Dominik, the former SS officer Gerard, the CIA agent Harry, the Polish colonel Szulc and Dolores, who is linked to Mossad.¹

The real background: the author in New York

The IPN catalogue of security apparatus officers states that from 1972 Makowski was an officer of Department I of the MSW (intelligence); in 1976–1981 he worked at the Permanent Mission of the Polish People’s Republic to the United Nations in New York as an operations officer of the rezidentura, from 1985 he was head of a division, and from 1988 he was rezident in Rome with the rank of colonel.³

The publisher’s note adds that in 1975–1976 he earned an LLM at Harvard Law School, in 1978 a doctorate at the Institute of Legal Studies of the Polish Academy of Sciences, in 1990 he failed vetting and was dismissed, and in 1992–2007 he worked with UOP intelligence and with military intelligence.¹

What is accurate

The New York setting matches the place where, according to the IPN catalogue, the author worked – though more than a decade after the time in which the novel is set. The publisher stresses that references to events of the early Cold War and details of intelligence work add authenticity.^1,3

What is invented

The characters and the case are fiction. We found no source linking the plot to a specific case involving the intelligence service of the Polish People’s Republic, the CIA or Mossad, and we assume no such link.²

What remains unclear

The length of the first edition is given differently: the Polish Literary Bibliography records 482 pages, the book’s page on the publisher’s website 556.^1,2