Robert Michniewicz: “Dolina szpiegów” (Valley of Spies, 2024)

The work

“Dolina szpiegów” came out on 27 March 2024. In 1944 Captain Carl von Wedel of the Abwehr, who is working for Polish intelligence, is tracking a German agent operating in Great Britain. He ends up at a secret intelligence school in Zakopane, where he discovers a hidden Abwehr archive; in London the Staff of the Commander-in-Chief decides to seize the documents, and the Cichociemni – Polish special forces paratroopers – join the race against the German services.¹

According to media and secondary accounts · not confirmed by official sourcesThe author told Histmag.org that this was the first book he wrote, although it was published after “Partnerzy”.²

What is accurate

According to media and secondary accounts · not confirmed by official sourcesAccording to the author, the von Wedel family is real – old Holstein nobility, settled in Pomerania since the 13th century – as are their estates of Korytowo, Tuczno and Drawno; the Jung family of Augsburg is also real. Historical figures appear in the novel, adapted to the plot, among them the head of Hitler’s Reich Chancellery, Hans Lammers.²

According to media and secondary accounts · not confirmed by official sourcesAbwehr schools operated mainly in Germany, but from 1940 one worked at Sulejówek near Warsaw under the codename “Walli”; from 1941 it trained agents and radio operators – some of them recruited from Red Army prisoners of war – to be parachuted into the USSR, and in 1943 it was moved to East Prussia.²

According to media and secondary accounts · not confirmed by official sourcesRAF Tempsford is real: the SOE sent couriers and agents from there into occupied Europe; it was also used by Section VI of the Staff of the Commander-in-Chief, and Polish airmen of No. 138 Squadron flew the Cichociemni to Poland. The author also confirms that hiding places were used during the war, for example in old cemeteries.²

What is invented

According to media and secondary accounts · not confirmed by official sourcesCarl von Wedel and the other main characters have no real-life models. The Olczyska Valley exists, but the author has altered it; there was no intelligence school there during the occupation – that is his invention.²

According to media and secondary accounts · not confirmed by official sourcesThe novel features Jan Żychoń, a Polish intelligence officer blamed for the break-up of a network in the Reich; the author says he learned of the accusations against the real Żychoń only after he had written the book.²