"Mission:Impossible", "Burna's Identity" and the immortal James Bond series. The heroes of these stories are spies. Men. Around them are beautiful women, fast cars and the most modern gadgets. Exactly… women. In movies and books, their role is limited to making them look nice, and how was it really?
"Mission:Impossible", "Burna's identity" and the immortal series on James Bond. The heroes of these stories are spies . Men. Around them are beautiful women, fast cars and the most modern gadgets. Exactly… women. In movies and books, their role is limited to making them look nice, and how was it really?
Recently, I reviewed the book "In secret service" by General Mieczysław Słowikowski. These are the memories of a Polish spy who conducted intelligence activities in North Africa. The main characters of the book are, of course, agents, military and diplomats, but between the lines we read about another person. The author dedicates his memories to his wife. As he emphasizes in the ending, his life companion was his help and support throughout the entire service. And being a spy's wife is quite a challenge.
We get to know Ms Maria Zofia nee Słowikowska after the outbreak of the war. It is impossible to find any mention of her on the Internet other than that she was her husband's wife. In any case, we know that when World War II broke out, she and her son were in Warsaw, and her husband was then the secretary of the General Consulate of the Second Polish Republic, located in the capital of the Ukrainian SSR - Kiev. In mid-September 1939, Mrs. Słowikowska, after a risky journey, came to Kiev to stay with her husband. From there, the family evacuates together to France. Just in case, Słowikowski placed his relatives in Salies-du-Salat, in the south of the country, where there were many families of Polish officers and employees of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and he reported himself to the Polish General Staff in Paris.
Mission:Support
In 1940, after the fall of France and the German-occupied Paris, the intelligence officer Słowikowski, on his own initiative, started working on the evacuation of Polish soldiers to England. His wife, of course, accompanied him. He worked for the army, sometimes severely bending the law, and sometimes simply breaking it, which meant that he was constantly exposed to arrest, and his family, if not for the same fate, then at least for serious repression. Despite everything, Mrs. Słowikowska did not lose her spirit and fought bravely on the home front, allowing her husband to focus on his tasks.
On May 1, 1941, Słowikowski received a cable from London, in which he was appointed the head of the "North Africa" Intelligence Agency by order of the command. When he walked home with a message in his pocket, he did not think about the difficulties, about the scale of the undertaking (the range of his network was to cover thousands of square kilometers) and about the risk. He was afraid of what his wife would say . She had always helped him so far. She ran the house herself so that he could devote all his energy to work. Thanks to her and the parties she organized, he made social and new contacts. Maria, of course, agreed to go away with her husband this time as well.
A month after Słowikowski's arrival in Algiers, his wife and son arrived. They stayed in one hotel, in adjoining rooms. Maria didn't really like the city where it was noisy and hot everywhere. Her arrival turned out to be an extraordinary convenience for her husband. She dealt with everyday matters, relieving him. Thanks to her presence, Słowikowski did not have to deal with many matters in person - in the hotel room, which was his officers' contact box, there was always someone trusted who could pick up reports. Another undeniable advantage of the "spy lady" was the ability to use the code book, which she mastered very quickly, thanks to which the Algiers Branch gained a volunteer cipher. Well ... the family was also a pretty good credence to the undercover scout pretending to be a respected entrepreneur.
Mission:Branch
Słowikowski's wife was an excellent intermediary in contacts with various people. As a woman, she did not arouse suspicion. He and the wife of another agent took turns receiving reports from contact boxes. As a person unknown to the local police, she made excellent material as an intermediary in matters of great importance. This was the case with the action called in the general's memoirs operation "Shell". Słowikowska then dealt with the transfer of a considerable sum of 600,000 francs to the Exhibition , through the French Shell Society in Algiers (yes, yes, the one from the petrol station network present in Poland). The husband had doubts and remorse about sending Maria on such a dangerous mission. Thanks to our heroine's cleverness, tact and a bit of luck, everything went smoothly. Moreover, she made a very good impression on the director of the Society, who later transferred money to Słowikowski.
One fine day, two sad policemen came to the hotel where the Słowikowscy lived. Slowikowski, wanting to gain time, went down to them in his pajamas. He was allowed to go back to his room and get dressed. In the meantime, he managed to order his wife to hide all compromising materials and evidence of intelligence work in the event of a search. One of Słowikowski's associates, awakened by Maria, followed him and found out where he had been imprisoned. His wife very quickly began efforts in the Algerian General Government to release him, but before she could bring the case to an end, he got out of jail by other means (in short:after a business acquaintance).
Mission:Domestic Camp Command
Gloomy Mieczysław Słowikowski. What did his wife have to endure too!
The moment has finally come when the Słowikowscy had to change the hotel into a suitable flat, obtained, of course, outside the official sewers. The new flat had six rooms and a kitchen. All the furnishings and the Arab maid remain after the previous owners. All household chores fell on Maria. First, she had to keep an eye on the maid . Nothing threatens intelligence work more than long tongues, and she couldn't be sure. That is why she made sure that the woman always stayed in the part of the apartment intended for her and never opened the door (usually the Słowikowski's guests were intelligence agents). Well ... not from the parade in his memories the husband calls Maria Command of the Domestic Camp .
An important duty of the housewife was, as during her stay in France, to organize parties and other social gatherings. The smiling housewife, a glass of cognac and good food loosen the tongues and relax the atmosphere, making it ideal for networking.
Due to the export of huge amounts of food (officially to France, and in fact in the territory of the Third Reich), all the products were running out of stock. The Słowikowski family, however, supplied themselves on the black market. The lady of the house had quite a nut to crack with the electricity consumption limits introduced due to the scarcity of raw materials. Frequent and long parties and a husband spending the whole night working on his job. All this resulted in constantly exceeding the limits. Maria dealt with them by the oldest method - bribing officials checking the metering, doing it with such talent that they always turned a blind eye.
Occupation:spy wife
You could go on and on like this. Słowikowski himself, although he does not write it directly, makes it clear that his wife's help was invaluable. He couldn't find a more trusted confidant. Maria tried to help him in everything possible. She did not protest and did not despair when she was forced to move because of her husband's work. At home, she provided him with peace, help and support at work. Although she was not officially an agent of the "North Africa" Branch, she actively participated in intelligence work all the time, being a cipher and courier and supporting her husband with all her strength. In fact, being a spy's girlfriend or wife has never been a matter of keeping a pretty look and a bit of mystery as Hollywood tries to teach us. Being married to a spy was almost a profession that required sacrifice and action in the face of constant danger.
See also
- Review:In the secret service (Mieczysław Słowikowski)
- "Vive la Résistance!", or how Krysia fought the German