She is one of the best Allied agents of World War II. This Polish aristocrat led the Germans by the nose for years. Well, she did it ... with style.
The story of Klementyna Mańkowska is a ready-made spy film script. "There is good in every human being, some only live in bad times," she used to say. She herself had to live in the worst times. However, even in the face of the bestiality of World War II, she retained goodness and humanity . As a member of the mysterious organization of the Musketeers, she became one of the best Allied agents. Her aristocratic origin and "Aryan" beauty allowed her to extract invaluable information from the Germans, incl. about the 'Barbarossa' plan. The Nazis trusted her to such an extent that at some point… they offered to cooperate with her!
Flesh and blood aristocrat
I must admit that she was happy in her life. She was born on August 1, 1910 in the village of Wysuczka (in today's Ukraine). Her parents were pure aristocrats. Clementina was related to the most eminent Polish noble families. The second daughter of Cyril Czarkowski-Golejewski, Abdank coat of arms and Izabela Jax-Małachowska, Gryf coat of arms, led a comfortable, prosperous life.
The youth of the future countess Mańkowska at the Czarkowski castle and among the vast vineyards established by her father was carefree and happy. The tragic death of her fiancé, Emil Rudolf Baworowski, cast a shadow over it. However, Klementyna soon found solace in the arms of Count Andrzej Mańkowski of the Zaremba coat of arms, owner of Winnogóra near Poznań. After their marriage in January 1933, the spouses lived there. She managed the estate. He continued his studies at the University of Poznań. They soon had two sons:Krzysztof and Andrzej.
Klementyna Mańkowska with her son
In 1939, the fairy-tale aristocratic life was interrupted by the outbreak of the war. First, Andrzej was drafted into the army. Shot by his own soldiers, he was saved by his wife, who brought him home from a military hospital. Later, German officers knocked on the door of the Vinnitsa palace. They were supposed to take over the residence. Clementine met them on the doorstep in a festive white dress, which… completely puzzled them. They refrained from obeying the order, announcing that they would settle for a single, sparsely furnished floor.
Good luck to the "good Germans"
The inevitable, however, could not be put off indefinitely. A month later, Winnogóra was seized by the Gestapo. In her memoirs published under the title "My mission of war", Klementyna Mańkowska described:
(...) the Gestapo brought us a treuhänder. His name was Kotzenberg. Fifty-year-old, fat, ugly, unpleasant. In the presence of a Gestapo officer, I had to formally surrender our property with title and movable property and hand over the keys of the safe to this new administrator. I was forced to sign a document valuing a fortune at three million marks . Moreover, I was informed that Winnogóra, its lands, buildings and forests were intended as a gift for Field Marshal Keitel, who would receive it as soon as the war ended. Thus I was dispossessed …
The text was created, among others based on the book by Klementyna Mańkowska "My mission of war" (Rebis, 2022) ..
Once again her extraordinary happiness made itself felt. It hit the so-called "good Germans" who spared Mańkowska from the atrocities of the war. Well, did a lot to make the beautiful countess's life easier . First, one of the officers, fascinated by her beauty, offered her a joint trip to Rome. Later, the guard from the cattle wagon, in which the Mańkowski family was to be taken to the east, helped them hide and get to Warsaw.
Musketeer on mission
The Mańkowski family lived with their cousin, Teresa Łubieńska, in a place near Zbawiciela Square (hence it was called "Zbawienie"). It was a meeting place for the Musketeers - members of an underground intelligence organization led by Stefan Witkowski. “Listening to their stories, I was eager to do the same,” Klementyna later recalled. Soon she got her chance. Witkowski decided that a beautiful, "Aryan" looking aristocrat, well-versed in the world and knowing several languages will be an excellent material for a spy. Mańkowska in "My military mission" described:
First, I became a liaison officer. They were endless "walks" around the city with rolls of paper tucked underneath clothes. I have often been entrusted with the transfer of documents to be photographed and the retrieval of microfilms. The Gestapo organized round-ups more and more often. They chased us like game blocking the streets, surrounding whole quarters of neighborhoods, stopping all traffic. (...) I blessed the ruins where I could hide when German patrols appeared on the horizon.
Witkowski decided that a beautiful, "Aryan" looking aristocrat, well-versed in the world and knowing several languages, would be an excellent material for a spy.
Over time, the tasks entrusted to her became more and more difficult. And the information she was extracting from the Germans - priceless. It was she who informed Polish intelligence about Nazi plans to attack France ("Fall Gelb") in the spring of 1940. The historian Jerzy Topolski writes about it:
(...) she performed very diverse tasks:modest and of considerable importance, simple and complicated, relatively safe and burdened with a great degree of personal risk. She did not disregard any, just as she did not disregard any insights or information of military or political importance.
Under the nose of the Germans
In 1940, Witkowski decided to send Mańkowska to the West. He placed her on the French island of Noirmoutier . Officially, the countess worked there as a translator in the German headquarters and port office. In fact, it was to organize communication with the Polish government in exile and to intercept the most closely guarded secrets of the Third Reich. She didn't disappoint.
Countess Mankowska with her mother
She provided the Musketeers with patterns of the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht seals, as well as military orders regarding the Third Reich's attack on the USSR ("Barbarossa") . From a former family friend, diplomat and opponent of Hitler, Rudolf von Schelih, she obtained data on the scale of the German genocide and detailed plans of the Treblinka extermination camp - a few months before the Wannsee conference. All her reports - oral and written - went to England. Monika Stasiak reports:
Thanks to the information obtained, among others, by Mańkowska, the British organize the operation "Chariot". On March 28, 1942, the British destroyer HMS Campbeltown, with explosives placed below, entered the port of Saint-Nazaire. German defense posts in the port area and most of the infrastructure are destroyed, decommissioning the port for the next 5 years.
Double Agent
This was by no means the end of the countess's intelligence successes. Klementyna Mańkowska is not in vain called one of the best Allied agents of World War II. Arrested by the Gestapo in March 1941 , she managed to talk herself out of the accusations. She was helped by… her innate nerve. Before the interrogation, she demanded a decent breakfast and made such an impression on the Germans that they let her go. Well, they gave her a first-class train ticket!
She managed to gain their trust so much that some time later ... they offered her cooperation! Wallraf spy Hans Alexsander decided to recruit her to the Abwehr to which Mańkowska readily agreed. After completing her training in Berlin, she was sent to England. As it turned out later, the initiator of the operation was the head of Nazi intelligence, Wilhelm Canaris.
Klementyna Mańkowska is not called one of the best Allied agents of World War II for nothing.
It was her last mission - already as a double agent. On May 4, 1942, Klementyna landed in Bristol. After being arrested by MI5, she ended up at the Royal Victoria Patriotic School, where the British held Axis spies. She told the interrogator, Captain Malcolm Scott, everything she had learned during the training and details of the mission entrusted to her by the Germans. (She was supposed to inform the Allies about the plans of the anti-Nazi opposition). Instead, she heard a warning:“Leave London as soon as possible! Musketeer agents, considered by your countrymen to be Abwehr spies, are not welcome here ”. Later, she is warned against a potential attack several times…
Hero of the allies
Clementine took these advice seriously. She left for Scotland, where she gave birth to a daughter and lived to see the end of the war. In the late 1940s, she moved to Congo with her entire family. The Mańkowski family left there as stateless persons, with UN passports. In 1967, they changed their place of residence once again - they returned to France - to Noirmoutier.
The countess was awarded many times for her intelligence work. In April 1953 the authorities of the Republic of Poland abroad awarded Klementyna Mańkowska the Silver Cross of Merit with Swords. Earlier, the British authorities, at the request of the management of the Intelligence Service, wanted to honor her with the George Cross, but the initiative was personally blocked by General Tadeusz Bór-Komorowski.
However, after the first publication of the countess's memoirs - in the 1980s they were published in France and Germany - President Jacques Chirac awarded Mańkowska the title of Knight of the Order of Merit (in May 1996), and President Roman Herzog - the Cross of Merit on the Ribbon of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany ( in September 1997).
Klementyna Mańkowska died on January 4, 2003 at the age of 93. Despite its enormous merits, today it is almost forgotten. Probably for the same reason that she did not receive the George Cross. As Gen. Komorowski explained in confidence to her: "I did not agree to it, because you worked for the Musketeers, not for the Home Army" ...