Portal:Poland/Selected biography/17
Józef Światło, born Izaak Fleischfarb (1915–1994), was a high-ranking Stalinist secret police agent and then defector to the United States. A Zionist, and then Communist activist in his early life, he was taken prisoner by the Germans during the 1939 Invasion of Poland and soon escaped only to be captured and deported by the Soviets. He returned to Poland as a political officer of the Polish First Army and, in 1945, started to work for the Ministry of Public Security, where he was nicknamed "Butcher" for his interrogation techniques. His arrestees included Władysław Gomułka, Marian Spychalski, Michał Rola-Żymierski, and Stefan Wyszyński. After Stalin's death, Światło was sent to East Berlin for consultations with the Stasi where he defected to the U.S. military mission in West Berlin. Included in the U.S. witness protection program, he began working for the CIA and the Radio Free Europe. Światło's written and broadcast incriminations shook the Polish United Workers' Party and contributed to the reform of the Polish security apparatus as one of the factors leading to the Polish October revolution. (Full article...)