jueves, 25 de septiembre de 2008

Just secretaries ?

Joseph (Józef) Retinger keeps me awake. A man that changed the maps of europe, a man with an adventurous life and with a gift to get in contact with anyone he wanted to be in contact with.

Little details I can find about him without having to start reading his biography written by his secretary and friend Jan Pomian (also known as John). Although I am sure it is an interesting work, I am also sure that "Memoirs of an eminence grise" is not going to tell me what I want to know. Neither will Pomian's other books about Retinger.

Pomian was secretary to Retinger, Retinger was secretary to Joseph Conrad. If I see Pomian as a product of Retinger, than I can see Retinger as a product of Conrad. But only seeing him as a product of Conrad would dishonour Retinger too much. Retinger was a damned intelligent man, was with 20 the youngest PHd in political sciences at the Sorbonne of his time (and maybe even today) and other influences than Conrad's must have played an important role in his life.

What I can find out about his roots is that his father was ..... a secretary. A secretary, counsel and legal adviser to the polish Count Wladyslaw Zamoyski. Untill today I didn't know much more about Poland than that they were highly involved in the liberation of the Netherlands and more specific in the liberation of my hometown Breda. With digging into Retinger's life it seems to be needed to dig into Poland's history. Maybe I will understand what brought Retinger to the Sorbonne in France by studying Poland's history.

The Count became a very important man in Joseph Retingers life. Maybe he already was from the beginning, but he surely became important at the moment Joseph's father died. From that moment on, Jospeh was 10 or 11, the Count raised Retinger.

Retinger then joined a seminary. He wanted to become a priest. With the nice excuse that he prefered the world of love for women above the love for god, Joseph Retinger changed his path. But at that moment the Jezuits from the seminary must already have had an enormous impact on his way of thinking. They prepared him for his studies, they did a hell of a job!

An interesting biography about Joseph Retinger is written by Jan Chciuk-Celt, the son of a polish war hero known as "Sulima". The connection between Retinger and Jans' father can be found in "Operation Wildhorn III". Thanks to the personal interest that Jan took in his father's relationship with Joseph Retinger, we can learn a little bit more about Retinger. A "devout" catholic, a highly motivated patriot, a freedomfighter for Poland, the hero in the eyes of a hero.

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