Irena Iłłakowicz

Irena Morzycka-Iłłakowicz (also as Iłłakowiczowa, 26 July 1906 – 4 October 1943) was a Polish second lieutenant of the National Armed Forces and intelligence agent. The daughter of Bolesław Morzycki and Władysława Zakrzewska and the sister of Jerzy, she was also a polyglot who spoke seven languages: Polish, French, English, Persian, Finnish, German and Russian.

Biography Iłłakowicz was born in Berlin. After 1917, when the October Revolution began, she moved with her family to Finland. After returning to the Second Polish Republic (which had regained independence in the aftermath of the First World War), she attended a school led by the Sisters of the Holy Heart of Jesus in Zbylitowska Góra. Afterwards, she studied humanities at Grenoble University in France. In Paris she married Azis Zangenah – son of the prince of Iran. For a period they lived together in a palace in Persia. Irena was a person accustomed to frequent meetings with family and friends. Persia, a long way from home, became arduous for her. After two years, with permission from her husband, she secretly left and went to Teheran. Polish diplomats in Teheran made it possible for her return to Poland. After a period in Poland, she again went to Paris where she met Jerzy Olgierd Iłłakowicz. They married on 23 October 1934 in Warsaw. On 25 June 1936 she bore their only child – daughter Ligia. In October 1939, after both the German invasion of Poland on 1 September and Soviet invasion of Poland on 17 September, Iłłakowiczowa joined the Polish resistance…Citește mai mult

Bibliography Sylwetki kobiet-żołnierzy. Służba Polek na frontach II wojny światowej, część 7 pod redakcją Krystyny Kabzińskiej. Fundacja "Archiwum i Muzeum Pomorskie Armii Krajowej oraz Wojskowej Służby Polek", Toruń 2007. ISBN 83-88693-02-6, p. 138-143.