Interesting book
SPIES IN MY BLOOD:
Secrets
of a Polish Family’s
Fight Against Nazis
& Communists
By Alex Storozynski
Alex
Storozynski:
My
family survived
Nazi slave labor
camps and Soviet
Gulags by fighting
back as soldiers,
spies, and
assassins. When I
went behind the
Iron Curtain to
find my roots, the
Communists
declared me an
“enemy of the
state” and banned
me from Poland. My
household had
three generations
of undercover
agents. This is
their story.
You may buy this
book from Amazon
 The
true story of two
brothers raised in New
York by WWII exiles and
their journey to Poland
to uncover the truth
about their family of
soldiers, spies, and
assassins. Alex and
George were put under
surveillance by
Communist secret police
and given code names
“Rocky and Nemo.” Which
brother would go into
the family business?
The memoir chronicles
the resilience of three
generations of spies in
a single family who
fought Poland’s
occupation by Nazi
Germany and Soviet
Russia. It exposes the
black market scams and
extortion people trapped
behind the Iron Curtain
were forced to endure
and unveils secrets of
the Cold War yet to be
told.
Alex Storozynski was the
first in his family born
in the United States, a
new leaf on the family
tree. When he set out to
find his roots in Poland
during the Cold War, his
Mama stitched secret
pockets into boxer
shorts where he could
hide his cash, passport,
and important documents.
Before he left to go
behind the Iron Curtain,
his mother warned him:
“Be careful of your
brother’s friends.” His
big brother George, a
banker, told him, “Mama
doesn’t want you to go
into the family
business.”
As an aspiring
journalist, Storozynski
interviewed Polish rock
stars, filmmakers, and
artists fighting
censorship. He navigated
the black market and
learned to thrive in the
surreal and repressive
system. He persuaded the
Communist government to
give him a scholarship
to write a doctoral
dissertation about the
most hated man in
Poland, the military
regime’s press
spokesman, Jerzy Urban.
But he asked too many
questions.
Storozynski attended
Urban’s press
conferences with
American journalists and
met underground
Solidarity activists
trying to overthrow the
government. He
translated interviews
with opposition leaders
like Lech Wałęsa for The
Philadelphia Inquirer
and The Boston Globe.
There’s a Polish saying,
“You can’t fool your genes; it’s
in your blood.” The
Communist secret police
(SB) stole Storozynski’s
visa and interrogated
him. When Senator Ted
Kennedy arrived in
Warsaw to give The
Robert F. Kennedy Human
Rights Award to Adam
Michnik and the parents
of martyred opposition
priest Father Jerzy
Popiełuszko, Storozynski
spent time with the
Kennedy clan and taught
them to sing Sto Lat
(May He Live 100 Years)
to the opposition.
The SB had enough. After
investigating Alex
Storozynski, they wrote:
“The findings in the case show
that he is familiar
with the working
methods of special
services.”
Storozynski was declared
an “enemy of the state”
and banned from
Communist Poland.
This is the true story
of Alex Storozynski’s
quest to uncover the
nitty-gritty of three
generations of spies in
his blood.
Winston Churchill’s
words serve as a stark
warning: “Those that fail to learn from
history are doomed to
repeat it.” With
the Russian Army again
trying to move the
border between East and
Western Europe, the
dormant Cold War has
reignited a hot war.
Russia’s invasion of
sovereign nations and
killing of Ukrainians is
a grim reminder of the
need to avoid repeating
history. Motorized
terror squads are once
again murdering Jews,
and civilian bombing
deaths are written off
as collateral damage.
The gravity of the
situation cannot be
overstated.
Spies In My Blood
examines the untold
atrocities of WWII and
the Cold War, providing
a guiding principle for
avoiding the doom of
repeating history.
Spies In My Blood
reveals the clandestine
mission to exfiltrate
CIA informant Col.
Ryszard Kuklinski out of
Poland. It details the
university research on
freedom of speech by
Alex Storozynski that
infuriated the
Communists in Poland so
much that they declared
him “an enemy of the
state.”
Alex and George had
traits in their blood
from their father, who
was a soldier and spy
during WWII, and their
grandfather, who
operated a Polish
intelligence ring in the
1930s running a team of
chimney sweeps to track
Stalin’s NKVD and
Russian spies in Lwow,
(today’s Lviv). Their
maternal grandfather
wielded a cutthroat
razor in covert
operations that left
blood on his hands.
Those who fail to learn
from history are doomed
to repeat it. With
Russia again fighting to
move the border between
East and West, the Cold
War has exploded into a
horrific international
battle. Vladimir Putin’s
attempt to rebuild the
Soviet Union’s Evil
Empire by invading
countries like Ukraine
and bombing civilians is
a grim reminder of the
need to avoid repeating
history. Motorized
terror squads are again
murdering Europeans and
Jews, and the deaths of
women and children on
all sides are written
off as collateral
damage. The gravity of
the situation cannot be
overstated.
Spies In My Blood
examines the untold
atrocities of WWII and
the Cold War, providing
a lesson for avoiding
the doom of repeating
history.
Alex Storozynski is a
Pulitzer Prize-winning
journalist, author, and
filmmaker. His
award-winning book The Peasant Prince: Thaddeus
Kościuszko and the Age
of Revolution, was
made into a film,
Kościuszko: A Man Ahead
of His Time, which ran
on PBS.
“Alex Storozynski has done much
for Poland. Listen and
read what he writes
and says. I ask you to
read and listen to
this man.”
— Lech Wałęsa, Former
President of Poland
& Nobel Peace Prize
Winner
“Alex Storozynski and his brother
were on the front
lines in the fight
against the Soviet
empire. Thanks to
people like them, the
Soviet empire was
overthrown. Alex has
the family gene of
fighting for freedom.
Spies In My Blood will
help you discover it
in yourself.”
— General Roman Polko,
former commander of
GROM, Poland’s Special
Forces
“A fascinating story — at times
harrowing, funny and
exciting. Brilliantly
told.”
—Tim Spicer, OBE (Order
of the British Empire),
author of A
Suspicion of Spies
“You did it. A big coup!” On
getting the media to ban
the phrase “Polish
Concentration camps.”
— Zbigniew Brzezinski,
President Jimmy Carter’s
National Security
Advisor
“Alex Storozynski has been on a
relentless quest to
uncover the secrets of
his family’s past. The
result is this
immensely readable and
informative book.”
— Andrew Nagorski,
Award-Winning Newsweek
foreign correspondent,
and author of the books,
Saving Freud,
Hitlerland, and The Nazi
Hunters
"Spies in My Blood is far more
than a history of
modern Poland and its
position at the center
of world events for
the last 100 years. It
is the story of
perseverance, courage,
family, and the
unshakable resolve to
fight for freedom and
justice regardless of
the danger and risk.
And that makes it an
epic account of the
American experience."
— Samuel M. Katz – New
York Times best-selling
author of Under Fire:
The Untold Story of the
Attack in Benghazi
“Spies In My Blood is a remarkable
work that offers
invaluable insights
into the experiences
of a Polish family
caught in the
crossfire of 20th
century political
upheaval. It will
resonate with readers
and contribute
significantly to our
understanding of this
complex and pivotal
period in history… a
compelling blend of
personal memoir and
historical narrative.”
— Piotr Wilczek,
Ambassador of Poland to
the United States (2016
to 2021) & Poland’s
Ambassador to The United
Kingdom since 2022
“In Spies in My Blood Pulitzer
Prize-winning
journalist Alex
Storozynski tells the
gripping story of his
discovery of dark
family secrets that go
back generations, from
Nazi terrors to the
Cold War to today.
It’s a
seat-of-your-pants
epic tale that
reverberates to world
events unfolding right
now – a page-turner
full of intrigue,
lies, betrayal, a
triumph worthy of John
le Carré.”
— Scott James,
Emmy-winning journalist
and author of Trial by
Fire
Book available online, from Amazon:
https://www.amazon.ca/Spies-My-Blood-
Familys-Communists/dp/
B0DGFCDTJZ
__________________________
Alex Storozynski
Alex Storozynski is a
Pulitzer Prize-winning
journalist,
award-winning author,
filmmaker, songwriter,
and President Emeritus
& Chairman of the
Board of The Kościuszko
Foundation.
His book, Spies In My
Blood: Secrets of a
Polish Family's Fight
Against Nazis &
Communists is a
compelling true story.
It narrates the journey
of two brothers, raised
in New York by WWII
exiles, who ventured to
Poland. Each took a
different path to
infiltrate the Communist
secret police on a
mission to uncover the
truth about their family
of soldiers, spies and
assasins.
Storozynski's book, The
Peasant Prince: Thaddeus
Kościuszko and the Age
of Revolution, won the
Fraunces Tavern Book
Award, The Templar
Military History Award -
"Military Order of Saint
Louis" and other awards.
He wrote and directed a
documentary film based
on the book called
Kościuszko: A Man Ahead
of His Time, which was
broadcast on PBS in the
United States and TVP in
Poland.
As a member of the New
York Daily News
editorial board, he
wrote editorials and
op-ed columns on complex
public policy issues. He
was part of the writing
team that won the
Pulitzer Prize, Polk
Award, Sigma Delta Chi
Award, Deadline Club
Award, Associated Press,
and Silurian Awards. He
was the founding editor
of amNewYork and former
city editor of the New
York Sun. His work has
appeared in the European
edition of The Wall
Street Journal, The
Chicago Tribune, The New
York Post, Newsday,
Reuters, Forbes, and
elsewhere.
His essay "From Serfdom
to Freedom: Polish
Catholics Find A Refuge"
was included in the book
Catholics in New York,
Society Culture, and
Politics, 1808-1946, to
coincide with the
exhibit on Catholics at
the Museum of the
History of New York.
As President of the
Kościuszko Foundation,
Storozynski authored a
petition, signed by
300,000 people, that
persuaded The New York
Times, The Wall Street
Journal, The Associated
Press, and other media
to change their style
books to ban the use of
the erroneous phrase
"Polish Concentration
Camps" when referring to
Auschwitz or other camps
built by the Nazis in
German-occupied Poland.
Storozynski has also
served as chairman and
vice-chairman of the
Polish and Slavic
Federal Credit Union,
which has more than 2
billion in assets and
108,000 members, making
it the largest ethnic
credit union in the
United States.
In 2004, the Polish
magazine Przegląd called
Storozynski "a new type
of leader in the Polish
community," even though
he was born in Brooklyn,
they named him one of
the "100 most
influential Poles living
abroad."
Storozynski is a
recipient of the Lech
Wałęsa Media Award and
was decorated with
Poland's "Gold Cross of
Merit" by former
President Lech Kaczyński
and the "Officer's Cross
of Merit" of the
Republic of Poland by
President Bronisław
Komorowski.
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