Richard Andrew Woytak (

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, , is a country in Central Europe. Poland is divided into Voivodeships of Poland, sixteen voivodeships and is the fifth most populous member state of the European Union (EU), with over 38 mill ...

, 18 December 1940 – 6 March 1998,

Monterey, California Monterey (; es, Monterrey; Ohlone: ) is a city located in Monterey County on the southern edge of Monterey Bay on the U.S. state of California's Central Coast. Founded on June 3, 1770, it functioned as the capital of Alta California under bo ...

, United States) was a

Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Poles, people from Poland or of Polish descent * Polish chicken *Polish brothers (Mark Polish and Michael Polish, born 1970), American twin screenwr ...

– American historian who specialized in

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located enti ...

an history of the

Interbellum In the history of the 20th century, the interwar period lasted from 11 November 1918 to 1 September 1939 (20 years, 9 months, 21 days), the end of the World War I, First World War to the beginning of the World War II, Second World War. The in ...

and

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

. He was the author of the 1979 book, ''On the Border of War and Peace:

Polish Intelligence This article covers the history of Polish Intelligence services dating back to the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. Commonwealth Though the first official Polish government service entrusted with espionage, intelligence and counter-intelligence ...

and Diplomacy in 1937-1939, and the Origins of the Ultra Secret''.

Life

Woytak's interest in Polish and European 20th-century history had been stimulated by his family's vicissitudes. He was born in Nazi-occupied western

and early lost his mother in a

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

concentration camp Internment is the imprisonment of people, commonly in large groups, without charges or intent to file charges. The term is especially used for the confinement "of enemy citizens in wartime or of terrorism suspects". Thus, while it can simp ...

. In 1948 he was brought by his father to the United States, where the family had previously lived from the turn of the 20th century. In the course of his researches, Woytak interviewed many shapers of 20th-century history, such as Polish cryptologist

Marian Rejewski Marian Adam Rejewski (; 16 August 1905 – 13 February 1980) was a Polish mathematician and cryptography, cryptologist who in late 1932 reconstructed the sight-unseen German military Enigma machine, Enigma cipher machine, aided by limited docu ...

, and met many of its chroniclers, including

Władysław Kozaczuk Władysław Kozaczuk (23 December 1923 – 26 September 2003) was a Polish Army colonel and a military and intelligence historian. Life Born in the village of Babiki near Sokółka, Kozaczuk joined the army in 1944, during World War II, at Bia� ...

. Woytak's researches contributed to the wealth of documentation found in Kozaczuk's 1984 book on '' Enigma''. A selection of Woytak's interviews was published posthumously as ''Werble historii'' (History's Drumroll), edited by and with introduction by Stanisław Krasucki, illustrated with 36 photographs, Bydgoszcz, Poland, Związek Powstańców Warszawskich w Bydgoszczy, 1999, 240 pp., . The interviewees were

, Stefan Mayer, Jan Leśniak, Józef Smoleński,

Wacław Jędrzejewicz General Wacław Jędrzejewicz (; 29 January 1893 – 30 November 1993) was a Polish Army officer, diplomat, politician and historian, and subsequently an American college professor. He was co-founder, president, and long-time executive direct ...

, Adam Ciołkosz,

Kazimierz Smogorzewski Kazimierz (; la, Casimiria; yi, קוזמיר, Kuzimyr) is a historical district of Kraków and Kraków Old Town, Poland. From its inception in the 14th century to the early 19th century, Kazimierz was an independent city, a royal city of the Cr ...

, Wiesław Arlet and Janusz Kodrębski.

Works

*''"Wywiad z litewskim Wodzem Naczelnym gen. Stasys'em Rastikis'em"'' ("Interview with Lithuanian Commander in Chief Gen. Stasys Rastikis"),

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. ...

, ''Zeszyty Historyczne'', vol. 261, no. 35 (1976). *''On the Border of War and Peace:

and Diplomacy in 1937-1939 and the Origins of the Ultra Secret'',

Boulder In geology, a boulder (or rarely bowlder) is a rock fragment with size greater than in diameter. Smaller pieces are called cobbles and pebbles. While a boulder may be small enough to move or roll manually, others are extremely massive. In ...

, East European Quarterly,

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

, distributed by

Columbia University Press Columbia University Press is a university press based in New York City, and affiliated with Columbia University. It is currently directed by Jennifer Crewe (2014–present) and publishes titles in the humanities and sciences, including the fi ...

, 1979, . *"The Promethean Movement in Interwar Poland," ''East European Quarterly'', vol. XVIII, no. 3 (September 1984), pp. 273–78. *Substantial contributions to

, ''Enigma: How the German Machine Cipher Was Broken, and How It Was Read in World War Two'', edited and translated by

Christopher Kasparek Christopher Kasparek (born 1945) is a Scottish-born writer of Polish descent who has translated works by numerous authors, including Ignacy Krasicki, Bolesław Prus, Florian Znaniecki, Władysław Tatarkiewicz, Marian Rejewski, and Władysł ...

Frederick, Maryland Frederick is a city in and the county seat of Frederick County, Maryland. It is part of the Baltimore–Washington metropolitan area, Baltimore–Washington Metropolitan Area. Frederick has long been an important crossroads, located at the inter ...

, University Publications of America, 1984. *"Colonel

Kowalewski Kowalewski (feminine Kowalewska, plural: Kowalewscy) is a Polish surname. It may refer to: * (1879–1940), Polish brigade general *Aleksander Kowalewski, Polish spelling of Alexander Kovalevsky (1840-1901), Russian embryologist * Gerhard Kowalews ...

and the Origins of Polish Code Breaking and Communication Interception," ''East European Quarterly'', vol. XXI, no. 4 (January 1988), pp. 497–500. *''Werble historii'' (

History History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the History of writing#Inventions of writing, invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbr ...

Drumroll A drum roll (or roll for short) is a technique used by percussionists to produce a sustained sound for the duration of a written note.Cirone, Anthony J. (1991). Simple Steps to Snare Drum', p.30-31. Alfred. . "The purpose of the roll is ...

Bydgoszcz Bydgoszcz ( , , ; german: Bromberg) is a city in northern Poland, straddling the meeting of the River Vistula with its left-bank tributary, the Brda. With a city population of 339,053 as of December 2021 and an urban agglomeration with more ...

, 1999, .

Life

Works

See also