"Spies in my Blood" by Alex Storozynski - A Book Launch Event

SPIES IN MY BLOOD

Secrets of a Polish Family’s Fight

Against Nazis & Communists

By Alex Storozynski

The true story of two brothers raised in New York by WWII exiles and their journey to Poland. Each takes a different path to infiltrate the Communist secret police on a mission to uncover the truth about their family of soldiers, spies, and assassins. The two American brothers were put under surveillance by Communist agents and given code names, “Rocky and Nemo.” Which brother would go into the family business?

The memoir narrates three generations of spies in one family who fought the occupation of Poland by Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia. It exposes black market scams people behind the Iron Curtain were forced to engage in to survive and reveals secrets of the Cold War yet to be told.

How did CIA informant Col. Ryszard Kuklinski really escape Poland?

Why did Communist Poland declare Alex Storozynski “an enemy of the state”?

How did Polish intelligence in the 1930s track Stalin’s NKVD and Russian spies in Lwow?

Who was really responsible for Father Jerzy Popieluszko being murdered?

What tricks did Poland’s propaganda minister, Jerzy Urban, use to manipulate American media?

In what way did the Kremlin use newspapers and television to censor news to brainwash the people?

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 become a hot war. 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, 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 guiding principle 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 Kosciuszko and the Age of Revolution, was made into a film, Kosciuszko: A Man Ahead of His Time, which ran on PBS. Storozynski is President Emeritus and Chairman of the Board of The Kosciuszko Foundation.

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“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 Wałesa, 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

“Storozynski delivers unique and vital perspectives on Poland’s modern history. His and his family’s involvement is explored in an engaging, often breezy style, but all the drama, tension, and tragedy come through forcefully. The heroic commitment displayed by successive generations of Storozynskis, necessarily clandestine and deadly at times, is compellingly portrayed as they fight for freedom and democracy against Nazis and Communists. Storozynski thoroughly unearths the “bloody details” that his mother tried to shield him from when he was a child.

— David Tereshchuk, “The Media Beat,” PBS and NPR

“This book provides unique insight into Poland’s experience under Soviet domination and the critical role of the Polish Pope, the Solidarity Trade Union, and President Reagan in ending the Soviet empire in Eastern Europe. Storozynski, who was in the innermost circles of the resistance, reveals the secret history of the successful revolution against the communist regime.”

— Ted Lipien, former head of Voice of America Polish broadcasts

& former president of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty

Host or Publisher The Kosciuszko Foundation