Cyrankiewicz; Former Polish Chief of State
Jozef Cyrankiewicz, the longtime prime minister who signed the landmark 1970 agreement with West Germany that formally established Poland’s western border, has died, a news agency reported Saturday. He was 77.
The official news agency PAP said Cyrankiewicz died Friday. It did not give the cause of death or say where the death occurred.
Born to an intelligentsia family in Krakow, Cyrankiewicz was a resistance fighter during World War II and interned at the Auschwitz concentration camp.
Cyrankiewicz held the top government post for 25 years, a period that saw Poland develop into a one-party state in the Soviet bloc. He was prime minister in 1947 and then from 1954 to 1970.
On Dec. 7, 1970, he and West German Chancellor Willy Brandt signed the Warsaw Treaty that recognized the Oder-Neisse Line as Poland’s western border and abandoned West Germany’s claim to the Reich borders of 1937.
The treaty allowed for the detente process of the 1970s and gave Poland access to the industrial and money markets of West Germany, still its most important trade partner and holder of the largest share of its multibillion-dollar foreign debt.
After leaving office, Cyrankiewicz became president of Poland’s Peace Committee and was not in public view again until last year.
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