Agent Zo The untold story of a fearless World War II resistance fighter

In this straightforward biography, Mulley (The Women Who Flew for Hitler, 2017) shares the story of Elzbieta Zawacka, aka Agent Zo, the only woman to join the Polish Special Forces. Trained by the British, she parachuted behind enemy lines into Nazi-occupied Poland, fought in the Warsaw Uprising, and aided in the liberation of her country. While Zawacka's wartime experiences are important, it is Mulley's coverage of the postwar period, when Agent Zo was imprisoned by the Communist regime, that will likely offer new territory to most readers. Her arrest along with other liberation heroes and their struggle to keep a grip on the truth in the face of the Soviet-backed government's determination to rewrite history are inspiring and horrific. Zawacka lost many friends as she and others were victimized by the Kafkaesque justice system that kept them behind bars. After her release, Zawacka worked to document Polish efforts during the war, despite being questioned, arrested, and harassed by authorities. A solid contribution to the historical record, Agent Zo will only gain in significance.

Celebration of a hero of the Polish resistance during World War II--whose work, because she was a woman, was long obscured. Elzbieta Zawacka, writes historian and BBC commentator Mulley, was the only woman ever to be enlisted in the elite special forces of the Polish army in exile, who was parachuted into her Nazi-occupied homeland to help organize resistance fighters. As Mulley notes, some 40,000 women became members of the Polish Home Army, but none had an official rank and usually fulfilled jobs thought suitable for women--typing, cooking, nursing, and the like. "Zo," her code name, championed women's rights as well as antifascism. Before the war, she had trained in mathematics, and, "unmarried at thirty and choosing to live alone, she was already raising eyebrows." Yet, of more or less ordinary appearance, she was able to blend into the crowd, which helped as she crossed the borders between Poland, Germany, and other nations more than 100 times, carrying messages as a courier. "Serious, stern, tough and very matter of fact," as a comrade described her, Zo helped organize the Warsaw uprising and, against all the odds, survived years of being hunted by the Gestapo. When the Soviets arrived, however, the Polish resistance was suppressed and its leaders arrested. Zo was arrested too, "each investigation leading to further interrogations," and finally sentenced to seven years of imprisonment, during which time she taught math to inmates and guards alike. Freed, she mounted a campaign of noncompliance, saying, "There is nothing they can do to me." Among her other accomplishments was public commemoration of the Home Army, part of "a chain of defiance leading inexorably to Poland's return to independence"--after which, in belated acknowledgment, she was honored with the rank of brigadier general. A well-told story from a little-known corner of World War II history. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.