Death of Poland’s ‘Quiet Hero’

Kossobudzki’s war-time experience was described by his daughter, Rita Cosby, Emmy award-winning journalist, TV host, and New York Times bestselling author in the book Quiet Hero. Secrets from my Father’s Past, which was published in the United States and in a Polish translation in 2010.

In her book, Rita Cosby described how she uncovered an amazing story of her father’s heroism and courage, as well as his secret: he found his war-time experience too painful to share with his family and it was only several years ago that, after her mother’s death, while sorting out her belongings, that she discovered a suitcase containing mementos from her father’s youth, such as a worn Polish Resistance armband; rusted tags bearing a prisoner number and the words Stalag IVB; and an identity card for an ex-POW bearing the name Ryszard Kossobudzki.

After the fall of the Warsaw Uprising, Ryszard Kossobudzki was taken into captivity and sent to a German POW camp near Dresden, from which he escaped and was ultimately rescued by American forces.

After the war, he studied in London and, having emigrated to the United States in the mid 1950s, changed his name to Richard Cosby. He made his first, and only visit to Poland, in 2009, after a lapse of sixty five years. (mk/jb)