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Planer, Emanuel: We were the party leaders' most important source of information at times "There was a rally in the square before the Palace of Culture and Science in Warsaw on October 24. As I remember, over 150,000 people took part in the rally, as reported at the time. It was a huge crowd. It still reflected the feelings elicited by the 'Polish October'. I headed the radio broadcast and I took my place in a little tower, responsible for the whole broadcast. Next to me was the announcer-his name was Henryk Mirosz and he was blessed with a lovely voice-who kept the crowd informed about what was going on. He spoke right up until Gomulka's appearance.
"The square was packed when a march of students from Warsaw University of Sciences came up from the direction of Marszalkowska, with students of other colleges. Leading them were standard bearers, some bearing Hungarian flags as well. The crowd in the square applauded as soon as they saw this. We looked round as well to see what was happening. Then I said to the announcer, 'Look over there, Mr Mirosz, say something about that.' And he began to do so: 'Right now a youth procession has arrived in the square with Hungarian flags in the hands...' etc., there he was commentating the event beside me, and what he said was greeted with loud clapping, cheers and ovations by the huge crowd filling the square. As the march got closer, it pressed on into the tightly crowded square and that caused another storm of clapping. Then came great ovations in honour of the Hungarians, with shouts and clapping again. The Polish university students had certainly heard about the Budapest demonstration from somewhere, and that's why they were marching with Hungarian flags."
"There was news of the planned demonstration in Budapest in the Polish youth daily Sztandar Mlodych, on October 23 and 24."
"Then they probably heard from there. Be that as it may, the day after the Warsaw rally I learnt that Gomulka was very nervous and annoyed when the Hungarian flags appeared in the square, but he couldn't do anything, because he was still too weak for the thing to have consequences. But even then he expressed his dissatisfaction."
"How did you find out about the events in Hungary?"
"Initially from Endre Gömöri, the correspondent of Hungarian Radio, who had come to Warsaw expressly to report on the events of the 8th Plenum and stayed in Warsaw throughout. He told me the fresh news that he'd obtained through press channels of information. Later I was kept informed directly from Budapest.
"A curious situation developed in Poland in this respect. The Polish ambassador in Budapest-I don't know why-had difficulty sending his reports back to the centre in Warsaw, to such an extent that Prime Minister Józef Cyrankiewicz called me more than once during those days, asking whether we at the radio had any fresh news from Budapest. So from time to time, we were the party leaders' most important source of information, as serious problems and obstacles arose in the whole communication network in Hungary, and we had a direct line between Warsaw and Budapest."
The life-interview made by János Tischler in 1993 is No. 750 in the Oral History Archive.
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