1. Ferdynand Goetel was a Polish novelist, playwright, essayist, screen writer, and political activist; member of the prestigious Polish Academy of Literature from 1935; president of the Polish PEN Club as well as the Union of Polish Writers in interwar Poland.
Ferdynand Goetel established a prominent place in Polish literary circles between the wars and was the recipient of the "Golden Laurel" awarded by the Polish Academy of Literature for his contributions to Polish literature.
Ferdynand Goetel was forced to leave Poland after World War II due to his involvement in the German investigation of the Katyn massacre and died in exile in London.
Ferdynand Goetel attended schools in Krakow and Lvov but was not a model pupil; he later admitted in his memoirs that he was "considered wayward, rebellious, and even insolent," getting into trouble for secretly smoking cigars, gambling and distributing photographs of women.
Ferdynand Goetel was sent to a military school before ending up at the imperial Realschule, from which he graduated.
Ferdynand Goetel moved back to Warsaw in 1912 but was arrested and interned by the Russian authorities at the outbreak of World War I, as he was an Austrian citizen in Russian-ruled Poland.
Ferdynand Goetel wrote for the theatre; his play Samuel Zborowski about the 1584 beheading of Samuel Zborowski was performed in Warsaw at Teatr Polski in 1929 with Marian Jednowski in the title role, and Kazimierz Junosza-Stepowski as King Stefan Batory.
Ferdynand Goetel joined the Polish resistance movement Armia Krajowa in World War II, and was temporarily imprisoned in Pawiak by the SS.
Ferdynand Goetel has sometimes been described as the last victim of Katyn.
Ferdynand Goetel was blacklisted in communist Poland and driven out of the country in 1945 with an arrest warrant issued against him by the secret police, because the Germans arranged for him to participate in the original Katyn delegation on behalf of the AK, and because in his postwar writings he demanded justice for the victims of Katyn.
Ferdynand Goetel was proposed as a witness for the Katyn delegation by lawyer Ludwig Fischer, the German governor of Warsaw, but ultimately, the Polish delegation refused to help the Nazi propaganda efforts any further, and secretly informed the Polish government-in-exile about their findings.
The first arrest warrants against Ferdynand Goetel were issued in July 1945.
Ferdynand Goetel joined the Army of General Anders and, at the conclusion of World War II, went to London.
Ferdynand Goetel's grave is located in the North Sheen Cemetery.