2 kwietnia 2025 | Piotr R. Frankowski

Tadek Marek: The Engineer’s Wartime Fate [Part 4]

Many Aston Martin enthusiasts have heard of him and may even know that he was Polish, but even in Poland, it is difficult to find people who realize that before the war, Tadeusz Marek was an experienced rally driver and a multiple-time participant in the Monte Carlo Rally. Retracing his journey to Monaco from 1939, the ŚnG team will embark on the same route in a 1938 Opel Olympia.

The last such rally

After Tadeusz Marek’s rally successes in 1939, there were no more races. He found himself in the military but likely did not take part in combat—he was interned in Romania. Worried about the fate of his girlfriend, who had remained in the Soviet-occupied part of Poland, he sought a way to find her. A colleague he met in Romania told Marek about a diplomat from the German Reich embassy (!) who was involved in cooperation with the Soviet Union in the jointly occupied Polish territories. For a fee, this diplomat allegedly rented out his official car along with special permits allowing Germans to enter the Soviet occupation zone—perhaps he wasn’t entirely loyal to Hitler’s ideology? That remains unknown. Once again proving his resourcefulness, Marek obtained a false identity document and drove into the eastern Polish territories in a German car. His flawless Berlin dialect, acquired during his university studies, helped make his deception credible. Unfortunately, he was unable to find his girlfriend, but he did manage to smuggle several Poles back to Romania, where they could join the army.

James Bond from Poland

Someone at the Polish embassy in Bucharest must have taken notice of the engineer’s ingenuity and courage because he was tasked with organizing and leading a convoy of 20 cars belonging to the Polish diplomatic corps to Paris, where the government-in-exile was relocating. The journey across Europe was not easy, but the real crisis came at the Hungarian-Yugoslav border. Border guards stopped the diplomatic convoy. At that moment, Tadeusz recognized an officer who had stamped his passport two years earlier during the Monte Carlo Rally! His past as a rally driver proved to be more powerful than political pressures.

The cars safely reached Paris, and Marek immediately set off for the Pyrenees. Rumors had spread that a Hispano-Suiza aircraft engine factory had been set up there and was in desperate need of engineers. However, when he arrived, the supposed factory turned out to be nothing more than a wooden shed, and the demand for specialists was a myth. He rushed back to Paris, only to find the city in the early stages of evacuation—the situation at the front was already hopeless. The goal now was to reach Britain, but the only remaining viable route led through Spain and North Africa—just like in the plot of the movie Casablanca. Without delay, he set off with six colleagues in a single car. The difficulties in obtaining high-quality fuel meant that by the time they reached Madrid, the engine needed repairs—a minor issue for Marek, who quickly fixed it. Before long, the group of Poles had made it to Casablanca.

One button for Morocco

Just like in the iconic film with Bogart, arranging transport to Britain proved incredibly difficult. On top of that, another problem arose—the escapees ran out of money. But Poles never give up, so Marek and his companions soon set up a small workshop, mass-producing a highly sought-after item on the local market: clothing buttons. They made them from discarded gramophone records. Their lucky streak didn’t last long, as they were soon arrested for working without proper permits. However, fortune smiled on them once again—the prison commander was a supporter of de Gaulle and helped them get in touch with the British consul in Tangier. This led to their release and an opportunity to evacuate to Britain. While waiting for a ship to England for several months, the resourceful Poles turned to another profitable venture—producing soap from waste fish fat.

Tank you!

Lance Corporal Marek finally arrived in England in 1941, where he was assigned to a British research and development unit, most likely working on a new tank—possibly the future Centurion, which was powered by the Meteor engine, derived from the Rolls-Royce Merlin aircraft engine. Little is known about Marek’s life during this period, except that he lived in Finchley (where a direct bomb hit not only destroyed his home but also ruined a freshly cooked pot of Polish soup). He held a temporary major rank (to facilitate communication with rank-conscious Britons) and met his future wife. I haven’t found any documentation from this time—perhaps the relevant records remain classified? If the opportunity arises, I will certainly search for more information in the London archives of the Sikorski Institute and the British National Archives in Kew.

The Prose of an Émigré Life

When the war ended and communists sent from Moscow entrenched themselves in power across Poland and Eastern Europe, Marek came to terms with life in exile. He volunteered to work for U.N.R.R.A. (United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration), an organization that provided humanitarian aid to war-torn European countries, including displaced Polish refugees who had become stateless persons (Displaced Persons). He was assigned to Germany, where three key factors helped him in his work: his compassionate heart, his courageous wife, and his flawless Berlin-accented German. For 18 months, he provided aid to people stranded in the former enemy’s territory, proving that he understood an essential truth—if one had once built weapons, one must now build peace. Both he and his wife had to carry firearms, as post-war Germany was a lawless and dangerous place. Despite the risks and many hardships, Marek completed his mission with U.N.R.R.A., demonstrating resilience and dedication in the face of adversity.

Read the remaining parts of the biography of engineer Tadeusz Marek.

Author: Piotr R. Frankowski