List of Famous people born in Poland
Klaus von Beyme
Klaus Gustav Heinrich von Beyme was a German political scientist who was Professor of Political Science Emeritus at the Faculty of Economic and Social Sciences of the University of Heidelberg.
Donald Tusk
Donald Franciszek Tusk is a Polish politician who was President of the European Council from 2014 to 2019. He served as the 14th prime minister of Poland from 2007 to 2014 and was a co-founder and chairman of the Civic Platform political party. On 20 November 2019, Tusk was elected as the president of the European People's Party (EPP), Europe's largest transnational political party.
Zbigniew Brzezinski
Zbigniew Kazimierz Brzezinski was a Polish-American diplomat and political scientist. He served as a counselor to President Lyndon B. Johnson from 1966 to 1968 and was President Jimmy Carter's National Security Advisor from 1977 to 1981. Brzezinski belonged to the realist school of international relations, standing in the geopolitical tradition of Halford Mackinder and Nicholas J. Spykman. Brzezinski was the primary organizer of The Trilateral Commission.
Eugene Lazowski
Eugene Lazowski born Eugeniusz Sławomir Łazowski was a Polish medical doctor who saved thousands of people during World War II by creating a fake epidemic which played on German phobias about hygiene. He also used his position as a doctor treating people travelling through a nearby train station to conceal his supply of medicine to Jews in the local Ghetto, which backed on to his home. By doing this, he risked the German death penalty, which was applied to Poles who helped Jews in the Holocaust.
Eva-Maria Hagen
Eva-Maria Hagen is a German actress and singer. She is the mother of Nina Hagen and the grandmother of Cosma Shiva Hagen.
Aleksei Guskov
Aleksei Gennadyevich Guskov is a Soviet and Russian actor and producer. He was awarded People's Artist of Russia in 2007.
Ola Jordan
Aleksandra "Ola" Jordan is a British-Polish professional ballroom dancer and model. She appeared as a professional on the British TV show Strictly Come Dancing from 2006 to 2015. After winning a championship event in her native Poland, Jordan moved to England and began a new partnership with James Jordan. They married on 12 October 2003 and live near Maidstone in Kent. In 2018, she became a judge on Dancing with the Stars: Taniec z gwiazdami in Poland.
Hanns Scharff
Hanns-Joachim Gottlob Scharff was a German Luftwaffe interrogator during the Second World War. He has been called the "Master Interrogator" of the Luftwaffe, and possibly of all Nazi Germany; he has also been praised for his contribution in shaping U.S. interrogation techniques after the war. As an Obergefreiter he was charged with interrogating captured American fighter pilots after he became an interrogation officer in 1943. He has been highly praised for the success of his techniques, in particular because he never used physical means to obtain the required information. Scharff's interrogation techniques were so effective that he was occasionally called upon to assist other German interrogators in their questioning of bomber pilots and aircrews, including those crews and fighter pilots from countries other than the United States. Additionally, he was charged with questioning many more important prisoners who were funnelled through the interrogation center, such as senior officers and famous fighter aces.
Kurt Masur
Kurt Masur was a German conductor. Called "one of the last old-style maestros", he directed many of the principal orchestras of his era. He had a long career as the Kapellmeister of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, and also served as music director of the New York Philharmonic. He left many recordings of classical music played by major orchestras. Masur is also remembered for his actions to support peaceful demonstrations in the 1989 anti-government demonstrations in Leipzig; the protests were part of the events leading up to the fall of the Berlin wall.
Irena Sendler
Irena Stanisława Sendler (née Krzyżanowska), also referred to as Irena Sendlerowa in Poland, nom de guerre Jolanta, was a Polish humanitarian, social worker, and nurse who served in the Polish Underground Resistance during World War II in German-occupied Warsaw. From October 1943 she was head of the children's section of Żegota, the Polish Council to Aid Jews.