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At 5 p. m., at the gates of the Foreign Office just off Marshal Pilsudski Square, a tall man dressed in black stooped to read one of the posters pasted low on the wall. Passersby began to notice him. By the time he straightened up a crowd was around him. "Beck! Beck!" they cried, cheering and clapping. Colonel Josef Beck, Foreign Minister of Poland, smiled, touched his hat, and disappeared into the Foreign Office.
For two reasons, that smile must have tasted bitter on Josef Beck's lips. The coming of war meant the final breakdown of his hard-boiled system of checks and balances, playing off the totalitarians against the democracies for the peace of Poland. The coming of war also meant that Colonel Beck's brave stand against Adolf Hitler after the dismemberment of Czecho-Slovakia had failed; that matching the Fuhrer at his own game, bluff for bluff, had only pushed him beyond bluff to blows.
Leaders. Poland is the amoeba of Europe. Since the Tenth Century the rhythm of its life has been grow, divide, grow, divide. The very first king to give Poland substantial nationhood (Boleslav, the Wry-mouthed, 1086-1139) split his inheritance between four sons. And the most recent man to contribute to Polish statehood, Marshal Pilsudski, similarly divided his power (though not his land) among three favorites.
One was Colonel Beck. The second was Ignacy Moscicki, who became President. Upon the shoulders of the third fell the job Josef Pilsudski loved best.