Part of the human drama of the Polish aircrash lies in the fact that President Lech Kaczynski had a twin brother Jaroslaw, who shared with him all the tumultous ups and downs of their political and private life.
Jaroslaw never married, and lived with the twins’ now elderly mother Jadwiga. It was a strikingly close family. Many political issues would be hammered out by the twins round her kitchen table.
It turns out that Jaroslaw too was to have been part of the doomed delegation flying to Katyn for this 70th anniversary commemoration of the massacre of thousands of Poles on Stalin’s orders. Yet in the end he decided to stay at home because their mother had been seriously ill in hospital, a development affecting the timing of a possible announcement by Lech to run for President.
In Jaroslaw’s place on the plane went the twins’ long-time friend and senior party ally Zbigniew Wasserman.
It is almost too painful to write about what Jaroslaw Kaczynski has been through in the past two days.
First, to hear the news. Then to fly to Russia to identify the mutilated remains of his twin brother.
Then to return to Warsaw to greet the President’s coffin.
And, perhaps worst of all, to have to decide how best to break the news to their mother who has not yet been told about the crash, for fear that the shock would kill her in her frail state.
Plus, beyind the inconceivable inner family anguish, to have to think soon about far-reaching political decisions for his shattered PiS party, which has lost so many younger bright hopes (including rising women stars) in the disaster. How best to carry on their life’s work – if at all?
Here is Jaroslaw and the President’s daughter Marta at the ceremony for the arrival of Lech’s coffin. The picture speaks for itself.
