The Polish Paradox: Gen. Kazimierz Sosnkowski and the Ban on Biological Warfare

Polish General Kazimierz Sosnkowski presents a fascinating paradox as a key architect of the 1925 Geneva Protocol's ban on biological warfare. During World War II, however, he commanded the Polish Home Army resistance, which conducted thousands of secret attacks against the Nazi occupation using poisoned parcels and letters contaminated with bacteria. Nearly two decades earlier, Sosnkowski had passionately argued in Geneva that such weapons could be easily deployed by secret agents to cause mass extermination. This contradiction reveals Poland's complex strategy of publicly championing a ban while secretly preparing for unconventional warfare in the face of existential threats.