Jerzy Lerski
Polish lawyer and academic (1917-1992)
Jerzy Jan Lerski (nom de guerre: Jur; also known as George Jan Lerski; 1917–1992) was a Polish lawyer, soldier, historian, political scientist, and politician.
After World War II he emigrated to the United States, then taught in Japan, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka under the auspices of several C.I.A.-funded organizations, and in 1966 became a professor at the University of San Francisco.
Life
Born 20 January 1917 in Lwów, Poland (now Lviv, Ukraine), Jerzy Lerski studied law at Lwów University. In interwar Poland he joined the Stronnictwo Demokratyczne (Polish Democratic Party); he became known for his strong opposition to antisemitic events.
Jerzy Lerski first saw action in World War II during the 1939 Polish September Campaign. He fought in the Battle of Brześć Litewski in the rank of officer cadet (podchorąży, ensign). Taken prisoner by the Soviet Army during the Soviet invasion, he managed to escape from a train transport. He joined the anti-Soviet resistance but, with the NKVD (the Soviet Secret Police) actively looking for him, he escaped via Hungary to France, joining the Polish Armed Forces in the West. After the fall of France on 25 June 1940, Lerski went to Great Britain.
In 1941 he became a member of the Silent Unseen (Polish: Cichociemni), an elite unit of special-operations paratroopers of the Polish Armed Forces in the West, created in Great Britain to operate in occupied Poland.
The public source identifies “Jerzy Lerski” as polish lawyer and academic (1917-1992). This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Jerzy, Lerski and Polish.
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The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 2, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q833018. VIAF identifies the subject as 34484318. The Library of Congress control number is n84211695. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1917, 1992, 1966 and 1939.
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This entry incorporates text from “Jerzy Lerski” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.