This post is in partnership with Worldcrunch, a new global news site that translates stories of note in foreign languages into English. The article below was originally published in the leading German daily Die Welt.
“Dear Raymond,” begins a letter written to Roman Polanski by his sister Annette on Jan. 10, 1957. Polanski was 23 years old at the time, a French-born Polish citizen and was studying film in Lodz, Poland; his sister was in Paris. The letter never reached him. Rather, it was opened by the Polish secret police and placed in Polanski’s personal file. Today the letter can be found in file No. BU 1368/1705 at the Polish Institute of National Remembrance in Warsaw.
Die Welt was given an exclusive look into the 111-page dossier, which documents the director’s constant struggle with the Polish authorities, and with his allegiance to the country itself.
