Daniel Passent was born on April 28th, 1938 in a Jewish family. During World War II, he and his family hid separately, and he didn’t remember them. His parents died in 1944, hence why he was raised by his uncle Jacob Prawin. He grew up dreaming to become a journalist and columnist. He didn’t have to wait for long; he made his debut in a daily newspaper Banner of Youth (“Sztandar Młodych” in Polish) when he was just 18. He later joined the editorial office of the newspaper Politics (Polish: “Polityka”), which he was involved with until the end of his career.
“With great sorrow and still in disbelief we are informing about the passing of our dear friend, Daniel Passent.”
Z ogromnym żalem i wciąż nie mogąc w to uwierzyć informujemy, że odszedł nasz drogi Przyjaciel Daniel Passent. pic.twitter.com/fIj0LF4eIx
— Tygodnik POLITYKA (@Polityka_pl) February 14, 2022
Passent rose to fame after getting the rights to publish Adolf Eichman’s diaries. He was also a reporter during the Vietnam War and the Polish ambassador in Chile from 1997 until 2002. In 2006 he created his blog En Passant, where he commented on the political situation in Poland in a satirical way. Since October 2012 he run an audition “Passent’s Guests” on a radio TOK FM. He also published a few novels, such as “A Regular”, “The Battle of Caps” and “Every Day War” (a series of reports from the Vietnam War). He also translated James Baldwin’s and Martin Luther King Jr’s works into Polish.
Not only was he an excellent journalist, but also a brilliant student. He got his education in Petersburg and at Warsaw University and then got scholarships while studying at Princeton and Harvard. He also received the Golden Cross of Merit and the Commander’s Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta. Daniel Passent was married to Agnieszka Osiecka, with whom he had a daughter – Agata – who became a journalist as well. It was his daughter who informed the news about the sad event of his passing on February 14th, 2022.