Michael's Messengers

In 1931, just three months after his mother's untimely death, 11-year-old Jacob Grunfeld and his father fled Poland on the eve of Hitler's rise to power in Germany. For eight years he lived the American dream in the suburbs of Baltimore, Maryland where he resided with his German-born father a noted thoracic surgeon. Fearing anti-Semitism, even in America, Jacob's father changed their surname to Meadows and young Jacob became Jack Meadows. During high school Jack learned to fly and discovered a passion that consumed him for the rest of his life. Jack was an extremely exceptional student both in the air and on the ground. Jack graduated college with honors at 18 years of age. In 1939, Jack Meadows, now an American citizen, returned to his native homeland to serve with the Polish Air Force in a futile attempt to halt Nazi aggression and the eventual murder of six million Jews. After Poland was defeated, Jack made his way to England where he joined the RAF. By early 1941, he became the leading fighter pilot among his peers in the Allied Air Forces and was a highly decorated hero of the Battle of Britain. In 1942, Jack was selected to command the 1st Polish Air Force Wing, one of the many foreign units that were an integral part of RAF. In 1939-40, when they were reconstituted in Britain, the Poles distinguished themselves and played a significant role in defeating the Luftwaffe while the Nazis were ravaging their native country. Jack met the love of his life who eventually left him, and met the passion of his life who disappointed him. The women he dearly loved abandoned him. He risked his life for a country that adopted him. He challenged the Luftwaffe whose fiercely skilled pilots had much in common with him. Though Jack was Polish by birth, American by choice and British by fate, he was a German in all other respects thanks to his father.