Józef Mackiewicz (1 April 1902 – 31 January 1985) was a Polish writer, novelist and political commentator; best known for his documentary novels Nie trzeba głośno mówić (One Is Not Supposed to Speak Aloud), and Droga donikąd (The Road to Nowhere).

From 1923 he worked as a journalist for Słowo (The Word), a periodical published in Vilnius by his older brother Stanisław and fully sponsored and financed by the old noble families of the former Grand Duchy of Lithuania.

After the 15 June 1940 invasion and annexation of Lithuania by the Soviet Union, Mackiewicz gave up his professional activity and worked as a lumberjack and wagon driver.

For the first four months of the occupation, Mackiewicz again worked as a journalist for the German-issued Polish-language newspaper Goniec Codzienny, in which he published several anti-Soviet articles, and excerpts from one of his books.

[3] In 1942, he witnessed the Ponary massacre of some 100,000 mostly Polish Jews by German SD, SS and the Lithuanian Nazi collaborators Ypatingasis būrys, which he described in his 1969 book Nie trzeba głośno mówić (One Is Not Supposed to Speak Aloud).

Upon his return to Vilnius, the local German-sponsored daily Goniec Codzienny published an interview with Mackiewicz titled "Widziałem na własne oczy" ("I saw with my own eyes").

He later arrived in Italy where he worked for the II Corps (Poland) and, in this capacity, he edited a compilation of documents related directly to the Katyń Massacre under the title Zbrodnia katyńska w świetle dokumentów (The Katyn murder in light of new evidence), published in 1948 with an introduction by General Władysław Anders.

[3] In these articles, Mackiewicz put forth several ideas, notably that a return to the prewar borders of Poland was a pipe-dream and not a useful premise, which some local Poles then considered unthinkable.

[1] During the first four months of the German occupation, Mackiewicz worked as a journalist for the Nazi-controlled Polish-language propaganda newspaper Goniec Codzienny,[6] in which he published several anti-Soviet articles, and excerpts from his novel Droga Donikąd (The Road to Nowhere).

[1] Miłosz says that In 1947, Mackiewicz was completely cleared of any wrongdoing[clarification needed], and that It is open to debate how much the popular criticism of his novels was influenced by the Soviet sympathies of his adversaries.

In 1957, he published Kontra, a narrative account of the particularly brutal and treacherous handover of thousands of anti-Soviet Cossacks back to the Soviets by the British soldiers in Austria; and in 1962 Sprawa pulkownika Miasojedowa ("Colonel Miasoyedov's Case"), a harshly realistic novel of the bombing of Dresden in World War II.

His other best-known novels include: Droga donikąd ("The Road to Nowhere"), an account of life under Soviet occupation; Zwycięstwo prowokacji ("Victory of Provocation") on communism; and W cieniu krzyża ("In the Shadow of the Cross") on Catholicism.