Zdzisław Bau was a journalist, war correspondent and columnist. He was regarded as one of the best pens of the Polish emigration. He was born on 6th January 1912 in Kraków. He spent a few years of his youth in Warsaw, and in his teens left for the Swiss Montana Zugerberg . There he passed his secondary school leaving exam. He later studied in Zurich and Bern . When he returned to Poland, he became associated with the "Express Poranny" and "Kurier Czerwony".

As a young reporter, he became known as a polyglot and foreign affairs specialist. In the 1930s, he was a correspondent in Bratislava. After the outbreak of war, he tried to get through Hungary to the nascent Polish army in the West. Unfortunately, he was arrested by the Soviets. In the following months, he went through prisons in Eastern Galicia and Nikolaev. In the end, he was sent to the Soroklagier Gulag on the White Sea . Released after the Sikorski-Mayski Agreement, he joined the Anders Army, where he co-edited the staff newsletter. He also became the first editor of the White Eagle, the newspaper of the 2nd Corps.

From 1943, he was a war correspondent for the Polish Telegraphic Agency and the Polish Radio to the Commander-in-Chief, accompanying soldiers in the Italian campaign, at Monte Cassino, during the invasion of southern France, and in the battles in Greece and Crete.

After the end of the Second World War, he remained in exile: first in Rome he co-founded the "Life of the Week". Then he went to South America. In Argentina, he wrote for 'El Hogar', 'Clarín' and the veteran press. In the 1960s, he settled in New York and worked with the "New Journal", Radio Free Europe, Voice of America and - as Harry Z. Bau - for decades he was the correspondent of the Argentine "El Economista" accredited to the United Nations.

He died on 3 February 1991 in New York's Cabrini Hospital. Czesław Czapliński noted in his memoir about him that he passed away holding the latest issue of El Economista in his hand, so he remained a journalist until the last moment. The funeral took place on 6 February at the Veterans Cemetery in Doylestown, preceded by a service at the Church of the Redeemer in Manhattan.

The cemetery at the National Shrine of Our Lady of Czestochowa in Doylestown , where Bau was laid to rest, is called the 'American Czestochowa'. It is the largest Polish military cemetery outside the country, sometimes referred to as the "Polish Arlington".