embassy events 2009

Journey to Poland: 95-year-old World War II Veteran Visits Warsaw

20 August 2009

(l-r) Dr. Roman Różycki, Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur, Marian Wojciechowski, and Ambassador Ashe (photo gallery)

On August 20, 2009, U.S. Ambassador to Poland, Victor Ashe, hosted a luncheon in honor of Marian Wojciechowski, 95-year-old World War II Combat Veteran from the Polish Cavalry who fought on both fronts and in the underground. Imprisoned by the Gestapo at Auschwitz and Gros Rosen, he was unable to talk about his horrifying war experiences until “time healed wounds” as he put it in one of his speeches. Wojciechowski, who resides in Las Vegas, NV, decided to visit the land of his birth and participate in the commemorative ceremonies marking the September 1, 1939 invasion of Poland by the Nazis.  Polish-American Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur of Ohio, the longest-serving woman in the House of Representatives, accompanies Wojciechowski on this nostalgic journey. His other travel companion is Dr. Roman Różycki of Las Vegas, who heads the Polish-American community there.

Wojciechowski, a Polish Cavalry Platoon Commander, experienced the invasion of his homeland by the Nazis and then three weeks later, the Soviet Red Army, on the Eastern front.  Polish armed forces fought the two powerful enemies alone, with no initial support from Allied troops. At the time of the invasion, Mr. Wojciechowski (then 25), was a platoon commander in the Polish cavalry.
 
Later, Mr. Wojciechowski joined the underground resistance, was arrested and tortured by the Gestapo, and sent to Auschwitz.  Meanwhile, his future wife, Wladyslawa Poniecka, a young Polish girl scout and also a member of the underground, was arrested with her entire family in Warsaw, sent to the Gestapo prison Pawiak, and was transported to Ravensbruck, a notorious women's concentration camp north of Berlin.  After the war, Marian and Wladyslawa met in a refugee camp in Germany, married, had a daughter, and came to America in 1950 under the Displaced Persons Act.  They were sponsored by Mr. Wojciechowski's cousins in Toledo, Ohio which became their adopted hometown where they published the polish language newspaper Ameryka-Echo for over seven years.  It was during this time that the Wojciechowskis befriended Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur, who attended Saint Ursula Academy with their daughter. 

Today, Mr. Wojciechowski is revisiting the sites and commemorating the events that transpired 70 years ago in a war that changed the world. Please click here to read the text of a lecture Mr. Wojciechowski gave on “The Martyrology of Poles in Hitler’s Death Camps” on May 8, 1998 at the Polish Discussion Club in the Polish-American Cultural Center in Troy, Michigan, USA.