Jan Krawiec

Jan Krawiec (15 June 1919 — 28 October 2020) was the chief editor of Chicago's leading Polish-language newspaper. He was a teacher, a political activist, historian and journalist.

Biography

He was born in Bachorce, Poland. He finished his officer training shortly before the World War II and participated in the defense of Poland.[1] On 17 September 1939, 16 days after the Germans invaded Poland, Krawiec joined the underground and ran a secret newspaper until he was arrested by the Germans in April 1943. He was transported to Auschwitz, where he did slave labor instead of being immediately murdered, since he was a Polish Catholic. He was later transferred to Buchenwald. In April 1945, the Germans evacuated the prison camp and forced the inmates, including Krawiec, on a death march until they were freed by American troops.

In 1949, he arrived in Chicago and worked for ten years as a mechanic for Canfield Beverage Company. He earned a degree from Loyola University in political science. He then became a writer for a Polish-language newspaper, Dziennik Chicagoski. He later moved to competing newspaper Dziennik Związkowy. He was appointed editor-in-chief and remained such until 1985 when he retired. He was part of President Nixon's press pool during his presidential visit to Poland.

Krawiec never married. He contracted COVID-19 in October 2020 and died two weeks later at the age of 101.[2][3]

References
  1. Donald E. Pienkos (1984). PNA: A Centennial History of the Polish National Alliance of the United States of North America. East European Monographs. p. 381. ISBN 978-0-88033-060-2.
  2. "Covid-19 kills Polish newsman who defied Nazis". NBC News. Retrieved 2020-11-29.
  3. "John Krawiec Obituary (1919 - 2020) - Chicago Tribune". www.legacy.com. Retrieved 2020-11-29.
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