Covid-19 claims life of Chicago-based Polish newsman Jan Krawiec, a Nazi foe and Auschwitz survivor

[Dennis Donovan]

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/covid-19-claims-life-chicago-based-polish-newsman-jan-krawiec-n1248822

We thought he would live forever," a friend said of Krawiec, who was 101


Jan Krawiec, a Polish Underground fighter who survived Auschwitz and went on to be a newsman in Chicago, died in October from Covid-19. He was 101 and had lived long enough to see his homeland freed from the Soviet yoke he railed against as editor of Dziennik Zwiazkowy, the leading Polish-language newspaper in Chicago.Dariusz Pilka / The Dziennik Zwiazkowy

Nov. 29, 2020, 7:01 AM EST
By Corky Siemaszko

The German invasion, torture at the hands of the Gestapo, the horrors of Auschwitz and Buchenwald — newsman Jan Krawiec survived them all and got his life's story out way ahead of deadline.

It was a silent killer called Covid-19 that did what the Nazis couldn't do. It took Krawiec's life last month at a nursing home in suburban Chicago. He was 101.

Krawiec (Yon Krahv-yets), the longtime editor of Dziennik Związkowy, Chicago's leading Polish-language newspaper, lived long enough to see the dream of his generation of exiles come true — his homeland freed from the Soviet yoke.

In his final years, Krawiec devoted himself to publishing books in Polish about his ordeal and telling the younger generations in English what happened to him and to his country during World War II. And he did so, friends said, with the timing of a practiced comedian who specialized in very dark humor.

-/snip-

Cross gently, Jan.

[bucolic_frolic]

1. The world has come full circle in his lifetime

But know, dear man, that the world is no longer ignorant thanks to efforts such as yours.

[marble falls]

2. From El Malei Rachamim

Therefore, the Merciful One will protect him forever in the hiding of his wings, and will tie his soul with the rope of life. The Everlasting is his heritage, and he shall rest peacefully at his lying place, and let us say: Amen.