Chicago's 'Schindler' who saved 8,000 Poles from Nazis dies

[RamboLiberal]

http://www.suntimes.com/news/obituaries/179190,CST-NWS-xlazowski20.article

When the Nazis occupied Poland during World War II and started killing Jews and sending Poles into forced labor, young Dr. Eugene Lazowski soon figured out the one thing that would terrify the brutal occupiers: disease.

Playing upon this German fear, Dr. Lazowski and a colleague risked their lives to fake a typhus epidemic that led the Germans to quarantine a dozen Polish villages, thus saving lives of 8,000 people who might otherwise have wound up in prisons, slave labor or death camps.

Like Oskar Schindler, the industrialist who was portrayed in the movie ''Schindler's List,'' Dr. Lazowski may one day be the subject of a movie.

"I was not able to fight with a gun or a sword, but I found a way to scare the Germans," he later told the Sun-Times.

In addition, Dr. Lazowski treated Jews in the ghetto of his local village, was a member of the Polish underground and escaped from a German POW camp where he had been imprisoned at the beginning of the war.

[aquart]

1. Wow.

May every day of his life afterwards have been as happy as it was possible to be. God bless him and all who helped him.

[Jack from Charlotte]

22. Guys like this should have public building named after them. Not politicians.........

It makes me puke whenever I see a public building/highway etc.... named after ANY politician when guys like this actually did something that would merit that honor.

Name the federal building or something after this man.

[Old and In the Way]

2. He made a difference.....

I never heard of the man and that is a sad commentary on the state of our media. We get force fed Britney Spears and murderers by the gross, but such a great story of a real hero...nothing.

Thanks for posting.

[Posteritatis]

3. There's a *lot* of people like him we never hear about

A lot of these guys just did their thing during the war, and then tried to go back to their normal life. Lots of them don't even discuss it afterwards; I've heard of quite a few people who did impossibly heroic things during the war, whose wives found out about their actions from someone else years or decades later.

That's one of the things that fascinates me about that period - not only was there so incredibly much evil, there was so incredibly much good, too much of either to quantify easily. The world wars were not a noble time, but they threw up one shitload of heroes.

[noonwitch]

13. My grandpa's older half sister worked for the underground

She was a lot older than he, and stayed behind when the rest of the family came here. She ended up on the other side of the iron curtain at some point (Yugoslavia), but during WWII, she passed messages for the underground. The Nazis were stupid about a lot of things, one of them being language. Few of them ever learned anything but german, because it was so superior in their mindset. My great-aunt spoke 5 languages, and when they occupied her village, the Nazis put her in jail until she agreed to be the phone operator for them in the area she lived in. She then started passing messages for the underground in french, english and slovenian right under their noses.

They would have killed her if they had ever found out what she was up to.

[aquart]

29. I know.

Same way it took sixty years for my uncle to mention volunteering for Anzio, no biggie. Not written down, what his whole unit did, even though they were already packed to go home.

We're about to lose a million stories that were never told, and should have been. But I'm so glad when one of them surfaces. It's like finding buried treasure.

[ananda]

31. He definitely deserves a movie.

just as much or more than Oskar Schindler did.

[Starbucks Anarchist]

4. Rest in peace, Dr. Lazowski.

[northofdenali]

5. K&R -

We don't hear about so many TRUE heroes. Great post - thanks.

[Old and In the Way]

6. Let's get this on the greatest page for Dr. Lazowski....God know we need more people like him

on this Earth.

[xchrom]

7. god speed, good doctor.

may your light call to each and everyone of us to do more for each other.

[JNelson6563]

8. A hero!

It's guys like this that make me wish there was a heaven.

Julie

[smirkymonkey]

9. Where have all the heros gone?

The world is run by weak, cowardly men. Beset by greed, egotism and a lust for power they consistently sacrifice the good of the many for the benefit of the few. Isn't there a decent human being in the bunch? Isn't their one man (or woman) who would sacrifice their own well being to help save humanity?

[Vidar]

10. Recommended for the unsung hero, Dr. Lazowski. RIP kind soul.

[Cooley Hurd]

11. Rest in peace, Dr Lazowski, and thank you...

Amazing story - I never heard of it until now.

[4dsc]

12. What about the POLISH people killed by theNazi's

Once again no mention of the milllions of Poles killed by the Nazi's during WWII!! Including my grandfathers 4 brothers and sister!! Fucking propaganda everywhere!!

[dionysus]

14. what the hell are you talking about?

[MsMagnificent]

17. over 3 million

non-Jewish Poles died under Nazi control. Coupled with the Jewish Poles, over 6 million Polish citizens lost their lives.
The Germans needed the rich Polish land for their liebensraum you see, and so declared that Poles were 'sub-human' and off to the camps & workhouses they went.

That's what the hell he's talking about.

I have family in Poland too that survived a death camp, but she is virtually insane. Sits in a straight chair in the center of her house in the darkness, won't answer the door, won't even go outside; afraid she'll be taken away again. She's been virtually dead for years, ever since she came out.

[4dsc]

20. Thank you

my grandfathers family was part of the so called intellectual class that was targetted by the Nazi's in Poland.. One brother was also a priest..

Thanks for confirming what the hell I was talking about..

[ArbustoBuster]

18. I don't understand the anger in your post.

And I mean this quite honestly. I'm not trying to challenge you; I'm trying to understand your concerns.

As far as I know, there has never been any attempt to cover up the millions upon millions of civilians killed by the Nazis as they rampaged through Europe. The history classes I took and the history books I read have all stressed that WW2 killed tens of millions of people. The devastation of Poland was noted strongly. The brave defense of Poland by the overwhelmed Polish Army was mentioned.

Dr. Lazowski saved eight thousand people. He deserves every ounce of credit for that. I don't understand why anger would be directed at an article which lauds a man who put his life at risk to save thousands of strangers.

[aquart]

30. I do. I understand it very well.

And I am charmed at their eagerness today to lay the numbers of their dead beside the Polish Jews they so willingly and eagerly gave up. Because my family was among those piled corpses.

So let's hear it for the poor Poles who sacrificed their Jews and then got murdered anyway. Life is so damned unfair.

[MsMagnificent]

32. How dare you?

I'm dead serious, how DARE you?!

An equal amount of Jews and non-Jews died, and you come out with this??!

Do you know how many Jews were SAVED by non-Jewish Poles? Many, yet you have the fucking NERVE to say that shit!

Was it the Poles who killed Jews?

NO.

In fact, quite a few Polish Jews turned other Jews in. It was such a problem that many of those in hiding wouldn't tell ANYONE where they were.
Gee, I don't see THAT in your post. How surprising. Oh, but let's not let any other TRUTHS enter into your bitterness and monopoly on sorrow.

It's OK to forget about them? To revile them? To render them and their lives worthless?
So, why the outcry against the bullshit Iran just pulled? You virtually just did the same exact thing.

YOUR 6 million dead count, but the other 5.5-6 million dead in the camps DON'T?!

That 'thinking' is just as bigoted as the Nazis, congratulations.


Nobody wants to detract from the Shoah, but when slander like yours occurs you are demeaning and denying every single victim of the camps no matter their race, religion or other persuasion.
And you make it SO much easier for Iran and those of their ilk to continue to revise history.

Congratulations again. :sarcasm:

[Behind the Aegis]

21. 8000 Poles.

It said nothing that all 8000 were Jews. It said he protected Jews and other Poles from heading to death camps. I fail to understand your hostility in the revelations of the work this man did to save his own countrymen.

[DixieBlue]

15. Thank you for sharing this ...

too few people like him left in the world.

Rest in peace, good doctor.

Recommended.

[roguevalley]

25. another righteous gentile who is a model for all of us. bless his soul.

[Javaman]

16. So the nazi's were also germophobes. not the least bit surprised.

Bravo to this man for for his courage and his ingenuity for making a minus into a plus thus saving thousands of people.

[Lone_Star_Dem]

19. He left behind a great legacy

All the families that exist today thanks to him and his colleague. I honor his memory and know that there a many thousands who will never forget his greatness.

[lala_rawraw]

23. Amazing... my father's entire family

Died in Warsaw at Nazi hands. Only one person lived, my grandfather.

[Critters2]

24. A kick and a recommend for this brave, noble soul! nt

[DarkTirade]

26. I read about that a while back...

I think it was at damninteresting.com if I remember correctly. I check there every now and then because... well, it's damn interesting. :)
They found a harmless bacteria that sets off a typhus test and spread it around. Fecking brilliant.

[nam78_two]

27. K&R-may he RIP.nt

[DemReadingDU]

28. This is amazing!

I had not heard of Dr. Lazowski. What a hero!