Jan Krawiec

Krawiec 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]