Iwo Cyprian Pogonowski (3 September 1921 – 21 July 2016) was a Polish-born

polymath A polymath ( el, πολυμαθής, , "having learned much"; la, homo universalis, "universal human") is an individual whose knowledge spans a substantial number of subjects, known to draw on complex bodies of knowledge to solve specific pro ...

and inventor with 50

patent A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an enabling disclosure of the invention."A ...

s to his credit. He was a civil and

industrial engineer Industrial engineering is an engineering profession that is concerned with the optimization of complex processes, systems, or organizations by developing, improving and implementing integrated systems of people, money, knowledge, information and ...

by profession, educated in

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populou ...

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to ...

, and the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

. He was also a writer on Polish and European history, author of historical

atlases An atlas is a collection of maps; it is typically a bundle of maps of Earth or of a region of Earth. Atlases have traditionally been bound into book form, but today many atlases are in multimedia formats. In addition to presenting geograph ...

, and a

lexicographer Lexicography is the study of lexicons, and is divided into two separate academic disciplines. It is the art of compiling dictionaries. * Practical lexicography is the art or craft of compiling, writing and editing dictionaries. * Theoretica ...

Life

Pogonowski was born in

Lwów Lviv ( uk, Львів) is the largest city in Western Ukraine, western Ukraine, and the List of cities in Ukraine, seventh-largest in Ukraine, with a population of . It serves as the administrative centre of Lviv Oblast and Lviv Raion, and is o ...

. After the

invasion of Poland The invasion of Poland (1 September – 6 October 1939) was a joint attack on the Republic of Poland by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union which marked the beginning of World War II. The German invasion began on 1 September 1939, one week af ...

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

, in December 1939 Pogonowski, aged 18, left

Warsaw Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officiall ...

with the intent of joining the

Polish Armed Forces in the West The Polish Armed Forces in the West () refers to the Polish military formations formed to fight alongside the Western Allies against Nazi Germany and its allies during World War II. Polish forces were also raised within Soviet territories; th ...

. He was arrested in Dukla by the German authorities on suspicion of aiming to join the resistance. He was moved between prisons and camps for five years thereafter. Interned at the

Krosno Krosno (in full ''The Royal Free City of Krosno'', pl, Królewskie Wolne Miasto Krosno) is a historical town and county in the Subcarpathian Voivodeship, in southeastern Poland. The estimated population of the town is 47,140 inhabitants as of 2 ...

, Jasło, and

Tarnów Tarnów () is a city in southeastern Poland with 105,922 inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of 269,000 inhabitants. The city is situated in the Lesser Poland Voivodeship since 1999. From 1975 to 1998, it was the capital of the Tarn� ...

prisons among others, he was sent with 500 prisoners to

Auschwitz Auschwitz concentration camp ( (); also or ) was a complex of over 40 Nazi concentration camps, concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany, occupied Poland (in a portion annexed int ...

, and from there, several months later, to

Oranienburg-Sachsenhausen Sachsenhausen () or Sachsenhausen-Oranienburg was a German Nazi concentration camp in Oranienburg, Germany, used from 1936 until April 1945, shortly before the defeat of Nazi Germany in May later that year. It mainly held political prisoners ...

. He survived the camps and was liberated on 2 May 1945. Pogonowski summarized his experiences at the

Nazi concentration camps From 1933 to 1945, Nazi Germany operated more than a thousand concentration camps, (officially) or (more commonly). The Nazi concentration camps are distinguished from other types of Nazi camps such as forced-labor camps, as well as con ...

in a three-page article popularized in Richard C. Lukas' ''Out of the Inferno''. In 1954 he graduated in Civil Engineering at the Catholic University: Institute Superieur de Commerce in

Antwerp Antwerp (; nl, Antwerpen ; french: Anvers ; es, Amberes) is the largest city in Belgium by area at and the capital of Antwerp Province in the Flemish Region. With a population of 520,504,

. He moved to the United States and in the following years worked as a project engineer in the oil industry.

Historian and lexicographer

Pogonowski published an illustrated history of Poland (2000), historical atlases and a work on Polish heraldry (2002). Pogonowski's ''Jews in Poland'' was praised by

M.K. Dziewanowski Marian Kamil Dziewanowski (27 June 1913, Zhytomyr – 18 February 2005, Milwaukee, Wisconsin) was a historian of Poland, Russia and modern Europe. Life Born in Zhytomir, Russian Empire (now Ukraine), Dziewanowski was the son of Kamil and Zofia ( ...

, who called the book a "pioneering attempt o'encompass' Jews within the Polish discourse, a rarity in American scholarship and in the discourse about Jews." He was criticized by

Piotr Wróbel Piotr Jan Wróbel (born 1953) is a Polish-Canadian historian and expert specializing in Polish history and Central and Eastern European history. His academic research revolves around the national minorities of Central and Eastern Europe with specia ...

and

Joanna Michlic Joanna Beata Michlic is a Polish social and cultural historian specializing in Polish-Jewish history and the Holocaust in Poland. An honorary senior research associate at the Centre for Collective Violence, Holocaust and Genocide Studies at Un ...

, who believes him to represent the ethnonationalist trend in historiography. Pogonowski compiled several Polish-English, English-Polish dictionaries which have appeared since 1981, including his ''Unabridged Polish-English Dictionary'' (3 volumes, New York, Hippocrene Books, 1997; some 100,000 entries) and the ''Polish-English, English-Polish Standard Dictionary'' (1985, reprinted 1993, 1994 and 1997). His journalistic work includes broadcasts for the Polish religious radio station '' Radio Maryja'' and columns for its sister publication, ''

Nasz Dziennik ''Nasz Dziennik'' ("Our Daily") is a Polish-language Roman Catholic daily newspaper published six times a week in Warsaw, Poland. It is connected to the Lux Veritatis Foundation. Its viewpoint has been described as right-wing to far-right (h ...

'' (Our Daily). He has also written columns in the Polish-American biweekly, ''

Gwiazda Polarna ''Gwiazda Polarna'' (Polish for "''Pole Star''") is "America's oldest independent Polish-language newspaper." It has been published since 1908 in Stevens Point, Wisconsin. History ''Gwiazda Polarnas name appears to have arisen from an English-lan ...

''.

Publications

Dictionaries

* ''Practical Polish-English Dictionary'', Hippocrene Books, 1981. * ''Polish-English, English-Polish Standard Dictionary'', Hippocrene Books, 1985. * ''Compact Polish-English Dictionary'', Hippocrene Books, 1985. * ''Polish Phrasebook and Dictionary: Complete Phonetics for English Speakers'', 103 pp., 1991. * ''Unabridged Polish-English Dictionary'', 3 volumes, New York, Hippocrene Books, 1997.

History

* ''Poland: A Historical Atlas'', revised edition, New York,

Hippocrene Books Hippocrene Books is an independent US publishing press located at 171 Madison Avenue, New York City, NY 10016. Hippocrene specializes in foreign language study guides, international cookbooks, and Polish-interest publishing. The foreign lang ...

, 1989. * ''The Jews in Poland: A Documentary History; the Rise of heJews as a Nation from Congressus Judaicus in Poland to the

Knesset The Knesset ( he, הַכְּנֶסֶת ; "gathering" or "assembly") is the unicameral legislature of Israel. As the supreme state body, the Knesset is sovereign and thus has complete control of the entirety of the Israeli government (wit ...

in Israel'', New York,

, 1993. * ''Świat po amerykańsku'', Fundacja 'Nasza Przyszłość', 2004. * ''Heraldyka – Heraldry'', CD-ROM, published by Juliusz Ostrowski, 2002. *
Poland: An Illustrated History
', Hippocrene Books, 2000 (recommended by

Norman Davies Ivor Norman Richard Davies (born 8 June 1939) is a Welsh-Polish historian, known for his publications on the history of Europe, Poland and the United Kingdom. He has a special interest in Central and Eastern Europe and is UNESCO Professor a ...

and

Zbigniew Brzeziński Zbigniew Kazimierz Brzeziński ( , ; March 28, 1928 – May 26, 2017), or Zbig, was a Polish-American diplomat and political scientist. He served as a counselor to President Lyndon B. Johnson from 1966 to 1968 and was President Jimmy Carter's ...

).Hippocrene Books
* ''Jews in Poland: A Documentary History'', New York, Hippocrene Books, 1998. * ''Historyczny Atlas Polski'' (A Historical Atlas of Poland), Wydawnictwo Baran i Suszczyński, 1995. * ''Poland: A Historical Atlas'', New York, Hippocrene Books, 1987. * ''Hegemonia – On US Foreign Policy'',

Poznań Poznań () is a city on the River Warta in west-central Poland, within the Greater Poland region. The city is an important cultural and business centre, and one of Poland's most populous regions with many regional customs such as Saint Joh ...

, WERS, 2008. * ''The First Democracy in Modern Europe: Million Free Citizens in Poland during the Renaissance'', 2010 (E-Book).

References

External links

* Richard C. Lukas
''Out of the Inferno'', pp. 139–42.
University Press of Kentucky,
Iwo Cyprian Pogonowski's website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pogonowski, Iwo Cyprian 1921 births 2016 deaths Writers from Lviv 20th-century Polish historians Polish male non-fiction writers Polish lexicographers Polish industrial engineers Polish heraldists Burials at Rakowicki Cemetery Polish expatriates in Belgium Polish expatriates in the United States Auschwitz concentration camp survivors