Stanisław J. Radwan (May 15, 1908 – April 6, 1998), also known as The Polish Strongman and King of Iron and Steel, was an ethnic Polish, American strongman and professional wrestler in

Cleveland Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U ...

Ohio Ohio () is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Of the List of states and territories of the United States, fifty U.S. states, it is the List of U.S. states and territories by area, 34th-l ...

during the 1940s and 1950s.

Early life

Radwan was born in the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1908. Radwan's strength was apparent as a youth, showing off for his childhood friends. Prior to

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 ...

, he joined the Polish navy and earned the rank of lieutenant.

Bergen-Belsen

Radwan was captured following the invasion of Poland by

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

. He was a

prisoner of war A prisoner of war (POW) is a person who is held captive by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict. The earliest recorded usage of the phrase "prisoner of war" dates back to 1610. Belligerents hold prisoners of ...

at the

Bergen-Belsen concentration camp Bergen-Belsen , or Belsen, was a Nazi concentration camp in what is today Lower Saxony in northern Germany, southwest of the town of Bergen near Celle. Originally established as a prisoner of war camp, in 1943, parts of it became a concentr ...

. According to a story in the 1983 issue of Ohio Magazine, Radwan said that he attempted to escape from the camp by pushing over a brick wall with his bare hands. He claimed that when word of the feat reached Adolf Hitler, Hitler came to the camp. Radwan said that Hitler ordered him to put on a show for his friends in Berlin, and Radwan said, "You killed my brothers in Poland and you ask me to do this? Nein!" When a guard pushed a revolver in his face, Radwan claimed that he "grabbed the gun between my teeth and squeezed the barrel shut." According to Radwan, Hitler laughed and ordered the guards to give Radwan extra rations.

Post-World War

After the war, Radwan immigrated to Northeastern Ohio in the United States. He traveled as a wrestler and strongman performing feats such as straightening horseshoes, pulling cars with his teeth, reclining on a bed of nails while volunteers stones on his chest and bending quarters. For twenty years, Radwan was undefeated as a professional wrestler. Radwan lived in Cleveland, Ohio, where he was a member of several Polish fraternal organizations and clubs. He hosted a Polish language radio show on Sundays and wrote for two Polish language newspapers. He was also a body guard for local politicians, such as former Mayor

Ralph Perk Ralph Joseph Perk (January 19, 1914 – April 21, 1999) was an American politician of the Republican Party who served as the 52nd mayor of Cleveland, Ohio. Early life Born to an ethnic Czech American family in Cleveland, Perk dropped out of ...

. His popularity among Polish-Americans in Cleveland was valuable to local politicians. A movie about his life titled ''The Atomic Man'' was discussed but never made.

Death

Radwan died in 1998 and was survived by two sons, a daughter, and seven grandchildren.

References

;General *Pol-Am Journal June 1983 *Ohio Magazine April 1983 ;Specific

External links

*
Stanley Radwan at Wrestlingdata.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Radwan, Stanley American male professional wrestlers Polish professional wrestlers Professional wrestlers from Ohio Polish emigrants to the United States 1908 births 1998 deaths Polish military personnel of World War II Polish Navy officers Polish prisoners of war in World War II World War II prisoners of war held by Germany Bergen-Belsen concentration camp survivors