Jan Kowalik

Jan Kowalik has made contributions to contemporary Polish culture that are immeasurable. While he has had careers as a teacher and a writer, it was in the field of bibliography that he made his mark. Perhaps his outstanding achievement is the World Index of the Polish Press, a monumental five-volume work that brought together all the Polish emigre publications worldwide. It was published by the Catholic University of Lublin between 1967 and 1988. He also published the Bibliography of Polish Diaspora (London 1965), and the Polish Press in America (San Francisco 1978).

Mr. Kowalik was born in Skoczow in 1910. He received diplomas from the Teachers College in Biala and from the High Teachers Institute in Krakow. He taught in Polish public schools from 1931 to 1939. When the war broke out Mr. Kowalik joined the Polish Underground and worked as a wireless operator. In 1944 he was captured by the Germans and sent to a labor camp where his health suffered greatly. Liberated by the American Army in 1945, Mr. Kowalik remained for a time in Germany where he directed an international organization for displaced persons.

Jan Kowalik came to California in 1952 and was employed as a library assistant at Stanford University. In 1963 he founded the American Polish Documentation Studio in San Jose where he continued his research on the subject of the Polish emigre press.

Mr. Kowalik has received numerous a wards for his efforts including the Golden Cross of Merit and the Ofcl. Cross Polonia Restituta from the Polish government-in-exile in London, and the Anna Godlewska Award. He was also the recipient of an Alfred Jurzykowski Foundation grant and award. Besides his numerous honors, Mr. Kowalik is also a member of the Academy of Polish Sciences, the Polish Society for Arts and Sciences in London, the Kosciuszko Foundation, the California Historical Society, the Polish-American Historical Association of Chicago and the Friends of the Bancroft Library in Berkeley, California. His work on behalf of Polish culture outside his homeland has truly been magnificent.

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Kowalik received his higher education first in the city of Cieszyn, and later in Bielsko-Biała. In 1931 he started working as a teacher in the external studies program at Jagiellonian University. When World War II began, he worked for the resistance movement. In 1944 he was arrested and imprisoned in Germany at a concentration camp in Wrexen.

After the camp's liberation Kowalik spent a year working as a teacher in a refugee camp in Landau-Waldeck. He then spent the next three years in a tuberculosis sanatorium in Steinatal, first as a patient, and later as an administrator. While working as an administrator at the sanatorium he was also working as a teacher in the hospital's school and later as a commanding officer at the displaced persons camp in Landau. After Landau, Kowalik worked in the archives of the Sekcja Obozów Koncentracyjnych w Międzynarodowej Komisji Poszukiwań (ITS) in Arolsen, while at the same time nurturing his love for writing and Polish publications. While with ITS, he collaborated on various publications: Kronika, Ostatnie Wiadomości, Słowo Katolickie, and Szlak. He also founded and was the editor of a weekly publication, Polak w Waldeck, which he put out while working as the commanding officer at the displaced persons camp. While in Germany, Kowalik continued his work as a journalist, writer, and poet. His poems were published in two volumes, Ścieżka przez Steinatal, in 1947, and Wiatr w Gałęziach, in 1948.

In 1950, Kowalik moved to the United States, where for two years he worked a series of odd jobs: security guard, window cleaner, night janitor at a cinema, and dishwasher at a restaurant. For three years he worked in the Hoover Library at Stanford University and later resumed his work in the labor force. He dedicated his spare time to his bibliographic work by starting the American-Polish Documentation Studio in California, where his primary work revolved around documenting the historical and bibliographical work of the Polish diaspora, specifically the émigré press. During that time Kowalik also published a great deal. His articles appeared in Kultura, Wiadomości, Oficyna Poetów, Ostatnie Wiadomości, Przegląd Polski, Głos Polski, Prąd, and Związkowiec.

In 1968, Kowalik received an award from the Alfred Jurzkowski Foundation, as well as the Gold Cross of Merit from the Polish President in exile, August Zalewski, for his contributions to Polish history, education, and literature. In 1986 in London, President Edward Raczyński bestowed upon him the medal of the Order of Polonia Restituta, and in 1993 the consul general of Poland in Los Angeles, Jan Szewc, presented him with the medal of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland.

Jan Kowalik died on February 11, 2001, in San Jose, California.

Translated from: http://www.bu.kul.pl/jan-kowalik-1910-2001-sylwetka-i-publikacje,ar...

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