Stanislaw Wiczyk

Stanislaw Wiczyk M.D. (1912-2010) He was born in Czestochowa, Poland to Maurice and Maria Oppenheim Wiczyk. His beloved mother, a lover of poetry and literature, died when he was only 12 years old. She encouraged him to take a classical education and he became proficient in Latin, French, and German.

He helped support his family, including his sisters, Felicia and Stefa, by tutoring Latin. Throughout his life, he remained a student of Latin interacting with many other Latin scholars throughout the world; his correspondences with the head of the Vatican Library remain in its archives to this day.

He overcame rising Polish anti-Semitism and a strict quota to gain entrance to Medical School at the University of Warsaw, graduating Doctor of Medicine in 1939. Immediately, he was drafted in to the Polish army as the commanding officer of a medical evacuation unit.

Stationed at the German-Polish border, he witnessed the onset of WWII on September 1, 1939. After the crushing defeat of the Polish Army, he served as a Resistance fighter in the Polish underground from 1943 to 1944 and was then drafted as a physician into the Russian army as it forged westward through Poland.

He ended the war in Dresden, Germany in 1945. With the aid of three courageous and righteous Polish Catholic families and their local priest, Monsignor Stanislaw Symon, the Wiczyks survived the Holocaust, living and working as Christians. The bravery and sacrifice of these remarkable people was never forgotten and Dr. Wiczyk actively supported them for the remainder of their lives.

Following the war, he remained in Poland and worked in a naval hospital in Gdynia performing marine medical research. It was during this period that he was imprisoned by the Communist authorities because of his participation in the underground during the War. He was released after one year thanks to the perseverance of his wife, Barbara. In 1957, he emigrated to Israel where he was employed as a ship doctor by the ZIM Steamship Line relocating the remnants of the European Jewish community to Israel.

The Wiczyk family left Israel for the U.S. in 1960. He practiced Family Medicine in Riverhead, LI, N.Y. from 1961 to 1979 and in Erie at Saint Vincent Health Center from 1979 to 1985.

Dr. Wiczyk was a man of many interests and scholarly pursuits. He loved playing bridge, enjoyed swimming, and was a devoted ham radio operator (KA2DBJ). However, his great passion was the study of the events surrounding WWII and the Holocaust and for the remainder of his life he read and spoke about this tragic period.

He was a devoted husband, father and grandfather. His experiences with anti-Semitism as a youth, his personal experiences and many close-calls during the Holocaust, and the post-war oppression by the Communists made him greatly appreciate the tolerance and humanity of the United States, his adopted homeland. He remained a devoted American.

Stanislaw Wiczyk, MD, 97, died on October, 14, 2010 after a long and bountiful life. He is survived by his wife of 75 years, Barbara Wiczyk, MD, daughter Janine Dreyfus and her husband, Richard Dreyfus, MD, of Erie, daughter Halina Wiczyk, MD and her husband, James Rosenthal, MD, of Springfield, Mass., grandson Darren Dreyfus, DO and wife, Marie, of Erie, granddaughter Audrey Samon and husband, Dr Joshua, of Milburn N.J., granddaughter Jacqueline Spry and husband, Bryan, of Lansing, Mich., grandson Jeffrey Rosenthal presently at the American University in Iraq, grandson David Rosenthal of New York City and five great grandchildren, Lauren and Ronin Dreyfus, Ava Spry, Eli and Isaac Samon.