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Brush Wolf Press was established in the spring of 2003 to publish Auschwitz Veterinarian:
Five Years in the
Death Camps by Tadeusz Kowalczyk, D.V.M. Print copies of Auschwitz Veterinarian
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The complete text of Auschwitz Veterinarian
follows. The heirs of Dr. Kowalczyk invite duplication and
distribution of the text.
AUSCHWITZ VETERINARIAN:
FIVE YEARS IN THE DEATH CAMPS
BY
TADEUSZ KOWALCZYK, D.V.M.
FORWARD BY RICHARD OLSON
EDITED BY ALDEN R. CARTER
2003
Brush Wolf Press
1113 W. Onstad Dr.
Marshfield, WI, 54449 U.S.A
The heirs of Tadeusz Kowalczyk, D.V.M., have published Auschwitz Veterinarian:
Five Years in the Death Camps as a memorial to his life and to
the suffering of all the millions trapped in the horror of the Nazi
death camps.
Auschwitz
Veterinarian has been copyrighted to protect its
integrity. The heirs invite reproduction of the text in whole or
in part, asking only the courtesy of being informed of its quotation or
other use. Additional copies may be purchased from Brush Wolf
Press, 1113 W. Onstad Dr., Marshfield, WI 54449. E-mail orders
may be placed by contacting brushwolfpress@tznet.com.
Dr. Kowalczyk's heirs would like to thank Alden R. Carter for editing
the manuscript for publication. His many books are listed at
http://www.aldencarter.com.
Copyright © by the heirs of Tadeusz Kowalczyk
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
Forward
I began my junior year in college living at a boarding house near the
campus of the University of Wisconsin in Madison. The majority of
the boarders were, like me, students too poor to live in the
dormitories. Roommates were a necessary inconvenience:
other young men usually seen only briefly in the course of a week
filled with study and part-time jobs. In 1949, the mix
included some veterans of World War Two in school on the G. I. Bill but
still young enough to share the occasional beer or double date.
So it was with the expectation of meeting someone more or less my own
age that I opened the door to the room assigned me by the landlady.
Instead, a tall, slightly stooped man of about forty rose from a chair
before a small desk and came hesitantly forward to offer a hand.
He introduced himself as Tadeuz Kowalczyk, explaining in awkward,
heavily accented English that he was a veterinarian on the university
staff. When I stumbled on his name, he smiled.
“Please. Call me Ted.”
I was hesitant about sharing a room with this old man, but in reality
Ted and I didn’t see much of each other in the weeks that
followed. I worked hard, but no one worked harder than Ted.
He spent at least twelve hours a day, seven days a week, working in the
Veterinary Science offices and laboratories. He seemed a man
driven to make up for lost time. I began to understand why the
evening I first noticed the concentration camp number tattooed to his
left forearm. I was both shocked and deeply moved. The
world was still reeling from the stories of the Nazi death camps.
And here I was, the son of the town clerk of a small Wisconsin town,
living with a man who had survived the Holocaust and knew its terrors
first hand.
Ted never talked directly about his past. During the rare hour we spent
together, I pieced together a bare outline of his story from the
occasional allusions to his life before the war and his years as a
prisoner of the Nazis. I grew to like Ted very much.
Beneath his old world reserve, he was a very kind and decent man.
Another man with his experiences might have assumed a bitter cynicism,
but Ted engaged the world with forthright honesty shaded with a sly
irony. Sometime in that fall, I casually introduced him to my
older sister Ellen, a graduate assistant in the mathematics
department. They began seeing each other and, the following
summer, I lost a roommate and gained a brother-in-law.
Ellen and Ted lived in Madison during the twenty years they had
together. They had two children, Thomas and
Elizabeth. My wife, Bev, and I visited occasionally. Ted
was always a gracious host, still somewhat reserved but always
interested in hearing the news of our family and discussing the
goings-on in the world. He had become an American citizen and
took the duties and obligations citizenship entailed with great
seriousness. I’m afraid he was a rather remote parent and
husband. Part of that was, I think, simply an old-world attitude
toward those roles. But I believe he was also haunted through
those years by his memories of the death camps. He found relief in
gardening, the routine of an orderly family life, and particularly his
work.
His research at the university produced considerable improvements in
husbandry. He was among the world’s experts in gastric diseases
in swine, the world’s most important food-source animal. His work
had important ramifications in the treatment of human gastric diseases
because of the anatomical similarities in the two species. It was
not Ted’s way to speak of his work in grand terms. But he was a
man of intellectual depth and passion; and I believe he saw his work to
improve life as a contribution that might, in some small way,
counterbalance the immense evil he had seen revealed in the death camps.
Ted was a stubborn man. I think it was a quality that had
enabled him to survive in circumstances we can hardly imagine. It
also drove him to badger the West German government for a share of the
monetary reparations granted to Holocaust survivors. The money
itself was a trivial matter, but for Ted its payment represented an
official admission of guilt on the part of the German government.
And he was hell bent on having that apology. In 1963, he wrote the
document that follows as part of his compensation claim. To my
knowledge, it was the first and only time he committed his
recollections to paper. After a prolonged battle with the
bureaucracy in Germany and the United States State Department, Ted at
last received his compensation of $1,800 and the admission of guilt it
signified.
He never shared the details of his years in the camps with me or other
close family members. Perhaps the memories were too painful; or
perhaps he thought he was sparing us the pain of hearing the
story. We knew that he had suffered and continued to suffer
both mentally and physically. His years of torture, brutal labor,
inadequate food, and little medical care had caused irrevocable damage
to his health. He had compensated with an iron determination to
get on with the business of living. But even his will could not
triumph in the long term. His health declined through the 1960’s,
making him an old man before his time. In 1970, he died during
heart surgery.
Only after Ted’s death did Ellen show me the lengthy letter he had
written in 1963 as part of his compensation claim. As Ted no
doubt feared, I was horrified. That Ted’s case had been repeated
millions of times in the Nazi death camps only increased my anguish and
anger. There are still a few people who would deny the reality of
the Holocaust. To them I say: Read Ted’s story. If you can
still tell me that the death camps were a fiction, then I say your
denial puts you on same moral level as Hitler and all his monstrous
henchmen.
For the readers of this book with the moral courage to deal with the
truth, you have my respect. Let us never forget. Let
us never let it happen again.
Richard Olson,
Marshfield, Wisconsin
May 2003
From an undated note from Ellen Kowalczyk, widow of Dr. Kowalczyk, to
her brother Richard Olson.
Dear Dick,
This is not at all easy reading, but it shows all Ted did to prove his
case to the Germans. The end result was a mere $1800 for all those
miserable years!
There is no doubt that we as a family lived through many things (even
subliminally) as Ted fought those emotional and physical battles. It
wasn't until late Saturday afternoon, when I read this material in its
entirety, that I realized the enormity of it all. Living it day by day
was a real challenge that I'm not sure I could meet again.
With all that has been documented from so many sources about the
Holocaust, it seems so ridiculous for anyone to say it is a fiction.
EOK
Department of Veterinary Science
May 3, 1963
Re: IV/3 - 13671
Mr. Hötte
Bundesverwaltungsamt
Habsburgerring 9 (Hochhaus am Rudolfplatz)
Köln 1, Germany
Dear Mr. Hötte:
In reply to your letter of April 4, 1963, the following should answer
the questions asked.
It appears that the physician's statement concerning my medical
examination of November 26, 1949 which I sent to Bayerisches
Landesentshädigungsamt at the end of 1949 is missing, since
there were in it dates, places and kinds of illness which I had while
in concentration camps. I enclose a copy of this statement, and in
addition, I will describe some of my experiences which may convince the
court that living in three K.L., especially Auschwitz, along with
interrogation and living in prison for one year could have and still
has a detrimental effect on my health.
People here who have learned of conditions in these camps from books,
radio and T.V. wonder how I was able to survive such hardships, and
Prof. Dr. Reese in his statement, a copy of which I enclose, said, "I
shall not repeat the personal history, the physical condition nor shall
I enter into an evaluation of the compensatory justification. The
record of Professor Kowalczyk is well documented and in my opinion,
definite consideration as to his claim should be supported." Prof. Dr.
Hans Reese received the Merit Award (Verdienst Kreuz) last fall from
the government of West Germany for his distinguished career as a
scientist and for his activity in German-American relations. The
enclosed clipping from a local newspaper shows Prof. Dr. Reese
receiving this award from Dr. Gunther C. Motz, Consul General of West
Germany in Chicago.
Professor Chester Easum made a similar statement in his letter to Dr.
Motz, a copy of which I can show you when I visit you this summer.
Prof. Easum is a specialist of Hitler's era in the University of
Wisconsin's history department. He was in Germany after World War II to
study Nazi history and to lecture at many German universities,
Göttingen, Bonn, Heidelberg, Marburg, Giessen and Munich.
During my stay in the prison in Petrikau from June 25, 1940 to July 29,
1941, I was kept in solitary confinement in a cold, semi-dark room and
was interrogated by the Gestapo 3 or 4 times. The first interrogation
took place a few days after arrival there and ended this way. One S. S.
man was asking me questions and another was hitting my crossed legs
with the edge of a ruler. After awhile, the pain became unbearable, but
I was not allowed to move or change the legs because a third man stood
on the side hitting me with a whip. When the leg had swelled and blood
appeared on my pants, I was told that if I did not admit listening to
B.B.C. and spreading its news among the people, and associating with
remnants of the Polish army in the surrounding woods, they would use
more drastic measures or kill me. I told them that it would be foolish
for anyone to support the partisans when the regular Polish army was
defeated in a matter of a few weeks. It was not enough for them, and
the tortures continued until I fainted. Then I was returned to my cell.
Another time, a week to ten days later, they ordered me to kneel and to
hold a drawer with my arms stretched in front of me. S.S. men stood on
each side and when I could not hold it this way, they hit me. At the
same time, another Gestapo man constantly asked me to tell the truth
and to admit my affiliation with the partisans, etc. When I shouted
with pain, they turned the radio on full scale to drown out my cries.
The same was true during the third and fourth interrogation, when they
scratched [stretched?] me on the edge of the table, tied my arms and
legs to the table and simultaneously asked me the same questions. They
got furious when I did not admit to their accusations and would then
hit me on the head, chest, kidney region, or wherever they preferred.
The constant tension, fear of the next interrogation, the cold damp
cell, and the poor food were exhausting my health, and finally I
contracted pneumonia (winter, 1940-41).
I was sent to K. L. Auschwitz on July 29, 1941. The greeting here was
"cordial" with dogs, blinding search lights and S.S. men forming double
lines holding whips. Whoever was in the middle of the column escaped
being hit, and I was lucky enough to be hit only once on the head! The
next day an officer announced to us that we were in Auschwitz and were
expected to survive for 2 to 3 months, but that Jews and priests would
die within 4 weeks. Later pictures were taken of each of us in a
specially designed chair. It rotated by an electrically controlled
device. After the front of the face was photographed, the chair made a
sudden turn either right or left. This turn was so sudden and swift
that it threw me out on the floor. The Kapos standing by were on hand
to punish me with a blow on the head for slowing down their work. This
blow in addition to the one a few days earlier caused a sensation of
noise in my head which lasted a long time. In 1944 I was again hit in
the head by Lagerätester Bruno (in Auschwitz) who knocked me down.
From this an earache developed in the left ear which lowered my hearing
ability. Later I had earaches, especially during cold weather, during
my stay in Ravensbruck, Sachsenhausen and for at least two years after
liberation.
I was assigned to block 9 in Auschwitz where the block leader
(blockältester) was a sadist who, during morning and evening
roster in the camp yard, enjoyed kicking prisoners below the knee or
punching them in the stomach with his fist. I was again lucky to
receive only two or three such blows--this was during the winter of
1941-42. As a result of such a blow on the leg, an ulcer developed on
my leg for which the healing process was very slow. There is now a scar
on my left leg as a result of this ulcer.
The most devastating to our health was diarrhea by which everyone was
affected. It occurred during the first 4 to 6 weeks after arrival in
the camp. There were no drugs or food with which to treat it, and after
a few days, everyone's face was turning brown, eyes sunken, lips
parched from fever, dehydration and loss of strength. Almost 50% of us
died from it and from the purposely hard and hurried work given each
new transport of people brought to the camp (Bauhof Commando). A large
number of Kapos were assigned to hurry us, and the one who slowed down
was hit with a stick or shovel. Sometimes the guard would order a
prisoner to do something and then would shoot him because the guard
said he was trying to escape, having gone beyond the Postenkette.
Every evening about 5 were taken back to the camp for evening roster
dead, while others were almost exhausted and died during the night or
at the hospital. The constant fear of being unable to work or to walk
and no hope for a change was debilitating, and at any time, I expected
the end. Quite a few prisoners felt death was inevitable and chose to
shorten their suffering by hanging themselves with their belts during
the night. Others chose to run into the electrically-charged wire fence
surrounding the camp. Very often they were shot by guards from the
sentry houses before they ever reached the fence. Such gun shots were
usually heard during the night or very early morning, indicating that a
new transport of prisoners had arrived not long ago.
The sleeping conditions were very bad, sleeping on mattresses partially
filled with pulverized straw that was seldom changed. They were piled
at the end of the room during the day and at night laid on the floor.
The floor was washed every day, so it and the mattresses were always
damp. Pillows were our shoes wrapped in our pants and jacket, often wet
since Auschwitz has a very wet climate. Everyone had to keep his shoes
under his head so that someone could not take them away. We were so
crowded that we had to lie on our sides. It was a skill to turn over.
There was a different blanket every day, all of them unbelievably
filthy. One blanket had to cover 3 or 4, and often the first and fourth
were only partially covered. The blankets were also torn from the
pulling and tugging to keep oneself covered. A person was lucky if he
could sleep with his head near the wall, rather than in the middle of
the room with someone's unwashed feet near his head. Most of us had to
go to the men's room at least once during the night because of the diet
of turnips which are mostly water or because of the chronic cold,
chilled bladder or diarrhea. This was a difficult thing to do in order
to find floor space to step on. We could lose our balance and fall on
those asleep or in a hurry could just step on someone's face, abdomen,
etc. Therefore, each evening we tried to get a place in the room that
would not be on the way to the door. Then, too, the men's room was
often overcrowded with those in constant pain as a result of
gastrointestinal disturbance and who were afraid to leave in fear that
they would have to return soon and find it occupied. The men's room was
also filthy. Returning to the sleeping room often meant difficulty in
finding one's own place again.
Shortly after an almost miraculous recovery from diarrhea, I contracted
pneumonia. Friends in the hospital saved my life when S.S. physicians
and nurses made unexpected rounds, during which the more seriously ill
were sent to the gas chamber or received an injection of phenol. This
was spring, 1941.
At the end of 1941 or early 1942, I developed swelling of my legs and
knees as a result of malnutrition. It was necessary to make incisions
in order to drain the pus. The scars on my legs are evidence of the
incisions. The left leg was more severely affected, probably as a
result of the injuries mentioned previously. Here again there was
constant fear of a check of our legs at the gate on our return from
work in the evening. Such unexpected checks were done from time to
time--two columns were taken aside after entering the camp yard and
were ordered to raise the pants legs above the knees. S.S. men walked
in front of us and ordered those with swollen legs or bandages to step
aside. These victims were loaded on a truck or ordered to walk to the
gas chamber.
Checkups were also connected with the search for paper (from cement
sacks) which many of us carried under our jackets for protection from
the cold. This was forbidden as supposedly unsanitary. If such paper
was found, the victim was either sent to the gas chamber or given 5 to
10 lashes and released to the camp, depending on the mood of the S.S.
men or the physical condition of the prisoner.
In the winter of 1943 I contracted typhus when the lice infestation was
at its peak. This was caused by overcrowding, filth, lack of baths,
underwear worn for 4 to 5 weeks, etc. The typhus outbreak in 1943 was
very severe with complications to the central nervous system. Russian
prisoners probably brought it to Auschwitz. Usually every prisoner
suspected of having typhus was sent to the gas chamber in fear that
S.S. guards could also get it. The same fate was that of prisoners ill
with malaria brought by Greek prisoners to Auschwitz. I again
miraculously survived, since at this time I was assigned to a farm to
take care of the animals. The S.S. Kommandoführer
(Oberscharführer Glaue who was said to live on a farm in the
Oldenburg area) allowed me to be hidden during the day in the horse
stable, where friends covered me with straw and in the evening helped
me back to the barracks where we slept (Kommando Budy--5 miles outside
Auschwitz).
When I was on this farm taking care of the farm animals, my first
superior was S.S. Hamptsturmführer Dr. Langenmann from the
Flensburg area. Later it was S.S. Untersturmführer Dr. Turek from
Austria. While working here, there was an outbreak of abortions among
pregnant mares. Of course, some of the stallmeisters accused us of
sabotage--infecting them. The accusation was almost the equivalent of
execution. Again the fear, tension, worry, sleepless nights over
whether it meant being taken to the main camp (Auschwitz) to be
executed took its toll.
Also when taking care of the animals, I was allowed to go to another
camp called Birkenau with the S.S. guards, where the main transports of
Jews and others were arriving from 1941 on. Here we took bread, cookies
and such brought by the newly arrived prisoners to feed to the pigs. I
was afraid that the sows could abort from eating moldy bread or
cookies, and I warned my superiors to discontinue this.
On the way to Birkenau we passed the crematorium and the place where
prisoners were waiting to be sent to the gas chambers. I will probably
never forget the screams of the women and children being forced to the
gas chamber. Even after more than 20 years, almost every scream or cry
of children immediately reminds me of the picture I saw there. Nor will
I forget the smoke which was seen from time to time where we were,
especially when the wind blew from that direction. The smoke originated
from an outdoor fire of human bodies and wood, because the crematorium
could not handle all the transports of people from all over Europe
almost every day at the end or 1943 and the beginning of 1944.
One evening in August, 1944, shortly after we went to our barracks for
the night, the door opened suddenly and the guard called my number
(18944) with the order to dress in a hurry. This was an ominous sign
for it had never happened before that special S.S. Officers came at
that time of day to take a prisoner. I was brought in an army staff car
to the main camp at Auschwitz and put into the notorious 11 Block. It
was almost midnight. I realized that there was no return from Block ll.
During the night, more prisoners were brought there. I will never
forget the time spent there, for every moment seemed like the last.
Every sound of the door opening downstairs, of walking or of any
activity was an indication that we will be called downstairs [and put]
against the wall where many before and after us were executed. Lying on
the bed, my whole life passed before me--family, relatives, friends,
and also S.S. Hauptschargführer Palitsch whom I saw occasionally
about 2 years before on his way to Block 11 to perform an execution.
After perhaps two weeks of awaiting execution, we were sent on a
punishment transport (Straf transport). Here again we did not know if
we would be transported in the mobile gas chamber or on a cargo train
to be sent to another camp. Everyone was afraid of being sent to
Mathausen, Flossenburg or Bergen-Belsen.
These two weeks of waiting when the signs of approaching liberty were
more realistic and the loss of hope of survival on this farm taking
care of the animals certainly contributed to my present psychosomatic
disorders of the heart and stomach, cramps of the colon and
muscuoskeletal aches from which I have no hope of recovery.
I arrived at Ravensbruck at the end of August, 1944 where I found
myself in an environment less severe than that at Auschwitz upon my
arrival there in 1941. I do not remember any "serious" illness here,
for in our terminology illness which did not knock us down was no
illness at all. We did not allow ourselves to be overwhelmed by
illness, since we knew the consequences of going to the prisoners'
hospital. During the late fall of 1944, I fortunately became a nurse in
the prison hospital at Ravensbruck. I remember an S.S. physician, Dr.
Lucas, who one day in February, 1945, left Ravensbruck because he would
not agree with the Lagerkommandant to send all seriously ill prisoners
to a barracks in the woods for death by starvation.
At the end of February, 1000 of us were sent to Sachsenhausen. Here
again was quarantine £or 3 weeks in unbearably crowded barracks,
hard work and very poor food, for allied troops were closing in from
the west and the east. Here I was losing strength rapidly and again got
diarrhea. When I stood in line near the hospital, Dr. Lucas passed by,
recognized me and promised to help me. As his protégé, I
received better treatment which saved my life. I was able to get Dr.
Lucas' present address and I intend to visit him this summer to express
in person my sincere appreciation for his help. Even though the hunger
was terrible, I did not lose strength and weight as I would otherwise,
since I worked in the hospital in much better conditions than those in
the overcrowded camp where thousands of prisoners were being brought
from the smaller camps in the vicinity.
On April 21, 1945, the day after Hitler's birthday, the whole camp was
evacuated in groups of 500 prisoners each. Each of us had received a
loaf of bread, a piece of oleomargarine and a slice of sausage. We
walked until the 3rd of May when we were liberated by the American army
close to Schwerin. During our journey, we slept outdoors in the woods
and did not receive any food. Once the International Red Cross reached
us and through the S.S. men, we received some food. In one village, a
farmer gave us 1-2 potatoes which he was just going to feed his swine.
I recall that when some of us tried to get raw potatoes stored in the
fields along the road, they were shot and killed. Obviously we were all
losing strength from exhaustion, hunger, cold, and when one could not
walk any more, a guard would drop behind with him. When those who could
still walk got far enough away, a shot would be heard and the guard
would soon join our column. Each of us wondered when his turn would
come. Again I survived and was hardly able to walk when the American
Tank Corps liberated us. At this point I had such severe pneumonia that
one more day of walking would have meant a bullet for me, too.
Even though we were liberated, we did not yet have any drugs. Friends
took care of me, and mostly with the help of God, I recovered. This
last untreated pneumonia, the previous pneumonia and the numerous colds
resulted in lung lesions that postponed for one year my emigration to
the U.S. (Photostatic copy from the Catholic Welfare Office enclosed.)
It is difficult to remember any more precisely than this the specific
illnesses out of such a sea of constant misery. As I said before, there
were many things to which we paid no attention as long as we could
walk. It would not be the same if you were to ask a German freed from a
Russian camp if he had been sick there and if he would give details of
where, when and why he was sick there.
There has been enough written about conditions in concentration camps,
along with testimony at trials in many countries. I have submitted
ample proof of my stay in Auschwitz, Ravensbruck and Sachsenhausen.
There is also enough evidence that I am no criminal. These horrible,
degrading, exhausting, nervewracking and debilitating experiences have
had their affect, mentally and physically—they are clearly remembered
and probably will be to the end of my life. They did cause and are
still causing my heart disorder, gastrointestinal disturbances,
musculoskeletal aches, and nightmares. The enclosed physicians'
statements confirm this. Therefore, even though I did not lose an arm,
leg or eye, the experiences described above are well known by
physicians to be the cause of psychosomatic disorders. I am not stating
the amount of money spent for medical treatment or the amount of money
I expect for my rehabilitation. There is really no amount of money that
can adequately compensate for this hardship, so this is being left to
the conscience of the court to at least make a gesture in the direction
of compensation.
Since I will be in Germany this summer, I would like to see you
personally and to bring additional documents. I would also like to see
if some of the papers which were sent to Munich 12 years ago are
missing. Would you be able to see me in Köln in the morning of
either the 17th or 18th of July? Please let me know if this date is
convenient for you, and if not, whom should I see instead?
Yours truly,
T. Kowalczyk, D.V.M.
Associate Professor
MEMORIAL RESOLUTION OF THE FACULTY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN ON
THE DEATH OF PROFESSOR TADEUSZ KOWALCZYK
Tadeusz Kowa1czyl was born December 7, 1909 at Dombrowa, Poland and
died December 2, 1970 in a Madison hospital following heart surgery.
He received his diploma as veterinary surgeon in 1937 from the
University of Warsaw and in 1946 his Doctor of Veterinary Medicine was
conferred by the Veterinary School in Hanover, Germany. After
immigrating to the United States he obtained his MS from the University
of Wisconsin in 1952.
His professional career was begun in Poland as a practicing
veterinarian and during this period he served as official veterinarian
to the President of Poland. This life was interrupted by the invasion
of his country and five years of imprisonment in German concentration
camps. A limited opportunity to carry on some professional activities
while a prisoner undoubtedly saved his life and the lives of some of
his fellow prisoners. After liberation by the allied forces he was
attached to the U. S. Army for veterinary duties. In 1949 he immigrated
to the United States supporting himself first as a laborer until it was
possible for him to come to the University of Wisconsin in Madison. He
married Miss Ellen Olson of Marshfield in 1950 and became a U. S.
citizen in 1952.
From 1949 to the time of his death he was responsible for the
veterinary services given to the University herds. Beginning as an
instructor while he completed his graduate studies he became assistant
professor in 1957 and full professor in 1968.
During the period of his tenure while the University herds more than
tripled in size the University animal health services were reorganized
and augmented and the importance of the practice of preventive medicine
fully recognized. To this end he worked with professors, students and
herdsmen explaining and seeking their cooperation and support in
bettering the health of the University livestock. He saw the service
obligations of his position to include both formal and informal
teaching. He taught short course students preventive medicine and
developed a course in experimental animal techniques for graduate
students. He found time to help countless graduate students from many
departments in planning and carrying out experiments that required
veterinary procedures needing his special talents. He was consulted and
willingly collaborated with faculty members from many departments in
experiments that required his special training.
Beyond these services to the University he developed a research program
in clinical veterinary medicine. He played a major role in a study of
chronic copper toxicosis which revealed the danger of routine
incorporation of copper in trace mineral salts given to livestock,
especially sheep.
His most important contribution has been his studies on gastric ulcers
of swine. He showed that this disease of swine was an important cause
of mortality of animals reared under modern methods of intensive
husbandry. Among the contributing factors that he identified were diet
(fine milling of feed), environment (stress of crowding) and altered
physiology (stress of pregnancy).
The analogy between gastric ulcers of swine and some of the stress
maladies of modern man were recognized by him. He presented his
earliest findings at the World Veterinary Congress in Hanover in 1963
and further observations in 1969 at an international swine symposium in
England. As a result of his studies he was able to develop management
methods which prevent the disease. In the past year he prepared the
chapter on gastric ulcers for Diseases of Swine the internationally
recognized authority in the field.
Among his other contributions are papers describing innovations in
procedures for anesthetizing animals, for obtaining biopsies and for
oxygen therapy. He published over 40 papers. He was a member of
the American and the Wisconsin Veterinary Medical Associations, the
Dane County Veterinary Medical Association, the American Association of
University Professors, the American Association for Advanced Science
and the New York Academy of Sciences.
He held the ideals of American democracy at the center of his life and
accepted citizenship as a high duty. Nevertheless, his deep love for
his adopted country did not lessen the love he had for Polish culture
nor did it reduce the pain he felt for the loss of freedom in his
mother country.
MEM0RIAL COMMITTEE:
C. W. Burch
Bernard C. Easterday, Chairman
Robert P. Hanson
William G. Hoekstra
Robert P. Niedermeier
C. Ernest Zehner
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