Iwo Cyprian Pogonowski (born Sept. 3, 1921 in Lwów, Poland, now Lviv, Ukraine) is a Polish–, Belgian– and American–educated inventor and professor of engineering with 50 patents to his credit. He is also a well-known World War II historian with several books and numerous articles on Poland–related subjects. Since the early 1980s Pogonowski's work included lexicography. He compiled, wrote and edited dictionaries; his crowning achievement being the 1990 "Polish-English, English-Polish Standard Dictionary", [ [http://books.google.ca/books?id=S0TlKgAACAAJ&dq=Iwo+Cyprian+Pogonowski Polish-English, English-Polish Dictionary with Complete Phonetics, by Iwo Cyprian Pogonowski] Published by Hippocrene Books Inc.,U.S., 1990. ISBN 0870528823, 363 pages.] reprinted in 1993, 1994 and 1997.
Pogonowski left Warsaw, Poland, in December 1939 at the age of eighteen with the intention of joining the Polish army in the West. [ [http://books.google.ca/books?id=lz9obsxmuW4C&pg=PA139&dq=Iwo+Cyprian+Pogonowski&sig=ACfU3U03vjsmC1u0W7gMHXDmd7d4NzqOCw Pogonowski's bio at "Out of the Inferno"] by Richard C. Lukas, University Press of Kentucky, ISBN 0813116929.] He was arrested in Dukla by Ukrainians in the service of the German Gestapo, and sent successively to German concentration camps in Barwinek, Krosno, Jasło, Tarnów, Auschwitz in Oświęcim, and in 1940, to Oranienburg-Sachsenhausen. In 1945, Pogonowski was sent on the Brandenburg Death March from Sachsenhausen, but escaped.
Professional career
After the war Pogonowski studied engineering, and in 1954 graduated in Civil Engineering from the Catholic University: Institute Superieur de Commerce, St. Ignace in Antwerp, Belgium. In 1955 he graduated with an M.S. in Industrial Engineering. His career included academic research and practical work in the industry. He taught descriptive geometry at the University of Tennessee. Upon graduation he worked for Shell Oil Company and for Texaco Research and Development, as a Project Engineer, starting in 1960.
Pogonowski authored a total of 50 American and foreign patents on marine structures for the petroleum industry. During later years he also taught courses on marine structures in Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University as Adjunct Professor in the College of Civil Engineering.
Since the mid-1980s Pogonowski has made pioneering efforts at compiling and publishing historical studies devoted to the subject of Polish Jewry uniquely from a Polish perspective, a rarity in American scholarship which—as noted by University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee professor of history M.K. Dziewanowski—"has never been attempted" before.[M.K. Dziewanowski, Professor Emeritus of History at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, [http://www.chapters.indigo.ca/used-books/Jews-in-Poland-Documentary-History-Iwo-Pogonowski-Richard-Pipes/grp3433469-0781806046-rare.html Jews in Poland: a Documentary History by Iwo Cyprian Pogonowski] Hippocrene Books, 1997.] ]Pogonowski's dictionaries
* "Practical Polish-English Dictionary", Hippocrene Books, 1981.
* "Polish-English Standard Dictionary", Hippocrene Books, 1985.
* "Unabridged Polish-English Dictionary", 3 volumes, New York, Hippocrene Books, 1997.
* "Polish Phrasebook and Dictionary: Complete Phonetics for English Speakers" by Iwo Pogonowski, 1991; 103 pages.
Books of history
* "Poland: A Historical Atlas", revised edition, New York, Hippocrene Books, 1989.
* "The Jews in Poland: A Documentary History: the Rise of [the] Jews as a Nation from Congressus Judaicus in Poland to the Knesset in Israel", New York, Hippocrene Books, 1993.
* "Świat po amerykańsku", Fundacja 'Nasza Przyszłość', 2004.
* "HERALDYKA - Heraldry", Publisher: Juliusz Ostrowski, wyd. CD-ROM, 2002.
* "Poland - An Illustrated History", Hippocrene Books, 2000, (personal recommendation by Z. Brzeziński)
* "Jews in Poland - A Documentary History", Hippocrene Books, 1998, (opinions below)
* "Historyczny Atlas Polski", Wydawnictwo Baran i Suszczyński, 1995
* "Poland - A Historical Atlas", Hippocrene Books, 1987
Reviews
"JEWS IN POLAND: A DOCUMENTARY HISTORY" by Iwo Cypian Pogonowski
“Mr. Pogonowski’s colorful compendium fills a very definite need. It is especially welcome on three counts. First it covers a wide span of history, from the earliest times to 1991. Second, among other things, it contains a mass of documentary material that is not readily available in English. Third, an extensive collection of maps and prints enlivens the body of detailed information, bringing it within the reach of wide audience. I learned much from reading the book. It will be a rare reader who does not do the same.” — "Professor Norman Davies", Oxford University
“The fact that today over ninety percent of Ashkenazic Jews trace their origins to the historical lands of the old Polish Commonwealth testifies to the importance of the Polish chapter of the Jewish history. Iwo Cyprian Pogonowski’s Jews In Poland: A Documentary History gives full documentation to this historic truth and places it in the permanent record.”— "Józef Gierowski", Professor of History and former President of the Jagiellonian University of Kraków
“Pogonowski shows us the wealth of the still living legacy of Polish and Lithuanian Jews carried by their descendants in the Diaspora and the State of Israel. This legacy represents an important element of the modern European and world culture.” — "Aleksander Gieysztor", Professor of History and President of the Polish Academy of Sciences
“The need for a good historical atlas describing the history of the Jews in Poland has long been recognized. This carefully researched and well drawn volume will enable students and the lay public to better understand the complex problems of the Polish-Jewish past and of Polish-Jewish relations.”— "Anthony Polonsky", Professor of International History at the London School of Economics and Political Science; Professor of Jewish History at Brandeis University
„The book endeavors to ‘encompass’ Jews within the Polish discourse, a rarity in American scholarship and in the discourse about Jews. While Poles have often been encompassed within the Jewish discourse (and within other discourses), the other way around has never been attempted. This pioneering attempt, as well as the sheer volume of documentation gathered in this volume, make Pogonowski’s opus remarkable and unusual.”— "M. K. Dziewanowski", Professor Emeritus of History at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee; author of War at Any Price (1990)
“Even though Hitler selected Poland as the principal slaughter house for the “final solution”…, it must never be mistakenly believed that the Holocaust was perpetrated by Poles. Nor must it be ignored that three million Poles perished at German hands. ..The materials collected in this volume bring to life some of these tragedies, but also record of good will and exemplary heroism.”— "Richard Pipes", Professor of History at the Harvard University, former Director of East European and Soviet Affairs in the National Security Council, 1981-1982
__NOTOC__ee also
*List of lexicographers
References
* Richard C. Lukas, [http://books.google.ca/books?id=lz9obsxmuW4C&pg=PA139&dq=Iwo+Cyprian+Pogonowski&sig=ACfU3U03vjsmC1u0W7gMHXDmd7d4NzqOCw "Out of the Inferno", p 139] University Press of Kentucky. ISBN 0813116929
* [http://www.pogonowski.com Iwo Cyprian Pogonowski's official website] .
