Iwo Cyprian Pogonowski

born Lwów, Poland — now Lviv, Ukraine — September 3, 1921 is a Polish-, Belgian- and American-educated industrial engineer with 50 U.S. patents to his credit, and a lexicographer and historian.

Pogonowski reached western Europe, and eventually the United States, via German concentration camps. He had left Warsaw, Poland, in December 1939. On December 30, he was arrested at Dukla by Ukrainians in the service of the German Gestapo. He was sent successively to Barwinek, Krosno, Jasło, Tarnów, Oświęcim (Auschwitz), arriving August 10, 1940, at Oranienburg-Sachsenhausen.

On April 19, 1945, Pogonowski began on the Brandenburg Death March from Sachsenhausen, but escaped SS gunfire to arrive May 2, 1945, at Schwerin and freedom.

He subsequently studied engineering in Belgium and Tennessee, in the United States. His career has included Academia and practical work in the U.S. petroleum industry.


Some major books by Pogonowski

• 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.
• Unabridged Polish-English Dictionary, 3 volumes, New York, Hippocrene Books, 1997.