| NEW FROM POLISH AMERICAN CONGRESS: AUSCHWITZ CHRISTIAN BIDS FAREWELL TO OLD FRIEND FROM DACHAU 5/22/2006 - NEWS from THE POLISH AMERICAN CONGRESS HOLOCAUST DOCUMENTATION COMMITTEE
177 Kent St., Brooklyn, N.Y. 11222 – (718) 349-9689
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE May 22, 2006
AUSCHWITZ CHRISTIAN
BIDS FAREWELL TO OLD
FRIEND FROM DACHAU
Francis Proch,Author of "Poland's Way
of the Cross" Now Has Own Cross in
Pennsylvania Cemetery
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Amid the crosses on the graves of Polish Army
veterans and concentration camp survivors,
Michael Preisler (above) delivers his eulogy to the memory
of his old friend and fellow concentration camp survivor,
Francis Proch. The internment of Proch's ashes took
place on May 20th in the veterans' cemetery at the
American Shrine of Our Lady of Czestochowa in
Doylestown, Pennsylvania.
Originally a New Yorker after he emigrated to the U.S. in
1949, Proch lived in Colorado since 1982 and died there
on January 1st of this year. The internment was postponed
until now so all his friends on the east coast would get the
opportunity to participate in the solemn ceremonies at the
shrine.
Proch survived five years in Dachau while Preisler spent
more than three years in Auschwitz. They first met after
the Allies liberated Hitler's concentration camps in 1945.
Disturbed by the lack of accurate information about Poland's
suffering in World War II, Proch published a detailed
account of that experience in 1978 which he titled,
"Poland's Way of the Cross." Even to this day, the book
contains extensive facts about the German and Soviet
occupation of Poland which are rarely provided by
contemporary Holocaust literature.
Proch was one of the founders and first president of the
Polish Association of Political Prisoners of German and
Soviet Concentration Camps. Prominent in New York's
Polish émigré community, Proch was also president of
the Downstate New York Division of the Polish American
Congress until Preisler succeeded him in that position
in 1980.
"He was a man of the highest principles and ideals. A
true patriot with the deepest concern for the welfare of
all of us survivors and veterans who found ourselves
stranded at war's end without a homeland to return to
because Poland had been taken over by the Communists,"
said Preisler.
Contact: Frank Milewski
(718) 263-2700
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