dr E. Łazowski
The private war between Drs. Lazowski and Matulevich
from 12.06.2016 outdoor exhibition Market Square in Rozwadów (Stalowa Wola)
The private war between Drs. Lazowski and Matulevich
The Regional Museum in Stalowa Wola, in connection with the ceremony of unveiling commemorative plaques on the market square in Rozwadów, has prepared an open-air exhibition entitled The Private War of Drs. Łazowski and Matulewicz.
The idea of the exhibition is to bring the residents closer to this unique story that happened in Rozwadow during World War II. It turned out then that spotted typhus could be not only a silent killer, but also an ally in the fight against the German occupier. The exhibition is based on a small collection of photographs that Dr. Łazowski donated to the Museum. They come from the time of his stay in Rozwadów, and immortalized on them were, among others, Dr. Matulewicz, Dr. Łazowski’s wife Maria, and Maria’s father – a distinguished builder of Stalowa Wola.
Eugeniusz Łazowski was born in 1913 in Częstochowa. After regaining independence, he and his parents moved to Warsaw. After graduating from high school, he entered the School of Sanitary Cadets and began medical studies at the University of Warsaw. While he was taking his final exams, World War II broke out. He did not receive his diploma until January 1940, but by September 1939 he was already serving as a doctor, including in the Brest fortress. Arrested by the Soviets, he escaped from a transport to Siberia. After returning to the country, he was once again arrested by the Germans, and was sent to a prisoner of war camp in Lublin, but from there too he managed to escape in spectacular fashion. In the summer of 1940, Dr. Łazowski and his wife Maria arrived in Stalowa Wola. Here lived Maria’s mother, the widow of engineer Ludwik Tolwinski – a builder of a steel mill and housing estate.
Princess Anna Lubomirska offered the doctor a job at the Polish Red Cross Infirmary. The facility and the doctor’s apartment were located in Rozwadowski’s Market Square at number 23. Łazowski combined his professional work with underground activities. As a soldier in the Home Army, he adopted the pseudonym “Leszcz” and treated wounded underground soldiers, providing them with medicines and bandages, and was a trusted doctor of the “Father Jan” partisan unit. His wife Maria – alias “Pliszka” – was also active in the underground as a liaison officer.
Lazowski’s colleague from Warsaw, Stanislaw Matulewicz, also sought work as a doctor. Łazowski offered him to come to Rozwadów. Matulewicz settled in Zbydniów. It was there that, in the laboratory he organized, he discovered that the blood of patients infected with a certain bacterium when tested gave results suggesting infection with spotted typhus, a dangerous infectious disease. Lazowski decided to take advantage of this sensational discovery by Matulevich to create an artificial typhoid epidemic. Matulevich and Lazowski began inoculating visiting patients with the discovered bacterium. Samples,
subsequently sent to German laboratories, suggested typhoid infection. The scale of the problem for the occupiers was significant. As a result, the authorities recognized the area around Stalowa Wola as a plague region, which stopped the deportation of the local population to concentration camps and for labor in the Reich. An artificial typhus epidemic caused by two Polish doctors saved many lives from death.
Although at some point the Germans became suspicious of the doctors’ activities, they were unable to prove anything to them. In 1943, Matulevich left Zbydniów, and after the war went to Zaire, where he became a respected radiologist. Lazowski also left in 1944. After staying in Warsaw for several years, he went to the United States, where he continued his pediatric practice and earned a professorship. He described his struggle with the occupation in his book Private War. Memoirs of a Soldier-Doctor 1933-1944. The doctors’ story caught the interest of American director Ryan Bank. He came to Rozwadów with a film crew and met with Lazowski in order to make a documentary on the subject. The realization most likely did not come to fruition.
Eugeniusz Lazowski died in the USA in the state of Oregon in 2006.
