Alvin O'Konski

Alvin Edward O'Konski (born May 26, 1904 in Kewaunee , Kewaunee County , Wisconsin , †  July 8, 1987 there ) was an American politician . Between 1943 and 1973 he represented the state of Wisconsin in the US House of Representatives .

Career

Alvin O'Konski had both Irish and Polish ancestors and his family was rooted in the Catholic immigrant community. He also spoke Polish. He attended public schools in his home country and then studied at the University of Iowa in Iowa City . He then graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh teachers' college in Oshkosh until 1927 . In 1932 O'Konski finished his studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison . In the following years he was active in the school service. He had already worked as a high school teacher between 1926 and 1929. Between 1929 and 1931 he was a member of the faculty at Oregon State College in Corvallis . From 1932 to 1935 he served as a school councilor in Pulaski, Wisconsin. He was then a faculty member of the University of Detroit in Michigan until 1938 . In addition to his school activities, O'Konski was also a newspaper editor and journalist.

Politically, O'Konski was a member of the Republican Party . In the 1942 congressional election he was elected to the US House of Representatives in Washington, DC , in the tenth constituency of Wisconsin , where he succeeded Bernard J. Gehrmann on January 3, 1943 .

In 1951/52 he was a member of the Madden Commission , the committee to investigate the Katyn massacre . Together with his fellow party member Timothy P. Sheehan , he made a statement on the final report of the Madden Commission, which sharply criticized the, in his opinion, overly indulgent policy of President Franklin D. Roosevelt towards the Soviet Union under Stalin . As part of the counter-offensive of the communist leadership of the People's Republic of Poland against the Madden Commission, he was attacked by the Warsaw press, which was subject to party control, as a representative of the "Hitler sympathizers in the USA".

After 14 re-elections, he was able to complete a total of 15 consecutive terms in Congress by January 3, 1973 . During this time, among other things, the end of the Second World War , the Korean War , the Vietnam War , the Cuban Missile Crisis and, domestically, the civil rights movement . In addition, amendments 22 to 26 of the constitution were passed. In 1957, O'Konski applied unsuccessfully for his party's nomination for the upcoming by-election to the US Senate after the death of Joseph McCarthy .

In 1972, O'Konski's electoral district was dissolved. He ran therefore in the seventh district and was defeated there incumbent Dave Obey of the Democratic Party . After leaving the US House of Representatives, Alvin O'Konski retired from politics. He spent his old age in Rhinelander and died on July 8, 1987 in Kewaunee.

Web links

• Alvin O'Konski in the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress (English)
• Alvin O'Konski in the database of Find a Grave (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Witold Wasilewski, propaganda kłamstwa counterproductive "Komisja katyńska" Izby Reprezentantów USA, in: Zeszyty Katyńskie, 23 (2008), S. 104th
2. ^ The Katyn Forest Massacre US Government Printing Office. Washington 1952, Vol. 3, p. 220.
3. ↑ Claudia Weber : War of the perpetrators. The Katyn mass shootings . Hamburg 2015, pp. 383, 385.
4. ↑ Tomasz Wolsza: "To co wiedziałem przekracza swją grozą najśmielsze fantazje". Wojenne i powojenne losy Polaków wizytujących Katyń w 1943 roku. Warsaw 2015, p. 142.