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Jozef Mlot-Mroz
Born	Jozef Wladyslaw Mroz (1921-01-21)January 21, 1921 Męcinka, Poland
Died	October 31, 2002(2002-10-31) (aged 81) Groton, Connecticut, United States
Burial place	Saint Mary's Cemetery, Salem, Massachusetts
Nationality	Polish
Organizations	Anti-Communist Confederation of Polish Freedom Fighters in U.S.A New England Captive Nations Committee
Political party	Polish Peasant Party
Spouse	Barbara C. Thompson ​ (m. 1970)​

Jozef Mlot-Mroz (born Jozef Wladyslaw Mroz; January 21, 1921 – October 31, 2002) was a Polish-American anti-communist, Polish nationalist and antisemitic conspiracy theorist.

Biography

Jozef Mlot-Mroz was born on January 21, 1921 to Kaspar and Helena Mroz (née Janocha) in the village of Męcinka in southwest Poland. He attended public grammar school in Jedliczu, and high school and college in Krosno.

Political activity in Europe

In 1940 he was imprisoned by the German Gestapo for 3 months, and upon being released joined the Polish Underground. In 1945 he was imprisoned for 21 months by Soviet authorities for continued participation in the Underground, and after his release he became secretary of an air club in Krosno, and later claimed to have been promoted to second lieutenant of the Polish underground army. After an inspection by the Soviet NKVD found papers in his possession relating to the Polish Underground he was arrested, but shortly before his trial he was assisted by other members of the Underground in fleeing to East Germany, travelling first to Berlin and then to Frankfurt in West Germany where he worked at the Bureau of Polish Affairs. During this time he also worked for the Vice President of the Polish Peasant Party and headed the party organization. At various points in his life he also worked as a freelance writer for Polish newspapers in France, Sweden and the United States.

In August 1952 he applied for a US immigration visa at the American Consulate in Frankfurt under the Displaced Persons Act of 1948. His immigration application listed his occupation as "locksmith", his nationality as "Stateless-Polish", and his last place of residence as 54 Myliusstrasse, Frankfurt. He arrived in New York City on November 26, 1952.

Political activity in the United States

Mroz was active in several Polish immigrant organizations in the United States. He was a member of the Polish Peasant Party in the United States, and was a staunch supporter of Stanisław Mikołajczyk. In March 1955 Mroz traveled to Paris as a delegate to the convention of the Polish Peasant Party Congress, and also visited England and Spain.

Mroz lived with his aunt and uncle at 18 Boardman Street in Salem, Massachusetts and was employed as a leather worker. He began a hunger strike on August 9, 1959 against Khrushchev's impending visit to the US and upcoming meeting with Eisenhower, saying "I will not eat, I will not drink, I shall give my life on the altar of patriotism". He planned to spend the duration of his hunger strike in his car, which he parked on the ellipse behind the White House. His car was adorned with American and Polish flags, and a four-sided sign which read "We Demand Freedom for Poland and Captive Nations;" "Don't Shake KHRUSHCHEV's Bloody Hand;" "Wake Up Americans, Don’t Let KHRUSHCHEV Crush You;" and "Stop Communism Now." He stated that he intended his strike to last for 7-11 days. It lasted 10 days during which he lost 27lbs.

On the evening of May 15, 1960 a 39-year-old Mroz was arrested at the top of the Washington Monument. He had hidden on the stairs inside the monument until after it closed to visitors, then broke the lock on the north window and unfurled a 110 foot streamer of black cloth. He claimed that this was a protest against "President Eisenhower shaking the bloody hand of Khrushchev." He was initially charged with destruction of government property and creating a nuisance, but after a government recommendation the charges were dropped on the grounds that he was an alien and may get into trouble with immigration authorities. He told police he was president of an organisation called the "Anti-Communist Confederation of Polish Freedom Fighters of the USA." He frequently picketed outside the Soviet embassy and on one occasion was charged with assaulting a police officer who asked him to discard the metal bar he was using to hold his sign. He was also severely beaten in 1960 while protesting the visit of Soviet officials to the UN.

In 1962 he was fined $10 for continuously ringing a bell outside the Sheraton Hotel in which President John F. Kennedy was staying. In 1963 he was arrested for burning a Soviet flag on Columbus Avenue. In 1964 he was picketing Pier 4 in East Boston where American wheat was being loaded, destined for the Soviet Union. In 1965 he was fined $25 for assaulting civil rights leader Rev. Vernon Carter who was picketing in front of School Committee headquarters. In 1967 he was arrested for disturbing the peace after disrupting a Franklin Park rally led by Stokely Carmichael.

On April 3, 1967, 23-year-old John W. Gill pushed Jozef Mlot-Mroz into the Thames river in New London, Connecticut after Mroz allegedly attempted to set fire to a canvas "submarine" being launched from the city pier by a group of pacifist protesters. Mroz was not arrested because his actions were not witnessed by anyone else and no complaints were filed. Gill was later cleared of wrongdoing as his actions were deemed a reasonable response to Mroz's attempted attack, which the prosecutor described as "reprehensible".

In May 1968 Mroz was stabbed was while demonstrating against the Poor People's March on Washington. He had been walking through an area where marchers were assembling with a sign that read "I Am Fighting Poverty. I Work! Have You Tried it? It Works!" After a scuffle in which he was knocked to the ground, marchers advised him to leave for his own safety and attempted to escort him to a taxi, which he refused and walked away before driving back a few minutes later. A rock was thrown at his car window, and he jumped from the car and headed in the direction it was thrown from, upon which he was stabbed and said "I'm stabbed. I'm stabbed, this is the first time they've ever done that to me." By this time he was describing himself as a "retired" leather worker.

On January 11, 1970 he married Barbara C. Thompson in Townsend, Massachusetts and his public appearances thereafter diminished. By this point he was a self-employed house painter.

In 1985 he joined a protest held by Roman Catholics outside a movie theater in Cambridge, Massachussetts against the film Hail Mary which Mroz described as "a disgrace" that would "destroy the morality of youth".

Antisemitism

Mroz made frequent use of antisemitic canards, particularly that of Judeo-Bolshevism, and often equated Zionism with Communism despite the Soviet Union's official policy of anti-Zionism and its backing of Arab countries in the Middle East. Almost all members of the ACCPFF came from Poland's peasant class, and Mroz was open about the fact that antisemitism was a staple of his life in Poland. In a taped interview he said "In Poland, peasants and laborers, they was [sic] always working for the rich Jews" and "all the business of everything were in Jews hands, but the point isn't that you know, the point is that when in 1917 the Communists took over Russia, the Jew in Poland gets power."

In July 1971 he travelled to the Federal Building on Post Office Square where he attempted to attack Daniel Ellsberg, who was fighting extradition to California to stand trial for leaking Pentagon documents to the press. He shouted antisemitic epithets at Ellsberg, calling him a "Red Jew" and a "traitor" and attempted to hit him with a 7 ft sheet metal cross, but missed and hit television cameramen instead.

He was the head of the Anti-Communist Confederation of Polish Freedom Fighters in the USA (ACCPFF), which claimed almost 2,000 members by mid-1971, although very few of them would ever join Mroz at his demonstrations. In 1987 the ACCPFF was described by The Lewiston Journal as "a one-man organization".

In 1989 Mroz attempted to disrupt a celebration of the 20th anniversary of the 1969 Harvard strike. He rushed to the front of the rally with a sign reading "Fight and Destroy Jewish Zionist Conspiracy Today" and attempted to address the crowd. He was shouted down with cries of "No Nazis!" and his sign was destroyed before police forced him to leave. After a Synagogue in Salem, Massachusetts was vandalized with antisemitic graffiti in the summer of that year, Mroz was arrested for breaking into the building the next day and attempting to cover up the graffiti in order to prevent the vandalism from generating sympathy towards the Jewish community.

Funding

Despite being a manual laborer who lived with his relatives until he married later in life, Mroz was able to travel extensively, attend countless protests and print and distribute a vast number of his own publications. After the death of Richard J. Cotter - a millionaire Exeter and Harvard Law graduate - it became apparent that Mroz's activities were funded in part by Cotter's donations to far-right groups including Mroz's "Polish Freedom Fighters".

Personality

The FBI's profile on Mroz described him as a white male of average height with brown eyes and dark brown hair. He had a small moustache and spoke with a heavy Polish accent.

FBI reports also indicated that Mroz was "erratic" and "obnoxious in his activities", and that he was "thoroughly disliked by many Poles in the Salem, Mass. area". He would typically arrive at demonstrations after picketing had already started, wearing a red, white and blue uniform, and parking his car some distance away to avoid vandalism. He met with anti-Communist Senator Joseph McCarthy on two occasions and regarded him as a personal hero. Despite living most of his life in the United States he never naturalized as an American citizen, commenting in 1971: "I was born a Pole, and I want to die a citizen of my beloved Poland. It is my opinion that I can do more for this country by being a citizen of Poland and by fighting the Communists here than becoming a citizen".

In addition to antisemitism he also opposed racial integration, believing it to be a communist plot. In April 1965, he protested against a civil rights march in Boston led by Martin Luther King Jr. while holding a sign that described King as "a troublemaker" and "a liar".

Mroz expressed a great enjoyment of his public protests and later said that he missed picketing, having greatly reduced his appearances at protests after his marriage in 1970. Despite attempts to explain his behaviour as a consequence of having been tortured by Communist authorities, there is no evidence that this was the case and he left Poland before he could have participated in any significant anti-Communist uprisings.

Later life

Jozef Mlot-Mroz died at Groton Regency Health Center in Groton, Connecticut on October 31, 2002 aged 81. In addition to his wife Barbara, he was also survived by his brother Wladyslaw and three sisters Jadwiga, Michalina and Elzbieta, and predeceased by his brother Emil. He was buried in Saint Mary's Cemetery in Salem, Massachusetts. His wife Barbara died in 2013 and was buried alongside him.

Further reading

• S.O.S.!!!, U.S.A., Ship of State (Archive reference)
• Anti-Communist Confederation, OF Polish Freedom Fighter, S IN USA, Inc., Jozef Mlot-Mroz (Archive reference)
• Mlot-Mroz, Jozef—Correspondence, 1956-1971 (Archive reference)

External links

• Vietnam Protest with appearance by Jozef Mlot-Mroz (Video)