Dyonizy Ivanovich Donald DOWLUT

14 MAY 1914 - 14 NOV 1989

• BURIAL: 1989, St Joseph Catholic Cemetery, South Bend IN
• BIRTH: 14 MAY 1914, Dubatovka, Belarus
• DEATH: 14 NOV 1989, St Joseph County IN

• MARRIAGE: MAR 1941, Belarus

1.  Victor DOWLUT
2.  George Joseph DOWLUT

INDEX

[N11703] Dyonizy Ivanovich Donald Dowlut
Birth: May 14, 1914, Belarus
Death: Nov. 14, 1989
South Bend, St. Joseph County, Indiana, USA

Polish Army soldier, WW II
Dyonizy was in the Polish Army on the western front of Poland when Germany invaded Poland on September 1, 1939. As his unit fell apart and Polish troops became individuals fighting for their lives, Dyonizy was one of the surviving troops who retreated to the east. He made his way back to his home in Pinsk and found that the Russians had invaded Poland from the east and were occupying his hometown. He survived the Russian occupation in Pinsk and was in Pinsk for the early part of the German occupation. The German Nazis put Dyonizy, his wife, and their baby onto a cattle car, crammed with other Poles being taken to forced labor camps. They were taken first to Dachua and soon after to Augsburg. Dyonizy was held as slave labor for the rest of World War II. After the camp was liberated by the U.S. 2nd Army, the camp became a refuge camp. He remained in the refuge camp until 1949 when he was able to bring his family to the U.S.A. Dyonizy said he could speak eight languages, "and a little bit English." Officially his religion was Orthodox, but he had little use for any organized religion. Dyonizy was the brother of Trofem, Nadia, Irena, Michael, Anastasia, and Sergei. Dyonizy was the youngest of the siblings. When he was a little boy, the chaos aftermath of the 1917 Russian Revolution and World War I were happening in his part of the world. His father was seen by the Red Russians as a supporter of the White Russians, and his father was sent to Siberia to work in an electric plant. That left the family with no means of support. In that time and place, there were no public schools. In order for a child to go to school, the school master had to be paid by the family of each child. Dyonizy's mother had no money to pay for his schooling after first grade. When second grade began, little Dyonizy went to the school, and the school master chased him away. Then the little boy stood outside the one-room school, looking in at the window and trying to listen to the teacher. The teacher could not have children getting free education; it would mean that the teacher was not being paid for his work. The teacher instructed the other children in the class to go outside and throw rocks at little Dyonizy. And that was the end of Dyonizy's formal schooling. Dyonizy was born in a tiny village called "Dubatovka" which was near the larger -- but still small -- village of Morozovichi. (The name "Dubatovka" means something like "place of the oaks," and the name was used for more than one small village.) The village of Morozovichi is northwest of the city of Baranavichy and southwest of the city of Novogrudok. Approximate latitude and longitude of the Morozovichi are 53° 32' north, and 25° 34' east. Morozovichi was in the volost (township) of Koshelevskaya, which was in the uyezd (district) of Novogrudok, which was in the guberniya (province) of Minsk. The system of villages > volosts > uyezds > guberniya existed from 1843 until 1918. By 2010, the area is part of the oblast of Hrodna, and Grodno is the administrative center of Hrodna.

Spouse: Olga Yosefina Urbanowicz Dowlut (1915 - 1972)

Children: George Joseph Dowlut (1947 - 2014)*

Burial: Saint Joseph Cemetery, South Bend, St. Joseph County, Indiana