Józef Stawinoga

Józef Stawinoga (15 December 1920 – 28 October 2007), also known as Fred and incorrectly reported as Josef, was a homeless Polish man who lived in a tent on the Wolverhampton Ring Road in the West Midlands, England for nearly 40 years.^[2] Little is known about the recluse, but he is thought to have been involved in the 1939 Soviet invasion of Poland, before emigrating to the UK in the 1940s.

Wolverhampton

After the war he lived in Wolverhampton, finding work and a place to live – and an Austrian wife who left him after a year, according to Juliusz Leonowicz, who identified himself as Stawinoga's friend.^[3] Official records show that Stawinoga married Hermine Weiss in Wolverhampton in 1952.

It has been reported that Stawinoga worked for some time at the Stewarts & Lloyds steelworks in Bilston. One day, however, he did not turn up to work and the next his colleagues knew "...he was pushing a pram with all his possessions and had grown an ankle-length beard" ^[4]

It seems therefore that, at a date given by different sources as 1954^[5] and 1967,^[6] he opted out of society for unknown reasons, left his job, and became homeless. He was evicted from several lodging houses,^[6] and by the 1970s he had moved into a tent on the central grass reservation of the town's inner ring road. The council tolerated his presence, as he was claustrophobic, and he became something of a local character. A series of replacement tents was erected by the authorities over his original plastic sheeting;^[7] in April 2003 this involved "an operation involving the army, the police, social services and environmental health".^[8]

Fred was treated as a holy man by the Hindu community, with many people believing he lived a truly enlightened life.^[5] A group devoted to him on the social networking site Facebook had over 6,500 members and he was awarded an honorary degree by Wolverhampton Polytechnic.^[1]

Death

Józef Stawinoga died on 28 October 2007, aged 86. Wolverhampton City Council announced that it would cover the cost of his funeral if none of his family came forward, and the possibility of a memorial to him has been discussed. His tent was removed by the council at the request of West Midlands Police, who were concerned that the area would become a tourist attraction.^[2]

After Stawinoga's death his friend Leonowicz said that he had been told that the hermit had been a member of the SS during World War II.^[9] Such rumours were later dispelled, however, by the Simon Wiesenthal Center, the international Jewish human rights organisation. A spokesman from the Israeli office of the organisation, Dr Efraim Zuroff, said there was “no evidence of his service with the Germans” adding “Poles were not allowed to serve in the SS. It is simply not true.”^[10] This was further confirmed by Major Antony Rudzki, a member of the Polish community in Wolverhampton, who demobilized Stawinoga in Wrottesley Park after the war.

On 6 March 2008 it was reported that Stawinoga had thousands of pounds-worth of pension money that had been untouched.^[11] Wolverhampton Council traced the rightful heirs to Stawinoga's estate, two women and one man from Vienna, Austria, but their identities were not released. A BBC 1 programme Heir Hunters, broadcast on 21 July 2008, showed a search for heirs to his estate which had been listed on Bona Vacantia. The programme located the family in Germany but they were already making a claim themselves.

In 2009 it was announced that a bronze statue of Stawinoga was being designed by local artist and fellow Pole, Greg Rudevics from Oxley, Wolverhampton, who wanted a permanent memorial to the tramp erected in the city.^[12]

References

External links

• Ring road tramp Fred dies (Express and Star)
• Fans mourn Wolverhampton Ring Road tramp (The Guardian)
• Wolverhampton Ring Road tramp dies (Birmingham Post)