Jozef Mlot-Mroz (born Józef Wladyslaw Mróz; January 21, 1921 – October 31, 2002) was a Polish-American anti-communist, right-wing political activist and antisemitic conspiracy theorist.
During the Second World War, Mroz fought with the Polish Home Army against the German occupation of Poland, and after the war ended he continued to participate in subversive activities against communist authorities, for which he was imprisoned. After escaping Soviet captivity he fled to Germany and eventually immigrated to the United States, where he became a prolific anti-Communist protester and opponent of the civil rights movement known for his inflammatory protest signs and provocative activity.
A political conservative, Mroz opposed racial integration and abortion rights, and supported American involvement in the Vietnam War. His political positions were tied to his belief in antisemitic and white supremacist conspiracy theories, and shortly before his death it was revealed that the frequency of his activism was made possible by donations from wealthy far-right patrons.
Early years in Europe Józef Wladyslaw Mróz was born on January 21, 1921 to Kaspar and Helena Mróz (née Janocha) in the village of Herrmannsdorf (now known as Męcinka) in Lower Silesia, which at that time was part of the Weimar Republic but is now part of Poland. He attended public grammar school in Jedlicze, and high school and college in Krosno.
In 1940, during the occupation of Poland by Nazi Germany, he was imprisoned by the German Gestapo for 3 months, and upon being released joined the Underground resistance movement. In 1945 he was imprisoned for 21 months by Soviet authorities for participation in the Polish Underground, and after his release he became secretary of an air club in Krosno. He later claimed to have been promoted to second lieutenant by the General of the Army in Krakow, and being awarded the Cross of the Fighting Polish and the Silver Cross of Service. After an inspection by the Soviet NKVD found papers in his possession relating to his continued service in 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 on to Frankfurt in West Germany in 1949, 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 nationality as "Stateless-Polish", his occupation as "locksmith", and his last place of residence as 54 Myliusstrasse, Frankfurt. He arrived in New York City on November 26, 1952.
Political activism in the US After arriving in the United States, Mroz found work as a laborer at the Parker Brothers toy and game company in Salem, Massachusetts, where he lived with his aunt and uncle at 18 Boardman Street. He 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.
Anti-Communism On September 9, 1959, Mroz began a public hunger strike in Washington D.C. against Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev's impending visit to the US. In an open letter to President Eisenhower, Mroz described Khrushchev as "a cold blooded murderer who sacrificed the lives of millions of people". Regarding his hunger strike, Mroz declared: "I will not eat, I will not drink, I shall give my life on the altar of patriotism". He also indicated that he had seen success in previous hunger strikes during his imprisonment in Poland and while in a refugee camp in Germany. He planned to spend the duration of his hunger strike in his car, which he initially parked in front of the White House, but after Police forced him to move his car due to illegal parking he relocated to the ellipse at the rear of 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 said that he intended his strike to last for 7–11 days; it ultimately lasted 10 days during which he lost 27lbs. However, his hunger strike failed to attract the attention he had hoped for, as the Polish, Hungarian, Lithuanian and Estonian "patriots" he had expected to join him did not show up. At the end of his strike he declared his intention to wear a black armband during Khrushchev's time in the Washington, the color black having been adopted as a symbol of mourning by those opposed to Khrushchev's visit.
On Easter Sunday in April 1960, Mroz began a march from Boston to Washington D.C. along US Route 1 as a protest against the upcoming Four Powers Summit in Paris, scheduled for May 16. Carrying a sign reading "Stop Communism - It May Be Too Late Tomorrow", he indicated his intention to begin a second hunger strike upon his arrival in early May. 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. The Paris summit ultimately collapsed as a consequence of the 1960 U-2 incident which occurred the day before Mroz's arrival in Washington at the end of his march from Boston.
Mroz also frequently picketed outside the Soviet embassy in Washington and the Headquarters of the Soviet mission to the UN in New York. On June 30, 1960 - the anniversary of the 1956 Poznań riots - he was sprayed with a garden hose by an embassy employee after refusing to leave the area, but he was eventually moved away by police who informed him that it was forbidden in Washington D.C. to protest within 500 feet of an embassy. He subsequently changed into dry clothes before resuming his protest at a safe distance. On June 30 the next year, Mroz padlocked himself to the ornamental railings at the front of the Soviet embassy, and was similarly sprayed with a garden hose by an embassy employee after Mroz threw the key to the padlock into some nearby bushes. The chain connecting him to the railing was cut by a police officer with bolt cutters, and he was subsequently arrested. In a 1960 incident in New York City he was severely beaten by police and subsequently hospitalized while protesting the visit of Soviet officials to the UN, and was charged with assaulting a police officer who had asked him to discard the metal bar he was using to hold his sign.
In 1962 he was fined $10 for continuously ringing a bell atop a truck outside the Sheraton-Plaza Hotel in which President John F. Kennedy was staying, in what he explained to Chief Justice Elijah Adlow was an attempt to "warn the President and the American people of the dangers of communism". In 1963, while participating in the "Rally for God and Country", he was arrested for disturbing the peace after burning a Soviet flag on Columbus Avenue near Boston's Statler-Hilton Hotel. In 1964 he picketed against American wheat shipments to the Soviet Union being loaded at East Boston's Pier 4, paddling around the T2 tanker ship Transorleans in a dinghy, while holding a sign that read: "Wheat For Russia Helps Reds to Bury Us!"
In April 1967, Mroz held a lone counter-demonstration in New York's Central Park against a peace march protesting the Vietnam War, holding a sign calling for the bombing of the North Vietnamese capital Hanoi to end "communism and Red termites". Some of the demonstrators at the march were members of the "League for Spiritual Democracy (LSD)", one of whom offered Mroz some of the hallucinogenic drug LSD, which he declined.
In January 1968, Mroz held a counter-protest outside the Boston courthouse where Dr Benjamin Spock and four others faced Federal charges of conspiring to aid draft evasion. After accusing one of Spock's supporters of being "a Red", the man replied "I'm not a Red" before punching Mroz in the face and knocking him to the ground.
Mroz served as the head of multiple anti-Communist organizations, including as chairman of the New England Captive Nations Committee. Mroz was also critical of post-war Germany, writing in April 1960 that "along with the communistic danger there appears another, that of Germany" which "begins to voice its opinion and perhaps tomorrow in unity with communism may endanger the peace of the world." He accused the Germans of using "specialized officers" to "falsify facts" and "portray the American way of thinking and outlook for their own benefit", concluding that "against these two dangers we must arouse public opinion" in order to secure peace.
Opposition to the Civil Rights Movement Mroz opposed policies that promoted 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"; quotes attributed to Harry Truman and J. Edgar Hoover, respectively. Mroz and other white picketers had marched into the crowd at the Carter Playground, but were quickly surrounded by chief marshal James Reed and other officials in order to prevent violence.
In 1965 he was fined $25 for assaulting civil rights leader Rev. Vernon E. Carter who was picketing in front of the School Committee headquarters, and in 1967 he was arrested for disturbing the peace after disrupting a Franklin Park rally led by Stokely Carmichael.
Stabbing incident On May 10, 1968, Mroz was stabbed in Roxbury, Boston after harassing members of the Poor People's March, which Mroz had opposed since participants left Brunswick, Maine on May 8. Approximately 150 marchers were gathered at the Blue Hill Christian Center at 288 Blue Hill Avenue, waiting to board buses to Providence, Rhode Island when Mroz arrived at the scene holding a sign that read: "I Am Fighting Poverty, I Work! Have You Tried It... It Works!" Despite the wording of his sign, he was by this point describing himself as a "retired" leather worker and still lived with his aunt and uncle.