Hometown Heroes of WWII
Wodarski: Bronze Star for heroic achievement
By Michael Rocchetti
Rev John P Wodarski (1905-2002) was a Priest, Army Chaplain, and WWII veteran. He served the spiritual needs of his fellow front-line soldiers who were often beset with self-doubt, fear, loneliness and despair. He was awarded the Bronze Star Medal for heroic achievement in action.
His award citation reads in part: “When task Force 20 met stubborn resistance and the fighting was severe, Chaplain Wodarski mingled with the men, encouraging them, and aided in evacuating the wounded. During the action, while under direct small arms fire, Chaplain Wodarski left the security of a ditch and removed a wounded man to safety. His presence and actions contributed greatly to the morale of the men and were an inspiration to all”.
A former curate at Putnam’s St Mary’s Parish and the chaplain of the Cargill Council Knights of Columbus, the Reverend John P Wodarski, entered the service in June of 1944, and served in Germany with the 20th Armored Division until the end of the war in 1945. Captain Wodarski was among the first American soldiers to enter the Dachau concentration camp where they found Nazi troops in the systematic process of murdering helpless prisoners. He was an eyewitness to the horrors that we now refer to as the holocaust. He helped gather evidence to voluntarily serve as an expert witness before the United Nations War Crimes Commission.
Captain Wodarski said that he found a Polish friend still alive at Dachau. This friend had names and dates to prove that 2,400 Roman Catholic priests were seized in Poland by the Germans and sent to Dachau, of which only 764 survived the war. Captain Wodarski also gathered accounts from a Polish medical doctor about the Nazi’s use of poison gases on Polish and Jewish concentration camp prisoners.
After serving in the U.S. Army, Father Wodarski returned to Connecticut. Appointed a Domestic Prelate with the title of Monsignor in 1957, he was named pastor of Holy Cross Church in New Britain in 1961 serving until his retirement in 1992. He received many awards among them the Doctorate Honoris Causa in 1995 from the Catholic University in Lublin, Poland and from the CCSU in 1999. In 1995 the Republic of Poland bestowed upon him the Officers’ Cross of the Order of Merit. 
He was born Sept. 20, 1905, in Salem, Mass., the son of Polish immigrants Stanislau Wodarski (1883-1929) and Anna Kobierska (1876-1982).  He had a brother and two sisters. He died on Oct. 12, 2002, in New Britain and is buried there at the Sacred Heart Cemetery.
Hometown Heroes is a series published in the Putnam Town Crier & Northeast Ledger with this mission: We owe it to our Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Marines to make sure that they are never forgotten, and that the memory of their service and sacrifice will forever live on in the hearts and minds of the grateful people of Putnam.

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