Conshohocken man killed in France honored for World War II sevice

For nearly 70 years, a mystery plagued the Jaworski family.

On Sept. 10, 1944, Conshohocken native Stephen Jaworski was killed in action while serving in the U.S. Army during World War II.

For the family of nine children, of which Stephen was the oldest, closure never came because they did not know where or how Jaworski died.

Despite never having met him, Stephen's niece, Dorothy Jaworski, took it upon herself to solve this family mystery. Her research would not only result in a book about her uncle's exploits but a pathway in France named after her late uncle.

Dorothy Jaworski said her father, Joseph, had over the years unsuccessfully tried to find out what happened to his brother. So, after her father died in 2011, Dorothy Jaworski assumed the quest of tracing the fate of her uncle.

Finally, in 2013, Jaworski learned that the army's Human Resources Command in Kentucky had her uncle Stephen's individual deceased personnel file. From it, she learned that he had been killed by German gunfire while trying to cross the Moselle River, and the place of his death was listed as Noveant-sur-Moselle, France.

According to the records, Stephen Jaworski and about 300 other men in the 11th Infantry Regiment tried to sneak across the river to avoid the Germans.

"There were two big battles going on, in Dornot and Arnaville," Dorothy Jaworski said. "Men were trying to cross the river, and Germans were trying to face them on the other side."

When the Americans were ambushed by the Germans, they were forced to retreat back across the river, Dorothy Jaworski said.

Armed with this information, Jaworski contacted the Thanks GIs association, a group based in Corny-sur-Moselle, France, that recognizes American infantrymen who helped liberate France in 1944 and 1945.

Elisabeth Gozzo, president of the Thanks GIs association, told Dorothy Jaworski that she was shocked that anyone had been listed as killed in Noveant. With 700 men listed as casualties in the nearby towns of Dornot, Arnaville and Corny, citizens of Noveant had assumed that no one had died in their town.

After more research by Thanks GIs, Stephen Jaworski became the only person officially documented to have been killed in Noveant during the war. So his portrait was hung in the town hall last year, and some members of the Jaworski family attended the ceremony.

Then, in August, Dorothy Jaworski and several family members were surprised on a return visit to Noveant.

"We rounded the bend, and we saw all these American and French flags lining the road," Jaworski said. "We saw this huge group of people, and they were all clapping for us. So I started to figure out they must be doing something for Stephen."

It turned out that Thanks GIs and the residents of Noveant had dedicated a plaque and a leisure path along the Moselle River to Stephen. So the family marched down "Allee Stephen W. Jaworski" as both the French and American national anthems were played.

Frances Peltier, Dorothy's sister, said it was touching that the French are still grateful to the Americans who helped liberate them.

"In World War II, that area was occupied by the Germans, and citizens there were told, 'You are in a prison camp,' " Peltier said. "They really credit the Americans with their freedom."

Gozzo said Thanks GIs regularly arranges dedications of streets, monuments, and plaques to American soldiers who liberated the French.

"Stephen made the supreme sacrifice to bring us our freedom back," Gozzo said. "We must never forget to teach the youngest French that our freedom is not free."

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