Frisco Heirlooms Part of Dallas Holocaust Museum

North Texas man donates his items from his father, including his concentration camp uniform

A Frisco man is donating valuable heirlooms to a Holocaust museum in Dallas after a police detective helped him track them down.

Stanley Sztaba's father, Jan, left his concentration camp uniform and other items to his son when he died in 2009 with the promise that Sztaba donate them to a Holocaust museum.

"My father wanted to keep informed the young people so they know what happened when Hitler occupied Europe," he said.

Growing up, he would listen to the horror stories of what daily life was like in Auschwitz and Buchenwald from his father.

"Well, it's the past -- it's the blood, sweat, tears and blood," Sztaba said. "He spend five years sleeping on the concrete."

The heirlooms were valued at $40,000 when Sztaba had them appraised.

Sztaba met a woman at his church who told him that she was heading to Poland and would give them to a Holocaust museum there. However, as time went by, Sztaba never heard back from her.

He reached out to Frisco police Detective C.J. Koski in January.

"I firmly believe she knew why I was calling, and I kind of had to cross my fingers and pray that she didn't sell the article over in Poland," Koski said.

A month later, Koski's work paid off.

"When she came back, she called me and she told me, 'Why don't you come over? I'll give you your father's uniform back,'" Sztaba said.

Making good on his father's promise, Sztaba is donating the uniform and heirlooms to the Dallas Holocaust Museum/Center for Education and Tolerance.

The uniform will be put on display with the museum's more than 3,000 artifacts.

"What Stanley and Detective Koski have done -- it's the best good deed they could have done," said Mary Pat Higgins, museum president. "It's preserving the history and sharing their family history, the Sztaba family history, with the city of Dallas in perpetuity."

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