Mikolaj Emil Pankiewicz was born November 20, 1909 in Lwow, Poland. Prior to World War II, he attended the College of Lwow, from which he received a degree in journalism, and studied at the College of Warsaw and the Military Engineering School. During the Second World War Pankiewicz served with the Polish Army in Poland and France, and later served as commanding officer of the Polish Officers School in Scotland. At the school Pankiewicz edited Na Przelomie, a publication for Polish military forces. While in Great Britain he met and married Emilia A. Kosciuk (1919- ), an American second lieutenant and translator with the Polish Army.
In 1948 the Pankiewicz family settled in Milwaukee, Emilia's hometown. Emil Pankiewicz became an editor of Nowiny Polskie, a correspondent for the Chicago daily Zgoda, and later, a real estate agent. He was active in the Polish National Alliance (organizing Lodge 3100 in 1951), the Polish American Congress, and the Republican Party. Both Mr. and Mrs. Pankiewicz helped resettle refugees following World War II, opening their home to hundreds of people, and ultimately resettling about 3,000 persons in the Milwaukee area. Pankiewicz helped organize the New Americans' Society (Stowarzyszenie Nowych Amerykanow) and the Polish veterans' group Stowarzyszenie Kombatantow Polskich, and served as executive secretary of the American Committee for Resettlement of Polish Displaced Citizens. For his efforts, Pankiewicz was awarded the order of the Polonia Restituta in October 1970 by the Polish Government in Exile, London.
Emilia Pankiewicz's father, Jozef Kosciuk (1884-1949), was born in Russian Poland. After he immigrated to the United States prior to World War I, Kosciuk worked in a lumber camp in northern Michigan or Wisconsin, then traveled to Chicago and Milwaukee, where he eventually settled. In Milwaukee, Kosciuk opened the Pulaski Theatre on 3rd Street and Mitchell Street; later he operated the Lincoln Theatre on Lincoln Avenue. In addition, Kosciuk was a noted actor in Milwaukee Polish productions of the 1910's and 1920's. Among his many roles was that of Count Janusz in both the theater and 1925 film version of Halka.
