THE SARMATIAN REVIEW Vol. XXIII, No. 2 April 2003
Andrzej Wajda on film, prejudice, and success
Andrzej Wajda in 2002. Photo by Andrzej Bernat. Courtesy of Aleksandra Ziółkowska-Boehm, by Andrzej Wajda’s permission. 946 THE SARMATIAN REVIEW April 2003 Skórczewski skillfully highlights them The Sarmatian Review (ISSN 1059- A Polish Woman’s Diary of Deportation, Forced in his assessment of Nycz’s book. 5872) is a triannual publication of the Polish Institute Labor and Death in Kazakhstan, April 13, 1940– of Houston. The journal deals with Polish, Central, May 26, 1941, translated and edited by Leszek Recent political developments account and Eastern European affairs, exploring the subject of Karpiƒski et al. (fifth installment)...... 968 for the subject of Our Take. The political their implications for the United States. We specialize in the translation of documents. ABOUT THE AUTHORS...... 971 repositioning of East Central Europe is Subscription price is $15.00 per year for individuals, one of the international events that $21.00 for institutions and libraries ($21.00 for attracted little attention of America’s individuals, $27.00 for libraries overseas, air mail). The views expressed by authors of articles do not From the Editor political pundits, yet it may have necessarily represent those of the Editors or of the momentous consequences. Surprised by Polish Institute of Houston. Articles are subject to This issue begins with an article on the the reshuffling, France suggested that editing. Unsolicited manuscripts and other materials Polish minority in Hamburg. Dr. Eder are not returned unless accompanied by a self- countries east of the Oder River sit addressed and stamped envelope. Please submit your highlights the near-invisibility of Polish quietly and wait for cues from France contribution electronically and send a printout by air immigrants to Germany. While many and Germany, in alliance with Russia, mail. Letters to the Editor can be e-mailed to immigrants aspired to the status of
Coffee The most traded commodities in the world: 1. oil 2. coffee Amount of coffee shipped through the four “coffee exchange” ports (i.e., ports approved by the New York Board of Trade) in the United States in 2001: 674,000 tons. Names and rankings of coffee exchange ports: New Orleans, New York, Miami, and Houston. Number of coffee marketers in Houston: 27. Source: Bill Hensel, Jr., in Houston Chronicle, 15 February 2003. Foreign investment in Russia Increase in direct foreign investment in Russia between 2001 and 2002: 0.6 percent, from 3.98 billion dollars in 2001 to 4.002 billion dollars in 2002. Total foreign investment in Russia in 2002: 19.78 billion dollars. Countries that invested most, in descending order: Germany (19 percent of all foreign investment in Russia), Cyprus (13.1 percent) , United States (12.9 percent), Great Britain (11.8 percent). Amount of money British oil company BP intends to invest in Russia over the next four years: 6.75 billion dollars. Source: AF-P, 18 February 2003. Per-head foreign investment in post-Soviet countries in 2001 Foreign investment dollars per head of local population in 2001 in the Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary, Rus- sia, and Ukraine, respectively: 468.9 dollars, 135.8 dollars, 65 dollars, 27.7 dollars, 13.3 dollars. Source: Lucie Godeau, “Foreign investors shun Russia despite economic upturn,” AF-P, 23 February 2003. Russian small businesses Small businesses as percentage of Russian GDP: 12 percent. Number of small businesses per 1,000 people in Russia and the EU, respectively: 6, 30. Percentage of Russian work force employed in small business: 18.3 percent, a percentage two to three times smaller than in Western Europe. Source: Agenstvo Biznes Novostei (ABN), as reported by Russia Reform Monitor, No. 1014 ([email protected]). Russian foreign trade: The share of foreign trade in the GDP since 2000: 50 percent. Percentage of Russian exports that are NOT mineral products, metals and metal products, timber, cellulose, pulp and paper: 25 percent. Source: Julien Vercueil, “Opening Russia? Contemporary Foreign Trade,” Russia and Eurasia Review, vol. 2, no. 4 (18 February 2003). Polish public opinion Percentage of Poles opposed to military intervention in Iraq: 75 percent. Percentage of Poles who believe the United States should be Poland’s main strategic ally: 39 percent. Poles who believe that Germany, Britain, France, or Russia should be Poland’s main strategic ally: 20 percent for Germany, and five percent each for Britain, France, and Russia. Percentage of Poles who believe that NATO is their best security guarantee: 70 percent. Source: A recent poll, as reported by AF-P (Warsaw), 18 February 2003. Wealth and poverty in Russia Population of the Russian Federation in 2002: 143.3 million. Of that, percentage of the wealthy upper class: 3 percent. Percentage of those who belong to the comfortable middle class: 30 percent. Percentage of those who are “disadvantaged” in various ways: 67 percent. Source: Greg Thain, head of the Interactive Research Group (IRG) in Russia, as reported by AF-P (Moscow), 20 February 2003. IRG based its study on a representative sample of 4,500 people living across the Russian Federation. Legal system in postcommunist Russia Percentage of trials in Russia that ended in acquittals in 2002: 9,000, or 0.08 percent. Percentage of trials in Russia that ended in acquittals in earlier years: zero. Number of prisoners in Russia per 100,000 population: 630, or the second highest in the world. Source: Prosecutor General Vladimir Ustinov, in an interview published on 25 February 2003, in Gazeta (www.gazeta.ru). April 2003 SARMATIAN REVIEW 949 Currently about 19,000 people with a Polish passport Polish Life in West Germany and 100,000 people with biographical bonds to Poland live in Hamburg alone, a city of 1.7 million After 1945 inhabitants.(6) They are not, however, as visible on the A Case Study on Hamburg city scene as one would expect of the third largest group (or even the largest, if one counts heritage as well as official nationality) of non-Germans in Hamburg. Here Angelika Eder in Hamburg, the history of Poles in Germany seems to be a hidden one. If one talks about Poles in Germany, The author wishes to thank Judith Fai-Podlipnik and Karl most people think of “Ruhr Poles,” worker migrants Bahm for their critical and supportive comments on this who settled in the Ruhr area during the years of the paper. German Empire and who exemplify “the success story” of assimilation of foreigners into Germany.(7) Around The structure of the Polish group in Germany reflects 500,000 people of Polish origin lived in the Ruhr area the complex history of German-Polish relations and in 1914, some 100,000 in Berlin and another 150,000 the impact the Cold War had on the history of both in other German regions, including 15,000–21,000 in nations. As a result, Poles in Germany are a very and around Hamburg.(8) In the Prussian town of heterogeneous group with regard to their migration Wilhelmsburg (today a part of Hamburg and at that history and their legal status.(1) time called Little Warsaw), 1,800 Polish households Poles in Hamburg and elsewhere in the Federal with approximately 5,000 people were registered in Republic of Germany include: former labor migrants 1919/20.(9) In spite of these figures, local memory from Prussian Poland and their descendants; former ignores the fact that there has been a long continuity of forced laborers and prisoners of the Second World War Polish life in that area. who became Displaced Persons under Western Allied occupation and were later classified as “stateless aliens” In Hamburg as well as elsewhere, the history of (Heimatlose Ausländer) under German administration Poles in Germany seems to be a hidden one. after 1950;(2) various groups of political refugees with residence permits of different grades; Aussiedler, or The Polish state was reestablished in 1918/19, after ethnic Germans living outside Germany, with their 123 years of partition. Since the majority of Polish families; and other migrants who all came in different workers in Prussian Poland had German citizenship, waves depending on the state of German-Polish they were allowed to stay there after that time. relations and the political situation in Poland.(3) After Generally speaking, foreign Polish labor migrants had 1990 new “circular” forms of migration began, such been employed only as seasonal workers until as seasonal workers on construction sites in Berlin and 1914.(10) In this context, national identity becomes a in south German vineyards.(4) Return to Poland was difficult topic: the changing borders and demographic again possible and the decision to migrate to Germany mix over the centuries make identification difficult. The no longer entailed a permanent move. shifting of population and territories as a result of This is the context of Polish life in Germany that is National Socialist politics added another complication, the focus of this paper. I am going to look at different especially the Germanization policy according to which groups of migrants from Poland as parts of a “Germanizable” Poles could be registered on a community, even though a unified Polish community Volksliste 3 which was later used by the Aussiedler to does not exist in Hamburg. To this end, I am going to prove their German origin.(11) Consequently, the employ the notion of “Polish life” in Hamburg which question of citizenship and nationality between Poland will take all people of Polish background into and Germany has always been a delicate one. A legal consideration. Due to gaps in the archival records definition or “legal identity” does not say much about (which constitute one part of the Poles’ history in the inner relationship of a person towards culture, Germany), there are still more questions than answers traditions, and a nation’s history. Therefore I am about the lives of Poles in Germany. A primary source applying a somewhat subjective definition when using of information I draw on in this paper is interviews the terms Poles, Polish life, or people of Polish with people of Polish background who live in background.(12) I am assuming that people who grew Hamburg.(5) up in Poland or whose parents came from Poland are 950 SARMATIAN REVIEW April 2003 somehow shaped by Polish traditions, history, mentality, Research on Poles in Germany distinguishes between and culture, that they bring their own “cultural knowledge” old emigration that arrived before 1918 and new emigrants from Poland.(13) Thus in my study I take into who arrived after 1945.(21) However, both groups should consideration all groups of people who came from Poland be considered as representing the foundation for Polish to Germany after 1918, including the Aussiedler and their life in Hamburg after the Second World War. In October families. However, this causes quantitative problems and 1946, 3,886 Poles were located in Hamburg. Polish results in estimates rather than exact statistics. Nonetheless, citizens numbered 1,714, German citizens 921, and the it is essential to include all participants to describe Polish remaining 1,251 had unclear citizenship.(22) At that time, life in Germany after 1945. 80 percent of the 1,534 men and 180 women with Polish passports lived in a DP or PWX camp. More DPs were in After the Second World War, Polish life was hidden camps at the borders of Hamburg, for example in the from the German public who had been aware of the former army barracks in Wentorf which had already liberated concentration camp inmates in 1945 but become a camp for Poles in June 1945.(23) For Polish perceived DP camps as something problematic. There DPs the repatriation strategy of the Western Allies failed were very few Germans involved in organizing and completely: in September 1945, when 80 percent of all attending Polish events, and their efforts were not DPs had already been repatriated to their home countries, noticeable on the German scene. the Poles were the largest DP group remaining in West Germany.(24) The reasons were manifold: the shift of their Polish life in Hamburg began to thrive at about the same country’s borders to the west and the resulting loss of time that it emerged in other parts of the region and in the homesteads in the east, problems with transportation Ruhr area, as well as in Berlin. In Hamburg, there were capacities to the east in 1945, resistance against or Polish workers from the Prussian part of Poland and (in uncertainty about the new political situation at home.(25) smaller numbers) from other parts of the country. Very few of the old emigrants made use of the repatriation “Foreign” Poles returned or were expelled to Poland before transports and returned to a country they had left long or after the First World War. The Prussian Poles who before the war. Later on some of them returned to Hamburg decided to stay in Germany after the war organized again as disappointed Aussiedler and became active in themselves as a national minority in Zwiàzek Polaków w German expellee organizations.(26) Niemczech (Union of Poles in Germany, est. 1922) and in Until 1950/51 the life of the DPs and former PWXs other associations, for example in a Polish school society (who had been demobilized in 1947) was supervised by for Hamburg.(14) The remaining Poles in Wilhelmsburg British and international organizations. In 1947 the and other parts of Hamburg continued to have Polish Western occupying powers began to resettle the remaining church services, language classes for their children, and DPs in North America, Australia, and other countries after at least once a year a festive Polish ball.(15) After 1933 repatriation had failed. Polish DPs were still the largest the conditions for Poles deteriorated everywhere in national group in the camps. There were Polish church Germany. The German attack on Poland in September services, DP schools and vocational training courses, as 1939 put an end to any “Polish life” in Germany. In well as some cultural events. The whole structure of DP Hamburg, its leaders and some Polish citizens were life in the camps was separated from the life outside, arrested, the use of the Polish language in church was therefore also from the life of the old Polonia. New forbidden, and the teaching of the Polish language became organizations like the Stowarzyszenie Polskich impossible.(16) Kombatantów (Association of Polish Combatants, est. During the war, more than one million Poles were 1946) had nothing to do with former Polish deported to work in Germany.(17) In the summer of 1944, associations.(27) At the same time, outside the camps some 5,800 forced laborers from Poland lived in Hamburg old emigrants began to revive Polish life in Hamburg. alone.(18) They were liberated by the Allies in 1945 along They maintained old traditions by reestablishing a Catholic with the concentration camp inmates and former Polish church service in Polish as early as June 1945 and by re- soldiers and fighters of the Warsaw Uprising of August- founding a local group of Zwiàzek Polaków w Niemczech October 1944.(19) The Western Allies (in Hamburg, the - Rodło which became official in 1948.(28) For some of British) coordinated their temporary shelter and food and the old residents the chance of “bringing a piece of the assembled them in the Displaced Persons (DP) and Ex- home country to Hamburg” was a motive to organize Prisoners of War (PWX) Camps, separated by nations, language classes and a dance group.(29) For others, newly with the plan to repatriate them soon.(20) established Polish organizations and the new emigrants April 2003 SARMATIAN REVIEW 951 were of no interest at all; they remained in their German Polish life was hidden from the German public who Catholic or Social Democratic milieu.(30) had been aware of the liberated concentration camp For the majority on both sides, life was still separate, inmates in 1945 but who perceived DP camps as not the least because of their different legal status as something problematic. There were very few Germans Germans or DPs. Many DPs had not yet started to think involved in organizing and attending Polish events, and about a life in Germany but were waiting for other options. their efforts were not noticeable on the German scene. The former DPs remember the interest of people already The majority of Polish DPs worked with the Allied living in Germany whose bonds to their Polish background authorities in the 1950s and did not have much contact were renewed and encouraged by listening to the Polish with German colleagues. And the political events in the language in the streets, by meeting “new” Poles and taking People’s Republic of Poland, in combination with the part in Polish life.(31) Shortly after the end of the war, atmosphere of the Cold War, made communist Poland Polish DPs were approached by old emigrants who the only Polish topic in the German public sphere, despite welcomed the ones coming from “home.” For some of the expellees’ discussions of former German territories the permanent residents the presence of Polish DPs offered like Silesia. Furthermore, in the 1950s the German view comfort when Germans ignored and forgot about their of Polish life in Hamburg was influenced by the political Polishness. The mutual understanding between some of division in the migrants’ organizations: Germans were them was like an “osmosis,” one former DP suspicious of the “communist” wing and ignored the other remembered.(32) Some former Polish soldiers who had groups.(36) good connections to the British remember that they [the Poles] could help members of the old Polonia who were In postmodern world, “legal identity” does not say seen as Germans by the British, for example, with much about the inner relationship of a person towards university applications or with legal advice.(33) There took culture, traditions, and a nation’s history. place events like the traditional Polish celebration of Corpus Christi in a DP camp which attracted Polish The political division between the Polish Government- residents from outside. On the other hand, the old Polonia in-Exile located in London and the Soviet-imposed Polish invited some DPs to parties they had begun to arrange. government in Warsaw affected Polish life in Hamburg After DPs had been classified as Heimatlose Ausländer just as it did elsewhere. There were liaison officers under German administration in 1950/51, their numbers operating in DP camps from both sides, and until 1950 decreased further due to migration. The reasons why some Warsaw was represented by a military mission (consulate) Poles stayed in Hamburg were manifold: the former DPs/ in Hamburg.(37) On the other hand, former Polish soldiers PWXs I interviewed remained in Hamburg due to an ill were instructed by the Polish Government in London to family member or because they had many children and support the reestablishment of the old Polonia structures could not easily move; or because of a lack of options for in 1945—and they did so until the Warsaw representatives emigration; or because they wanted to remain in close arrived in 1948. Thus both sides were fighting for the Poles proximity to the home country, Poland.(34) Camp life abroad. After Warsaw had established itself, London began continued in the six camps Hamburg had taken over from to lose power. However, the Cold War considerably the British in 1950, but spheres of life like school and diminished Warsaw’s influence.(38) In the 1950s “the big church were moved out of the camps, while the number shots” supported by London “had already left,” as a former of Polish DPs decreased. DP children went to German DP remembered.(39) schools, DP families attended Polish Catholic services in The question remains to what extent this political split Protestant Hamburg. As DP camps began to fill up with was important for Polish life in Hamburg. It is undeniable Germans, Polish life outside the camp became more that many of the newly founded organizations, whether important for the Poles. By the late 1950s, virtually all they included “new” or “old” emigrants, declared Polish DP families found accommodations outside the adherence either to London or to Warsaw. Thus Polish camps. At that time the first Aussiedler from Poland had DP students were either members of Bratniak londyƒski already arrived. The accommodations the DPs were or Bratniak warszawski, and the former Zwiàzek Polaków offered were scattered all over Hamburg. At that time, w Niemczech was continued as Rodło and, after a split in Polish organizations and especially the weekly church 1952, also as Zgoda which was supported by the People’s service also gained significance for youngsters, or for the Republic of Poland.(40) This continued all through the DP children who had gone to school together.(35) years: Zgoda was supported by the Polish state, Rodło represented the firm anti-communist wing. Both claimed 952 SARMATIAN REVIEW April 2003 the Zwiàzek Polaków w Niemczech’s tradition for their of Polish life in Hamburg. For them the political division organization.(41) In reconstructing the organizational re- was of course of great importance, but that does not mean establishment after 1945 it is difficult to distinguish that it had the same meaning for all members of the Polish between combined efforts of old and new emigrants until community in Hamburg: this may be quite different in the organizational split in 1952, because all involved other Polish communities abroad such as those in North claimed to have revived Zwiàzek Polaków w Niemczech. America. Despite the Cold War, one’s former country was In later years, one can find members of different migration not far away in geographical terms, which is why some groups and generations in both organizations: the old decisions might have been more pragmatic and less Polonia, DPs, DP children and later the Aussiedler as well. ideological. Hence the “old” emigrants did not always join Rodło while many former Armia Krajowa fighters Polonia in Hamburg and elsewhere was divided chose not to associate with one of the Zwiazek- between those with closer relations to the People’s organizations at all.(46) More interesting and less explored Republic of Poland and those who remained political thus far are the relations between resident Poles and DPs. emigrants, and this situation might have been one reason The fact, however, that the Polonia in Hamburg and for the inconspicuous performance of Poles in the elsewhere was divided between those with closer relations German public arena. to the People’s Republic of Poland and those who remained political emigrants might be one reason for the In some ways, this political split in the Polish life in inconspicuous performance of Poles in the German public Hamburg and elsewhere in Germany was of fundamental arena.(47) importance for Poles and for their German surroundings. Two other factors point to the significance of political But there were not so many differences between the two division in the early postwar years. One was the substantial Polish groups concerning their daily life. During their American support for noncommunists in the 1950s and meetings, both organizations offered an opportunity to ’60s that influenced the conditions of this group of Poles. speak Polish, to meet other Poles, to exchange Polish In the late 1950s, as the first Aussiedler were coming to books, and cultivate Polish folk dances. Those who were Hamburg, support of Polish events was included in the in strong opposition to the People’s Republic founded massive support of non-German refugees from the additional organizations like Stowarzyszenie Polskich communist Eastern Europe, the support distributed Inwalidów Wojennych (Association of Polish War Invalids, through the Free Europe Citizens Service of the Free est. 1948) and Zjednoczenie Polskich Uchodêców w Europe Committee. Between 1958 and 1965, American Niemczech (Union of Polish Refugees in Germany).(42) money funded a Common House which sponsored The former DPs belonged here, especially soldiers of the concerts, exhibits, lectures and poetry readings, language Polish underground who had fought in the Resistance. classes (Polish for beginners, English for emigrants, They were strictly anti-communist and voted against German for foreigners), Polish dance group practice, and repatriation for political reasons. They maintained close meetings of Zwiàzek Polaków w Niemczech-Rodło.(48) contacts with the Polish government in London. Their Hamburg’s government monies helped fund these events declining status corresponded with London’s dwindling as well. Only in 1968 was an institution called Klub Polski position from 1945 on.(43) The position of the former (a meeting place mainly for former DPs) established forced laborers, however, especially those not interested through private means. For years, this initiative struggled in politics at all, is far less clear. Some of them might to find a space without any support or interest from the have expected a more affluent life in Germany or German side.(49) elsewhere in the West. (44) As to the “old” emigrants who The second factor was religion. The majority of Polish had already been active in the 1920s and became active émigrés are Catholics and religion plays a major role in again after the war, the situation is not clear either.(45) their life. Therefore the organization of pastoral care and I estimate that the political separation is important but church life was always important for the Polonia. It is not it has been overestimated so far as the assessment of the a coincidence that the book best documenting Polish life structure of Polish life in Germany after 1945 is concerned. in Hamburg 100 years of Polish pastoral care in Hamburg Which group one had chosen to belong to would obviously was written by a Catholic priest.(50) Not surprisingly, determine the fundamental thrust of their gatherings; priests and participants in Polish Catholic life were anti- however, I doubt that weekly or monthly events were communist. dominated by political issues. Some of my first interviewees have been very active in rebuilding structures April 2003 SARMATIAN REVIEW 953 The next group of migrants from Poland, the Aussiedler by the pressure to behave and show off as Germans in and their family members, is by far the largest and the order to be accepted as the echte Deutsche and given all most difficult to assess because of their heterogeneity. the privileges of this legal status by the German authorities. In the late 1940s, the flow of millions of Vertriebene E.g., in 1971, one of the first German-Polish events was (expellees) out of the former German areas such as Silesia, organized in a church in Hamburg.(58) The young Pomerania, and East Prussia had ceased. Then, in the early Aussiedler from Poland—all of them speaking in Polish— 1950s, some 40,000 “latecomers” from Poland were hosted a postcard exhibition in little booths representing transferred to West Germany by the Red Cross. The each Polish region, while at the same time young members emigration of the first Aussiedler from Poland was of a Polish dance group—all speaking in German— subsequently arranged in the late 1950s on the basis of changed for their show in the next room. There was no “family reunion.”(51) Between 1956 and 1959, 247,766 communication at all between the two groups: an people chose this path to Germany. However, there were atmosphere of deep mutual rejection prevailed. The already at that time many exit applications primarily for “Poles” warned each other against the “Germans”—in economic rather than for family-related reasons.(52) The German—and the “Germans” did the same in Polish. numbers declined in the 1960s, but the Polish German Another example: when the children of a kindergarten Treaty of 1970 opened new opportunities for persons were invited to attend a performance by a Polish theatre claiming German ancestry. A “whole little industry” was company, the parents of Aussiedler children did not allow born to produce documents on a grandfather in the Imperial them to go.(59) A third case has to do with a former DP’s Army or other German roots, as Władysław Bartoszewski bitterness about marginalization of Polish traditions in a once remembered with a smile.(53) church after an increasing number of Aussiedler had joined The number of Aussiedler migrating from Poland to the congregation. The church had been a home to Polish Germany rose dramatically again after 1980/81. The services by the end of the 19th century.(60) Teachers of majority of Polish Aussiedler found Northern Germany the first Aussiedler classes in the late 1950s observed two including Hamburg more attractive than ethnic Germans diametrically opposed attitudes among their students: from other regions of Eastern Europe who preferred the some missed Poland and were full of prejudice and South: in the years 1971 to 1988, 18,577 of the 579,547 resentment towards Germany; others aimed to forget about Aussiedler from Poland settled in Hamburg.(54) After everything Polish.(61) figures peaked again in 1989, the legal possibilities for the entry of Aussiedler from Poland were narrowed. For In terms of social life and contacts, however, the this “ethnically privileged migration”(55) the motives for political division among Poles in Germany was hugely coming to Germany included fear of or actual experience overestimated. of repression in Poland, longing for a German-speaking environment, desire for family reunion, and the However, this division was personal and social rather expectation of better economic living conditions. than political. On the one hand, there were “real” Poles Not all Aussiedler from Poland took part in Polish life who had been living in Germany for a very long time, on in Hamburg, but a considerable number of them took the other, there were “real” ethnic Germans who had been advantage of its offerings. Considering the fact that, after living in Poland for many years. The separation was 1945, Germans in Poland were subjected to Polonization primarily due to problems of acceptance, problems with and lived in a Polish-dominated milieu, one can assume a “Polish” image prevalent in Germany. Only after 1990 that decades later they brought cultural traditions with them could some voices be heard suggesting that Aussiedler that were closer to Polish than to German culture.(56) were part of Polish life abroad.(62) Earlier research They also were often married to Poles and their children focused exclusively on their integration in German society. were born in Poland; yet entire such families would come Yet there had always been Aussiedler participating in to Hamburg. Therefore it is necessary to take into account Polish life in Hamburg. Only one member of the family at least some members of this group with proved “German had to be German to allow all of them entry to Germany. ethnic origin.” (57) So we have got the young boy who was not happy about The immigration of such a high number of Aussiedler his parents’ migration to Germany and joined Zgoda in added another divisive aspect to Polish life in Hamburg. the 1960s to practice his native Polish and meet other Poles Differences were of a less political nature and had their (eventually including his wife, daughter of former forced origin in a very “German” attitude of the Aussiedler who laborers).(63) Another example is the man who was had grown up in Poland. This might have been encouraged looking for Polish-speaking friends for his Polish wife: 954 SARMATIAN REVIEW April 2003 both became members of Rodło in the 1960s.(64) Others Their situation was ignored and forgotten by the Germans. joined Zgoda or Rodło mainly because of the possibility The Catholic press was the sole exception; it wrote about of traveling to Poland where they still had family. Still issues linking Hamburg and the Poles from 1969 onwards, others, mainly among the older generations, decided for a when West Germany’s Ostpolitik changed the state’s membership in German expellee organizations (Homeland attitude towards Poland.(71) In the 1970s, when the public Societies) instead. debate on Gastarbeiter started, the alleged positive Until 1980 the majority of migrants from Poland came example of the “integrated Ruhr Poles” was remembered as Aussiedler. One exception was a small group of political but without looking at the current situation of Poles in the refugees in 1968 when the anti-Zionist/anti-Semitic country. Right after 1945, no one thought about the “old” campaign in Poland forced Jewish Poles to leave.(65) Polish emigrants amid the German population. More Because of the political upheaval and economic crisis in visible—although only for a moment—were the “new Poland after Solidarity was delegalized in December 1981, emigrants,” or thousands upon thousands of deported legal opportunities of immigration as Aussiedler were Poles liberated by the Western Allies. In the summer of largely taken advantage of, as it was the best way to be 1945 forced laborers, who had previously been exploited, allowed to stay in Germany after the flight from the were seen as a threat. Tales of crimes committed by them People’s Republic.(66) Many more, however, sought and their involvement in the black market after liberation refuge in the West, and thousands sought acceptance as are still alive.(72) asylum seekers in the Federal Republic. Hence the 1980s After the occupation of West Germany by the Western brought the largest number ever of people with a Polish Allies had come to an end in 1949, the number of Poles passport to Germany. In Hamburg, the number of was reduced drastically everywhere in Germany, and their foreigners with Polish nationality increased from 1,142 fate again was unnoticed. Later on, when the “Ruhr Poles” in 1977 to 20,979 in 1990.(67) With these migrants the were remembered as the role models of well-integrated structure of Polish life in Hamburg changed completely. migrants, no one thought about the Poles who immigrated Among them were “intellectuals” and “artists,” as some (or had been deported) later and lived in Germany as older immigrants mockingly called them. Their political stateless persons, or as Polish or German citizens. It was socialization was quite different from that of the older only after Solidarity came to life in 1980/81 that Poland’s migrants. Some participants in Polish life in Hamburg also political fate and its refugees were seen and to some extent remember the new immigrants’ sarcastic remarks about supported. Maybe only then was a kind of Polish the linguistic mistakes the old immigrants were making community functioning for a while, ignoring all when speaking Polish.(68) But this influx brought new disagreement between the groups. energy and drive to Polish life. Klub Polski, where Poles How Polish immigrants have felt about Germany and have been meeting since 1968, became a center for Germans is a different story. Old fears and old prejudices common activities in support of the people in Poland and were always alive on both sides. The majority of Polish also a center of information for the new arrivals.(69) But immigrants, whether refugees or Aussiedler, experienced when the borders were opened after 1990, the interest for anti-Polish prejudice, and many of them tried to hide their Klub Polski and other organizations went down. New past and tradition. ∆ forms of Polish life emerged, but this is no longer my topic as conditions and problems of research are now quite NOTES different.(70) 1. This is exceptional in migration history. See Stefanski 1995; Summing up, there is and was a Polish life in Hamburg Wolff-Pow∏ska/Schulz 2000; Korcelli 1994. and elsewhere in Germany, a cultural and political life 2. A term without any connection to their fate as forced migrants. organized by people from Poland by means of various See Jacobmeyer 1985, p. 231. circles and organizations. There exists a network of quite 3. Aussiedler are ethnic Germans coming from outside a few people with Polish background. Nonetheless Polish Germany. This status could, and in some East European areas life never played a prominent role in West German public still can be claimed by all persons (as well as their descendants life, and Poles were seldom noticed in the society of the and close relatives) who lived within the borders of Germany of 1937 or who were German citizens in 1939–45 but lived Federal Republic until 1990. outside those borders; and by other ethnic Germans. Between Most Germans have never developed a comprehensive 1950–92 2.9 million Aussiedler immigrated, half of them from understanding of Polish life: after 1945, German society Poland. In 1992 the law was restricted and Aussiedler from was no longer aware of the fact that, since 1918 and earlier, Poland were not accepted any more. See Rudolph 1994, p. people with a Polish background have lived among them. 118; Baaden 1997. April 2003 SARMATIAN REVIEW 955 4. Cyrus 1999 and Miera 1997. See also some papers in Pallaske, 28. Nadolny 1992, pp. 42–46, 62. Associations were not allowed ed., 2001. earlier. But the first steps were undertaken in 1945. Zwak and 5. Collected in “Werkstatt der Erinnerung” (WdE) in the Poniatowska/Liman/Kr∏Ïałek 1987, pp. 145–8. Forschungstelle für Zeitgeschichte in Hamburg. 29. FZH WdE 647. 6. The Polish Consulate in Hamburg estimates that there are 30. Schmiechen-Ackermann 1992, pp. 192 ff. FZH WdE 639 100,000 Poles in Hamburg. See Konsul Krzesiƒski in: die and 662. tageszeitung (Hamburg issue), 11 August 2000, p. 23; 31. FZH WdE 461, 661. Statistisches Landesamt, Hamburg, 31 December 1999, states 32. FZH WdE 461. that the population of Hamburg was 1,704,755; with foreign 33. FZH WdE 661. passports 261,871; with Polish passports 19,072. The largest 34. FZH WdE 458, 461, 641, 661. foreign group are Turks followed by Yugoslavs. 35. FZH WdE 641. Between 1956–66 and after 1983 the High 7. Blecking 1984, p. 54; Oenning 1991. Mass in Polish was held at St. Joseph’s in Altona. Nadolny, p. 8. Polonia w Europie 1991, p. 23; Kleßmann 1978, still the 73. basic study on “Ruhrpolen,” and for Berlin Hartmann 1991, 36. Zgoda, e.g., “‘Zgoda’—der Arm Warschaus in der Poniatowska 1996. Poles from the Prussian partition who Bundesrepublik,” Wehr-pol.-Information, Köln (4 September migrated to the Ruhr were officially of “Prussian” nationality. 1969), 7–8. Broszat 1981, 3rd ed., Hauschildt 1986, pp. 12, 286. 37. Wagner 1997, p. 20; StA HH 352-8/7 190; Jacobmeyer Wilhelmsburg, Schiffbek, Altona and other places became parts 1985, pp. 92–6. In protest, all Polish military missions (the of Hamburg only in 1937, but are considered for my project consulates of People’s Poland) were closed in protest in from 1918 on. December 1950. PA AA B 11 373. 9. Hauschildt 1986, p. 34f; Nadolny 1992, p. 15. 38. Reports by German officials always showed suspicion of 10. Herbert 2001, ch. I.1 and I.2. Soviet infiltration via communists in Polish organizations. See 11. Broszat 1981, 3rd ed., p. 289 f.; Pallaske 2001. PA AA B 11 571, internal report dated November 1951 and 12. As in Wolff-Pow∏ska/Schulz 2000, p. 1 f. titled “Poles in the Federal Republic of Germany.” 13. Strauss-Quinn 1994. 39. Quote by Maksymilian Pelc in Wagner 1997, p. 145. 14. Zwak 1985; Nadolny 1992. StA HH 231—10 Amtsgericht 40. FZH WdE 461, 638; Forycki 1984, p. 194; Ruchniewicz Hamburg—Vereinsregister: B 1973–24 Polskie Towarzystwo 2001, p. 66 f. Szkolne na Hamburg i okolice, Hamburg, 1925–1940. 41. See for example Zwak 1985, Kucharski 1976. 15. See announcements and adverts in Nachrichtenblatt für 42. Wir Hamburger aus Polen 1993, 2d ed. die katholischen Gemeinden Hamburgs. 1924 (1)– 1936 (13). 43. Davies 1989, p. 25. 16. Forycki 1984, p. 194. StA HH 132–1 II B 1 49: List of 44. This was the case with the father of Kasia Dombrowski (a names of interned Poles, 30 October 1939. pseudonym). FZH WdE 641. 17. The estimates vary between 1,7 million and over 3,5 million. 45. Those “old emigrants” were for example Tadeusz Âmietana Stefanski 1995, p. 391; Łuczak 1991. from Zgoda, already active in the Polish school association, 18. 3,273 men and 2,527 women made up 11.4 percent of all and Aleksander Młody from Rodło. Kucharski 1976, pp. 22 forced laborers in Hamburg during the Second World War. and 24; Zwak 1985, p. 160; FZH WdE 638, 647. Friederike Littmann, an unfinished dissertation on “foreign 46. Ruchniewicz 2001, p. 66 f. work” in Hamburg, 1939–1945. 47. Later on, the main attraction of both Zgoda and Rodło seems 19. Davies 1989, p. 72 f. Many Polish soldiers imprisoned in to have been an offer of reduced visa and group travels to the the first years of war were forced to accept the status of forced People’s Republic. laborers. See interviews FZH WdE 283, 341, 342. Interviews 48. StA HH 363–3 II 30–035.27/21 Band I: Haus der with fighters in the Warsaw Rising: FZH WdE 458, 461, 661. Begegnung (1958–67). 20. See Jacobmeyer 1985 on DP policy; Wagner 1997 on Polish 49. Wagner 1997. DPs in Hamburg. 50. Nadolny 1992. 21. Stefanski 1995, p. 394. 51. Familienzusammenfürung was the motto of the first project. 22. Stefan Liman of Instytut Zachodni in Poznaƒ quoted For the entire Aussiedler question see the essay by WiÊniewski different tables of German statistics as of 29 October 1946: including German and Polish figures. Liman 1975, p. 57. 52. WiÊniewski 1992, p. 165, quotes J. Korbel, Wyjazdy i 23. PRO WO 171/8159 War Diary Apr.—December 1945. In powroty. Migracje ludnoÊci w procesie normalizacji stosunków November 1945 there were over 17,000 Polish DPs in Wentorf, mi∏dzy Polskà a RFN (Opole, 1977), pp. 131–44; Polska see Wagner 1997, p. 20. ludnoÊç rodzima. Migracje w przeszłoÊci i w perspektywie 24. There were over 800,000 Poles in the Western zones. (Opole, 1986), pp. 135–40. Jacobmeyer 1985, p. 83. 53. An interview in Hamburg, 16/17 June 2000. 25. Jacobmeyer 1985, pp. 64 ff., 86 f., 116 ff. 54. Schwinges/Kiehl 1989, pp. 15, 42; WiÊniewski 1992, p. 26. FZH WdE 461. 166. 27. See an interview with an active member in Wagner 1997, 55. The subtitle of Münz/Ohliger 1996. pp. 145–8. 56. Urban 1993, pp. 67–86; Münz/Ohliger 1998, p. 165 f. 956 SARMATIAN REVIEW April 2003 57. In short reference essays, Aussiedler are always included P. Edmund Forycki, “Die polnische Minderheit in der as part of the “Poles in Germany” formation. See Meister 1992, Bundesrepublik Deutschland,” Europa Ethnica 47/1984, No. 3.1.1.-28 to 32; Stefanski 1995, p. 397; Wolff-Pow∏ska/Schulz 4, pp. 193–98. 2000, Pallaske 2001, Cyrus 1999. Gottfried Hartmann, “Polen in Berlin,” Von Zuwanderern zu 58. Hanno Jochimsen. Wir riefen auf zum Frieden 1997, p. 10. Einheimischen. Hugenotten, Juden, Böhmen, Polen in Berlin, 59. FZH WdE 641. edited by Steffi Jersch-Wenzel (Berlin, 1991), pp. 593–800. 60. E.g., the celebration brochure, FZH WdE 461. Elke Hauschildt, Polnische Arbeitsmigranten in Wilhelmsburg 61. StA HH 361–2 VI 695 (Schulleiter Bülaustrasse an bei Hamburg während des Kaiserreichs und der Weimarer Schulbehörde, February 1956). Republik (Hamburg, 1986). 62. In the study on Aussiedler integration in Hamburg this Ulrich Herbert, Fremdarbeiter. Politik und Praxis des question was still ignored. Schwinges/Kiehl 1989. “Ausländer-Einsatzes” in der Kriegswirtschaft des Dritten 63. FZH WdE 640. Reiches, new ed. (Bonn, 1999). 64. FZH WdE 638. ______, Geschichte der Ausländerpolitik in Deutschland. 65. Kosmala 2000; Keim 1997. Saisonarbeiter, Zwangsarbeiter, Gastarbeiter, Flüchtlinge 66. Pallaske 2001; Schmidt 2000. (München, 2001). 67. Statistical reports: Foreigners in Hamburg, A I 4: j/77 (20 Wolfgang Jacobmeyer, Vom Zwangsarbeiter zum Heimatlosen September 1997), states that out of 125,861 aliens 1,142 were Ausländer. Die Displaced Persons in Westdeutschland 1945– Poles; j/84 (20 September 1984): 164,718 aliens, 7,830 Poles; 1951 (Göttingen, 1985). j/90 (31 December 1990): 20,979 Poles. Inken Keim, “Eine Biographie im deutsch-polnischen Kontext: 68. FZH WdE 640. Marginalität, kulturelle Uneindeutigkeit und Verfahren der 69. A report by Pelc in Wagner, p. 146 ff. Tabuisierung,” Polen und Deutsche im Gespräch, edited by 70. Miera 1997, Cyrus 1999, Pallaske 2001, Warchoł- Reinhold Schmitt and Gerhard Stickel (Tübingen, 1997), pp. Schlottmann 2001. 253–303. 71. Kirchenbote des Bistums Osnabrück, Kirche am Strom, e.g., Christoph Kleßmann, Polnische Bergarbeiter im Ruhrgebiet No. 13 of 30 March 1969. 1870–1945. Soziale Integration und nationale Subkultur einer 72. Herbert 1999, p. 397 ff. Minderheit in der deutschen Industriegesellschaft (Göttingen, 1978). BIBLIOGRAPHY Piotr Korcelli, “Emigration from Poland after 1945,” European FZH WdE + number indicates an interview from the oral history Migration in the Late Twentieth Century. Historical Patterns, collection Actual Trends, and Social Implications, edited by Heinz Forschungsstelle für Zeitgeschichte in Hamburg,Werkstatt der Fassmann and Rainer Münz (Aldershot, 1994), pp. 171–185. Erinnerung Beate Kosmala, editor. Die Vertreibung der Juden aus Polen. PA AA: Political Archives of the Foreign Office (formerly in Antisemitismus und politisches Kalkül (Berlin, 2000). Bonn, now in Berlin) Władysław Kucharski, Zwiàzek Polaków Zgoda w Republice PRO: Public Record Office, Kew, Britain Federalnej Niemiec (Lublin, 1976). StA HH: Staatsarchiv Hamburg Stefan Liman, “Polacy w Hamburgu w latach 1946–1975,” Przeglàd Zachodni, 4/1985, pp. 47–61. Andreas Baaden, Aussiedler-Migration: Historische und Czesław Łuczak, “Polnische Arbeiter im nationalsozialistischen aktuelle Entwicklungen (Berlin, 1997). Deutschland,” Europa und der “Reichseinsatz.” Ausländische Diethelm Blecking, “Über die Ruhrpolen und den deutschen Zivilarbeiter, Kriegsgefangene und KZ-Häftlinge in Polendiskurs,” Kulturrevolution, No. 7/1984, pp. 54–56. Deutschland 1938–1945, edited by Ulrich Herbert (Essen, Martin Broszat, Zweihundert Jahre deutsche Polenpolitik, 3rd 1991), pp. 90–105. ed. (Frankfurt am Main, 1981). Hans-Peter Meister, “Polen in der Bundesrepublik Norbert Cyrus, “ Einwanderung und Mobilität. Die Relevanz Deutschland,” Handbuch ethnischer Minderheiten in mobiler Lebensformen für die Integration von Zuwander/innen Deutschland, edited by Berliner Institut für vergleichende aus Polen in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland” (a conference Sozialforschung (Berlin, 1992), par. 3.1.1.–1 to 3.1.1.–57. paper, to be published in a volume dedicated to the Workshop Frauke Miera, “Migration aus Polen. Zwischen nationaler on “Immigranten aus Mittel-Ost-Europa: Italien und Migrationspolitik und transnationalen sozialen Lebensräumen,” Deutschland vor der Herausforderung ihrer Aufnahme in Zuwanderung und Stadtentwicklung, edited by Hartmut Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft,” 5– 6 November 1999, Forli, Häußermann and Ingrid Oswald (Wiesbaden, 1997), pp. 232– Italy). 254. Norman Davies, “The growth of the Polish community in Rainer Münz and Rainer Ohliger, Deutsche Minderheiten in Britain 1939–1950,” Keith Sword with Norman Davies and Ostmittel- und Osteuropa, Aussiedler in Deutschland. Eine Jan Ciechanowski, The formation of the Polish Community in Analyse ethnisch-privilegierter Migration. DFG-report (Berlin, Great Britain, 1939–1950 (London, 1989), pp. 17–84. 1996). Rev. Anastazy Nadolny, Sto lat polskiego duszpasterstwa w Hamburgu, 1891–1991 (Hamburg: Polska Misja Katolicka, April 2003 SARMATIAN REVIEW 957 1992). Zenon WiÊniewski, “Aus Polen—nach Deutschland. Ralf Karl Oenning, “Du da mitti polnischen Farben...,” Zahlenmäßige Entwicklung und Integrationsprobleme der Sozialisationserfahrungen von Polen im Ruhrgebiet 1918 bis Aussiedler,” Osteuropa, no. 42(1992), pp. 160–170. 1939 (Münster-New York, 1991). Anna Wolff-Pow∏ska and Eberhard Schulz, editors, Polen in Christoph Pallaske, editor, Die Migration von Polen nach Deutschland. Integration oder Separation? (Düsseldorf, 2000). Deutschland. Zu Geschichte und Gegenwart eines europäischen Irena Zwak,“Zwiàzek Polaków w Niemczech–Oddział Migrationssystems (Baden-Baden, 2001). Hamburg (1922–1982),” Studia Polonijne (Lublin), No. 9 ______, “Die Migration von Polen nach Deutschland (1985), pp. 157–163. seit 1980,” Die Migration von Polen. . ., pp. 123–140. Polonia w Europie (Poznaƒ , 1992). Anna Poniatowska, Stefan Liman, and Iwona Kr∏Ïałek, Zwiàzek Polaków w Niemczech w latach 1922–1982 (Warsaw, 1987). Poland and the EU Anna Poniatowska,“Die Polen in Berlin,” Zwischen The final chapter before accession Abgrenzung und Assimilation—Deutsche, Polen und Juden. Schauplätze ihres Zusammenlebens von der Zeit der Aufklärung bis zum Beginn des Zweiten Weltkriegs, edited by Robert Maier Richard J. Hunter, Jr. and Leo V. Ryan, C.S.V. and Georg Stöber (Hannover, 1996), pp. 65–77. Krzysztof Ruchniewicz, “ Die polnische politische Emigration The dream of Poland’s full participation in a united nach Deutschland in den Jahren 1945 bis 1980,” Pallaske, Europe, as first exemplified by Poland’s membership in editor, pp. 61–75. NATO(1) and in her desire to become a member of the Hedwig Rudolph, “Dynamics of Immigration in a European Union, is about to become a reality. The formal Nonimmigrant Country, Germany,” European Migration in the process began in May 1990, when the government of Late Twentieth Century: Historical Patterns, Actual Trends, former Prime Minister Tadeusz Mazowiecki submitted and Social Implications, edited by Heinz Fassmann and Rainer Münz (Aldershot, 1994), pp. 113–126. its official application for the opening of accession Jacek Schmidt, “‘Aussiedler’–zwischen Polen und Deutschen,” negotiations in Brussels. A major step was accomplished Anna Wolff-Pow∏ska and Eberhard Schulz, editors, pp. 270– on February 1, 1994, when Poland and the European 287. Economic Community signed the European Treaty, Detlef Schmiechen-Ackermann,“Zwischen Integration und assuring Poland’s “associated country status.” It is now Rückzug in das Sozialmilieu einer nationalen Minderheit: expected that Poland and the nine remaining “candidate Polnische Zuwanderer in Misburg 1880–1930,” Am Rande der countries” will join the European Union(2) on May 1, Stadt, edited by Hans-Dieter Schmid (Bielefeld, 1992), pp. 143– 2004. Poland will probably join the “eurozone,” adopting 220. the euro as its medium of exchange, in 2007. After a Ulrich Schwinges and Klaus Kiehl, Die Eingliederung von round of intense diplomatic and political summitry, Aussiedlern. Eine empirische Untersuchung in Hamburg (Hamburg, 1989). accession negotiations were completed on December 13, Valentina Maria Stefanski,“Die polnische Minderheit,” 2002 in Copenhagen, Denmark. It now appears that Ethnische Minderheiten in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland. Poland was able to negotiate final terms that were Ein Lexikon, edited by Cornelia Schmalz-Jacobsen and Georg favorable both to Poland’s domestic and international Hansen (München, 1995), pp. 385–401. positions.(3) Claudia Strauss and Naomi Quinn, “A Cognitive/Cultural The team that Prime Minister Leszek Miller(4) Anthropology,” Assessing Cultural Anthropology, edited by R. assembled, including Agriculture Minister Jarosław Borofsky (New York, 1994), pp. 284–298. Kalinowski, Finance Minister Grzegorz Kołodko,(5) Thomas Urban, Deutsche in Polen. Geschichte und Gegenwart Foreign Minister Włodzimierz Cimoszewicz, frontline einer Minderheit (München, 1993). negotiators Jan Truszyƒski and Minister for European Patrick Wagner, Displaced Persons in Hamburg. Stationen einer halbherzigen Integration 1945–1958, edited by Galerie Affairs, Professor Danuta Hubner, had a two-pronged Morgenland (Hamburg, 1997). strategy: negotiate additional budgetary considerations for Małgorzata Warchoł-Schlottmann, “ Polonia in Germany,” Poland in order to meet accession costs and reduce the Sarmatian Review, vol. XXI, no. 2 (April 2001). budget deficits;(6) negotiate a more favorable scheme for “Wir Hamburger aus Polen,” by ElÏbieta Górska and the Polish agricultural sector, especially in the first years Alexandra Kuêmiƒska-Wojtyłło, 2d ed. (Hamburg: of EU membership, especially the higher milk production Ausländerbeauftragter der Freien und Hansestadt Hamburg, quotas.(7) 1993). BUDGETARY ISSUES Wir riefen auf zum Frieden. 25 Jahre Deutsch-Polnische Gesellschaft 1972–1997 (Hamburg, 1997). 958 SARMATIAN REVIEW April 2003 A final compromise, made possible when German Polish farmers and some on the right, most notably Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder unexpectedly supported representatives from the League of Polish Families,(10) Poland’s request for additional funding, will result in 1.036 and representatives of Samoobrona(11) have been billion euros added to the Polish budget. Polish negotiators especially vocal that membership in the EU will result in also secured an additional 1.5 billion euros in cash to be the wholesale transfer of Polish assets to foreigners. transferred to the Polish budget over three years, including Poland negotiated a transition period on the purchase of 443 million euros previously agreed upon by the EU for agricultural land and forest plots—twelve years for 2004. In the years 2004–2006, 1.063 billion euros in companies, three years for private farmers buying land in compensation payments will be transferred to the Polish the east of Poland, and seven years for those buying land budget. In addition to budget compensation payments, in western and northern Poland. Poland will also join Poland is also scheduled to receive 280 million euros to what is termed as the Schengen system by 2006, at the be spent on critical eastern border reinforcement expenses. earliest. As agreed upon, Poles will have the right to cross AGRICULTURAL ISSUES the EU’s internal borders without passport control. In The agricultural issue has remained the most return, Poland is obliged to introduce limited visa troublesome and persistent for Polish negotiators—and requirements for citizens of Ukraine, Belarus, and Russia on the domestic political scene. Poland was successful in by July 1, 2003, and reinforce the protection on its eastern negotiating for direct (parity) payments for Polish farmers, border. the amount of which will however reach only 55, 60, and ENVIRONMENTAL CONCERNS 65 percent of the payments granted to current EU farmers While Poland has been active in cleaning up the residue in the years 2004–2006.(8) Another important issue of nearly fifty years of communist industrialization that revolved around milk production quotas. The total milk ravaged much of Poland (Kraków—Nowa Huta is just quota will remain at the level of 8.96 million tons in the one example), the cost of compliance with stringent EU first two years after accession. In 2006, the milk quota standards has been a persistent concern. Poland was able may rise to 9.38 million tons. Needless to say, Polish to gain several transitional periods with regard to EU farmers are far from happy, but the alternatives were even environmental directives. Poland, however, has agreed less attractive. to a series of projects including: a commitment to build TAXES sewage treatment plans by the end of 2008 or 2015, One of the priorities of the Miller negotiating team depending on the size and population of the city; to revolved around the issue of the VAT. Poland was able to modernize landfills and construct new ones before 2012; gain some substantial concessions. In order to stimulate to prevent the further contamination of the environment residential apartment construction, Poland won a 7 percent by large factories with sixty-five “specified substances” VAT rate on completed apartments until the end of 2007. before 2010; and to prevent water contamination with In addition, negotiations resulted in a 3 percent VAT rate “dangerous substances” before 2007. In addition, Poland on products used in agricultural production, such as has agreed to reduce sulfur content in fuels before 2005, fertilizers and pesticides. Until the end of 2007, a 0 percent to reduce emissions involved in petrochemical storage, rate will be imposed on some categories of books and and to meet EU requirements regarding the volume of “specialty” magazines, and a 7 percent VAT on restaurant recycled packaging before 2005. services, as well as a 0 percent VAT on certain eco-fuels A referendum will follow in which the Polish people in the first year of EU membership. By December 2008, will be asked to ratify the work of more than a decade. Poland will be required to impose a minimum of 64 euro Although support for Poland’s entry into the EU has per 1000 cigarettes (50 packs/5 cartons). remained steady, in the range of 55 percent to 65 POLISH EMPLOYMENT IN THE EU percent,(12) the referendum will be hard fought and A restriction on Polish immigration into EU nations is contentious. The spring and summer should prove quite contemplated, lasting from two to seven years. However, interesting. ∆ Poland has secured assurances from the UK, France, Sweden, and Spain that they would impose no such NOTES restrictions on the free, cross-border movement of Polish 1. On July 8, 1997, NATO foreign ministers extended an labor.(9) An important cession was made when the EU invitation to three former Soviet bloc nations, Poland, the Czech agreed to the equivalency of Polish nursing diplomas, Republic, and Hungary, to join the alliance in time for NATO’s placing them on a par with their EU counterparts. 50th anniversary. For a discussion of the importance of NATO membership for Poland, see Richard J. Hunter, Jr. and Leo. V. POLISH LAND SALES AND EU BORDER ISSUES Ryan, From Autarchy to Market: Polish Economics and Politics April 2003 SARMATIAN REVIEW 959 1945-1995 (Westport, CT: Praeger, 1998), 162–163, 194–195, 211–212. An Interview 2. In 1993, the European Community was transformed into the European Union. The Treaty of Nice of December 2000 laid with Andrzej Wajda down the basic legal framework for EU enlargement. 3. The “final” Polish position is outlined in Malgorzata Interviewer: Kaczorowska, “EU Negotiations: Milking an Issue,” The Aleksandra Ziółkowska-Boehm Warsaw Voice, December 15, 2002, p. 5. 4. During the period immediately preceding the Denmark meeting, Prime Minister Miller met with the Prime Minister of Translated by J. B. Great Britain, the Prime Minister of Denmark, the Chancellor of Germany, the Prime Ministers of the Visegrad Group, the AZ-B: What is your opinion of the United States? Prime Minister of Spain, the Prime Minister of Italy, Pope John AW: Like most Poles, throughout my life I listened Paul II, and the Prime Minister of Sweden. carefully to voices coming from America. Before the 5. Grzegorz Kołodko surprisingly replaced Minister of Finance Marek Belka in July of 2002. See Marcin Mierzejewski, “The Second World War, Poles credited their newly won Warsaw Shuffle,” The Warsaw Voice, July 14, 2002, pp. 5, 19. freedom largely to American help. When the Second Kolodko had served as Minister of Finance between 1994– World War broke out, we watched what America would 1997. However, his initial spell at the ministry allegedly do and we waited for it to declare war on the Germans. “featured a degree of arrogance that no other finance minister Then, during the fifty years of “People’s Poland,” the has been able to emulate.” United States was enemy number one of the Soviet Union 6. For a discussion of current economic issues in Poland see and consequently, all Poles were America’s friends. Today, Central Europe Economic Letter published by Krzysztof my feeling is that of all the nations, the Poles trust the Beł∏dowski at [email protected]. Americans before all others. 7. Małgorzata Kaczorowska, “Triumph of the Will,” The Polish AZ-B: Has America been present in your work? Voice (Warsaw), 22–29 December 2002, 7–8; The Post Eagle (Passaic, NJ), 22 January 2003, pp. 1, 66. AW: I began my theatrical career by directing two 8.The original EU proposal was for 25, 30, and 35 percent American plays, A Hatful of Rain by M. V. Gazzo and subsidization. Two for the Seesaw by William Gibson. Citizen Kane 9. For a full discussion of the EU’s internal market of goods, stimulated my interest in movie making. When I was doing see “A Bitter Pill,” The Polish Voice , no. 27, p. 20. Ashes and Diamonds, I often thought of Asphalt Jungle 10.With thirty-eight deputies in the Sejm, LPR formally opposes and gangster films of the 1950s. Had Ashes and Diamonds Poland’s accession to the EU. It received 8 percent in the last been nominated for the Oscar, I might have moved to Parliamentary elections. America. However, such a nomination was impossible 11. Samoobrona, with fifty seats in the Sejm, has capitalized for political reasons; indeed, this film has never been on widespread rural and small town resentment. Its leader, the presented at any film festival. controversial Andrzej Lepper, introduced a draft resolution in the Sejm that would have resulted in a total ban on selling Polish AZ-B: So you stayed in Poland and became Poland’s land to foreigners. best-known movie director, and in 2000 Americans 12. Arguments of proponents of membership may be found at awarded you an Oscar, the most coveted award in film. www.europejczyk.wp.pl/ (The Polish Council for European AW: I can say without any hesitation that I was lucky to Movement), and www.ocipe.org.pl/ (The Catholic Office for have stayed in Poland. I belong here, and I reached my Information and European Initiatives). The Episcopate of the international position while working here. I believe in my Catholic Church has been a consistent proponent of European mission of creating the Polish school in film. integration and Poland’s entry into the EU. However, see Jan AZ-B: And what were your impressions of America Maksymiuk, “Poland: Will the Roman Catholic Church Split?” when you visited here in the past? Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, vol. 4, no. 35 (17 September AW: As a country, the United States is wonderful. There 2002) outlining the divergence of opinion between the Polish Episcopate led by Cardinal Glemp and Father Tadeusz Rydzyk, is no other place on earth where an abundance of space the head of Radio Maryja, which claims an audience of 1.4 creates so well the illusion of freedom. I crossed the state million Poles per day and some 5.9 million per week. of Texas by car and went all the way to the Grand Canyon and then to Las Vegas. I am certain that the Grand Canyon is closer to God than any other place on earth. New York
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12345678901234567890123456789 12345678901234567890123456789 is a remarkable place with so many must-sees. In the 1960s and ‘70s it was permeated with the spirit of modernism which had finally moved out of Paris for good. The spirit 960 SARMATIAN REVIEW April 2003 of modern art abandoned Paris for New York and that is What are the weaknesses of Polish cinematography at why it is so hard for Europe to rebuild its artistic prestige. present? AZ-B: Do you think that when Poles enter the European AW: Polish films withstood the competitions with the Union, they will continue to see New York as the art center so-called multiplexes, or movie theaters with multiple of the world? viewing halls. In 1975 there were 3,500 movie screens AW: Personally, I am hopeful about the new Berlin. [viewing halls], in 1989, only 700; at present, we probably Berlin may become the capital of united Europe for two have about 1,300 screens. In the last few years, Polish reasons: Europe must keep developing eastward, and the films returned to movie theaters: With Fire and Sword Germans are trying to redefine themselves in the world. was viewed by seven million people, Pan Tadeusz, by six Thus Berlin may become a point where eastern and million, and Vengeance has so far drawn two million western Europe unite; by eastern Europe, I have in mind people. This is far more than any of the American movies, our own country. Few places in Poland are situated farther which indicates that Poles need and appreciate their own than 130 miles from Berlin, whereas Paris is ten times national film industry. more remote geographically. This will become significant The greatest weakness of this industry is the shortage when we begin to play the role of facilitators to countries of screenplay writers. Few movies are produced, and located east of us in their efforts to join Europe. therefore few people choose to write screenplays. In the AZ-B: Do you think that the 9/11 tragedy will change past we relied on Polish literature. It produced novels and the image of America? stories with well-delineated characters, brisk plots, and AW: Yes, but Americans are pragmatic and rational, dialogues touching upon social and political matters. and they will seek new ways and solutions to the difficult Contemporary Polish writers prefer introspection and self- situation that came about. This will not be easy because contemplation, thus leaving the business of writing the United States will have to become a police state and screenplays to producers who are not always able to deliver will have to “supervise” more than their own society. a good product. AZ-B: Many years ago, you gave a beginning actor AZ-B: Are you a member of the European chorus that Roman Polanski a role in your film The Generation laments the low artistic level of American movies? [Pokolenie]; recently, the now-famous Polanski played AW: American cinema is treated as a mere industry, Papkin in your newest film, Vengeance [Zemsta]. As a but within that industry masterpieces are being created. director, Polanski is surrounded by legends and scandals This industry sometimes produces films that reflect deeply here in America, and I think that American viewers would upon reality not only in the American context but in the like to see him acting in your recent film. He has certainly world context as well. The remainder belongs to the earned his fame. entertainment industry and it has a wide audience, thus AW: When I observed his talent and energy as a producing trends in fashion, entertainment music, and beginning actor and later, as a student in our School of lifestyle. But the masterpieces of American cinema weigh Film and director of his first movies, I saw in him an more than comparable films made in Europe because, in American director: I believe Polanski was born to live addition to addressing the most complex and difficult and direct in the United States. I was truly moved that problems, they discover a form of expression that has after so many years he agreed to play Papkin in Alexander universal appeal. These beautiful and ambitious films are Fredro’s Vengeance, a role that has a long and illustrious strikingly simple when it comes to means and forms of tradition in Polish theater, one that had been played by expression. American producers seem to possess this great actors in the past. The most moving of all was his precious conviction that it is possible to find ways to decision to return to his native language and the film school address any topic whatsoever, and that audiences will which gave him a start. This was a beautiful and respond generously if such ways are found. magnificent gesture on his part. In the role of Papkin, In contrast, European cinema is created for a narrow Polanski is a newcomer to [our present] screen and to our circle of viewers. Such was the case with the French “New filmmaking industry which is under considerable stress— Wave” movies: they were produced for the Quartier Latin mostly financial—not unlike the entire European audiences [the Latin Quarter, a district in Paris]. One can cinematography. certainly produce a film cheaply and with a small audience AZ-B: It is largely thanks to your talent and magic that in mind: such a situation allows the producer great artistic in spite of competition from American films, Polish freedom. The problem starts when one begins to think audiences show up in large numbers at Polish-made films. that the smaller the audience, the better the film; that films Probably this is a pleasant surprise for all malcontents. made for elite viewers are better than those made for broad April 2003 SARMATIAN REVIEW 961 audiences. But often these elites consist mainly of one’s theaters. It was a great pity, for The Promised Land is the relatives and friends. Elitist thinking turned out to be kind of movie that could have been a success in America disastrous for the European cinema. It seems to me that at because its plot and the problems it deals with are this point, European filmmakers are reversing this trend understandable to American audiences. mainly thanks to the European-born directors who are now This turn of events was for me a great and undeserved returning to Europe, e.g., Jean-Pierre Jeunet, the director blow. of Amelia. AZ-B: You and Mrs. Krystyna Zachwatowicz are AZ-B: What difficulties await European cinema when seriously interested in Japan. I read your statement about Europe will finally unite? hiding in Kraków [during the German occupation in the AW: Language difficulties first of all. Lingistically Second World War]. Once you came out of your hiding speaking, Europe is a veritable babel of languages. Years and saw an exhibit of Japanese art in Sukiennice [a ago, those whom we regard as fathers of united Europe shopping mall in the center of Kraków]. Japan was had the idea that Latin should be the European language. Germany’s ally in the Second World War, hence the exhibit Until the Second World War and afterwards, Latin was in Kraków sponsored by the military governor, General the language of the Church. It could have become the Hans Frank. Many years later, when you were a famous language of politics as well. In the past, all European producer, you received the Kyoto Prize, a Japanese treaties were written in Latin. I am amused by the fact equivalent of the Nobel. Owing to your efforts and those that the bureaucrats in Brussels strive to speak their own of your wife Krystyna Zachwatowicz, Kraków now has a tongues and use dozens of translators, and then at night, Japanese art center called Manggha. You have started an meeting for drinks in the bar, they speak English to each extraordinary tradition. other. AW: Before the Second World War, Polish collector AZ-B: Could we talk about your 1990 movie dedicated Feliks Jasieƒski gathered over ten thousand works of old to Janusz Korczak, with Agnieszka Holland’s screenplay Japanese art. In 1926, he offered his collection to the and Wojciech Pszoniak playing Korczak? This film Kraków National Museum. Over half a century later, there received little publicity even though its audience at Cannes arose a need to erect a building to display this collection. gave you a standing ovation. Concerning this film I found Indeed I received the Kyoto Prize and that created an the following statement by you on the internet: “My good additional obligation. Together with my wife I decided to intentions turned out to be useless.” In the United States build a Center of Japanese Art. The Japanese responded. no one knows about this film and its fate. How do you Japanese architect Arata Isosaki produced a blueprint for look at this matter from the perspective of over a dozen the building and offered it to our Kyoto-Kraków years? Foundation. The Japanese government offered two million AW: Indeed at Cannes during a special show the dollars. As a gesture of solidarity with the Polish Solidarity audience was enthusiastic and the film received a standing movement, Japanese railway workers collected another ovation. Next day, Le Monde published a review that million. A special collection was held in Japan, and that opined that Korczak was anti-Semitic. The last scene in added two and a half million. Altogether, we collected particular was criticized as an alleged falsification of five and a half million dollars and this allowed us to build history. It was painful to read this, but I was aware that Centrum Manggha within fifteen months. Now the France preferred to lecture Poles on anti-Semitism rather magnificent Japanese art is available for viewing. than deal with cases of French anti-Semitism. The French Poland is a country where it is hard to preserve have long sought ways to avoid facing up to the fact that entrepreneurial continuity because of such objective it was the French authorities and the French police that obstacles as war or systemic change. So much greater has dispatched Jews to Auschwitz [and not the Nazi authorities been our satisfaction that our initiative fell on fertile soil and Nazi police as was the case in Poland]. and that Kraków now has a Center of Japanese Art and Some years earlier, when my film The Promised Land Technology, and that this Center has become a dynamic [Ziemia Obiecana] received the Oscar nomination, a press and active institution, one of the most dynamic in the city. conference was held and one of the critics attacked the In 2002, the Center hosted His Excellency Emperor film as anti-Semitic. After the press conference I asked Akihito and his wife. him where he viewed the movie. He answered, “I do not AZB: Please tell us something about the role of your have to view the movie to know that it is anti-Semitic: it wife, Krystyna Zachwatowicz, in your life and work. She is enough to know that it comes from Poland.” This was started as an actress in the cabaret “Pod Baranami” and is the reason why the film was not shown in American movie also a remarkable scenographer. She acted in your films, 962 SARMATIAN REVIEW April 2003 among others in The Girls from Wilk (Panny z Wilka), in and belittling all that was going on around us? Have we Man of Marble, in A Love Chronicle (Kronika wypadków internalized being small, provincial, and insignificant?” I miłosnych). You dedicated to her your book Double Vision: must say that your words touched me deeply. My Life in Film (1998). What is the secret of the successful AW: The strength of the Polish Church lies in its marriage of two well-known and creative people? consistency: it behaved the same way during the Nazi AW: We respect the artist in each other. The artist who occupation when thousands of Catholics priests were creates his or her own world and is active in his or her murdered, and under the Stalinist system when it had to artistic genre. We also work together in the theater. measure up to an extremely difficult political situation. Krystyna also acted in my films, and she has taught The decisions about the Church, however, were and are scenography at the Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków for taken in Rome, and this independence [from local several years now. She also teaches young movie directors authorities] saved the Church’s religious and social in the Theater Academy. Such contacts keep us young. prestige. AZ-B: Please tell me something about the Warsaw Film It is true that I did not hope to see the fall of communism. School that bears your name. I was certain that it would survive for many more years, AW: The Master’s School of Film exists since January and that its corrosive influence would continue for decades. 2002. Wojciech Marczewski is President of the School. AZ-B: Have the times changed? Are we different now? To We meet eight to ten times a year for two weeks at a time. what extent has the Polish Pope, the Nobel Prize awarded to We selected thirteen students out of 250-strong pool of Czesław Miłosz and Wisława Szymborska, or your own Oscar applicants. Five of them are graduates of film schools, changed the opinion of Poles about themselves? others have several independent films to their names. AW: I am sure Poles are proud and happy of these If it were not for businessman Ryszard Krauze, owner successes, but in order to reach true happiness, they still of the Optimus Company, the school could not have arisen. need to win the Mundial soccer match. He has financed the first five years of our existence. AZ-B: In the United States the promotion of sports The study period is one year. During that time, the young begins at school. It is taken for granted that team games men and women prepare their project. They start with the teach one how to act in a group. In order to win it is idea and end with the screenplay. Together we film some necessary to develop a team spirit. A loss likewise affects scenes of the future movie and we do the casting. At this the group rather than the individual. point, the work can be presented to producers as a ready- AW: Poles often lack the ability to work as a team. I am to-go project. a great promoter of sports, and I think that if Poland is to AZ-B: In Double Vision you write about the role of advance civilizationally, it has to focus more on team music in film. In your movie Pan Tadeusz you used a sports. I still remember with admiration the team spirit in solemn and triumphant Polonaise by Wojciech Kilar. This the Japanese theater where I worked. A similar situation Polonaise is very different from the Ogiƒski Polonaise so exists in the American theater. popular in Poland. In the years to come, will it acquire the AZ-B: You have created great works, and many of them nickname of “Polonaise from Wajda’s Pan Tadeusz?” significantly influenced Polish life. The Promised Land AW: Kilar is not the only composer with whom I have is regarded as the greatest Polish film ever. What are your worked, but I regard his film music very highly. It is always plans for the future? coordinated with the plot and it adds greatly to the rhythm AW: While putting my Kraków archives in order I of the picture. stopped at project no.196 among those that I put aside. In AZ-B: In a book published in Toruƒ in 2000, The Slavic other words, I have more unfinished projects that finished Pope: a Messenger of Hope (PapieÏ Słowian: Zwiastun ones. I have many movie ideas. At this moment, I cannot nadziei), there is a passage by you. You speak of the say which of them I will work on next. ∆ moment when you first heard that Cardinal Karol Wojtyła was elected Pope. You were working on Chełmska Street The interview was conducted in Fall 2002. and you were approached by some electricians who told you that they heard this message on the radio. You did not believe them and scolded them rather harshly. Later you A large selection of Andrzej Wajda’s movies can be rented reflected on that sequence of events and wondered whether from the Blockbusters. A large selection of films can be it was a failure of imagination or some other reason that purchased on Amazon.com (videos and DVDs). made you reject this good news. You write: “Could it be possible that we [Poles] got used to belittling ourselves April 2003 SARMATIAN REVIEW 963 everything of note seems to be happening in Paris. BOOKS and Periodicals Łuszczykiewicz’s collection of essays is first rate, and it reads exceptionally well. If the general reader is ever to Received return to commentaries about literature provided by Pan od poezji: O Zbigniewie Herbercie, by Joanna professional critics, Łuszczykiewicz should be credited Siedlecka. Warsaw: Prószynski i S-ka (02-651 Warsaw, with helping the process along. Like Viktor Pelevin with ul. GaraÏowa 7, Poland), 2002. Photographs, copies of regard to post-Soviet Russian literature, Łuszczykiewicz documents, Herbert’s own drawings. 427 pages. may well be one of those who brought new readers to Hardcover. In Polish. postcommunist Polish literary criticism. This book has reached notoriety in Poland. It is an idiosyncratic biography of Poland’s most admired Other Books Received twentieth-century poet. As is always the case with Bibliini siuzheti i motivi v ukrainskii poezii XIX- remarkable books, it has been dubbed “controversial.” pochatku XX stolittia, by Irina Vetko. Zielona Góra- Siedlecka drags in some unsavory sidelines of Herbert’s Kyiv, 1999. 160 pages. Bibliography. Paper. In Ukrainian. biography. Under normal circumstances, that would be A scholarly study of Biblical motifs in Ukrainian nothing new in the world of biography writing, but given literature of the late nineteenth and early twentieth the attempts in the 1990s by Adam Michnik’s Gazeta centuries. The author teaches Ukrainian literature at the Wyborcza to discredit Herbert, any attack leveled at University of Silesia, Poland. Poland’s most admired twentieth-century poet was bound Kultura polska: Silva rerum, edited by Romuald to evoke protests. But the book does not contain anything Cudak and Jolanta Tambor. Katowice: Âlàsk Pub- that could in the long run hurt Herbert’s reputation as a lishers ([email protected]), 2002. 276 pages. Bib- poet and as an inveterate anti-communist. liography, illustrations. Paper. In Polish. Na linie (On the tightrope), by Piotr Fast. Katowice: A good textbook on Polish culture for beginners. Âlàsk Publishers ([email protected]), 2002. 68 pages. Suitable for those members of Polonia who know Paper. In Polish. “children’s Polish” and would like to get some lively and A book of poetry by one of Poland’s notable Russicists. well-presented information about Polish history, social Among others, it contains reflection on the business of culture, literature, and cuisine (as reflected in literature). scholarship writing, and it offers a refreshing perspective The authors of the twelve chapters are university professors on the “little sins” of literary theorists and commentators who know how to negotiate the differences between on literature. The poems on love are delicately crafted. scholarship and popular writing without compromising either. This little volume reminds one of the split personality Wczesna twórczoÊç Josifa Brodskiego, by Joanna which afflicts numerous academics. In their professional Madloch. Katowice: Âlàsk Publishers, 2000. 160 pages. Bib- lives they inhabit the rarefied heights of literary theory, liography of Josif Brodsky’s early works. Paper. In Polish. but in their private lives they keep rediscovering basic This book appeared in a series associated with Przeglàd and simple meanings of words. Rusycystyczny, a Polish scholarly journal dealing with Bliskie czytanie: interpretacje literatury XX wieku (Close Russian literature. The author concludes that Josif reading: interpretations of twentieth-century Brodsky’s early works differ dramatically from the late literature), by Piotr Łuszczykiewicz. Kalisz: ones, in that they reflect Brodsky’s efforts to distance Wydawnictwo Sztuka i Rynek ([email protected]), himself from personal poetry and concentrate on the craft 2002. 173 pages. Paper. ISBN 83-913102-8-0. In Polish. of poetry. In his Nobel speech Brodsky said, “Esthetics is This book is worth noting for several reasons. First, it the mother of ethics.” While not negating the value of contains perceptive reflections on major writers and poets ethics, in his early poetry Brodsky seems to have believed of the twentieth century: Tadeusz RóÏewicz, Zbigniew with Dostoevsky that “beauty [might] change the world.” Herbert, Tadeusz Konwicki, Stanisław Lem, Bogusława Homo transcendens w Êwiecie Gombrowicza, by Latawiec, K. I. Gałczyƒski, Iosif Brodsky, Seamus Edward Fiała. Lublin: Wydawnictwo KUL, 2002. 289 Heaney, Wisława Szymborska, Julia Hartwig, Adriana pages. Index of names. Paper. In Polish. Szymaƒska, Stanisław Grochowiak, Jacek Łukasiewicz, The author analyzes Gombrowicz’s world from a Stanisław Baraƒczak, and others. Second, it was published psychological and anthropological point of view, showing in a small Polish city, Kalisz (pop. 100,000), thus that his characters transcend all bounds and limits. (mjm) suggesting that Poles are successfully overcoming the kind Małe prozy biblijne. Selected by Maria Jasiƒska- of centralization from which the French suffer: in France, Wojtkowska and Maciej Nowak. Introduction and 964 SARMATIAN REVIEW April 2003 commentary by Maciej Nowak. Lublin: Wydawnictwo theorist and historian, and editor-in-chief of the leading KUL, 2002. 441 pages. Paper. In Polish. Polish journal of literary studies, Teksty Drugie. He has A selection of stories inspired by the Bible and authored made himself known to Polish audiences through his by Janusz Korczak, Jerzy Zawieyski, Roman works on modernism in literature, such as Textual World: Brandstaetter, Gustaw Herling-Grudziƒski and other Post-structuralism and Literary Scholarship (Tekstowy Polish writers of the twentieth century. (mjm) Êwiat. Poststrukturalizm a wiedza o literaturze, 1993), Człowiek i cierpienie w poezji polskiego baroku, by Modern Silvae rerum: The Problem of Text Construction Danuta Künstler-Langner. 2d edition. Toruƒ: (Sylwy współczesne. Problem konstrukcji tekstu, 1994), Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Mikołaja Kopernika, 2002. and The Language of Modernism: Historical and literary 185 pages. Summary in English. Paper. In Polish. Prolegomena (J∏zyk modernizmu. Prolegomena This study deals with religious approaches to unjust historycznoliterackie, 1997). Nycz has also introduced suffering and spiritual pain. The author analyzes the postmodernism and deconstruction to Polish audiences, theodicy of Job, passion poetry, and works about human and did so through the anthologies of essays by Jacques progress to eternity. (mjm) Derrida, Gilles Deleuze, Paul De Man, J. F. Lyotard, and Richard Rorty, among others. Thus Nycz’s most recent publication seems to be a logical consequence of his earlier Literatura scholarly interests in modern and postmodern literature and theory. jako trop rzeczywistoÊci The title of his work is a key to the understanding of his interpretative approach to Polish literature: literature is a by Ryszard Nycz. Kraków: Universitas, 2001. 277 pages. trope of reality, it is an epiphany. What is epiphany Index of names. English summary. Paper. In Polish. according to Nycz? First, this term does not imply that the work must have some theological connotations. On Dariusz Skórczewski the contrary, Nycz renounces the tradition of studies of the sacred, a fashionable trend in literary studies in Poland “This is a book about the objectivist trend in modern Polish that originated from the milieu of the Catholic University literature”: this is how Professor Ryszard Nycz opens his of Lublin and became popular nationwide in the late 1980s. most recent work Literature as a Trope of Reality. This Secondly, he also rejects treating epiphany, in his own assertion, though apparently simple, requires some words, “as a tool for analysis of a particular literary elucidation. Accordingly, the author provides us with a technique for description, a view dominant in Western number of theoretical and historical remarks, all of them European, especially Anglo-Saxon, research into first outlined in the Introduction and then developed in Romantic and Modern literature.” Nycz’s understanding three essays which constitute the first part of the book: of epiphany is broader and it encompasses various types “‘Expressing the Inexpressible’ in Modern Literature,” of subtle manifestations of “the other” (i.e., of the “The Person in Modern Literature: Tropes of Presence,” transcendent) reality, one inexpressible and existing and “The Poetics of Epiphany and the Beginning of “beyond” both language (yet whose expression depends Modernity.” By means of these remarks we are introduced on language) and the objective world accessible to human to Nycz’s understanding of epiphany which, it turns out, senses. Hence, literature is considered as a trope, or trace, complies with the understanding of this term introduced of “other” reality, testifying to the existence of and by James Joyce (as Nycz himself admits) and later revealing (and illuminating) this reality that otherwise developed by Western anthropologists, philosophers, and would remain unexpressed and incomprehensible. In this critics. sense, one might say, referring to the two centers or types The link between Polish and Western literatures in of human cognition, that epiphanic literature is closer to Nycz’s study cannot be overlooked. It is rare for Polish “Jerusalem” (i.e., to the Revelation) than to “Athens” poetry or prose to be interpreted by scholars and critics in (which represents reason). Due to his strong conviction Poland in a way that puts aside the national and historical regarding the objective existence of this “other” world, background in favor of a broader and more universal (and, Nycz places himself in the ranks of the essentialists—those for Western audiences, better known) context of modernist philosophers and scholars who, against the current fashionable and postmodernist approaches to literature. In this regard, trend of cognitive relativism, insist upon the existence of Nycz is a reliable source of information and a trustworthy reality independent of the assumptions of the subject. interpreter of literature. He is an accomplished literary April 2003 SARMATIAN REVIEW 965 The beginning of this modern kind of “epiphany” in In the case of Miłosz, Nycz interestingly shows how Polish literature can be seen, according to Nycz, as early Miłosz’s poetic idiom fosters the epitomizing of that which as the two texts by Cyprian Norwid, Black Flowers (1856) is “unattainable” by suggesting the existence of “the other” and White Flowers (1857). Nycz argues that in these two (i.e., nonhuman, inexpressible) reality. He concludes with works a deeper “spiritual” reality has been revealed in an the observation that the oldest poet of Poland is paradoxically allegorical way by means of poetic idiom. This was a the youngest spiritually, as Miłosz’s poetic findings seem to novelty in Polish literature. Considered from this match, or even precede, those of Lyotard as regards the perspective, Norwid’s poetry anticipates the modern “transcending” function of the poetic cognition. understanding of epiphany as later introduced by Joyce Lyotard’s name and the problem of the transcendent in Dubliners, where epiphany is a sudden “spiritual” nature of literature are also mentioned in the chapter on manifestation of the object to the perceiving subject. Tadeusz RóÏewicz’s poetry which, in Nycz’s The remaining part of the book consists of Nycz’s brilliant interpretation, is unique in that it manifests the “mystery” interpretations of some selected literary works of of death, annihilation, and disintegration, as well as that twentieth-century Polish literature. At first, the reader may of mutilated poetry. RóÏewicz’s epiphanic poems, Nycz be surprised by the list of authors who draw Nycz’s argues, perfectly match Lyotard’s postmodern formula on attention. On this list, Bolesław LeÊmian appears next to the “inexpressibility of that which is inexpressible.” Julian PrzyboÊ and Karol Irzykowski, while Czesław The remaining two authors discussed by Nycz, Gustaw Miłosz stands next to Tadeusz RóÏewicz and Miron Herling-Grudziƒski, and Miron Białoszewski, though Białoszewski, and between Gustaw Herling-Grudziƒski clearly fitting his paradigm of literary epiphany, should and Zbigniew Herbert. One might ask, what link other have been given more attention. Nycz seems to have than their unquestioned meritorious position in the outlined some very important issues rather than providing pantheon of Poland’s modern literature can possibly join the reader with a substantial exposition of their epiphanic the aforementioned artists? Nycz’s book gives the answer: strategies. This is particularly true in the case of it is the epiphanic nature of their literary codes. Białoszewski whose poetry deserves deeper insight than Using LeÊmian’s poem “Etherealness” (“ZwiewnoÊç”) that presented in this book. Perhaps in Białoszewski’s case as an example, Nycz points out the poet’s ability to capture Nycz should have taken a less strict approach and included the “moment of being.” In his interesting interpretation some of his poems where the concept of epiphany and he shows how LeÊmian’s poetry joined the European the Christian sacrum are clearly intertwined (e.g., in the modernist quest, thus intuitively fulfilling Baudelaire’s series “Garwolin in winter”). postulate of grasping the “eternal moment in that which One may always question the inclusion of certain is transient” through the union between the perceived authors and the exclusion of others. Nycz might be accused object and the perceiving subject. of narrowing the scope of his interpretations to works of a Examining the poetry of PrzyboÊ, Nycz arrives at the few poets and writers, omitting or barely mentioning others conclusion that PrzyboÊ’s concept of the poem as who also match his criteria of “epiphany”: Bruno Schulz, “fireworks,” though unquestionably original, at the same Witkacy, Wisława Szymborska, Adam Zagajewski, and time realizes Theodor Adorno’s theoretical assumptions Paweł Huelle, to mention a few. One reason for Nycz’s regarding the experiential and cognitive roles of a work choice appears to be his focus on poetry (except for the of art. According to PrzyboÊ, poetry is like fireworks, works of Herling and Irzykowski). If he is restricting his exploding with meanings that emerge through the clash analysis to the greatest poets of the modern age, his of words in metaphors. omission of Szymborska and Zagajewski begs an PrzyboÊ’s poetics of “fireworks” is contrasted with explanation. Herbert’s concept of poetry as an expression of the The actual works that Nycz has selected to interpret subject’s “uncertain luminosity.” As shown in Nycz’s should be considered as examples of the epiphanic trend excellent interpretation of “Mr. Cogito is talking about rather than an exhaustive interpretation of this current, the temptation of Spinoza,” Herbert’s unique kind of which his book does not claim to be. Nycz’s selection, in cognitive attitude is best revealed in this poem which is most cases, has been well aimed; to illustrate his thesis one of his most mysterious poems. As presented by Nycz, regarding the strong existence of the “objectivist movement” Herbert is a master in expressing the modern awareness in Polish poetry, the author did not refrain from choosing of the insurmountable abyss between the content of works which are difficult to interpret. Consequently, cognitive experience and the conditions of this experience. Literature as a Trope of Reality is not an easy book. It required from the author numerous subtle differentiations 966 SARMATIAN REVIEW April 2003 and constant balancing on the verge of the unspoken. At plunging the young Teresa Mikosz and her family into no point does the reader doubt that Nycz has demonstrated the brutal world of disruption, hardship, and death that himself to be a brilliant theorist as well as an extremely became the everyday lot of nearly all Poles. Her father, a skilful interpreter. However, one may argue that his style Polish cavalry officer, fell into enemy hands in the first could be less scholarly and hermetic, and thus more days of combat and spent the duration of the war approachable to a nonspecialist reader. Also, in the course languishing in a series of German prison camps. The rest of his study Nycz introduces some challenging ideas but of the extended family fled eastward from Chobielin to leaves them unexplained or undefended. For instance, he the environs of Lwów [Lviv], only to be engulfed in the presents LeÊmian as the originator of modern Polish poetry tide of the Soviet invasion and subsequently deported, (118), thus failing to recognize the unquestionable role of along with over a million of their countrymen, into the Norwid in both the shaping of modern poetic idiom and more remote expanses of Russia. the emergence of a new type of “cognitive sensibility.” After this frenetic and calamitous opening, the rest of Despite these minor insufficiencies, Literature as a the book centers on the arduous efforts of the family Trope of Reality is an extremely important and timely Mikosz to endure the ordeal, to establish and maintain study. It provides us with a gateway into the mystery of contact, and eventually to reunite. Released from Soviet literature in its most intriguing dimension, that is, that of bondage in 1941, mother and daughter joined in the mass “expressing the inexpressible.” This gateway is inspiring evacuation of Poles via Central Asia, leaving behind them and illuminating, regardless of the reader’s ethnic and the graves of five kinfolk who did not survive the rigors cultural background. To Polish audiences, Nycz’s study of the Soviet exile. They waited out the rest of the war as shows their national literature from a perspective that is part of the Polish colony in Iran, where Teresa grew up, unconstrained by traditional historical and nationalist made friends, went to school: in short, went through many paradigms. To non-Polish readers the book provides a of the usual experiences of girlhood in an outlandishly unique insight into the “epiphanic” trend of twentieth- unusual setting. Even the restoration of peace did not century masterpieces of poetry and prose. Due to its broad remove all obstacles to the climactic reunion of loved ones, references to contemporary philosophical and aesthetical delayed by distance, confusion, and bureaucracy. The concepts, Nycz’s book shows Polish literature from a new tortuous paths of Captain Mikosz and his wife and child and universal perspective. In an indirect manner it also finally met in Ghazi, Lebanon, of all places, in January brings to light the awareness of Polish writers throughout 1946, the “spring” of the book’s title that followed a six- the last 140 years regarding literature’s ability to utter that year winter of separation and sorrow. which was simultaneously “discovered” in the area of Now a longtime resident of the Chicago area, Teresa modern philosophy: the new type of realization, according Mikosz-Hintzke has pieced together this story from a to which the content of one’s cognitive experience cannot patchwork of family reminiscences, private and official be separated from one’s circumstances in which the correspondence, and her own prodigious memory. She cognitive act is performed. ∆ has a novelist’s eye for the colorful or telling detail, especially in her descriptions of the bleak horrors of Soviet captivity, and her sunnier recounting of Near Eastern Six Years ’til Spring exotica. Mikosz-Hintzke has wisely chosen to build her A Polish Family’s Odyssey narrative around the framework of her parents’ wartime letters to one another, reproduced in full and incorporated within the text. These are ordinary and remarkable at the By Teresa Mikosz-Hintzke. New York: same time: bursting with scarcely controlled emotion and iUniverse(www.iuniverse.com), 2001. xxiii + 367 anxiety, yet restrained and comforting, devoted to pages. Paper. $20.95 (available on Amazon.com and quotidian commonplaces that would inform and reassure BarnesandNoble.com). while not offending the censor, hopeful against hope that things would turn out all right in the end. In their own Neal Pease unassuming way, these exchanges compose a powerful On August 1, 1939, the author of this memoir celebrated testimony to the dignity and resilience of the human spirit. her fifth birthday during an idyllic summer vacation with Do we learn anything new from this grim tale with a her parents on her grandfather’s country estate at Chobielin bittersweet, uplifting happy ending? Not really; it adds in Great Poland, a stone’s throw from the frontier with another title to a modestly growing list of accounts of the Germany. A month later the Second World War erupted, wartime sufferings of Poles under Soviet rule, a topic still April 2003 SARMATIAN REVIEW 967 largely unrecognized by the general public; but one Neither Russia nor Germany (nor France, for that matter) suspects that most readers who pick up this volume in the has ever done any favors to non-Germanic Central Europe, first place will already know at least the gist of this story, and there are no debts of gratitude to pay. On the other and will encounter nothing that is historically surprising. hand, it was American support that brought these countries Still, this book is about the Polish nation in its time of into NATO. greatest trial only on one level. At heart, it is a story about Central Europe’s support is not without value to the the ability of love and faith to prevail against all odds, and United States. The European heavyweights, Gemany and that is a lesson always worth relearning. ∆ France, cautiously oppose the war while most of the world is decisively against it. In this situation, the voices of the Our Take formerly inconsequential states begin to weigh in. To have Central Europe on its side is an attractive card which President Central Europe Rides the Tiger Bush’s advisers Condolezza Rice and Colin Powell can play at their convenience, whereas Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld has one of his problems solved by having Iraqi Until twelve years ago, non-Germanic Central Europe exiles trained in the heart of Europe. seemed forever confined to the margins of international Such support does not come without a price for the politics. Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary, and countries involved. Realpolitik has seldom been a pretty Slovakia were dominated by empires in the nineteenth game, and entering it has usually involved a compromise century and they were swallowed by the Soviet empire in of one’s moral principles. The war with Iraq is not like the twentieth. Twenty years of independence between the King Jan Sobieski’s rescue of Vienna in 1683, a defiantly two world wars did not make much difference, so far as anti-Realpolitik gesture motivated by Christian solidarity. the international status of these countries was concerned. Like the rest of the world, Poles are straddling the fence After the fall of communism the United States became a concerning the justness of the looming war. On February major player in Central Europe, and was warmly welcomed 15, 2003 in Rzeczpospolita, a respected Polish literary there. Arguably, the initial decisions concerning the admission scholar and political commentator, Zdzisław Najder, of these countries to NATO were taken on U.S. territory. cautioned against the easy acceptance of American Now comes the specter of war with Iraq as promoted leadership in the matter. However, another political by the United States president to a reluctant opposition of commentator, Jan Nowak-Jezioraƒski, pointed out that a the traditional continental European powers. What is the split between Europe and the United States could have reaction of non-Germanic Central Europe? On January disastrous consequences for East Central Europe. America 23, 2003, Czech and Hungarian foreign ministers declared must remain a player in Europe, he declared. that it would be better to go to war against Iraqi President The Poles have little room to maneuver. The Polish Saddam Hussein than risk him attacking another country. government has made its decision and, given the Both Czechs and Hungarians declared their readiness to remarkable sympathy toward America in Poland, the Poles support the United States in case of war. The Iraqi exiles will likely concur. Ditto Czechs and Hungarians. are now trained on a Hungarian military base. During his But the reluctance of France and Germany to support the visit to the United States on January 14, Polish President United States made the leading Russian internet paper, Gazeta, Aleksander KwaÊniewski reiterated Polish support, and gloat. On February 11, 2003, the leading headline read “Iraq he confirmed his position in later statements. While destroyed NATO.” The destruction of NATO has been announcing Polish Prime Minister Leszek Miller’s visit Russia’s long term goal. Russia will profit from the Iraq to the White House on February 5, 2003, Ari Fleischer conflict. If oil supplies are interrupted and the price of oil told reporters that “Poland is a close friend and ally of the skyrockets, Russia will rake in billions of dollars and will United States” and the two leaders would discuss “key become an indispensable partner. If Iraq’s oil fields global and security issues.” survive, Russia will retain its oil interests there as well as On January 30, 2003, the three nations lined up behind the halo of having been antiwar. An additional bonus for the United States by signing an op-ed article (initiated by Russia would be a possible weakening of NATO. Spain and cosigned by representatives of Britain, Spain, In Spring 2003, Central Europe entered Realpolitik from Italy, Portugal, and Denmark) thanking the United States which it has been absent for three centuries. In our for “bravery and generosity” in ensuring the peace in ahistorical age which relegates the First World War to Europe. Slovakia signed a day later. prehistory, the immensity of change has not yet sunk in Pointedly, non-Germanic Central Europe positioned either in Central Europe or in America. ∆ itself apart from the Russians and from the Germans. 968 SARMATIAN REVIEW April 2003 On December 25 a letter with the opłatek [unleavened Reticence (Homage to Zbigniew Herbert) bread traditionally shared by Poles on Christmas Eve] arrived from Mieczek and Janek. Janek informs me that Steven Kaminski he has made efforts through Professors Bujak and Kleiner for permission to be granted for my return. It is also Since the will of the people supported by medical certificate issued by Dr. CzyÏewska ordained the ends but left him here stating that I need further treatment and cannot work. She To set the ordered scene, treated me for colon ulcers some three years ago. I have a He thought a pistol should be tugged faint hope that it will move the tovarishchi [comrades]. Reluctantly Again a buran is raging. When the sunshine cuts through, it From its holstered home. creates a mirage of two interconnected columns on the horizon. Like a rotten tooth, Finally the parcel from Maryna arrived. It contained 5 He congratulated himself on the thought, lbs. of thick side bacon for 3 rubles, 5 lbs. of wheat meal, Prised out between thumb and finger. groats, mushrooms, etc. I never expected such great generosity from her. Unfortunately, I have lent about 200 The commissar could praise himself rubles to people around me here and at present cannot As he pulled his boot away send back all the money I owe her. I know that she is also From the remiss stubborn jaw in dire need! Of the framed Gap-toothed man, Wednesday, January 1, 1941 Yesterday a buran blew snowdrifts half as high as our His hands held by foreign rope, house, making it difficult to get out and move around. Kneed in the back and belly down Our supply of fuel is almost gone, but to our luck Józef, Like a shot on his native land, who works in the blacksmith shop, somehow manages to No secret spat out but unable to stop bring back some wood and coal. It is barely enough to His own blood making sepia mud, cook dumplings for breakfast at 11 a.m. and again at 5 Who still insolently flecks p.m. something for a combined dinner and supper. Enamel worthy of a statue into the red. My memories go back to the wedding of Marys and Marysia [Bladye], a happy St. Sylvester’s night and New Lives Remembered Year’s Eves with all our neighbors. . . and the name day of my dearest son Mieczek. Am I the same person? Zosia Death by a Thousand Cuts Małachowska, then Madame Professor PtaÊnik, and now A Polish Woman’s Diary PtaÊnik—a rabochaia [woman laborer] sheltered under of Deportation, Forced Labor and one roof with other maltreated companions in misery who sleeps on other people’s bundles under a cover made of a Death in Kazakhstan: kerchief, a blanket, and two coats all tied together with April 13, 1940–May 26, 1941 string and tape in order to hold them together and keep them from sliding? I try to keep continuously busy so as not to think about Part Five the future or bring back memories from the past that would only deepen my sadness and despair. Here we need a Zofia Ludwika Małachowska PtaÊnik powerful desire to survive: “The past is a fairy tale,” Mieczek once wrote. It is true that simple things that were so easily attainable in the past are now beyond anybody’s Translated by Leszek M. Karpinski reach, like a fairy tale dream. Edited by John D. L. McIntosh, with assistance from Bogdan Czaykowski and Kenneth Baulk Friday, January 17, 1941 Poor Tadzio is staying in bed suffering from frostbite to (continued from the September 2002 issue) his feet. He and his mother set out to Donskoye, 6 miles away, to look for some flour as they have completely run Friday, December 27, 1940 out of it. They got 70 lbs. so now they are free from having April 2003 SARMATIAN REVIEW 969 to borrow any flour, but at the cost of Tadzio’s frostbite. have to cook it—but how? My dreams go continuously We do not have money to buy anything, but anyhow there to Szczepłoty which is in ruins, and I always see among is nothing available around here. them my late parents. . . . Yesterday I received a long letter from Hania dated December 29, 1940. Winter over there is not too severe, Those beautiful ancient Szeptycki oaks were cut but fuel is very expensive and she cannot get enough of it down to the ground! The logs were taken away to to keep warm. Lots of vodka is available around. Russia. The awesome harm inflicted on our people Collective farms have been organized in Hruszów, and country is crying to heaven for vengeance. Wróblaczyn, and Nahaczyn. Farmers in our village have been under strong pressure to join, but have resisted. Thursday, February 6, 1941 On February 3 and 4 a powerful buran raged. It claimed Sunday, January 19, 1941 two victims among the Poles. Young Mrs. Orłowska from Here I’ve been thinking about rebuilding our farm and Sarmorsa went on Monday evening to fetch milk for her about the land steward, when I have 49 kopecks in my baby, and thus far has not been found. Mr. Silberman pocket and cannot afford to buy 1 lb. of whole meal flour returned back on Sunday evening and spent the night with for 80 kopecks. I tried to collect something from my a Kazakh family. He was sent here to unload the gasoline debtors but without any luck, and the other people have that never arrived because of the bad weather. On Monday no spare money to lend me even a few kopecks. The he dropped in on us and when he discovered that we were Szkudłapskis feel sorry that they cannot repay me. It is without any flour, he went out to buy some wheat. He most unfortunate that the administrators of our farm were went to an old sovkhoz where he was treated with patties. late submitting requests for money to the Central After that visit he left and disappeared in the steppe. I Accounting Office. For us it means a long delay until the wonder when these two are going to be found. On the next payment, a whole month later. 2nd Farm a salesman who lived half a kilometer from the A wave of freezing weather for the last week has kept store perished. Also, a young man disappeared. In us dry and without snowstorms. Maria somehow Khromtau six people perished and many more returned miraculously expands our supply of fuel. We simply have with frostbite. no money to pay for kiziak. Our last two sacks were exchanged for tea. Somehow we managed a whole week Thursday, February 13, 1941 on our one remaining sack of kiziak. The Szkudłapski boys Ten months have already gone by since our deportation brought some coal dust from the blacksmith’s shop. Maria – when will we be freed? procured three more sacks of coal dust from the wife of our upravliaiushchii. [chairman]. We somehow keep body Sunday, February 16, 1941 and soul together anticipating the arrival of our liberation. The boil and painful swelling of my nose had scarcely healed when, about ten days ago, my stomach again started Monday, January 20, 1941 to show signs of gastritis. I cannot get it straight even In a letter that just arrived, Janek tells me that 15 though I now cook for myself groats, which are running professors of Jan Kazimierz University in Lwów [Lviv], very low. Mieczek has promised a parcel. The including Professor Studyƒski, signed an application for Szkudłapskis received a parcel from Marta containing side my release. Professor Juliusz Kleiner talked about me to bacon, groats, and tea. Tea is a precious commodity we [Wanda] Wasilewskaia, a communist who promised to can advantageously use as barter for kiziak from the support my application for release. It is easier to struggle Kazakhs—one sack for 5 teaspoons. Otherwise one has through this difficult winter living with hope for change. to pay 5 rubles and it is still very hard to come by. Our constant need for kiziak is bringing us to financial ruin. Wednesday, January 22, 1941 Luckily, a week ago Józef received 17 pieces of birch It is already 1:30 p.m. and we have not eaten yet because wood for helping to pull out a truck that had got stuck in it is impossible to keep the fire going. In moments like a deep snowdrift. It is a good supply for the next two this we dream about a loaf of bread that is unfortunately weeks. I found part of a sleigh. not obtainable. It would be so wonderful to cut a slice of bread and spread it with the lard I just received from Tuesday, February 18, 1941 Maryna! Tadzio and Janka dream about bread and flour. Reading news from Janek has warmed my heart. I am Even if we get a bag of flour or any kind of groats, we still an optimist, believing strongly in the help of God, St. 970 SARMATIAN REVIEW April 2003 Anthony, St. Thaddeus, and St. Theresa. I pray in the deep Szeptycki Forest, which was clear-cut, and now nothing faith that I will obtain the blessing of returning home. is left growing there. Those beautiful ancient Szeptycki Thank God it is warmer now, a pleasant, misty day. We oaks were cut down to the ground! The logs were taken had one eventful night when some 50 prisoners from away to Russia. The awesome harm inflicted on our people Khromtau were sheltered in the room next to us during and country is crying to heaven for vengeance. Villagers the raging blizzard. We heard them coughing and stamping keep cutting down alders and willows on the banks of the their feet to keep warm. They are brought here to clear river and also on their own land. Everything will be shaven the roads of snow to allow trucks to move around. When clean. . . .I just turned 51 years old. It seems to me however the buran calmed down they walked on foot back to that these last months have taught me more about life and Khromtau. Since Saturday both Maria and Józef have been people than those 50 years I lived in comfort among sick. Maria has a cold but today is up and is busying herself familiar surroundings. around our tiny room. Józef is suffering of back pain. Janka has a sore throat. I am bothered by my stomach, especially Sunday, March 9, 1941 during the night when my companions cannot hear the We just saw Mr. Altschiler from the Fourth Farm. As a rumblings. May it come to an end, as there is no way one group leader he traveled to Aktyubinsk and made a short can keep to any diet and no medication is available. stop to warm up. He told us that Mrs. Ujwarowa, Mrs. Ciesielska and Alfred are working at the farm base where Monday, February 24, 1941 they all live in a small room and earn very little. Alfred Yesterday was a good day when the long awaited cashier suffered frostbite on his nose. They live in extreme poverty arrived bringing Józef’s earnings of 160 rubles. The like everybody else around them. Szkudłapskis immediately paid me back the loan of 120 Our money situation is again coming to a crisis. Mrs. rubles, but soon they will again be forced to borrow money. Szkudłapska owes me 80 rubles; Mrs. Zieliƒska still has Janek sent me 100 rubles. So, now without any delay I not repaid her old debt of 35 rubles. So I have only 7 will pay back Maryna for the side bacon. rubles left. By a stroke of luck the truck driver that passes by several times a day sold us black bread. Sunday, March 2, 1941 Since Monday the weather has been warm and sunny. Today the house is full of people looking for shelter. Every day I walk for 2–3 hours along the truck route. The The room next door is once more filled with prisoners prisoners, when shoveling snow to clear it, broke many from Donskoye who were brought here to clear the road. small wooden shovels. I am laboriously collecting the The whole night was restless, filled with endless talking, wooden remnants for fuel. From time to time I take a rest, singing, coughing, and stamping of feet. sitting on the snow and warm up in the sun which is as On Tuesday letters arrived from Mieczek, Marysia hot as ours in June. [Baum], and Hania. The latest one made me cry in deepest Yesterday I received a card from Mieczek who tells me sadness. Hania describes the terrible devastation of the that the matter of my application to return is progressing farm: “The manor house is dying like a human being struck well. Prof. Studyƒski received a copy and he will with deadly cancer—after the last gasp of breath, only personally take it to Moscow. Mieczek predicts that we the green grass will remain. You should not take this too shall meet in May. My poor lonely lad, how lucky he is to much to heart because it may be God’s wish that we should be among well-off people who love him as their own child. not attach ourselves beyond measure to our earthly Here, among us poor people Tadzio has grown from a possessions. We should always be aware that all we own boy to a man. Due to this poor nutrition he suffers from may go with the wind.” night blindness. Hania feels cold and suffers from rheumatism. She is afraid of being evicted from the miller’s house since it Thursday, March 13 belongs to the government. It would be disastrous for our Again, sad news from Sarmorsa. After a long seven- family. As long as Hania stays there, she can save our day illness, the old Mrs. Helena Hałaczowa died, probably kitchen appliances and those few remaining boxes with of pneumonia because she had high fever and was our family belongings. Only a few cows are left, some delirious. She was a deaf woman whose husband was a were sold, other exchanged. [The Szczepłoty estate had retired policeman. She was truly a decent person. A parcel developed a renowned herd of pedigree Holstein cows.] from her sister in Lwów was just received but The forest suffered horrible destruction, but some patches unfortunately she was already unconscious. still remain. Mr. Kichura was made the forester of the April 2003 SARMATIAN REVIEW 971 Tuesday, March 18, 1941 be real happiness. If the Red invaders are still around, I From March 12 I have been winnowing oats in the would try to move to Kraków and perhaps I could receive granary. Today, however, I rebelled and stayed home my pension there. I would be fine living with the cooking some food. When the supervisor arrived, I was Brodowiczes in Jarosław or with the Kumors in Bogucie, in bed with my neck wrapped in a kerchief – it worked! although probably not as comfortable as living in Kraków. It’s not the work itself that gives me trouble as I have All these plans! . . . already told everybody. Simply I’m not able to lift heavy Back at home, the police took away Mrs. Mondowa’s sacks. I fill the sacks with grain and move them from the apartment, leaving her to live in the kitchen. Her daughter, winnower. However, the Kazakh women and even Tadzio Zosia, works in a clothing factory; her husband Stanisław keep complaining that I am not doing my share of work is in prison [the infamous Brygidki prison where he was and I feel sick and tired of it. I do not intend to lose my found among those whom the Russians murdered before health over this Soviet work. If I get really sick, there will retreating in 1941]. be nobody to help me. I already thought that if it comes to dying here—God protect me!—I wish to be buried the (To be continued in the September 2003 issue) way Emperor Josef II wished to be buried. I would ask to be dressed in my yellow nightgown, wrapped in a sheet
1234567890123456789012 and without any coffin lowered into a ditch and then 1234567890123456789012 sprinkled with lime. His subjects refused to follow his wishes, but I am sure I shall be buried like that.
Saturday, March 22, 1941 About the Authors It has been a good week. On Wednesday a letter arrived Angelika Eder, of the Goethe-Institut in München, Germany, from Mieczek with birthday wishes and a poem I’m conducted scholarly work at the Forschungsstelle für Zeitgeschichte pasting here: at the University of Hamburg. Her scholarly work centers on the Displaced Persons problem in the Second World War. She is the On this sad birthday of yours author of Flüchtige Heimat. Jüdische Displaced Persons in I hope you, my dearest Mommy Landsberg am Lech 1945–1950 (München, 1998). will spend many happy hours. Richard J. Hunter, Jr. is Professor of Legal Studies at Seton Hall When God’s hand returns University. He is a coauthor (with Leo V. Ryan, C.S.V.), of From everything to us, Autarchy to Market (Westport, CT, 1998). when the rainbow of happiness Steven Kaminski is Director of Membership Services for the Society for College and University Planning, an affiliate of the University again shines for us of Michigan's School of Education, Ann Arbor, Michigan. and all of us are allowed to return Neal Pease is Associate Professor of History at the University of to our nice house! Wisconsin-Milwaukee. His essay on “‘This Troublesome Question’: Let our country be reborn The United States and the ‘Polish Pogroms’ of 1918-1919” in and, finally, let the grass grow Modern East Central Europe in Its European context: Essays in over the freshly-dug graves! honor of Piotr S. Wandycz, is forthcoming from Greenwood (2003). (March 14, 1941) Zofia PtaÊnik was a Polish housewife deported by the Soviets to slave labor in Kazakhstan in 1940. She died of malnutrition and [On the back of the inserted paper]: overwork in 1941. My dearest sonny, I am not writing this to you, but your Leo V. Ryan, C.S.V., is Professor and Dean Emeritus at DePaul University. He is a coauthor (with Wojciech W. Gasparski) of Human Mommy will never see the prosperity that has forever Action in Business: Praxiological and Ethical Dimensions (New been taken away by the war. She will live in poverty until Brunswick, NJ: 1996). the end, but if it could only be in Poland. Our nests have Dariusz Skórczewski is a Kosciuszko Teaching Fellow at Rice been destroyed! Maybe you and Marysia will be able to University. He is the author of Spory o krytyk∏ literackà w rebuild them. I have neither the time nor the energy any dwudziestuleciu mi∏dzywojennym (Kraków, 2002). longer. Though I still wish I could test once again my Andrzej Wajda is an Oscar-winning film director. His films include strength in rebuilding the farm, as I did 26 years ago. If I The Promised Land, Man of Marble, Pan Tadeusz, and Vengeance. could only return, I would be happy to live together with Aleksandra Ziółkowska-Boehm is a popular writer and journalist. my Winia, my very dearest one, in a little room on a small Among her interviewees are Zbigniew Brzezinski and Isaac peasant farm. Also, I would be content living with Mieczek Bashevis Singer. in the city on the pension of a professor’s wife. This would 972 THE SARMATIAN REVIEW April 2003 Thank You Note A stork nest The Sarmatian Review would like to thank the following in- near the village dividuals and institutions for their donations to the Sarmatian of Zakopane, Poland Review Publication Fund: Mr. Jim Burns; Ms. Halina Kallaby of TAG TRAVEL in Houston; Mr. Walter Kuskowski; Dr. Chester F. and Mrs. Mary Ann Natunewicz; Professor Waldemar Priebe and Dr. Teresa Priebe; Ms. Elzbieta Sepich; Mr. Fred & Mrs. Irena Szewiola; Ms. Irena Szwede of SZWEDE SLAVIC BOOKS; Ms. Alexandra de Wankowicz. All donors are acknowledged in the Thank You Note. Donors who donate $50.00 or more will receive a Letter of Thanks including information about recent Web and journal reprints of texts from Sarmatian Review.
RADIO COURIER Polish American Radio Network P.O. Box 130146, Houston, Texas 77219 Polish Language Program Saturday 11:00 AM, 1520 KYND tel./fax: (281) 872-1062 email: [email protected] Stork nests are commonly seen in June and July in rural Poland. They are built on church steeples, on the roofs of peasant houses, and on electricity poles. Over one half of the world’s stork popula- tion breeds in Poland, thus indicating that the Polish countryside is A and M Technical Services Inc. ecologically clean. This stork nest was photographed in June 2001. Metallurgical Testing Laboratory From the Sarmatian Review archives. 407 Sylvester Road Houston, Texas 77009 Anthony Rudnicki Polish American Historical Association (PAHA) seeks new Chief Metallurgist members. Membership in associations such as PAHA is es- Phone: 713-691-1765 Fax: 713-695-7241 sential to keep the Polish American discourse going. To ask for membership forms, write to Dr. Karen Majewski, PAHA, St. Mary’s College, Orchard Lake, MI 48324. The Anya Tish Gallery 1740 Sunset Boulevard. Houston, Texas 77005 phone/fax: 713-523-2299 Artwork and paintings Give where it really from Central and Eastern Europe counts: TAG TRAVEL Ticketing, Cruises, Accommodations, Car Rental support Halina Kallaby General Manager The Sarmatian Review. 6484 Woodway Drive Houston, Texas 77057 Phone: 713-932-0001 Fax: 713-932-9901