A Novel of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising (Wielki Tydzień)
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
Holy Week: A Novel of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising (Wielki Tydzień) Author: Jerzy Andrzejewski First Published: in Night (Noc, 1945) Translations: Czech (in Noc, 1947); German (Die Karwoche, 1948; new translation Warschauer Karwoche, 1964); Slovak (in Noc, 1950); Chinese (Kunan de yizhou, 1954); Hungarian (Nagyhét Varsóban. Regény, 1966); Swedish (Dödens karusell, 1980), French (Sous le regard des autres, 1985); English (Holy Week: A Novel of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, 2007). Film Adaptation: Wielki Tydzień (The Holy Week), feature film, screenplay and film di- rector Andrzej Wajda, premiered 1st of March, 1996. About the Author: Jerzy Andrzejewski (1909–1983) was a writer and essayist. He was born in Warsaw, where he lived almost all his life. At the University of Warsaw he stu- died Polish philology. Following his literary debut in 1932, Andrzejewski’s first book, Unavoidable Roads, was published in 1936. In the late 1930s, Andrzejewski became increasingly devout, and his novel Mode of the Heart has been considered by critics as representative of “Catholic humanism” (Parnicki, 1938, quoted by Synoradzka- Demadre, 2002, p. XI). In 1938 he made a donation to German Jews fleeing their home- land to seek refuge in Poland. As a result, he was criticised by right-wing circles (p. XII). During the occupation, he took part in the underground cultural life of Warsaw. The stories he wrote during this period deal mainly with the reality of the war – the Nazi occupation, conspiracy, executions, and concentration camps. As Synoradzka- Demadre states, “these works share an interest in human attitudes under extreme con- ditions” (p. XIII). After the war, Andrzejewski’s political views were influenced by Marxism, and starting in the mid-1950s, he actively took part in democratic opposi- tion. Further Important Publications: Drogi nieuniknione (1936, Unavoidable Roads; short stories); Ład serca (1938, Mode of the Heart; novel); Noc (1945, Night, short stories); Popiół i diament (1948, Ashes and Diamonds; novel); Ciemności kryją ziemię (1957, lit- erally Darkness Covers the Earth, in English The Inquisitors; novel); Bramy raju (1960, The Gates of Paradise, novel); Miazga (1979, The Pulp; novel). Content and Interpretation Holy Week is set in April 1943, during the first days of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. But it is from the perspective of the Aryan side of the city that the uprising is depicted – an outsider’s point of view that consists both in narrative accounts and statements by characters representing varying attitudes towards the mass extermination of Jews. In Open Access. © 2021 Urszula Kowalska-Nadolna, published by De Gruyter. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110671056-049 Holy Week: A Novel of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising (Wielki Tydzień) 215 this way, Andrzejewski illustrates a wide spectrum of Polish reactions to the destruc- tion of the Warsaw Ghetto. As Józef Wróbel explains, “For Andrzejewski, the uprising is important as a moment of testing Polish [...] consciences” (Wróbel, 1991, p. 117). Li- quidation of the ghetto “triggers acts of the highest sacrifice – alongside opportunism, meanness and hatred” (Maciąg, 1998, p. XXI). The main characters of the story are Jan Malecki and his former friend Irena Lilien, who had once been a frequent visitor to Warsaw salons. Lilien is the daughter of a respected professor and a woman who did not identify with her Jewish origins un- til the outbreak of the war. Out of a sense of decency or remorse Malecki offers his old friend shelter, but he remains aware of the danger that his decision brings to himself and his pregnant wife, Anna. The block of flats where Malecki lives and where he de- cides to hide Irena represents a cross section of Polish society, home to characters after the antisemitic stereotype alongside others that tend to confirm the Polish na- tional mythology. See → Romeo and Juliet and the Darkness; → Without Beauty, without a Collar. Andrzejewski’s first draft of the story, which he wrote in spring 1943 as an im- mediate, fictionalised reaction to the dramatic events of that year as they unfolded, was strongly criticised by the literary community (Iwaszkiewicz, 2007, pp. 224–225). In response to these criticisms and influenced by the poetics of socialist realism, An- drzejewski decided to rewrite the story. The result, completed and published in 1945, is fundamentally different from the original. Jan Kott, editor-in-chief of the magazine Kuźnica, which brought together leftist intellectuals after the war and expressed support for the concept of socialist realism in literature, praised Holy Week for suc- cessfully implementing the new trend: “the dramatic account of a lonely individual has been transformed into the tragedy of the collective, and issues pertaining to the protagonists’ psychology have been replaced with a description of their deeds” (Synoradzka-Demadre, 2002, p. XVII). The plot, as Marcin Piasecki writes, had gained “broad but stereotypical social background” (Piasecki, 1996, p. 10). Main Topics and Problems Andrzejewski’s story is one of the few immediate reactions to wartime events, and one of several literary texts to deal directly with the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. The critical reception of Holy Week has drawn attention to a number of parallels between the novel and Andrzejewski’s own life, and many critics have seen the prota- gonist as a surrogate for the author, and Irena as a character inspired by the author’s friend Wanda Wertenstein. Andrzejewski himself dismissed such interpretations, pointing out that the character of Irena was based on another friend, Janina Askenazy. Wyka claims that the text was written “with a great human and psychological courage” and praises the credibility of the characters, in particular Irena, who burns, he writes, with the “violent hatred of a hunted man” (Wyka, 1989, p. 95). Less favour- able reviews have accused Andrzejewski of depicting Irena as an unpleasant and un- fair heroine, especially in comparison to the figure of Malecki’s wife Anna, a “true 216 Entries Christian”, with the suggestion that the novel reflects the author’s antisemitic views (Levine, 1997, p. 121). As Żukowski writes, “Andrzejewski makes sure that the reader is not alone with the vision of the Polish community seen through Irena’s eyes” (Żu- kowski, 2015, p. 176) – a vision in which Polish attitudes towards Jews can be found on the same sliding scale as the Nazi genocide. The characters in Andrzejewski’s story tend to form contrasted pairs: the embittered Irena and the compassionate Anna; the situation of Malecki, overwhelmed by the “unpleasant” sense of duty towards his for- mer friend, and that of his brother Julek, who faces certain death in the name of soli- darity with the people dying in the ghetto; the Piotrowskis, and various other antise- mites and informers in contrast to Włodek and his mother, Mrs Karska, who understands her son’s decision to participate in the ghetto uprising. The significance of Andrzejewski’s choice to set the story during Holy Week can- not be overstated, and it is important to note that, for all the author has done to cap- ture real historical events, he organises the plot in such a way that the main charac- ters (Malecki, Irena and Julek) meet their fate on Good Friday. In this way, their deaths acquire symbolic significance: Julek’s dramatic decision echoes the redemp- tive death of Christ, while the sudden accidental death of Malecki takes on the signif- icance of a sacrifice that serves to remove a blemish on the Polish self-image (pp. 180–181). At the same time, their deaths seem to answer Irena’s curse, which she pronounces as she departs for the ghetto: “‘And may the rest of you all die like dogs!’ escaped her vengeful lips. ‘May you all burn just like us! May they shoot each and every one of you! I hope they murder you all’” (Andrzejewski, 2007, p. 121). With no- where else to go, Irena’s departure for the ghetto represents not only her certain death but the final fulfilment of a Jewish identity that, to that point, has been a contingent aspect of her character. Significantly, the publication of Holy Week coincided with the first discussions of Polish antisemitism and Polish attitudes towards Jews during World War II (Jastrun, 1945, p. 1). Cited Works Andrzejewski, J. (2007). Holy Week: A Novel of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. Athens: Ohio University Press. Iwaszkiewicz, J. (2007). Dzienniki 1956–1963. Warszawa: Czytel- nik. Jastrun, M. (1945). Potęga ciemnoty. Odrodzenie, 2(29), p. 1. Kott, J. (1956). Droga do realizmu. In: J. Kott, Postępigłupstwo, vol. 2. Warszawa: PIW pp. 80–96. Levine, M. (1987). The Ambiguity of Moral Outrage in Jerzy Andrzejewski’s Wielki Tydzień. The Polish Review, 32(4), p. 394. Maciąg, W., ed. (1998). Jerzy Andrzejewski. Trzy opowieści. Wrocław: Zakład Narodowy im. Ossolińskich. Parnicki, T. (1938). Dwugłos o Jerzym Andrzejewskim. Ateneum, 1(6), pp. 923–931. Piasecki, M. (1996). Dwa “Wielkie Tygod- nie”. Gazeta Wyborcza, 59, 09.10.–10.03., p. 10. Synoradzka-Demadre, A. (2002). Wstęp. In: J. Andrzejewski, Miazga. Wrocław: Zakład Narodowy im. Ossolińskich, pp. VII–CXXIV. Wróbel, J. (1991). Tematy żydowskie w prozie polskiej 1939–1987. Kraków: Universitas. Wyka, K. (1989). Pogranicze powieści. Warszawa: Czytelnik. Żukowski, T. Holy Week: A Novel of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising (Wielki Tydzień) 217 (2015). Autowizerunek po katastrofie. Zofia Kossak-Szczucka i Jerzy Andrzejewski: dwa polskie świadectwa Zagłady z lat 40. Poznańskie Studia Polonistyczne, 45(25), pp. 165–186. Further References Fiut, A. (1996). Wędrówki po piekle. Okupacja w oczach Czesława Miłosza i Jerzego Andrzejewskiego. Rzeczpospolita, 115, 18.05. Available at: https://archiwum.rp.pl/ar- tykul/91877-Wedrowki-po-piekle.html [Accessed: 17.08.2020]. Grabowski, Ch. (2018). Polish Self-Scrutiny in Holy Week.