Wrocławski Rocznik Historii Mówionej

ROCZNIK VI

W R O C Ł A W S K I

ROCZNIK

H I S T O R I I

MÓWIONEJ Finansowanie z funduszy EOG, pochodzących z Islandii, Lichtensteinu i Norwegii, oraz ze środków krajowych w ramach projektu: „Oral history – dziedzictwo kulturowe Polski i Islandii uchwycone w ludzkich słowach” ROCZNIK VI

W R O C Ł A W S K I

ROCZNIK

H I S T O R I I

MÓWIONEJ

OŚRODEK „ P A M I Ę Ć I PRZYSZŁOŚĆ”

WROCŁAW ● 2016 „Wrocławski Rocznik Historii Mówionej” – pismo wydawane przez Ośrodek „Pamięć i Przyszłość” we Wrocławiu Wrocław Yearbook of Oral History – magazine of The Remembrance and Future Center in Wrocław

Rada naukowa/Scientific Council Adolf Juzwenko, Padraick Kenney, Marta Kurkowska-Budzan, Andrzej Sakson, Grzegorz Strauchold, Włodzimierz Suleja, Jakub Tyszkiewicz, Robert Żurek

Recenzenci/Reviewers Piotr Filipkowski, Gelinada Grinczenko, Dobrochna Kałwa, Kaja Kaźmierska, Barbara Klich-Kulczewska, Marta Kubiszyn, Marta Kurkowska-Budzan, Anna Kurpiel, Franka Maubach, Pavel Mücke, Jarosław Pałka, Grażyna Pańko, Graham Smith, Jakub Tyszkiewicz, Joanna Wawrzyniak, Anna Wylegała

Konsultacja naukowa tomu/Scientific advice of this issue Hannes H. Gissurarson, Guðni Th. Jóhannesson

Redakcja/Editors Wojciech Kucharski (redaktor naczelny/Chief editor) Katarzyna Bock-Matuszyk (zastępca redaktora naczelnego/Deputy chief editor) Ewa Sowińska (sekretarz/secretary) Andrzej Jerie, Iwona Nowak (redaktor tematyczny/subject editor) Joanna Nowosielska-Sobel, Aleksandra Sroka (redaktor tematyczny/subject editor) Maria Rudnicka, Katarzyna Uczkiewicz (redaktor językowy/language editor)

Adres Redakcji/Editorial Office Ośrodek „Pamięć i Przyszłość”/The Remembrance and Future Center ul. Grabiszyńska 184 53-253 Wrocław Poland [email protected] www.wrhm.pl

Streszczenia w języku angielskim opublikowanych tekstów są dostępne w/ English summaries of the published texts are available at: The Central European Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities – http://cejsh.icm.edu.pl a wszystkie artykuły są indeksowane na/and all articles are indexed at: the Central and Eastern European Online Library – www.ceeol.com Baza Czasopism Humanistycznych i Społecznych www.bazhum.icm.edu.pl

Korekta angielskich tłumaczeń/English translations' correction Anna Jezierska, Barbara Skałecka-Harrold, Zuzanna Sikora

Korekta/Correction Stanisława Trela

Projekt graficzny i skład/Graphic design and typesetting Artur Skowroński

Druk/Printing Instytut Technologii Eksploatacji – Państwowy Instytut Badawczy

ISSN 2084–0578 ©Ośrodek „Pamięć i Przyszłość”

Wersją pierwotną czasopisma jest wydanie papierowe/ The magazine is originally printed on paper

Nakład 300 egz. ART Y KUŁY

I STUDIA / ARTICL ES

AND STUDIES

Marta Kurkowska-Budzan

[Kraków]

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On the Fieldwork in Oral History Research

Wrocławski Rocznik Historii Mówionej Rocznik VI, 2016 ISSN 2084–0578

The most recent debates within our discipline suggest that we are at a point in which the fate of Polish oral history as a potential scientific paradigm is being decided. It might seem that a large part of the work has already been done since we have the paradigmatic tools necessary for institutionaliza- tion of the community: an association (Polskie Towarzystwo Historii Mó- wionej – Polish Oral History Association), academic conferences, an academic journal (“Wrocławski Rocznik Historii Mówionej” – the Wrocław Yearbook of Oral History), institutions which educate the next generation of scholars (at the history faculties of the University of Warsaw, the Jagiel- lonian University, the University of Warmia and Mazury, and others), scholarships for doctoral students (at the “Remembrance and Future” Center). However, these elements are of secondary significance in light of the lack of a common epistemological matrix1, which is what Piotr Filipkowski writes about when he diagnoses the “partial success of oral history in Poland”:

1 T. S. Kuhn, Struktura rewolucji naukowych, Warszawa 1968; idem, Posłowie z 1969 r. do “Struktury rewolucji naukowych”, “Zagadnienia Naukoznawstwa”, 1 (49) (1977), p. 94–117; M. Kurkowska-Budzan, Historia zwykłych ludzi. Współczesna angielska historiografia dziejów społecznych, Kraków 2003. Marta Kurkowska-Budzan

8 We are not “superstructuring” our documenting practices, our analyses and our theoretizing of oral history on the solid foundation of historical research which would be based on elicited sources, on witness accounts. In light of this (lack), we refer selectively, as there is no other option, to various threads within the Western tradition of oral history, to various moments in its development and to its various paradigms, adapting them to the sources we have collected (most frequently interviews we have recorded ourselves, more rarely those available in archives). This “we” that I am projecting here refers primarily to sociologists and anthropologists (ethnographers, culture experts), and to a much lesser degree to historians2. For the formation of the scientific paradigm of “oral history”, we need at the very least a common catalogue of basic epistemological objectives and the appropriate set of academic tools we ourselves would establish. Another scenario of the development of the current situation, just as optimistic and just as probable, would be one in which oral sources would find a place for themselves anew within the historiography of contemporary history. If this were to occur (which would of course require a huge effort on the part of historians), the label “oral history” would remain attached to activities of the “public history” type. In both these cases, as historians we must make an attempt to conduct a thorough rethinking of our cultural research practices situated within specific circumstances, establishing cognitive objectives (characteristic for history) and the appropriate methods in relation to elicited sources. In writing about “a thorough rethinking”, I am referring to a return to fundamental questions and seemingly banal issues, such as, for example, permanent methodological elements which have a decisive influence on the disciplinary formation of the historian-oralist3. In this article, I would like to present my proposal for the stipulated methodological canon for oralists4. Let me start with what remains in the

2 P. Filipkowski, Historia mówiona jako historia faktyczna. Albo jak “odantropologizo- wać” opowieści o przeszłości?, “Rocznik Antropologii Historii”, 1 (2016) (in the process of printing, translation by the author). 3 D. Kałwa, Historia mówiona w krajach postkomunistycznych. Rekonesans, “Kultura i Historia”, No. 18 (2010), http://www.kulturaihistoria.umcs.lublin.pl/archives/1887 (accessed February 12, 2016). 4 The empirical basis of this article has been created within the research project financed by National Science Centre, DEC – 2011/03/B/HS3/00642. On the Fieldwork in Oral History Research

background of the interview itself, but which links – at least at first glance – 9 social studies researchers and historians, regardless of the epistemological objectives of their research. This would be “fieldwork”. I will begin with a thesis with which I hope the majority of my col- leagues tackling oral history would agree. Much the same as contact with dusty archival documents is the initiatory experience in the formation process of a young historian, the first interview or even the first unrecorded conversation with a “witness to history” constitutes the first boundary to cross for researchers working within the oral history paradigm. A number of course books in the field provide information about what should be done and how in order to secure such a conversation, as well as on how to prepare for the interview5. These publications provide an introduction both into the very practical aspects of what should occur before, during and after the interview, as well as discuss more complex issues, not easily expressed using direct instructions, e.g. the ethical problems resulting from conducting research using the oral history method. However, oral history methodology has a lot in common with the methodology of ethnographic, anthropological and sociological research (it might as well be stated that it is derived from these fields), and it is worth making use of some of the tools from the current achievements within these academic areas6. Or at least to consider them from time to time, taking into account the similar planes of their research experience. These planes are most frequently present at the stage of collecting material, since the choice of the analytical strategy is to a larger extent dependent on the research project objectives, and these are placed within the framework of the leading theories according to which these projects are conceptualized from the very beginning. Theoretical frames can obviously significantly condition the course of the query into the material (in the language of social studies, this would be called “gathering data”), but sooner or later things are brought down (figuratively) to a common denominator, that is we (literally) enter the “field”. Fieldwork is the paradigmatic determinant of ethnography and ethnology (much the same as the above-mentioned archives are for

5 See: M. Kay Quinlan, B. Sommer, Oral History Manual, AltaMira Press 2009. 6 T. Lloyd, On the differences between folklore fieldwork and oral history, [in:] Oral history in the digital age, ed. by D. Boyd [et al.], http://ohda.matrix.msu.edu/2012/06/ on-the-differences-between-folklore-fieldwork-and-oral-history/ (accessed Februa- ry 12, 2016). Marta Kurkowska-Budzan

10 a historian or a laboratory is for a physicist or chemist), and – as a result – this problem has been the subject of many theoretical and methodological discussions, and even divided cultural anthropologists and ethnologists into two camps. Among one group, the dominant conviction states that only fieldwork is a measure of the scientific value of any achievements within cultural anthropology. Among the other, that the quality of the research is not attested to by a sojourn in the field or the amount of data collected, but rather by the innovative theory about culture7. Similar debates within contemporary historiography seem not to be justified as well as no one would question the formative function of archive queries in the shaping of independent and creative historical writing. On the other hand, within the realm of oral history the discussion has been on-going since its very beginnings and the issues of the narrator, narrative and the role the researcher has within the dialogue that occurs between him or her and the interlocutor continue to be debated. However, methodological considerations concerning the equally important “field” and its place within our discipline have never reached the scale they did among anthropologists8, despite the fact that we find ourselves in the “field” on a daily basis. I do not have the relevant statistical data at my disposal, but I am convinced that the vast majority of “witnesses to history” do not come to us, instead we travel to see them, to their hometowns and to their natural environments. We move at least across space if not between cultures9. Why should the “field” have the same significance within our historical research? I hope to explain this within the next few pages. In these divagations concerning the methodology of oral history, the focus is – as mentioned above – on the interlocutor or at times on the dialogue

7 A. P. Kowalski, Antropologia kulturowa jako nauka historyczna, [in:] W krainie me- tarefleksji. Księga poświęcona profesorowi Czesławowi Robotyckiemu, ed. by J. Barań- ski, M. Golonka-Czajkowska, A. Niedźwiedź, Kraków 2015, p. 143–152. 8 See: Teren w antropologii. Praktyka badawcza we współczesnej antropologii kulturowej, ed. by M. Buliński, M. Kairski, Poznań 2011; C. W. Watson, Being There. Field- work in Anthropology, London 1999; Obserwacja uczestnicząca w badaniach historycznych, ed. by B. Wagner, T. Wiślicz, Zabrze 2008. 9 See: L. Niethammer, Where were you on 17 June? A Niche in memory, [in:] Internatio- nal Yearbook of Oral History and Life Stories, 1: Memory and totalitarianism, ed. by L. Passerini, Oxford–New York 1992; R. Perks, Ukraine’s forbidden history. Memory and nationalism, “Oral History”, Vol. 21 (1993), No. 1. On the Fieldwork in Oral History Research

between two people. I consciously use the term “people”, because we the 11 researchers are acutely aware that an interview is a meeting between two persons – two personalities, in the sense of a specifically organised set of intellectual, emotional, temperamental and volitional features10. Contem- porary oral history research, which focuses its attention on autobiographical narratives, is interested both in its structure and in the interlocutor’s “life experiences”. This life experience shapes and changes one’s personality and identity, and it is at the centre of both academic analysis and is dominant at the query phase. It would be easy to write, taking into consideration our initiatory experiences, that especially young researchers are greatly under the impression of this first contact with a narrator, but I am of the opinion that this statement would be neither honest nor true. All of us, regardless of how many interviews we have conducted and how many years we have worked in the field, are the subjects of interactions and we react to the personalities we encounter. Therefore, in our methodological texts, we devote a large amount of space to interpersonal relations in the course of an interview (also before and after the conversation). In most cases the situation involves the relation between two people, but frequently we encounter larger groups – a family, a group of friends or members of some social group. However, the “field” signifies something more than just our interlocutors, and most of us are undoubtedly well aware of this fact. It is impossible to ignore the physical space which we enter in a specific way or the fact that our very presence creates a new element within a given community and culture, and also that this has some – perhaps quite minimal – consequences for the community and vice versa. Again, some might say that this is a well-known issue for ethnologists and that a multitude of texts have been written on the subject. Are we therefore making an attempt at reinventing the wheel? It seems to me that there is a need to discuss this issue for at least one reason which is of an epistemological dimension and which reveals itself as the first aspect already at the stage of conceptualizing the research and organizing the project. It is thus both first in temporal terms and fundamental for the academic research objectives. A historian who is focused on some cognitive queries and is at the stage of organizing his or her work

10 N. Sillamy, Słownik psychologii, Warszawa 1994, p. 193. Marta Kurkowska-Budzan

12 has a two-pronged approach. On the one hand, he or she considers the subject which torments him or her intellectually (can it be done and how) and thinks about the sources on which his or her research will be based. In the case of traditional documents stored in an archive, one has to solve such issues as where they can be found, how to get to the archive and how much time should be spent on the query. The contact itself with the archive or even with a menacing archivist is not much of an academic challenge for a historian, since the success of the first stage of this activity is dependent on one’s knowledge of the principles of how an archive functions and which are more or less convergent (though of course there are certain glaring exceptions to this rule). This practical knowledge accumulates over the years and with time there is very little that can surprise a historian in an archive. It is not without reason that experience in conducting queries in archives is so highly valued among historians – the subsequent academic endeavours of a researcher are executed with increasingly more efficiency, they have a “low risk factor” and they provide a guarantee of achieving the stipulated research objectives. A historian who shows a preference for oral sources over documents, regardless of whether he or she is set on working in a specific place (municipality, environment, institution, etc.) or on making a query which would be geo- graphically and environmentally dispersed, cannot count on any permanent, universal and independent rules which would allow him or her to consistent- ly pursue the achievement of a complete query of the available sources. Our sources, even if they are ostensibly limited (for example, by the amount of inhabitants or members of a veteran association), do not constitute a described inventarized group that has a defined size in linear metres. No such archivist exists that could provide us with a guarantee that our “stock of sources” has been checked in its entirety. We have no certainty “that was everyone”, that we talked to each and every person involved (some identified potential interlocutors may refuse, while we might be unable to contact others, and of course it is always possible we simply do not know some exist). Not to mention that no one verifies whether we have been able to “decipher” our sources in their entirety, i.e. whether everything has been said. When planning to come into contact with an oral source, a historian must cast his or her gaze on more than just this selected fluid “resource”. It is up to him or her to define the “field”, how he or she will percieve it and what cognitive potential he or she will see: will the “source material” come only in the form of the interlocutor or the entire environment, culture? And if the latter, what does he or she actually understand under these On the Fieldwork in Oral History Research

terms and how should he or she translate this into practical preparations 13 for the project? In the minimalistic version, before a historian contacts his or her interlocutors, he or she should establish first contact with the key informant. The process strategies (of acquiring interlocutors) have been described in most oral history course books, and in the cognitive context that interests us (the key informant, snowball sampling, the insider–outsider perspective, etc.). Of course, it is recommended that one should acquire as much knowledge as possible on the biography of a person one is planning to interview. If it is a war veteran, we should become well-acquainted with the chosen historical period, with the history of his or her unit and the history of the military campaigns in which he or she might have participated. Every oral history course book teaches the need for such preparations. I have not, however, encountered similarly detailed advice concerning other types of preparation for conducted fieldwork, such as, for example, before an excur- sion to a particular municipality. It would seem quite obvious, amounting to reading the basic literature on the history and contemporary situation in the region, the geographic and economic conditions, the social relations, etc. Perhaps an assumption is made, probably justifiably, that such preparations have as much significance for the logistics of the endeavour as in the case of any such trip, for example, as a tourist, and there is no need to devote space to this issue in methodological course books. However, this is a clear expression of the fact that we limit our cognitive perspective to the “human resource as source material”, while at the same time we isolate out our interlocutors from their relevant space, context, environment and – in fact – from the very lives they now lead. I will return to this statement in due course. Secondly, the field – physical space, images, sounds, smells, events, the people we encounter after arriving at the place of our research and while we are heading toward our first meeting with our interlocutor – these are all impulses which influence us and from the very beginning shape both the conditions and cognitive horizon of our research. From the very beginnings of their discipline, ethnologists have been aware that their research was being conducted among “others”; whereby the otherness of the cultures they were studying was marked in every fragment of the surrounding reality. When getting onto a local bus from Łomża to Kolno (Mazowsze region, north-eastern Poland), where I am to conduct an interview, am I actually crossing some cultural boundary that should lead me to exercise vigilance concerning what will be going on around me from this moment onwards and which might constitute research material for me and/or influence my Marta Kurkowska-Budzan

14 research? I am going to a small town with ten thousand inhabitants, the capital of the poviat, and I will be travelling by a vehicle owned by the carrier most often used by the residents of Kolno to get to Łomża, which is five times larger, where they study, work, do their daily shopping and participate in leisure activities (in the cinema which Kolno does not have). However, my project is not focused on contemporary Kolno but on its history – I am intent on studying a time in which no one even imagined that any private entrepreneur would offer transportation services. The reality which interests me is that of the period between 1944 and 1989 – a different economy, culture, mentality, a time of other customs and a completely different material situation. Today Kolno looks different; there are new streets and squares, while the old ones have changed their names. Characteristic land- marks in the town around which the stories the narrators tell revolve, now perform other functions or no longer exist. However, I arrive at these facts not on the basis of my conversations, but during the walks I take with my interlocutors around the town and during my lone explorations of the space, when I take photographs of the current life of the town. This is not fully participant observation, but rather opening oneself up to external impulses in order to better understand the interlocutors’ perspectives, the mental shortcuts they use, their language. But also in order to be able to ask further questions, to enter their symbolic reality, to come to an understanding of what once held and what now holds some significance for the inhabitants of Kolno and what that significance is. On the bus I have already taken twice, I now know how to behave, I know the most popular topics of social conversation in the 2014 season and I can use some of the local expressions correctly. Does this sound like studying a foreign culture yet? I have acquired some knowledge of the area, including the shape of the terrain and the distances from Kolno to the surrounding hamlets and villages which are important for my research. On the bus I also find out about the shortcut used to get to a place I cannot find on any of the maps of Kolno, but which is continuously mentioned in the stories I am told under the name “Wiżałki” or “Wiszałki”. This is a small wood, at one time a young coppice, that before and after the war had been a favourite place of leisure for the inhabitants of Kolno. Only after I have gone there for a walk and returned to the old town centre (with a watch in my hand) will I be able to create an temporal and spatial image of Kolno many years earlier; and to write into this image the people who in subsequent decades pursued various sports in this provincial town, as well as understand their current reflections about the past. On the Fieldwork in Oral History Research

In the above fragment, I have not been able to separate out the thread 15 of physical space from that of the culture of the area – much like it is not possible to separate them out in the course of on-going perception. Travel- ling by bus through the picturesque hilly surroundings of Kolno, I take part in the communal conversation among the passengers, adopting the locally valid style of conducting small talk in public transportation vehicles, while simultaneously observing the villages we pass and noting the changes in the architecture, methods of administering the area, and in the lifestyles. The material culture of this region is obviously a palimpsest – it can be de- ciphered with the naked eye; the layers are perfectly visible, each one breaks through the others or they co-exist. As a result, a historian can ascertain with his or her own eyes what has changed and how over time. This faci- litates the basic work done with the interlocutors’ memories – it enables situating them within a specific geography, setting and civilisational context. In the analysis of autobiographical narratives, it aids in understanding the interlocutor’s world and viewpoint. The interlocutor’s personality and outlook on life was formed in a specific place (or many places) over the course of time, while its present form – which we encounter during the interview – also functions within a specific space. This space is, as Rapo- port wrote, simultaneously three-dimensional physical space and an environment filled with meanings11. In order to understand a narrator and his or her story, we first need to acquire knowledge of the story in all its dimensions, beginning with the physical basis. A historian in the field comes into daily contact with people who – aside from the narrators themselves – are literally and metaphorically passersby. Such transient meetings, conversations, observations shape our cognitive horizon, but they also raise our research competences. As a result, we learn the local – verbal and visual – language, and the metaphors from which the symbolic tissue of the terrain is woven. Countless examples could be cited which I consider significant for the epistemological dimension of research, the value of what I would call “conscious presence in the field”. However, since I have been complaining about the lack of practical instructions concerning what should be done with the accumulation of valuable impulses while conducting fieldwork, let me

11 A. Rapoport, Human Aspects of Urban Form. Towards a Man-Environment Approach to Urban Form and Design, Pergamon Press 1977. Marta Kurkowska-Budzan

16 move on to more direct statements. In order for “conscious presence in the field” to bring academic results, it must be situated within scientific procedures, which – by virtue of tradition – primarily presumes verbalisation, normalisation of forms and systematisation of content. These three conditions can be fulfilled with the help of the so-called research diary. Once again, sociologists from the qualitative sociology school, ethnologists and ethnographers have been well-acquainted with this tool for many decades. Thanks to various prominent ethnographers, the research diary has all but risen to the status of a work of literature, while simultaneously provoking much controversy and countless discussions among subsequent generations of researchers12. The contemporary fieldwork diary can theoretically take on various forms – from the classical notebook or pile of flash cards, to textual electronic documents or blogs, and also audio and video recordings. It can of course also constitute a mix of genres or transgress beyond them. For example, in September 2001 I was on a scholarship at New York University. Dur- ing the attacks on the World Trade Center and over the course of the next month, I provided long accounts of what was going on in the direct vicinity of my place of residence and my workplace on 3rd Street in Lower Manhattan in the form of long e-mails to a friend – a social anthropologist. I have saved copies of these letters and today they constitute a form of documentation which – when compared to the press accounts at that time or academic studies conducted soon afterwards – have the advantage of being a politically and ideologically untainted diary involving participant observation. From my own experience and as a result of the personal preferences of a person born in the previous century, it seems that the easiest form of diary, which works in any conditions, in any terrain, a “four-wheel drive” diary, would be a thick spiral notebook with a hard cover. The situation in the bus was written down not long after it occured, while sitting in a roadside ditch; the observations I had in a church were also written down quickly in the shade of a confessional booth. While one may put a lot of trust in one’s memories, when it comes to recording impressions and not facts, it is best

12 See: B. Malinowski, Dziennik w ścisłym znaczeniu tego wyrazu, Kraków 2007; G. Kubica-Heller, Dlaczego warto czytać dziennik Bronisława Malinowskiego? Wy- odrębnienie sprężyn życia, “Tygodnik Powszechny”, No. 22 (2002); eadem, Joanna Tokarska-Bakir, czyli paradoks lektury niechętnej, “Res Publica Nowa”, No. 1 (2003); J. Tokarska-Bakir, Malinowski, czyli paradoks kłamcy, “Res Publica Nowa”, No. 11 (2002). On the Fieldwork in Oral History Research

to document them then and there. In the case of a research diary, the idea 17 is to write down anything important that occurred or that in our opinion is lacking in what surrounds us, within this “foreign culture”. Unfortuna- tely, this is a time-consuming task, but the investment of time is returned a hundredfold, even if we do not manage to continue the writing of the diary until the end of the research project, regardless of how heretical that sounds. However, I am of the opinion that these moments of observation and perception of the terrain are incremental when we are taking our first steps into a “foreign land” or, as Krzysztof Konecki writes, when we plunge into a world of symbolic images and sounds13. It is precisely the things which make us wonder, which surprise us, which make us stop and think or – conversely – which seem to be strangely familiar, that should be written down and analyzed. The subsequent phase of research, when we are becoming acquainted with the topography of the place and have already completed our first two or three interviews, is abundant in more coherent notes. At this point, we are capable of formulating interpretational accounts of the space around us and the relations between facts, decipher symbols and situate them in relation to what we have heard during both recorded conversations and the more spontaneous talks which occur during our stay in a given town. This is the first attempt at academic deciphering of the field. In the process, we acquire a sense that we actually know and understand what the next story will be about. This makes it possible to construct additional questions and the questionnaire may undergo extensive revisions, including modifying the topic that had initially interested us. At this stage, there is a lot of willingness to sit down in the evenings and summarize the data, and it is precisely the various notes taken that might turn out to be exceptionally valuable during the final analysis we will be conducting at a distance from the place where the research was carried out. A research diary is an inostensible yet demanding scientific tool. Firstly, it tests how methodical we actually are. Secondly, it forces us to sharpen our senses, to open ourselves up to external independent cognitive impulses, which in contrast to “elicited sources” or narratives cannot be placed under our control. Or at least they do not provide us with any illusions that we do have such control. A single observation and a record of it in our diary

13 K. Konecki, Studia z metodologii badań jakościowych. Teoria ugruntowana, Warsza- wa 2000, p. 31, 91, 96. Marta Kurkowska-Budzan

18 can effectively sow coginitive doubt (oft-times very needed in the humanities), or scuff up dust on the route which had been traced at the beginning of the study and was supposed to have led us straight to a foreseeable destination. A research diary is a normalized procedure, which through verbalisation and systematic notation of equally systematic observations constitutes a type of footnote to the academic text. Such a diary provides the opportunity, much as in the case of a footnote, to verify the source and to conduct an evaluation of our interpretation of a given issue. Regardless of whether we are interested in past experiences represented in autobiographical narratives, or in their structure, or whether we are searching for knowledge about historical facts within oral accounts, such literal and cognitive “wanderings” across the field, situated within the rigor of a systematic research diary, should provide satisfying academic results. It would be worthwhile to include the ethnographic tradition of treating the field as “a humanistic whole which becomes realized in people’s experiences and actions and in the spatial entirety embedded in specific environmental circumstances”14 into the permanent formational methodological “oral history” repertoire for young researchers.

14 I. Sagan, Miasto – scena konfliktów i współpracy. Rozwój miast w świetle reżimu miej- skiego, Gdańsk 2000, p. 30 (translation by the author). On the Fieldwork in Oral History Research

The article concerns the problem of a lack of both academic tools Marta 19 Kurkowska-Budzan as well as a catalogue of basic epistemological objectives that could On the Fieldwork in serve oral history in Poland. It has to be stated, however, that there Oral History Research are already many institutions, conferences and journals, that focus on the issue of oral history. The author proposes some solutions that could improve this methodological gap, based on her own experience in oral history, such as introducing a research diary as a scientific research tool.

Marcin Jarząbek

[Kraków]

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It is good to ask good questions – posing questions in oral history interview as a theoretical problem

Wrocławski Rocznik Historii Mówionej Rocznik VI, 2016 ISSN 2084–0578

According to Diogenes Laertius, students of Pythagoras “for five whole years […] had to keep silence, merely listening to his [Pythagoras’ – M.J.] discourses without seeing him, until they passed an examination, and thence- forward they were admitted to his house and allowed to see him”1. Polish philosopher Józef Tischner explained in his The Highlander’s History of Phi- losophy (Historia filozofii po góralsku2) “why [they learned] listening?” The answer was: “in order not to ask stupid questions”. Than he added that the examination in the Pythagoras’ school consisted in asking only one good question: “who asked well, could stay in the school, who asked wrongly, had to go away”3. Today students of oral history do not have to pass such a harsh and long training like disciples of Pythagoras, but the message from the ancient Greece about listening and about good question is still valid. Oral history

1 Diogenes Laertius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers, ed. by R. D. Hicks, http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0004.tlg001.perseus-eng1:8.1 (accessed November 25, 2015). 2 The term “Góral” is virtually untranslatable. 3 J. Tischner, Historia filozofii po góralsku, Kraków 1997, p. 15. Marcin Jarząbek

22 is about listening and asking questions4; more precisely, about two kinds of questions: research question and interview question. However, while running oral history projects we rather prefer to talk about the former than the latter. Or, in worst case, we mix both together. Posing questions to an interviewee is commonly considered rather a technical, practical skill of an oral historian5 than a central methodological and theoretical problem of the whole discipline. Textbooks and Internet are full of advices how to ask questions6 but not necessarily why to ask them. In my paper I aim at presenting functions of questioning in oral history, not only during the interview itself, but also in the phase of analysis and interpretation. I underline the fact that formulating questions during the interview is not only a matter of language and gaining information, but also of the whole course of the discussion, emotions, atmosphere etc. There are probably many reasons why the role of questions in oral history is rather underestimated. One of them has a lot to do with the perspective from which history (and we, historians) look at that discipline7. An interview for a historian is first and foremost a historical source. What matters and what is valuable, it is informative content of somebody’s answers that we (historians, sociologist, memory researchers etc.) can analyze and interpret. All kinds of historical facts, experiences and their interpretations, forms of individual and collective memory are accessible in that what an interviewee is talking about. Questions’ role is just to “evoke” them8. Oral historian is rather fully aware of the subjectivity of the life

4 I paraphrase here the sentence by V. Ritchie that “oral history is about asking questions”, see: D. Ritchie, Doing Oral History. A practical guide, second edition, Oxford 2002, p. 46. 5 Pragmatics of posing questions is therefore well covered in various textbooks of oral history, see: D. Ritchie, op. cit., p. 90–107; V. R. Yow, Recording Oral History. A guide for the Humanities and Social Sciences, second edition, Walnut Creek 2005, p. 74–79. 6 See: M. Hunt, The Smithsonian Folklife and Oral History Interviewing Guide, Washington 2003. http://www.folklife.si.edu/resources/pdf/InterviewingGuide.pdf (accessed November 20, 2015); in Polish: Historia mówiona. Elementarz, Warsza- wa 2008 (also: http://swiadkowiehistorii.pl/elementarz.php, accessed December 1, 2015). 7 Here I limit myself to historiography only, in which that problem is probably most visible. However that problem in my opinion is not limited only to the historiography. 8 The same problem we may see in the case of looking for the “linguistic picture of the world” in oral history: that very valuable analysis focuses, however, predominantly It is good to ask good questions...

story interview and of the fact that time passing deeply influences memo- 23 irs. Nevertheless, he or she would still hardly ever consider his or her own questions as an inseparable part of the same source material as stories told by an interviewee. Alessandro Portelli’s conclusion that oral historian in some sense is a “part of the source”9 is in my opinion in this respect still not implied into oral history research practice. That is probably one of the reasons why in some print (or online) editions of the transcribed versions of the interview, especially in Poland, there are no questions at all. In those cases editors and/or editorial requirements tend to present dialogue as a more or less coherent monologue10. Inter- viewer – contrary to the remark of Portelli – seems to be a fully transpa- rent part of the recording of the memoirs of an interviewee. That may go together with another motive for hiding questions: through them historians bare themselves and reveal their methodological proficiency with all its professionalism and in some cases – a lack of it. If we often conclude that our interviewees do not like to see their talk transcribed (to see written how they talk), we must also honestly admit that oral historians dislike it too.

Functions of questioning in oral history, or: what do I ask questions for? Questions are, however, a key to the successful interview and also to the successful research project. Paul Thompson noticed that “a broader study of social change […] demands particularly careful preparation of the form of questions before interviewing. Asking questions in the best way is clearly

on what an interviewee says. See: J. Bartmiński, Językowe podstawy obrazu świata, Lublin 2006; Historia mówiona w świetle etnolingwistyki, ed. by S. Niebrzegowska- -Bartmińska, S. Wasiuta, Lublin 2008 (also: http://biblioteka.teatrnn.pl/dlibra/Con- tent/43855/Historia_mowiona_Etnolingw.pdf, accessed December 1, 2015). 9 A. Portelli, What Makes Oral History Different (originally published as: The Pecu- liarities of Oral History, “History Workshop”, No. 12 (1981), p. 96–107), [in:] The Oral History Reader, ed. by R. Perks, T. Alistair, London 1998, p. 73. 10 That practice is in a sense a turn back into the initial phase of oral history. Donald A. Ritchie noticed that “in the type of oral history Allan Nevins pioneered at Colum- bia, the interviewer was envisioned as a neutral, objective collector of other people’s reminiscences; this concept was carried to such extremes that the questions were eliminated entirely in Columbia’s early transcripts. The interviewee’s responses were rendered as an uninterrupted narrative.”, D. A. Ritchie, op. cit., p. 28. Marcin Jarząbek

24 important in any interview”11. It does not mean only, that we must have a list of good questions already prepared when we go to talk to an interviewee. There is a need to connect our research project aims and research questions with our strategy and tactic of conducting an interview. “Even if you are going to carry only a small oral history project of your own, it is worth thinking about the sequence of topics for the interviews and phrasing the questions. The strategy of the interview it is not the informant’s responsibility, but yours. It is much easier to guide if you have a basic shape already in your mind, and questions can lead naturally from one to the other”12 – stated Thompson. Question is one of really few tools that we can use during an interview and the one that plays many roles at the same time. Lynn Adams pointed four main functions of questions during an interview. “Oral historian, broadly speaking, asks people questions to discover four things: what happened, how they felt about it, how they recall it, and what wider public memory they draw upon”13. That list, however, does not include in my opinion all functions of questioning. Before going deeper into four above mentioned roles I propose to add to the list three more functions. Oral historians ask questions: (1) to keep up the communication act (dialogue, interaction), (2) to build social tie (trust) between interlocutors and (3) to accelerate process of recalling memoirs of the narrator. If the four functions proposed by Adams may be called informative (through questions we are receiving some information of various kind), the three other I would call interactive functions of questions in oral history (their focus is not on the content of the dialogue, but on the dialogue itself). Nevertheless, in practice of interviewing some questions can in fact fit into both categories of that ty- pology (informative and interactive functions). Obviously questions “what happened” function at the same time as informative and conducting interaction, but we are not always fully aware of its double nature. Let me focus here on the three latter, i.e. interactive functions. Main- taining the dialogue is the most basic and at the same time the most fundamental skill of any oral historian. Even in life stories methodology or in Fritz Schütze’s narrative interview, where the role of questioning is predefined

11 P. Thompson, The Voice of the Past. Oral History, Oxford 1978, p. 167–168. 12 Ibidem, p. 171. 13 L. Adams, Oral History Theory, London–New York 2010, p. 78. It is good to ask good questions...

and precisely limited14, we cannot just let the interview run without our 25 attention. Questions, but also gestures, paraphrases, anecdotes or semi- -verbal expressions are all good to subtly push the talk forward. If we agree that oral history interview should be similar to any normal natural talk between two people, than we can see that there is a place both for exchange of questions and answers, and moments of silence too. In some cases we are allowed to asked questions about the information that we already know in order to build trust and sense of self-confidence of an interviewee or to enliven the interaction. Paraphrasing has sometimes similar function too. Good questions (i.e. well formulated and fitting into theWeltanschau - ung of an interviewee) are also the best tool to get a good interpersonal contact. Some of the people whom we record act very similar to the exam- iners in the Pythagoras’ school: they judge us by our questions and they are much eager to answer the good ones than those that are wrong. They do not have to be necessarily and exclusively “easy” for our interlocutors. Even personally uneasy, but apt questions may increase trust and involvement of an interviewee. When an interviewee says: “It’s a good question. I’ve never before thought about it from that perspective”, oral historian may treat that kind of sentences as a form of real compliment. In general, “interviewers must be prepared to ask questions about painful and embarrassing subjects – although they must also respect people’s right not to answer such questions, if they so choose”15. Helping with recalling memoirs means to transform our theoretical knowledge on how human memory works into practice16. Therefore it is probably the most “technical” side of posing questions, in which interviewer should have some pre-prepared sentences and solutions (like using arte- facts or photography in order to evoke memoirs, asking about specific episodes, asking interviewee to draw something etc.). Good question can “ex- tract” memories from deep oblivion. “Acceleration” of recalling memories and all four functions pointed by Adams have to do with various strategies of questioning (see: below).

14 F. Schütze, Biographieforschung und narratives Interview, “Neue Praxis”, Vol. 13 (1983), No. 3, p. 283–293. See also (in Polish): Metoda biograficzna w socjologii, ed. by K. Kaźmierska, Kraków 2012. 15 D. A. Ritchie, op. cit., p. 36. 16 See: D. Draaisma, The Nostalgia Factory. Memory, time and ageing, New Heaven 2013. Marcin Jarząbek

26 I might be wrong, but I suppose that at least some of the methodological problems with interpretation of the oral history narratives as mixing together history (what happened and “how people felt about it”) and memory (“how they recall it and what wider public memory they draw upon”), is due to the fact that our questionnaires do not reflect that functional distinction. We all know that in oral history it is memory (present) that influences history (past); we also agree that oral history is not only subjective (like all other sources), but also “subjectivity is all oral history is”17. Hardly ever, however, we admit that people we talk with are also self-reflective and in many cases aware of their subjectivity too. Therefore in our questions we can put an emphasis on different dimensions of somebody’s recollections and at least partially rely on his or her self-reflectivity. Let me cite here one practical example: We can simply ask somebody to recall how he or she felt or thought about something in the past (then) and next ask if he or she changed his or her mind (meanwhile and now)18. This does not absolve us from critical analysis and evaluation of both answers, yet it gives us personal (subjective) interviewee’s point of view on the tension between memory and history in own self-narratives.

Strategies of questioning, or, what can I ask about? Having in mind an obvious fact that our recollections from the past are mediated through our memory, personality and current condition, we can still treat oral history – as I mentioned above – as a source of various kinds of information. However, the quality and genre of information depends to a large extend on the question we ask during the interview. Being aware of other typologies in oral history I distinguish three types of questions about the information (informative function of questioning in oral history – see: above) that oral historian can ask, according to the subject of the answer: questions about (1) particular recollection (events, “pictures”), (2) data or (3) opinion. Each of them may be linked more with the present perspective (what I know and remember now), or more with the past perspective (what I knew and remembered then).

17 L. Adams, op. cit., p. 22. 18 That strategy of posing questions was proposed by Dariusz Jarosz at the th4 Annual Workshop of Polish Oral History Association in November 2012 (Dom Spotkań z His- torią, Warsaw). It is good to ask good questions...

Asking about recollection (memoirs), about events, places and persons 27 is the most common type of questioning and at the same time the most specific for oral history herself, regardless of the discipline that uses it (history, sociology, linguistic, anthropology etc.). According to Lynn Adams what differs oral history from all other kinds of qualitative research is the fact that oral history focuses on “the act of remembering the past”19. In many oral history interviews we ask mostly about particular events as seen from a personal perspective (what happened? how did it look like? who was there? etc.) and personal feelings from the past (how did you feel then? etc.). Sometimes recollection can be devoted not to an event, but to some permanent element of somebody’s past that also became part of memory and its “images”: e.g. appearance or character of somebody’s friend, order of rooms in an old family house etc. Questions about all kinds of data (the term is understood here in a broad sense) target at information from somebody’s life scope gathered in autobiographical memory. If you ask: “how much did you earn when you began you job?”, it will be a question about knowledge (data), not about memoirs. Questions about ancestors, parents’ jobs etc. also refer to data we gathered in our memory through our life (in the past) and not to some “direct” (if one can say so) recollections. It does not mean that the answers to these questions are automatically less valuable; some data from the past we can remember pretty well and precisely, even if they are totally useless: a good example are old telephone numbers that stuck in our minds. There is probably no sharp clear cut between asking about recollections from the past and data from the past. However, the researcher posing questions must be aware of the difference between them and know the different “affiliation” of the answers to both types in our individual memory. Events, “pictures” of places and personalities belong to our episodic memory, whereas all kinds of data are part of semantic memory. As we know from the psychological research we tend to forget how (in which context) we learned data from semantic memory or to mix many cognitive contexts into one20. “People will forget who said something, but will know what was

19 According to Lynn Adams what differs oral history form all other kinds of qualitative research is the fact that oral history focuses on “the act of remembering the past”, L. Adams, op. cit., p. 2. 20 T. Maruszewski, Pamięć autobiograficzna, Gdańsk 2005, p. 50–69. Marcin Jarząbek

28 said” – as nicely phrased it Józef Tischner21. Moreover, some of the data we keep in our memory may be biased and changed without our conscious reflection: we might be wrong and at the same time sure and convinced that we are right. Finally we can ask about personal opinions, emotions etc. They can also be focused either on the past opinions (what did you think at that time?), or contemporary reflections about the past (what do you think about it today?), although – as we know – in practice contemporary perspective highly influences our opinions, even those from the past. By “opinion” I also understand all forms of personal explanations of the own biography, fates of own family, nation etc. “Why did you marry?”, “Who was your best friend at that time?”, “Why the communism collapsed?” – these are all examples of the questions about opinions. Asking about them is highly valuable if we seriously take into account human self-reflectiveness and let our interviewee construct his/her own interpretative schemes that are – according to well-known Alfred Schütz phenomenological terminology – “first-order constructs” of the actors of social life, i.e. their own interpretations and generalizations of their life experiences. It is probably useless to add that answers to the questions about opinions are the most subjective part of oral history. However, they allow us to build our research conclusions and interpretations: “constructs of the second degree”22. Only thanks to them we can understand how people explain to themselves the plot of their own life, their own decisions or changes that happened in their social worlds.

Conversation analysis or the role of question in interpretation process If at the beginning I have complained about the questions being erased during the process of interpretation, here I would like to put an emphasis on their usefulness for the interpretation of oral history. According to above quoted Paul Thompson a researcher should have “the strategy of the interview”, because than “questions can lead naturally from one to the other”23. However, in many cases the real interview goes differently than in

21 “Ludziska zabacują, fto pedzioł, ale wiedzóm, co pedzioł”, J. Tischner, op. cit., p. 12. 22 A. Schütz, Collected Papers I: The Problem of Social Reality, Hague 1962, p. 6 et seqq. 23 P. Thompson, op. cit., p. 171. It is good to ask good questions...

our initial plan. Our questions may not evoke the answers we might have 29 expected and we cannot be sure who or what is to blame for that (if anything or anybody has to be blamed for that at all). Therefore in the process of interpretation of the oral history interview it is worthy to analyze the relationship between questions asked and answers given to them. Perspective of conversational analysis may deliver here a useful tool for that. Sociology and other social sciences following the studies by Harold Garfinkel and Erving Goffman since 1960s has been elaborating theoretical perspective of conversational analysis (CA) developed by Harvey Sacks. It focuses on the observation of the sequences of verbal and non-verbal communication. Its goal is “to describe the intertwined construction of practices, actions, activities, and the overall structure of interactions”24. What differs CA from other perspectives (like discourse analysis) is an assumption that the social order is “orderly at a minute level of detail”25 in the interaction and content of it is a result of an interplay between discussing persons’ social definitions of situations. That perspective – very fruit- ful in research on the media communication or every-day-life talks – has naturally rather limited usage in oral history. Narrative interviews and life stories with small number of questions can be much better interpreted by various forms of qualitative sociology (Biographieforschung). However, in some types of oral history where sequences of dialogue are more frequent, benefits from using CA can be quite significant. Thanks to it we can tell something about the influence of the questions on the given answers. Let me cite here one tiny example for that. In one of the hundreds interviews of the Oral History Archive of the Museum of Warsaw Uprising (www.ahm1944.pl) we can find transcription of the dialogue between Hali- na Zofia Adamska (further: HZA, civilian 14-year-old girl living in Warsaw in 1944) and an interviewer Iwona Brandt (further: IB). In an excerpt of the interview we see the following sequences: IB: Did you, as civilians living in Powiśle, have any contact with insurgents? HZA: Yes, they have come to us, to sew stripes, bands for them. IB: What precisely did you do?

24 J. Sidnell, T. Stivers, Introduction, [in:] The Handbook of Conversation Analysis, ed. by iidem, London 2012, p. 2. 25 Ibidem. Marcin Jarząbek

30 HZA: I did not participate actively [i.e. as a soldier – M.J.] in the uprising. IB: But you did help? HZA: I sewed stripes and uprising bonds together with our neighbors […]26. The interviewee understood question “what precisely did you do?” as a question, how she participated military in the uprising and therefore she stressed that she did not take “an active part” in it. She did not answer directly to the posed question, but rather to its meaning which she read through her looking-glass-self (“interviewer is interested in the history of the uprising, so she is asking me about the uprising”). That and the next question (“but you did help?”) aim at finding proofs of Adamska’s action and her contribution, therefore she feels obliged to find an answer that – in her opinion – may meet the expectations of the interviewer. This example shows us that the informative content of oral history may not be only the result of simple recalling memories or answering questions, but also – among many reasons – the effect of dialogue itself and adjustment of the expectations of the two sides of it. That is why analyzing questions in oral history and their position in the dialogue sequences should be implemented in the in-deepen interpretation of oral history interviews. In my opinion, that can be taken (to certain degree) regardless of the methodological lenses through which we look at oral history and its position in historiography; whether we look for “facts”, “data”, “memory” or “experience”. None of those perspectives can disregard the fact how (through which questions) we got the results that we use.

26 “IB: Czy wy jako cywile mieszkający na Powiślu, mieliście jakiś kontakt z powstańca- mi? HZA: Owszem, przychodzili do nas, żeby im szyć naszywki, opaski. IB: Co pani konkretnie robiła? HZA: Czynnego udziału w Powstaniu nie brałam. IB: Ale pomagała pani? HZA: Szyłam łącznie z sąsiadkami naszywki i opaski powstańcze. […]”, Archiwum Historii Mówionej Muzeum Powstania Warszawskiego, the account of Halina Zofia Adamska recorded by Iwona Brandt on March 11, 2008, http://ahm.1944.pl/ Halina%20Zofia_Adamska/1 (accessed December 5, 2015). It is good to ask good questions...

Conclusions or when theory meets practice 31 All the above mentioned assumptions and arguments belong rather to the theory of oral history, instead of giving list of practical advices how to ask questions. However writing about oral history theory is impossible without mentioning practice, because oral history is first and foremost practice. Theory and practice of oral history are in the double-sided hermeneutical interrelation: “oral history practice then demands that one thinks about theory; indeed it is the practice, the doing of oral history that leads to theoretical innovation”27. Therefore one have to bear in mind that in practice there are no ideal questions, as there are no ideal interviews. First, an interviewer who is well prepared for an interview has to have list of questions or issues that he or she wants to ask. However, not all of them have to be asked: a good interview do not always have to consist of many questions. Secondly, in many cases an interviewee will not answer to some of our smooth questions or will answer them in indirect way, saying something disconnected with the aim and topic of the question itself. Finally, only in the evaluation and analysis of the recorded material we can see the interrelation between our questions and the answers. Therefore, it is good to ask good questions, because they may give us good answers. But only analysis (like conversational analysis) of what we as researches have done, reveal that we ask questions not only to get answers, but also to build a basis for the whole relationship with and interviewee.

27 L. Adams, op. cit., p. 1. Marcin Jarząbek

32 Marcin The author discusses an issue of forming questions in oral history. Jarząbek There are two types of them – research questions and interview ques- It is good to ask good questions – posing tions. Instead of analyzing how to ask questions, the interviewer questions in oral should rather focus on why to ask them. The article proves that asking history interview as a theoretical problem questions in oral history is less about formal elements such as what language should be used or what matters should be raised, but more about such elements as emotions or the overall atmosphere of an interview. The author gives some clues on how to prepare proper questions, what difficulties may appear and what to avoid in order to carry out a good interview. Wiktoria Kudela-Świątek

[Kraków]

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From private memory to the collective image of the Ukrainian Holodomor

Wrocławski Rocznik Historii Mówionej Rocznik VI, 2016 ISSN 2084–0578

During the past two decades, the image of The Great Famine 1932–1933 experienced major transformations in Ukraine and underwent evolution from an event deliberately marginalized to the crucial one in the new culture of the memory of the communist totalitarianism experience arising in Ukraine. Reviving the memory of the Holodomor was seen as a chance for the consolidation of Ukrainian society. The image of a communism-victim nation allowed, in the narrow perspective, to distance oneself from the heritage of the past age and in the wider perspective – to dissociate completely from that heritage. The term Great Famine Holodomor,( Great Famine 1932–1933) is used in historiography to describe the famine disaster of the years 1932–1933 in the Soviet Union1, which was especially intense in the territory of the former Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic (today’s eastern and central part

1 Scholars and politicians from Ukraine and Ukrainian Diaspora using the word “Ho- lodomor” say the man-made aspects of the famine, was a genocide; some consider the huge loss of life comparable to the Holocaust. They argue that the Soviet policies were an attack on the rise of Ukrainian nationalism and therefore is a genocide. It thus focuses on its national and exclusive character as it is an egotism, transcription of Ukrainian name (holod + mor = sickness of hunger). Wiktoria Kudela-Świątek

34 of Ukraine). The Holodomor was a result of the policy of collectivization of the agricultural sector enforced by the directorate of the Communist Party and national authorities of the Soviet Union and an unconditional execu- tion of quotas for deliveries of free agricultural products imposed on peasants which exceeded the country’s production capabilities at that time2. These events became one of the biggest taboos in Soviet Union during the communist times and were utterly ignored in historiography and social discussion. Ukrainian diaspora communities in the USA and Canada made several attempts to commemorate this event and bring it to the public eye, considering that the Soviets left it unsaid. Once Ukraine reclaimed its independence, the issue was present in public space to a smaller or larger extent. Initially it caught a lot of interest of intelligentsia of clearly right-wing views, subsequently it became a part of policy aiming at so called “new Ukrainization” of the society, in order to eventually become the key event of the formation of the new Ukrainian society. Indeed, the policy regarding commemorating the Holodomor in Ukraine was neither unvarying nor unambiguous. Subsequent presidents of Ukra- ine (and in particular Viktor Yushchenko) attempted to create an image of Ukraine as a communism-victim nation on the basis of the Holodomor events3. Steps undertaken in relation to commemorating the Holodomor, as well as public debate on the issue, which revealed the internal divisions in Ukrainian society, became a matter of academic discussion a peak of which is considered to be the publishing of the controversial book by Georgiy Ka- sianov Danse macabre4. The author set himself a goal of analyzing the process of how the Ukrainian public and academic discussion on The Great Famine started. When indicating the political nature of the remembrance of Holodomor, Kasianov distinguished between Holodomor understood as

2 R. Conquest, The Harvest of Sorrow: Soviet Collectivization and the Terror-Famine, Oxford 1986. 3 W. Jilge, Competing Victimhoods – Post-Soviet Ukrainian Narratives on World War II, [in:] Shared History – Divided Memory: Jews and Others in Soviet-Occupied Po- land, 1939–1941, ed. by E. Barkan, E. A. Cole, K. Struve, Leipzig 2008, p. 121. 4 G. Kas’ânov, Danse macabre. Golod 1932–1933 rokìv u polìticì, masovìj svìdomostì ta ìstorìografìï (1980-tì – počatok 2000-h), Kiïv 2010. At that time his article written in English was launched, presenting the key assumptions of the monograph. See: G. Kas’ânov, The Holodomor and the Building of a Nation, “Russian Politics and Law”, Vol. 48 (2010), p. 25–47. From private memory to the collective image of the Ukrainian Holodomor

a historiographic, or even a political concept (thus he suggested writing it 35 down using quotation marks in this context – “Holodomor”) and a famine disaster – a historic event from the 1930s. The principal purpose of my considerations will be to examine more closely the creation process of a collective idea/image of a ground-breaking event, with The Great Famine in Ukraine 1932–1933 serving as an example, in the context of maintaining the memory of the generation of the victims of that event5. I will focus on the role played by the individual memories of the Holodomor survivors in the creation process of the collective image of the Holodomor. In other words, I will focus on the role that the generation of the victims and The Holodomor survivors played in the process of social symbolization of that occurrence. It feels to me that those memories were politicized and conventionalized to a significant degree and, therefore, they may seem as not genuine and as nonsensical to contemporary people and as a result they are unable to perform their essential function which, according to the documentalists and researchers, they should perform – to pass on the truth about Stalinism in the Soviet Ukraine. Witnesses’ stories, posing as historical folklore have been treated instru- mentally by politicians and intellectuals; the stories were to a lesser degree an object of academic deliberation. Discussing social initiatives aiming at the documentation of this experience through the diaspora and in the Ukraine will indicate the existing paradox that the Ukrainian documentalists are facing: when trying to save The Great Famine from oblivion – they failed to contribute to a complex process of reminiscence and working this trauma through, but managed to replace it with a substitute in the form of a public version of the story instead. I will take a closer look at the chosen oral testimonies collections and their publications within the documentation projects from various years6.

5 Previously the topic of politicization of the instrumental treatment of memories of the survivors of the Holodomor has already been discussed within my monograph. See: W. Kudela-Świątek, Miejsca (nie)pamięci. O upamiętnianiu ukraińskiego Wiel- kiego Głodu z lat 1932–1933, Kraków 2014. 6 Oral History Project of the Commission on the Ukraine Famine, ed. by J. Mace, L. Heretz, Washington 1990; V. Manâk, L. Kovalenko-Manâk, 33-ìj: Golod. Narodna Kniga-Memorìal, Kiïv 1991; Velikij golod v Ukraïnì 1932–1933 rokìv, ed. by Dž. Mejs, 4 vol., Kiïv 2008; V. Borysenko, A Candle in Remembrance: An Oral History of the Ukrainian Genocide of 1932–1933, New York 2010. Wiktoria Kudela-Świątek

36 It will be essential as well to demonstrate the significance that the memories of The Great Famine 1932–1933 previous decades has for the Ukrain- ian identity in order to consider the necessity and possibility of working The Great Famine trauma through, unchain Ukrainian society from the post-communist myths and reach a new stage of both policy of remembrance and social awareness that we would be able to call Ukrainian and not post-communist or post-colonial.

“Community/ies of memory” of the Holodomor Volodymyr Viatrovych, in one of his recent essays, stated that the Holo- domor created the Ukrainians as a nation7. Perhaps the wording is quite unfortunate, as the author himself admits, but it in fact reflects the state of the affairs. In his view, in modern Ukraine the memory of the Holodomor – regardless of the authorities’ indifferent attitude – bonds more and more Ukrainians just like it bonded the diverse Ukrainian diaspora communities in the West. In fact, since the Holodomor was placed in the centre of the politics of memory created in the post-Soviet Ukraine after 1991, the “places of memory” connected with it have become the over efficient way to fight with the Soviet symbolic domain in the Ukraine, here understood – according to Lech Nijakowski – as a territory where a particular group rules symbolically. This is the reason why the “places of memory” connected with the milestones of the Soviet culture of memory (monuments to battles and martyrdom of the Soviet nation during the Great Patriotic War) were removed where it was possible. Where it was impossible, the monuments and museums which commemorated the survivors of the Holodo- mor 1932–1933 were created. So, when the status of the Soviet “places of memory” becomes weaker and the “places of memory” of the new Ukrain- ian culture of memory are dominating, it will be possible to declare the creation of the Ukrainian symbolic domain in this country. It is crucial that the Communist past of the Ukrainian nation is (re)interpreted in the newly emergent “places of memory” according to a certain key. The Holodomor becomes here the key event in the shaping of the Ukrainian identity as at the same time it connects the nation and separates it from the Communist

7 V. V`âtrovič, Âk Golodomor zrobiv nas nacìêû, http://holodomor33.org.ua/volodymyr-vyatrovych-yak-holodomor-zrobyv-nas-natsijeyu/ (accessed November 26, 2013). From private memory to the collective image of the Ukrainian Holodomor

inheritance of the Soviet Ukraine. As a matter of fact, The Great Famine 37 is the event in a collective history experience that unites the Ukrainians in one “community of memory” which remains beyond the rivalry of many minorities’ memories in the country. As a traumatic event it has an integrating effect on representatives of one nation even when it is divided so significantly as in the Ukraine today. It took place, however, at the expense of losing an opportunity to work the Holodomor trauma through. In order to grasp the essence of the matter it is worth taking a look at the discussion on how the so-called “community of memory” is currently perceived in “memory studies”. This term is usually defined with the use of intui- tion, mostly based on the generic term “community”8. A “community” is understood as being a type of social group based on a powerful bond within the group of a rather informal structure. Therefore, the “community of memory” is a community determined by its past and the memory about it9. A belief of the group’s members about the exceptionality of their experience with regard to other groups among whom they live is a deciding factor in the “community of memory” creation10. In this meaning, it is a kind of an enclave of a certain lifestyle. Its members also participate in the so-called “practices of commitment”, which are memory rituals developed and accepted in a given community as a proof of its stability. A ritual then becomes a way to manifest the cherished values11. Creating a narrative about the common past and individuals set as examples constitutes a significant part of the tradition, which is crucial for “communities of memory”. For such a society reminiscing, maintaining and ritualizing the common past is its primary goal and not just de- termining the features that connect its members. Within the works of Jan Assmann we encounter the term Erinnerungs- gemeinschaft, which is a “community remembering/reminiscing”12. In his view, a social group defining itself as a “community of memory” concentra- tes on two aspects of its existence: specific nature and permanence. When

8 L. Nijakowski, Polska polityka pamięci. Esej socjologiczny, Warszawa 2008, p. 145. 9 R. N. Bellah [et al.], Habits of the Heart: Individualism and Commitment in Ameri- can Life, New York 1985, p. 152. 10 J. Assmann, Cultural Memory and Early Civilization: Writing, Remembrance, and Political Imagination, New York 2011, p. 15–17. 11 R. N. Bellah [et al.], op. cit., p. 154. 12 In translated into English the works of Assmann translator used the term “memory community”. Wiktoria Kudela-Świątek

38 building up its internal image it emphasizes its unique character whereas inside the group there are attempts to blur the differences which inevitably exist within it. If a group realized the inner transformation or if the dif- ferentiation became unbearable it would cease to exist. “Communities of memory” are, however, groups focused on lasting; therefore, they try to blur the inner differences through a certain selection of remembered facts, which ensures the feeling of permanence13. Within each community unique collective memories which maintain memories important only for them tend to develop. The less indirect witnesses of given events there are, the more this memory grows in importance. Each person belongs to several “memory communities” at the same time or they do so one after another. On top of that, each group increases and dwindles in time and space. In the view of Iwona Irwin-Zarecka, a “community of memory” is a common denominator for groups bonded together by a common experience of the past. She believes that common suffering or belonging to the same generational group helps the bearers of individual stories describe themselves as “we” and has a bond-forming effect. In this case we are concerned with a group bonded by an experience of an extraordinary event mostly of a traumatic nature14. In accordance with this definition, individuals united by a common experience of suffering, a sensation of social exclusion and stigmatized and marginalized in public discussion unite in “communities of memory”15.

13 J. Assmann, op. cit., p. 26. 14 I. Irwin-Zarecka, Frames of Remembrance. The Dynamics of Collective Memory, New Brunswick–New Jersey 2009, p. 47. 15 Similar opinions on “communities of memory” of trauma can be found in works of Charles S. Maier. Within the definitions included therein, trauma is a foundation of identity of both individual and a community which impedes the empathy towards other “communities of memory” built upon similar experience of suffering. In the opinion of both scientists, Irwin-Zarecka and Maier, it is impossible to comprehend someone else’s suffering empathically even if it’s alike (for instance victims of communist repressions towards victims of Nazism and vice versa). It is more of an intellectual comprehension rather than actual belief. “Community of memory” constitutes therefore closed communities consisting of a limited number of people who experienced almost an identical traumatic event. For instance a “community of memory” of former prisoners of extermination camps can be divided into much smaller “communities of memory” of those who survived the Treblinka, Majdanek and Auschwitz extermination camps. See: Ch. S. Maier, Hot Memory… Cold Memo- From private memory to the collective image of the Ukrainian Holodomor

One of the concepts of “community of memory” has been developed on 39 the Polish scene as well; its author being Lech M. Nijakowski. The scien- tist initially specified “community of memory” as an aggregate – a number of people bonded by a specific biographical experience, not necessarily of a traumatic nature, and their descendants who acquired the family remem- brance16. “Community of memory” rejects not only the distinct “objective” history of some of its representatives but also an individual perspective of its members. Furthermore Nijakowski elaborates on the primary conception of “community of memory” offered by predecessors. In his view these are communities which comprise of direct witnesses and participants of the formative event as well as everyone who identifies themselves with it17. “Community of memory” becomes then built as a result of a social process of symbolization which develops around the members and witnesses of the formation event18. It is restricted to a certain territory and identifies itself with a local or regional group but can also connect people from completely different ethnic groups spread all over the country19. In this meaning when talking about the “community of memory” of a group we imply that it is being built on the basis of categories and patterns characteristic for its cultural universe20. The foundation for “communities of memory” creation (perceived as communities of people of identical biographic experiences and – which is more important – people who develop identical images of those experiences) is a sense of unity of biographical experiences existing between the members of such a group. “Communities of memory” exist as they were beyond generational, social, ethnic or racial division. People of various social identities may belong to the same “community of memory”. It’s essential for them to identify with a formative experience and with ways of its remembrance, developed and maintained by a certain community.

ry. On the Political Half-Life of Fascist and Communist Memory, http://www.iwm.at/ read-listen-watch/transit-online/hot-memory-cold-memory-on-the-political-half- -life-of-fascist-and-communist-memory/ (accessed November 26, 2013); I. Irwin- -Zarecka, op. cit., p. 47–52. 16 L. Nijakowski, op. cit., p. 145. 17 Ibidem. 18 Ibidem, p. 146. 19 Ibidem, p. 147. 20 K. Kaźmierska, Biografia i pamięć. Na przykładzie pokoleniowego doświadczenia ocalonych z zagłady, Kraków 2008, p. 88–89. Wiktoria Kudela-Świątek

40 When analyzing the Holodomor as a formative event it is also worth taking a closer look at the communities which at least potentially can be treated as its “communities of memory”. An essential question that arises almost instinctively is the one about the number of such communities. The memory about The Great Famine is a common heritage of Ukrainian emigration (in particular the post-war emigration to the United States and Canada) and many of the eldest in today’s Ukraine. Those communities – in reference to the suggested definition – may be seen both as forms of the very same community varying only in terms of the country of residence and as utterly different communities formed by reminiscing. Perhaps there exists one community, dynamic and diverse, the members of which, regardless of their country of residence, have been connected by the idea of the necessity of fostering the memory of The Great Famine and the belief about its uniqueness in the history of mankind. In the latter case, the country boundaries wouldn’t determine the range of community of memory. A sensation of belonging to this group would assume the idea of the genocidal nature of this event and the acceptance of memory rituals related to fostering this memory as a national trend (or even a na- tionalist one). Logic suggests that the core of a community of memory should comprise of representatives of the survivor generation and their descendants and only then the initiatives of people deliberately accepting the memory of The Great Famine can become the driving force. That is exactly what happened in the emigration circles. The emigrants were following the example of ways of commemorating the Jewish Holocaust in their activities for cultivating the Holodomor memory in western communities, in the Ukraine however the example of Soviet commemorative practices was followed for a long time even though the patterns developed by diaspora were appealed to. In the country however, this core constituted people consciously accepting the memory pattern suggested by the Ukrainian diaspora (and most frequently those who were becoming the successors of this pattern were those living in western Ukraine) and only they needed the memory of survivor generation to justify their belonging to the community of memory. Truth be told, an opinion prevailed that The Great Famine was commonly known in the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, however, no one raised that subject, as well as other controversial issues. Stanislav Kulchytsky recalls 1960s–1970s as follows: From private memory to the collective image of the Ukrainian Holodomor

As a historian I associated the inability to remember The Great Famine 41 with reasons unknown to historical sciences at that time. I knew however that it is deeply rooted in the conscience of every human being21. Along with that, the events meticulously renounced from the historical discussion in its generalized interpretation constituted a foundation for a different Soviet history that each USSR citizen learned about from his parents’ and grandparents’ stories22. These stories, based on private experience, didn’t at all describe the numerous successes and victories of the soviet periodicals, but the suffering of people due to famine and violence inflicted on the citizens by their own homeland. Thanks to such an underground circulation, The Great Famine could survive in the memory of the Ukrainians in a very sparse state. In those circumstances it’s difficult to confront the opinion of Kulchytsky on the underground memory. Nevert- heless, I am aware how limited the version of events that survived the times of communism which came to light in the 1990s was and that the Ukrainian Holodomor community was shaped by the policy of memories instead of family stories of generations that survived the Holodomor. Initially both communities of The Great Famine memory (in the country and in the diaspora) were living in close cooperation since one couldn’t exist without the other. Moreover, actions taken in the diaspora were setting the tone for the discussion on The Great Famine. It was only the Orange Revolution that was a breakthrough for the evolution of the Great Famine memory community in the country. Yushchenko, as a president of Ukraine was, through his actions, justifying the Holodomor as the “Ukrainian Holocaust” – a version cultivated by the western emigration for a long time. Enthralled by the power of Jewish memory of the Holocaust he assumed that The Great Famine as the “Ukrainian Holocaust” would unite all the Ukrainians from all parts of the country in one nation just like the memory of the Shoah unites various Jewish communities. It seems then that those two kinds of memory joined into one, however diverse, changeable and varying “community of memory” of the Holodomor. What is the common denominator is not the fact of fostering the memory of the Great Famine itself, but recognizing it as a genocide of the Ukrainian nation.

21 S. Kulczycki, Hołodomor. Wielki głód na Ukrainie w latach 1932–1933 jako ludobój- stwo – problem świadomości, Warszawa 2008, p. 13–14. 22 Û. Micik, Z dosvìdu zboru svìdčen’ pro golodomor 1933 r., [in:] Golod – genocid 1933 roku v Ukraïnì..., p. 390. Wiktoria Kudela-Świątek

42 Nevertheless, we can speak about the ultimate formation of the Great Famine “community of memory” now that the emotions related to the clear politicization of the issue in the public space have worn off which influences the high-level political decisions. The change of memory policy course in the specific case of Viktor Yanukovych on one hand intensified the diversity and ambiguousness of interpretations of the event among various social groups (at the time defining the Holodomor as genocide also determined the political views of the citizen that was speaking), on the other hand however, it fostered a clear need of the society to reconsider post-communist political myths raised during the first years of the independent Ukraine. The “community of memory” of the Holodomor has recently been present in a very large part of Ukraine’s society (although, importantly, it still refers to just a part of it), which feels the connection with the survivors of famine or sees the Ukrainian nation as a nation of victims. It is worth mentioning that the current shape of the “community of memory” of the Holodomor was influenced not only by originating in the areas formerly affected by famine, but also by emigrants and by Western Ukraine, where the described attitude is an “invented tradition”23. The driving force of the community, or in fact its core, is made up of members of the intelligentsia, who share a belief that Ukraine’s culture, unlike Russia’s, belongs to the Western tradition. As a result, the genocide that came from their Eastern neighbour naturally separates Ukrainians from the Soviet heritage. THe community of memory of the Holodomor is a community in which the memory of the formative event is not inherited from generation to generation, but taken up consciously by members of the group. The memories of witnesses legitimize and justify the existence of such a communal memory. The community memory of the Ho- lodomor in this case, because of their nature, also act as so-called “guardians

23 In one of his works Yaroslav Hrytsak compared two types of Ukrainian memory of two separate exterminations that the Ukrainians were witnesses and victims of – The Holocaust and The Holodomor. At that time, when he reflected on the specific nature of Galician type of the Ukrainian memory he summarized: “The Ukrainians here exactly recall what they have never experienced and do not recall what they are culpable of”. In his opinion this extraordinary involvement in the Holodomor memory cultivation in western parts of the country, which were incorporated during World War II to the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, results from the fact that this part of Ukraine feels the bond with the Ukrainian diaspora (in the USA and Canada in particular). See: Â. Gricak, op. cit., p. 159–160. From private memory to the collective image of the Ukrainian Holodomor

of memory” about this historical event. With their initiative oral testimo- 43 nies of Holodomor survivors are collected, published in the form of memory books or made available on the Internet. Although they are an example of the aforementioned “loyalty practices” in relation to their own “community of memory”. These are examples of affirmative oral history of Holodomor.

Recording memories as a political action Allan Megill believes that memory acquires a special meaning to the communities whose identity is threatened. In order to preserve the community’s unity, memory can be transformed in a suitable way24. Maybe in that way, the Ukrainian diaspora circles made several attempts to record the memories of the Holodomor witnesses residing outside the Soviet Ukraine. Given that, most importantly, one should not forget the works printed by the diaspora on the 20th anniversary of the Holodomor25. The research results of the International Commission of Inquiry on The Great Famine 1932–1933 in Ukraine which operated during the years 1986–1990 under the command of James Mace also proved to be significant. In the final stage of the work the commission brought special attention to writing down the memoirs of victims. A collection of memoirs of 206 people who survived The Great Famine was published in Washington in 199026. Stanislav Kulchytsky, quoting some fragments of the famine victim’s memories, collected by the already mentioned Commission, treated the opinions as a means to achieve a certain goal: [...] the stories quoted here were chosen in such a way that the most important issue is emphasized: that under the pretence of storing crops, all food was taken away or destroyed, with the sole purpose of starving people to death. Although there are none (there can be none) official documents that would prove such intention, the annihilation of Ukrainians [...] was nationwide27.

24 A. Megill, History, Memory, Identity, “History of the Human Sciences”, Vol. 11 (1998), p. 40–42. 25 More on this subject: O. Veselova, Svìdčennâ očevidcìv golodu-genocidu 1932–1933 rr. v Ukraïnì âk džerelo doslìdžennâ jogo pričin ta naslìdkìv, “Ìstoričnij žurnal”, No. 5 (2009), p. 3–17. 26 Oral History Project of the Commission on the Ukraine Famine, ed. by J. Mace, L. He- retz, Washington 1990. 27 S. Kulczycki, op. cit., p. 279. Wiktoria Kudela-Świątek

44 This way the generation of the Holodomor survivors had the opportunity to take the floor and come into existence in public space. At that time, private memoirs were gaining a significant political and propaganda value. Being reprinted in emigrational periodicals and newspapers they allowed looking at the history of the past century from a point of view of a simple man. In their perspective the image of the regime took a completely new shape, encouraged reflection, formed whole generations of Ukrainians in diaspora. These actions have also been taken later in Ukraine after the collapse of communism system. With the declaration of Ukraine as an independent country in August, 1991, a new stage of life for the Ukrainian nation began. New opportunities for research and informing the public of the truth behind the Great Famine 1932–1933 arose, although they were not fully seized. The hardest part is changing the mentality of a society and subordinating it to the requirements of a life in a different economic reality. What diverted the attention of both the society and the newly formed government from the issue of famine was on the one hand the fall of the Communist party, the temporary ban on its activity in Ukraine’s territory, the almost immediate removal of literary heritage of the Communist era and, on the other hand, a deepening economic crisis. Quiet commemoration of the 60th anniversary of the starvation in 1993 was a predictable result of this phenomenon. However, praising the survivors during the commemoration of the 65th anniversary indicated a renewed interest in the problem28. With time, the studies on the Great Famine began to inspire more and more Soviet researchers, who in June, 1992 were brought together to form the Association of Holodomor Researchers in Ukraine by its founder, Volodymyr Maniak29. At the same time, those initiatives not only didn’t prevent the politicisation of the Holo- domor in Ukraine, they couldn’t even exist without it. Moreover, the evaluation of the Great Famine as a historical event still depended on the poli-

28 Pro vstanovlennâ Dnâ pam’âtì žertv golodomorìv. Ukaz Prezidenta Ukraïni vìd 26 lis- topada 1998 roku №1310/98, “Urâdovij Kur’êr” from November 28, 1998, p. 4. 29 Olexandr Ushinsky is the current leader of the Association. Its members, with the constant help of the American Dispersion, are conducting researches and run publishing activity and also organize the commemorations of each anniversary of Holo- domor. The merits of the work of M. Koc should be particularly underlined. He’s a researcher of the Holodomor from New York, thanks to whom the works of Ukrainian scholars are allowed to be published abroad, and who also does charity work. From private memory to the collective image of the Ukrainian Holodomor

tical views of the person speaking. As an example, the Ukrainian left wing 45 politicians insisted that the Holodomor itself was just a pure invention of the Ukrainian nationalists30. On the other hand, those who were interested in popularizing the issue of the Holodomor had to somehow impose this knowledge on Soviet society. The essence of the problem was very well captured by one of the most committed researchers of the Great Famine, Stanislav Kulchytsky: A society which survived a genocide does not always realize the importance of the violence inflicted on them. The fact that the victims came from a generation that no longer exists makes the case even more complicated. Those who survived Stalin’s repression failed to pass onto their children the hate and revulsion towards the regime, fearing for the safety of their children and their own. Those children, raised in the Soviet spirit, did not have the opportunity to confront Soviet values that were planted in their minds with universal values. With time, the regime changed its attitude towards its children (although, at its core it remained the same) just enough for the new generation of citizens to be unable to make a connection between the So- viet rule and the crimes of Stalin’s era. Ukrainian scholars and ethnologists managed to familiarize the nation with external symptoms of the Great Famine and they paid attention to all the horrible details. It seems, however, that the scholars were not as con- vincing in explaining the logic of the chain of events which followed the mass collectivisation of agriculture31. When the Holodomor became an official issue, even before the end of the Ukrainian SSR, it started a social movement aiming at saving the survivors from oblivion. Attempts were made to record the lists of those, who starved to death32. In 1989, a newspaper called “Silsky visty” was the first one to print on the local level the memories of the famine victims. By doing so, about a hundred such stories came to light33.

30 S. Kostilêva, Visvìtlennâ vìtčiznânoû presoû 70-ï rìčnicì golodu 1932–1933 rr., http:// www.history.org.ua/zbirnyk/problems12/5.pdf (accessed February 16, 2007). 31 S. Kulczycki, op. cit., p. 13–14. 32 In the years 1932–1933, 360 people died in this village, while during World War II – 52 people. See: O. Veselova, Uvìkopomnennâ zagiblih vìd golodnogo moru, [in:] Golod – genocid 1933 roku v Ukraïnì..., p. 230. 33 L. Stahors’ka, Golodomor očima sučasnikìv, [in:] Golodomor 1932–1933 rokìv..., p. 209. Wiktoria Kudela-Świątek

46 What is more, in the spring of 1990, thanks to the initiative of a writer, Volodymyr Maniak, the National Week to Commemorate the Victims of the Great Famine in Ukraine 1932–1933 and the Victims of Repression under Stalin’s rule took place, and September 1991 saw the release of a memorial book called 33-yi: Holod. This work is worth mentioning because it attempts to bring together memories, archival documents, historians’ com- mentaries, documentary photographs and various works of art34. Implementing the oral history methods during the first studies on the Great Famine created new possibilities not only for historians, but mostly for social activists and journalists. Carrying out such interviews, writing down testimonies and publishing them allowed to recover the memory and therefore to recover the historical consciousness that had once been lost. The methods of collecting the Holodomor victims’ memories aimed at fulfilling two crucial tasks: firstly, to prove the murderous character of the Communist government, seen as a completely alien driving force that resulted in the genocide of Ukrainians; secondly, to show Ukraine as a victim of the system. This process had therefore nothing to do with working through or getting back the memory of the Great Famine in the Soviet era. It was common to thoroughly select and edit, according to an imposed key, the memories which were just the remainders of the projects. According to Georgiy Kasyanov, those actions were carried out on purpose, as they aimed at promoting a certain picture of the past35. It is worth remembering that all these projects were focused on prov- ing the fact that the Holodomor was genocide. These were not academic projects, aiming to explore the human experience of the past. At this point the sake of accuracy, it is worth mentioning one of the Canadian oral history projects, which had meanwhile been realized in Ukraine. In 1993–1995, a group of Ukrainian scholars led by Dr. William Noll, undertook a large-scale research project on the transformation of civil society in rural Ukraine that resulted from the aggressive Soviet collectivization campaign of Ukraine’s agricultural communities conducted in the late 1920s early 1930s. The goal of the project was to collect first-hand accounts of village life and community organization from before, during, and after the

34 V. Manâk, L. Kovalenko-Manâk, 33-ìj: Golod. Narodna Kniga-Memorìal, Kiïv 1991. 35 G. Kas’ânov, Danse macabre..., p. 252. From private memory to the collective image of the Ukrainian Holodomor

collectivization of the Ukrainian farmers. Using an elaborate and carefully 47 crafted questionnaire, the researchers recorded 429 interviews with elderly Ukrainian villagers across the country. The collected testimonies served as primary data for the analysis of dramatic sociocultural changes the Ukrain- ian rural communities were forced to undergo in the 1920s and 1930s. Noll’s project came to an end with the publication of the above monograph in 199936. The author started with the idea that only oral sources are sources to learn about the history of rural culture on Ukraine and changes that have occurred in the Soviet era. He does not analyze these stories as oral history of the Holodomor. However, it turned out that the Holodomor is a central element of the rural oral history in Ukraine. In this respect, Noll’s project is the exception rather against a number of other social initiatives. Collecting memories of the famine victims, that was inspired by a passing need, visibly lessened during Leonid Kuchma’s presidency, as Kuchma implemented the policy of making compromises with Russia. Neverthe- less, researchers of local lore and members of academic communities were recording and publishing people’s stories. It was they who brought to life burgeoning initiatives, despite having no support of the government. Yet again, the generation of survivors came under the spotlight of the social life, thanks to the “Ukraine 3000” project, created by the wife of the next president – Kateryna Yushchenko37. At the same time, another massi- ve literary work was published: four volumes edited by James Mace, which

36 Selected interviews were eventually profiled, in part, in a monograph, that came out in 1999 in Rodovid Publishing House. See: V. Noll, Transformacìâ gromadânsʹkogo suspìlʹstva: Usna ìstorìâ ukraïnsʹkoï selânsʹkoï kulʹturi 1920–1930-h rokìv, Kiïv 1999. Given general inaccessibility of the project data to the researchers and general public and deterioration of project audio recordings, in 2012 the Oral History program in the Prairie Centre for the Study of Ukrainian Heritage (St. Thomas More College, University of Saskatchewan) approached Rodovid Publishing House with the proposal to initiate a fully-fledged digitization of the oral history collection in order to develop the project’s web exhibit, http://drc.usask.ca/projects/pcuh/transformation/ eng/about.php (accessed February 16, 2007). 37 “Ukraine 3000” – a project by Kateryna and Victor Yushchenko aimed at promoting the Ukrainian cultural and behavioural standards, cultivating the memories of Ukraine’s history and at charity work. Read more on the goals and activities that are a part of the project on its website: Mìžnarodnij blagodìjnij fond „Ukraïna 3000”, http://www.ukraine3000.org.ua/ (accessed May 13, 2005). The website is available in Ukrainian, Russian and English. Wiktoria Kudela-Świątek

48 became the legacy of his long-term project on collecting the Holodomor victims’ testimonies38. Today there are published oral testimonies collections, brochures and monographs about the famine in almost every region and district of Ukraine which have survived hard times. The Associa- tion of researchers of Holodomor in Ukraine, members of the Ukrainian Republican Historical and Educational Society “Memorial”, scientists of the Institute of History of the Ukraine Academy of Science, students of the National University “Kyiv Mohyla Academy”, NGOs from many Ukrainian cities, many Ukraine universities have collected a lot of evidence of people who were witnesses of the tragedy39. These initiatives were different in nature. Some of them were large-scale and others were only a part of documenting local history. Therefore, their level of expertise and information is very uneven. However, they are all similar in one of the documentary intentions: to commemorate and preserve the past in the written version, leave thick volumes of memories for future generations. As if the researchers assumed that the oral tradition of The Great Famine, which could discovery by Wil- liam Noll had passed into oblivion with the passing of the generation of victims and survivors of the Holodomor. According to Ukrainian Historian, Vasyl Marochko, to “save the memories is more like school essays and may be useful only in patriotic upbringing. What we need is a reliable database, like ones used in legal cases”40. This opinion emphasizes two important problems of the mentioned publication. First, the authors’ intentions may appear as inconsistent: they were driven not so much by a thirst for knowledge as by a desire to legitimize the Holodomor as genocide. As a result, only some aspects were emphasized, while others were ignored. The result was to shape the remembrance in such a way that it would prove the canonical, which is the accepted by the government vision of events. In reality, it only pushed the Holodomor more into oblivion and down- played the value of the memories, consciously replacing them with cliché stories about the trauma of starvation. Second, Marochko points out the

38 Velikij golod v Ukraïnì 1932–1933 rokìv, ed. by Dž. Mejs, 4 vol., Kiïv 2008. 39 V. Borysenko, A Candle in Remembrance: An Oral History of the Ukrainian Genocide of 1932–1933, New York 2010, p. 92. 40 V. Maročko, Sens “Knigi pam`âtì” ne u pomstì, a nasampered u spravedlivostì, http://www.kreschatic.kiev.ua/ua/3321/art/1213308755.html (accessed December 12, 2013). From private memory to the collective image of the Ukrainian Holodomor

instrumental approach towards those, who witnessed the tragedy, as if they 49 were talking about their biographical experience like witnesses testifying in court. The reasoning is that the researchers did not wish to present human experiences of the past as something unique, they in fact wanted to endorse the horrific tales of a suffering Ukrainian nation under Soviet occupation.

From oral history to oral tradition of Holodomor After the analysis of the linear meters of recorded memories of famine survivors that we possess, one may arrive at a few interesting conclusions. First, the researchers did not care which generations were affected by the phenomenon. We might say that it is a most crucial aspect, although it was not given much attention in published works. It is true that much time has passed since the Holodomor, so it is very hard to establish which generations suffered its consequences and to accurately determine who belongs to said generations. According to Pierre Nora, a “generation” is an imaginary and controversial concept, having nothing to do with the biological age of a person. It is known that each of us belongs to several generations throughout the same period of time. We feel more or less connected with each of them and we may not be a part of the generation that our date of birth would suggest. Right now, what influences our sense of belonging to a certain generation is mass media41. Bearing that in mind, should everybody born before 1932 and identifying themselves with that generation be considered a “witnesses to history”, even when in the time of the Holodomor they were only babies? Or should the ones allowed to speak be only those, who are actually able to remember the events that they witnessed? Without giving some consideration to these questions, the issue of the memory and post-memory of the Great Famine is left out in the academic discussion. Second, the memories of the famine survivors are a demanding source of information. They are of the most psychological importance to their bearers, for they refer to something that had repercussions throughout all their subsequent lives. It might be this desire to not forget this which leads to a situation in which similar key events undergo various transformations, being filled in and standardized. They are shaped into a uniform format, which allows “the public” to remember them. Because every time a memory is evoked – for example, in storytelling – it

41 P. Nora, Generations, [in:] Realms of Memory. Rethinking the French Past, ed. by P. Nora, New York 1996, p. 499–531. Wiktoria Kudela-Świątek

50 then has to sink in once more. A psychologist, Tomasz Maruszewski, points out that when a memory is learned for the second time, the last situational context remains untouched and the original memory is improved and enri- ched with new details and its focus is switched to other aspects and finally, it sinks in once more in the narrator’s mind42. A memory always combines an account of an event and how it was remembered, that is why talking about events which were shared by many and are important to all, result in having such a strong influence on the private memories of an individual. When we speak of such life-changing events as the Great Famine, we observe a phenomenon of unification of the set of memories that is shared by the entire society, as if all its members at a given time shared the same experience. However, it is a fact that famine was perceived differently by the government and differently by those who opposed it43. Even in the 1930s, Maurice Halbwachs, claimed that a memory of an individual is not an isolated thought, but because a person belongs to a certain group or a community, they interact with its members and thus their perception of the past becomes a part of a communicative memory44. This allows us to define different types of memory, not only individual, but also collective. In a given society, as Halbwachs writes, there will be as many collective memories as there are social groups and institutions (e.g. families, religious groups, cities, regions, parties etc.)45. Because there are no two identical human beings, there are no two completely identical memories, just as there are no two identical glances. In the course of social communication inside communities with identical experiences (e.g. people from the same village), sharing stories lasts until every person believes in an almost identical version of an event (in

42 T. Maruszewski, Psychologia poznania, Gdańsk 2001, p. 242–250. 43 A. Gracìozì, op. cit., passim. 44 According to him, a collective memory differs from a historical reasoning in that it simplifies the event, focuses on one (biased) point of view and mythologises the phenomena that it stores. Historical consciousness focuses on the “historicality” of events; on the fact that they happened in the past and are no longer taking place; on the difference between present and past backgrounds they were set against. Collec- tive memory, however, does not take into account the time that has passed, it rejects the thought of its elements being outdated and insists on describing them as if they were still valid today. It expresses the eternal or primal truths of a community. See: M. Halbwachs, On Collective Memory, Chicago–London 1992, p. 48. 45 Ibidem, p. 52–53. From private memory to the collective image of the Ukrainian Holodomor

which process the narration is modified and transformed). All those stories 51 are based on (somewhat) similar foundations of personal experience, but after closer examination they often turn out to be hoaxes, created as a result of sharing stories between members of a community and not as an actual experience. As David Lowenthal writes, we always need other people’s memory to confirm our own46. It helps to place our individual biographical experience in the past and to strengthen or lessen our sense of identity with a group. It is because a vision of an individual may relate to or differ from a collective “concept”47. The events that are pushed out from the political discourse and kept quiet by their beholders are distorted and changed in order to fit a standardized version, due to which we are at risk of even questioning the authenticity of such memories by their bearers themselves. In the case discussed here, we are dealing with a memory of an event that was momentarily retrieved from oblivion and suddenly came under the spotlight of a society. What follows is that we might speak of a different perception and way of recalling such momentous events. They are, however, used in a public discourse and the narrators replace their individual approach with a socially acceptable one. Each narrator who belongs to a certain community tends to interpret the ongoing events as individually defined micro-stories, constituting a certain macro-story, with which they identify. On this level of abstraction the narrator is fighting an internal battle, projecting in their mind a vision of their own history. There exists, however, a constant need for setting their individual memories against a much more complex background of local, or even national history. In this moment, the narrator starts to participate in a clash between many opinions on the history of the internal life of a community to which they belong48. But their choice is limited: they can either accept the social concept of the past events or reject it and create their own. Michael Foucault wrote in his work The Archaeology of Knowledge, that no statement is made for the first time. They are always influenced by the abundance of stories that are at our disposal, that are known and recognized in a given culture and that are at the same time evolving and transforming49.

46 D. Lowenthal, The Past as a Foreign Country, Cambridge 1985, p. 196. 47 A. Portelli, What Makes Oral History Different?, [in:] The Oral History Reader, ed. by R. Perks, A. Thomson, London 1998, p. 66. 48 А. Thomson, Anzac Memories: Living with the Legend, Monach 2013, p. 14. 49 M. Foucault, The Archaeology of Knowledge, London–New York, p. 110–111. Wiktoria Kudela-Świątek

52 Therefore nobody is able to incorporate in the history of their life the news, the episodes or whole sets of events that do not come from their own experience, but instead from completely different sources, like other people’s stories, documentaries and works of fiction or dreams and imagination50. It is crucial for the integrity of those borrowed memories with one’s own history to fall in with the emotions that are associated with the era which they refer to. In other words, the memories of the crucial historical events are in a way collages that have many sources, are subject to change during the process of communication, but have their own emotional qualities51. With time their memories fade and contain fewer details. As they are passed on to many generations, they start to resemble well-known anecdotes rather than a story based on real events. Individual memory feeds on family stories. Parents and grandparents are given the benefit of the doubt; it is a tradition to believe in their stories. Nonetheless, the “censored” family tales often require some stylistic corrections, because a family history has to be perceived as coherent and relevant. Media images then become the replacement which the narrator uses to fill in the gaps in their fragile biographical construction. Importing narrative schemes changes the narrator from an ordinary kolkhoz worker to somebody who “lived through something”, whose tale is fascinating and absorbing. This is why a collective and an individual memory cannot function separately. What is more, if an outsider wanted to learn more details, they would not satisfy their curiosity, because in many cases they do not give them any thought. Their memories lack authenticity and spontaneity. These are the stories that replaced the true memories of the past experiences of their authors52. Moreover, the story of the Holodomor survivors makes the historical narration even more credible than any other testimony of the epoch (archives or artifacts). The memories of the survivors which are placed in the book of testimonies have the purely human dimension; they are able to

50 D. Schacter, Searching for Memory. The Brain, the Mind, and the Past, New York 1996; H. Welzer, Das kommunikative Gedächtnis. Eine Theorie der Erinnerung, Mün- chen 2002. 51 H. Welzer, Materiał, z którego zbudowane są biografie, [in:] Pamięć zbiorowa i kulturowa, ed. by M. Saryusz-Wolska, Kraków 2009, p. 37–57. 52 O. Brìcina, XX storìččâ v usnìj ìstorìï ukraïncìv. (Notatki do pitannâ pro ìstorizm folʹkloru), [in:] U pošukah vlasnogo golosu. Usna ìstorìâ âk teorìâ, metod ta džerelo, ed. by G. Grìnčenko, N. Hanenko-Frìzen, Harkìv 2010, p. 13–144. From private memory to the collective image of the Ukrainian Holodomor

evoke empathy and sympathy in the readers. The role of such oral narra- 53 tions is the “humanizing” of the victims, giving the human dimension to the suffering in a neutral way to the narration based on the documents and clips from the reports of the foreign journalists or diplomats who have their residences in the Soviet Union. These are the memories which were written down at different times and to a different degree of specificity. They are traditionally presented in a written form. They happen less often to be more or less detailed transcriptions of the records of the oral history53. From among the plethora of the existing and available memories of the Holo- domor victims, only those which emphatically illustrate the theses of the oral historians have been selected. They were organized so that the readers could be persuaded about the genocidal character of the Holodomor in 1932–1933 even when the numbers, facts or documents from other books did not convinced them. In this way, the survivors stop being only the numbers, the list made by the officials – they become particular people, with names and sur- names, who lived some time ago and died during the Holodomor. It began in the year 1932. A brigade was going around to all the homesteads and confiscating grain. It took everything away, even food standing in pots. They would also remove buried seed potatoes. The famine began. Already by the winter of 1932–1933 people were dying. My neighbor Vasyl Krasnoholovy’s two sons and two daughters, Tania and Vera, died. All of Pavlo Krasnoholovy’s children died: his daughter Vera and two sons, Ivan and Petro. People came from the village soviet; they put them on a cart, dug a pit, and tossed them in. The members of the Committee of Poor Peasants confiscated all the grain, but later they, too, starved to death. An activist named Zina was placed inside the pit above the corpses and told: sit here and carry out the state grain deliveries. My cousin Dunka was very poor. In 1933 she gave birth to a child. She went out to work because they were issuing 200–300 grams of flour. She would put her eighteen-month-old baby outside in the yard all day, and it would graze there, eating knotgrass. Nine or ten people died every day. At the time my husband Lukian was working on road construction with a horse. Every day he was issued two loaves of bread and bran. He told me

53 There are also video oral history collections of the Holodomor witnesses, e.g. http:// www.holodomorsurvivors.ca/Survivors.html (accessed February 16, 2016). Wiktoria Kudela-Świątek

54 to come to him, because he could not stop himself from eating up all the bread; there were our children at home. On top it, strangers would come lamenting and begging for help, and we had to share with them. Harvest time came. People pressed out the ears and hid the grain in their shirts or bodices so that it wouldn’t be taken away from them. At home we quickly ground it in a hand-mill and boiled up a cauldron of soup. The children would eat it up, but they were weak from hunger and wanted more. They would scratch at the bottom of the cauldron. People ripped apart dead horses. They took sackcloth and carried the horsemeat home and ate it. Vegetable leaves and grass were used as food. Vasyl, the son of Stepan Krasnoholovy, went to the heaps at Vesela for some bran. He was beaten there and he died as a result. He was a fine young fellow. His sister also starved to death. Kharyton and his wife died in our corner of the village. They left behind two children, a girl and a boy. The boy died. By the time people arrived, she had eaten him. Vasyl Bondaruk married a woman from Cherniatyn. She recounted how she had killed her own child: “I put the child in a small basin, and he asks: «What are you going to do, Mummy?» I replied: «Nothing, nothing.»” Through the window a male neighbour saw her frying something. When some people arrived, she was panting and eating. They sentenced her to three years. When she told her husband what she had done, he wanted nothing more to do with her54. It is enough to mention the language of the published memories. We observe as the vivid, colourful, unique language used by the authors to give a detailed account of their childhood in the Ukrainian countryside and of the life marked by famine, changes into clichés borrowed from a newspaper during every attempt of generalization or analysis. It is common even for the respondents to switch from Ukrainian to Russian in this very moment. Although this variant should be rather classified as Soviet jargon – simple and concisely describing all the controversies and collisions in the course of history55. The Communist power is present, on the other hand, in the memories about the famine and is not concerned with either legal or even political

54 The account of Hanna Lukianivna Mykhalchuk (born 1913), originally published in: Golod 33: Narodna knyha-memorial…, p. 69. 55 V. Kudelâ, Dolâ podìlʹsʹkij dìtej pìd čas Golodomoru 1932–1933 rr., [in:] Narodna kulʹtura Podìllâ u kontekstì nacìonalʹnogo vihovannâ, ed. by N. Ìvanicʹka, Vìnnicâ 2004, p. 85–91. From private memory to the collective image of the Ukrainian Holodomor

context. It is similar to a spontaneous power which is capable of creating 55 both the good and the total evil. I was then a fifteen-year-old girl, and I remember well Romanko, the five-year-old son of Illia Haidamaka. His parents, little sisters, and brother had already died, and he would drag himself on his poor little swollen legs from house to house, to his relatives and neighbors, begging for whatever he could get. Looking up at the lofty sky, he would say: “I could eat a piece of bread as big as a cloud.” Romanko, the son of Uncle Andrii Hrynchuk, would also have liked to fortify himself with just a crumb of something. The little boy couldn’t stand it any longer, so he went to the house of Semen Pshestemsky, where he saw several loaves of bread. At that time Semen was employed by the collective farm administration. Romanko took one of the loaves and went home. The next day his father was summoned to the village soviet. “Tell us, Andrii, how is it possible that you’ve lived to see the day that your son has turned into a thief?” What was there to explain, since Romanko had definitely taken that unfortunate bread from Pshestemsky? They knocked Andrii to the floor, laid a wide board on his painful chest, and hammered away at him with a sledgehammer weighing nearly twenty kilograms. All his insides were turned to pulp. Then they threw him into the yard, and no one paid any attention to the fact that Uncle Andrii was twisted with pain and dying. At this very moment my mother was heading to the market. As she was approaching the gates of the village soviet, she heard: “Hapa, is that you?” “Is that you, Andrii?” asked my startled mother. “I’ll tell you about it later”, said Andrii through his bloodied lips. “Give me some water instead.” My mother dashed to the nearest well. Shvydkov, the head of the village executive committee, was standing in the doorway of the village soviet. “Who do you think you are, showing your mercy here?” he shouted at my mother. “I am a human being, Comrade Shvydkov. And it’s a sin not to offer help to someone who is unwell.” “Get out of here! Your tongue will get you into trouble! This is what awaits an enemy of the people!” Wiktoria Kudela-Świątek

56 Afraid that they would chase my mother away from him, Uncle Andrii quickly whispered to her: “Hapa, tell my wife to take me away from here, because I’m going to die here, hounded to death by people, who are like dogs.” On the third day Uncle Andrii died, followed shortly afterwards by his swollen son Romanko. Uncle Andrii was a hard worker, like no other, like that pair of mighty oxen that he had handed over the collective farm56. Any narrator discusses neither the reasons of terror nor its social or political aspects57. For the majority of them it was just very difficult life conditions which a person should stand. But neither can I forget this catastrophe: who created the famine? Who ordered the surplus to be confiscated? They were taking everything away to the last crumb! Five or six or even ten of them would get together. When they entered a house, they would turn everything upside down, probing in every nook and cranny until nothing was left, not even a potato peel – not a thing. After those commissions swept through, people would be left standing naked, hungry, barefoot, with their heads uncovered. How can I forget those “inspectors”, who would come into a house and say: “Haven’t you croaked yet?” One time my mother and I picked some beans that we found lying in the dust on a hill: about two cups’ worth. Through the window my mother saw those “commissars” coming. Quickly, she put the beans into a little pot, poured some water over them, and put the pot in the oven, to make it look as though she were cooking them. She thought that maybe this way she could save the beans. But, no sir, you couldn’t keep anything from them. He took the pot from the oven, poured off the water, and took away the beans. I live and think about this. No matter how many years have passed, I cannot forget this58. Sometimes, the narrators point certain culprits of their misery: neighbor- -informers, the unmerciful leader of the kolkhoz, ruthless arrangements – it

56 The account of Lida Dmytrivna Vazhynska (born 1918), originally published in: Go- lod 33: Narodna knyha-memorial…, p. 57. 57 O. Brìcina, XX storìččâ v usnìj ìstorìï ukraïncìv. (Notatki do pitannâ pro ìstorizm folʹkloru), [in:] U pošukah vlasnogo golosu. Usna ìstorìâ âk teorìâ, metod ta džerelo, ed. by G. Grìnčenko, N. Hanenko-Frìzen, Harkìv 2010, p. 135–144. 58 The account of Liuba Andriivna Chervatiuk (born n.n.), originally published in: Go- lod 33: Narodna knyha-memorial…, p. 65. From private memory to the collective image of the Ukrainian Holodomor

is like in an epos in which the evil is faceless and omnipotent. Even the na- 57 tional officials are eventually the subordinate small people who were afraid of the authorities. This is the reason why the utterances towards the people who supported the evil country policy (neighbors, informers, and officials – ready for everything to achieve the plan) are specific, vivid and deprived of the critical assessment. Disaster struck our family the day after Easter: our cow Zirka was stolen. At that time the skinny little cows were being put out to pasture. The evening before Mama had gone to Mahdalynivka to pick up some food. Yashko and I slept alone at home, having barricaded ourselves up behind all sorts of bolts and bars out of fear that we would be kidnapped (my mother was afraid of this). I got up early in the morning to bring the cow to the herd. I opened the door of the shed and Zirka was gone. Half of the wall with the sign had been smashed onto the road. I was still young and stupid, and I was glad that Zirka had been stolen, because I desperately wanted to sleep longer in the morning, because the dew was cold as an iceberg and we walked around barefoot. I didn’t say anything to anyone. I went back to the house and fell asleep. After some time someone woke me up. I opened the door and three people came in: the head of the village council; old man Kanhul the execu- tor, whose face was blue – almost black – and Starodubets, the secretary of the village council, carrying a rifle. “To whom did your mother sell the cow?” “I don’t know.” “And where is your mother?” “In Mahdalynivka.” Starodubets yanked me by the arm, threw me against the wall under- neath the icons, aimed the rifle, and cocked it. “Confess! Who did you sell the cow to? Tell me, you son of a serpent, or I’ll kill you!” The hair stood up on my head and my teeth began to chatter. I barely managed to mumble: “Grandpa, I swear to God, I don’t know.” Yashko screamed and dashed under the floor boards. “You serpent, so your teeth are chattering? Tell me! Well? One, two…” “Don’t frighten the boy!” The head of the village council shoved Staro- dubets. “Let’s go.” My mother returned after lunch. She got the works too: they abused, interrogated, and tormented her. Then they sent a telegram summoning Wiktoria Kudela-Świątek

58 my father from Khashchove. He arrived the next day. That day they found Zirka’s head and hide, and a bucket of lard. Our “good” neighbours had stolen the cow and slaughtered it59. The dominant feature of the biographical narration is the surviving, not the looking for the culprit. Surviving is a fundamental value for the narrators; it becomes also the criterion of success, of a successful life60. It was the year 1933: famine. In the springtime, after I quit school, I hired myself out as a cowherd to people who still owned cows. They gave me something to eat once a day, and in the field the other herders and I would roast hempseed and snails over a fire. Today we live well, but young people don’t believe what misery there was in those days. The famine forced us to eat everything – bagasse [dry residue of sugar cane and beets], stripped corncobs, and sunflower heads. And when spring came, we ate beet leaves, nettles, pigweed, and frozen potatoes. The horses at the collective farm died. They buried them in the ground, poured gas over them, and during the night the starving people would hack off pieces of that carrion and bring them home. My parents had seven children. First, my father’s legs began to swell, then my sister’s legs began swelling, then her face. Then the skin cracks and water starts to seep out. When I was herding cows, my father would always come out to meet me to help me bring the cattle back, so that he would also be given a piece of bread. My father and I dug the garden, and my mother went to the market fifteen kilometres away to buy some food. My father sent me home to see whether my mother had returned. I ran home a couple of times; finally my mother returned. She had purchased two large pots and four cups of corn kernels. She minced up some sorrel and nettles, added some sheep’s tallow that had turned green after many years of being stored, and put it on the stove. But the pot cracked, and everything fell into the stove. I came into the house, where my mother was picking up every kernel and weeping. I rejoined my father in the garden and told him what happened. He too began to cry. In the village I often saw strangers swollen from starvation edema. The- se people, holding their children by the hand, were from Uman. Dressed in

59 The account of Havrylo Nykyforovych Prokopenko (born 1922), originally published in: Golod 33: Narodna knyha-memorial…, p. 196–197. 60 In a book of Valentyna Borysenko there are many such oral histories. See: V. Bo- rysenko, A Candle in Remembrance: An Oral History of the Ukrainian Genocide of 1932–1933, New York 2010. From private memory to the collective image of the Ukrainian Holodomor

expensive, cashmere-like shawls, they bartered various things for a handful 59 of meal, potatoes, or beets. Some abandoned their children near fences, so that someone would take them and save them from starvation. A five-year- -old boy who came to our house adamantly refused to leave us. I remember how some starving people from somewhere far away hunkered down for the night with their small children near the church. By morning the mother and father were dead, and their tiny children were waking them, thinking they were asleep. Our people took the children to their homes61. The selection of the memories for the book of testimonies means that the selection is a part of a specific vision of this event, the means for presenting a specific image of the event which, according to the authors, is appropriate to present the Holodomor. Apart from the voices of the “Holo- domor survivors”, there are no other testimonies from this period of time. This fact is mainly connected with the impossibility to recreate the memory of the generation of the violators on the basis of their relations. On the other hand, though, the narrations are usually the chilling stories about the losing of the values in the face of the starvation, repellent descriptions of cannibalism which very often depicted as a celebration of suffering, the perverse delectation of the drama of the starving people which in a sense is on the verge of a tastelessness. I would therefore like to point out two aspects of the stereotyping of individual memory: altering the narration and interpreting oral testimonies, done by the researchers of the Holodomor. A researcher who evokes the biographical narrations always gives the reason why he/she is doing so. Biographies which are written on the spot are fragmentary, non-linear and closely connected with the presence of the researcher and his/her ques- tions62. In this biographical creation both participants of the talk: the narrator and the researcher are limited by the borders of the thematic research. The transmission of the initiative on the researcher is unprofitable for the later analysis of the means of the narration construction because it is the historian then who decides about the order of the threads discussed by the narrator63. In

61 The account of Dmytro Ivanovych Slobodianiuk (born 1919), originally published in: Golod 33: Narodna knyha-memorial…, p. 52. 62 J. Labocha, Tekst autobiograficzny jako pewna wizja świata, [in:] Językowy obraz świata i kultura, ed. by A. Dąbrowska, J. Anusiewicz, Wrocław 2000, p. 93. 63 I. Kabzińska, Wśród “kościelnych Polaków”. Wyznaczniki tożsamości etnicznej (naro- dowej) Polaków na Białorusi, Warszawa 1999, p. 18. Wiktoria Kudela-Świątek

60 Alessandro Portelli’s opinion, a similar request for asking questions is connected with the point dangerous for the narration – the narrator’s attempt to check what the researcher would like to hear in this moment: ask and you will hear what you want to hear64. On the level of the narration interpretation, there is a problem of the different means of the perception of reality and the past experiences of the community researched by the narrators and the researchers. It is easy to write about something that the narrator apparently wanted to say and not about what the narrator actually said. What is more, the researchers who record the memories are different from each other in terms of the age, sex, nationality, political views and value system. Moreover, they represent different communities which had the influence on their image of the past, so their images of the researched past can be different as well. In this way the researcher’s stereotypical image of the past replaces the one of the narrator. The possibility to get to know the unsaid forsaken facts from the history of the Ukraine under Communism engaged both the researchers and the narrators to create a new official version of events. The state monopoly, though, did not assume the relativism or the variety of memories about the Holodomor. The redefinition of the Soviet past in this context was the promotion of the directly alternative past to the foregoing one, not the revealing of the truth about the past, as was officially explained. It is worth mentioning here an ideological aspect that is characteristic of a spoken history of any kind that is described with a “post-”prefix (post- -colonial, post-totalitarian, post-communist etc.). Here, the spoken history came to life as a comeback against the ideologically-driven, official vision of history, that is a part of the country’s politics, creating the identity of its citizens, on both an individual and a collective level. During the post- -Soviet period in 1990s, when oral history was still emerging, this method looked in the formal sense more like a social movement than like a serious study on the narrations of the biographical witnesses. Then the floor was given to those, who among other things, wanted to shed a different light on the well-known momentous events of the Soviet Union era, by promoting their individual memories and completely rejecting the existing vision. Such memories, which helped to rediscover the “blank spots” of the Soviet

64 A. Portelli, Oral History as a Genre, [in:] Narrative and Genre, ed. by M. Chamberlain, P. Thompson, New York 2000, p. 28–29. From private memory to the collective image of the Ukrainian Holodomor

Ukraine’s’ history, became an object of interest of many researchers. They 61 were seen as a tool that could be used against history, that could be helpful to sort out lies and illusions in the description of the former reality under the Communist power and that could impose its own interpretation of the past which would differ from the existing, distorted one. The current interest in the Holodomor in the general politicization of this topic in the scientific and public discourse is still the effect of the -so -called “excess of the memory”. The thrilling and in a sense political shape of the debate concerning the assessment of the event makes it considerably difficult to credibly analyze the available sources. The multiple evoking of the gruesome images of pain and suffering eliminates different experiences (which are not considered real). In Oksana Kis’s opinion, it is a practice of memory/oblivion because it gives the Ukrainian society a moral assen- dency not to protect and not to cultivate the real memory, but only its canonical images which are preserved in the social memory and “places of memory”65. It raises questions regarding the distinction between oral history – the first-hand evidence of individuals, and oral tradition – tales passed on from one generation to the next. But oral tradition may begin as oral history, mutating gradually from first hand narration to stories that open with “people used to say that...”.

Instead of the ending In the context of this opinion, the fundamental questions come to my mind: is it possible to talk about the existence of the private memory about the momentous events in the spate of the public memories? Does the private memory about the Holodomor currently exist? Maybe we just use the narration schemes which are known from the public discourse and which help to tell one’s story in a socially acceptable way. Isn’t the operative narrative stereotype just a figment of the interpretation of researchers of the topic? Many analyzed narrations are characterized by the fear of being different and the willingness to key in the existing scheme. These reasons cause the following stereotypical images and lead to an even worse distor- tion of the image of the past “how it really was”. In this way, the fact that the memory of the Holodomor was shaped due to the instrumental treatment

65 О. Kìsʹ, Kolektivna pam’âtʹ ta ìstorična travma. Teoretičnì refleksìï na tlì žìnočih spogadìv pro Golodomor, [in:] U pošukah vlasnogo golosu…, p. 171–191. Wiktoria Kudela-Świątek

62 of the memories of the witnesses to history becomes even more noticeable. On the other hand, we notice in this way the need to approach the existing (operative) image of those events in a more reflexive way; to release the people’s memory about the Holodomor and to get to know these people profoundly, which – unfortunately – is currently practically impossible. Barbara Misztal, however, states that the way to work out the experience from the past is that the society has to open up to the survivors’ experience to give them the voice in the public space66. Numerous printed memories were to be such an element of the process of the Ukrainians’ pu- rification, their discovering (or, for the most part, constructing) their Ukra- inian national identity. The discussion about the collective oblivion is a starting point for the social and cultural change, because it exposes the individuals’ and communities’ conviction about their memories having the important gaps or, so to speak, “white spots’”. In this way, the community of memory of this community does not preserve the essential content from its members’ experience, which thoroughly influences the shape of their identity and, therefore, it demands critical reflection and reinterpretation of the image of such an event distorted or removed from the memory. Being convinced about falsifying of the identity motivates to get into oneself, to gain the entry to the memory resources, to visit the real places connected with starvation. The lack of acceptance for the politicization of the Holodomor, the willingness to get to know this phenomenon, the location of the history of our ancestors against those events (on which side they were) turn out to be the inspiration and even the impulse to re-membering (anamnesis) the Holodomor. The term “anamnesis” itself was originally used by Plato to refer to deliberate recollection rather than unbidden flashes of memory, and has been used in post-colonial theory. Post-colonial anamnesis does not en- tail abandoning the official archive as nothing more than a technology of government. Personally, I understand this kind of anamnesis as it is defined by Homi K. Bhabha as a conscious work of memory which not only recovers the forgotten content but mainly points the very existence of the content. Remembering in post-colonial societies, he writes, “is never a quiet act of introspection or retrospection. It is a painful re-membering,

66 B. A. Misztal, Theories of Social Remembering, Maidenhead 2003, p. 160–161. From private memory to the collective image of the Ukrainian Holodomor

a putting together of the dismembered past to make sense of the trauma of 63 the present”67. It is worth emphasizing that recalling does not mean here re- minding and mainly this subtle difference may be noticed on the Holodo- mor. The purpose of remembering is not the reconstruction of the events about the existence of which we have forgotten. Recollection is possible only when we are conscious that something has been forgotten. Forgetfulness is usually preceded by the suppression or other forms of repression which are used against the individual or community of memory and as a result of which the remembered content becomes hidden68. Recollection is also not an independent process but it requires the consciousness of the effort which is taken to self-declaring69. Hence, being conscious that the Holodomor took place and that the memory about it became distorted as a result of the political manoeuvre series which took place at the beginning of the 1990s but this memory lasts until now, under the influence of the impulse which the contemporary political situation turned out to be, the Ukrainian society may get ready for remembering of the Holodomor. The proof for it can be at least the beginning of the academic discussion about the politicization of the memory about the Holodomor, as well as about its commemoration. In this case, the memory’s work demands referring to the memory of others (representatives of other communities of memory or of violators) or to the memory carriers (e.g. real places) which will help to put the remembering content in order. Such a point of reference may (but do not have to) be the places of the memory of Holodomor which were constituted by various communities of the memory about the Holodomor. This is the reason why they should be analyzed with great attention. In the context of working out of the experience of the Holocaust, Do- minick LaCapra wrote that people have to accept the existence of the open wounds but they have to fight off the power with which they are able to consume the existence and to deprive a person of the agency70. In case of working out of the trauma of the Holodomor by the Ukrainian society, at first it’s about remembering the event because of its highly political image.

67 H. K. Bhabha, The Location of Culture, London 1994, p. 63. 68 R. Terdiman, Present Past. Modernity and the Memory Crisis, New York 1993, p. 344–360. 69 Ibidem. 70 D. LaCapra, History in Transit: Experience, Identity, Critical Theory, Ithaca–London 2004, p. 106–143. Wiktoria Kudela-Świątek

64 This process is getting even more difficult because of the fact that there are not too many living eye-witnesses of the Holodomor. The conversation about the past and the restoration of the memory cannot be done after all without referring to the values. Even when we pursue the maximal objectivism, we cannot completely free ourselves from order- ing according to certain norms, if not from the valuation. The fundamental task of the historians, philosophers or sociologists is therefore working out the theoretical categories which will help the society understand the past events71. The trauma of the Holodomor cannot be healed but its symptoms may milden through working them out. It does not matter if this tragedy is treated as a genocide or just as a “traumatic event”. Admittedly, remembering does not guarantee that the regained memories will not deepen the emptiness and the sense of the incompleteness of the identity. Though, the search for the “real” memory about the Holodo- mor may turn out to be crucial for the working out of the social trauma which results on the one hand from the experience of the Holodomor and on the other hand from the multi-layered oblivion about this event.

71 P. Śpiewak, Pamięć po komunizmie, Gdańsk 2005, p. 176. From private memory to the collective image of the Ukrainian Holodomor

The article discusses a wide range of aspects concerning the Holomo- Wiktoria 65 Kudela-Świątek dor – the Great Famine in the Soviet Union in the years 1932–1933. From private memory The author focuses on examining the processes of creating a collec- to the collective image tive image of the Great Famine and the role of individual memory of the Ukrainian Holodomor of its survivors in building this image. Analyzing the memories of the survivors the author deals with distortions and myths which has grown up around the Holomodor. The significance of this disaster for the Ukrainian identity is also the subject of the analysis.

Joanna Wojdon

[Wrocław]

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The Polish American narratives, memories and identities in the historian’s job

Wrocławski Rocznik Historii Mówionej Rocznik VI, 2016 ISSN 2084–0578

The paper is dealing with “personal” sources pertaining to the post-World War II Polish American history. “Personal” is meant here as opposite to “official” (such as minutes, reports, official correspondence), and includes, among others, personal correspondence, personal memos, diaries and memoirs, but also formal and informal interviews and notes from the field from participating observations. What information do those “personal” sources provide that the “official” ones do not? What problems do they bring a researcher? What opportunities do they open up? I do not intend to provide a systematic overview or analysis of this type of sources, but rather to discuss some of their advantages and shortcomings, achievements and perspectives. Nor do I present a complete bibliography. References should be regarded merely as illustrations of the theses discussed. One of the crucial issues of the Polish American studies not very well reflected in the official documents is the ethnic identity of the Americans of Polish descent. Who is a Polish American? When does an immigrant from Poland, a Pole, become “American”? When does an “American” stop being “Polish”? On the one hand, many of the WWII immigrants regard themselves as Poles and not the Polish Americans, though they have spent Joanna Wojdon

68 more time in their life in the United States than in Poland1. On the other hand, the fourth, fifth or sixth-generation Polish Americans may completely “forget” their Polish roots or share also other identities, when one of their ancestors may have come from Poland, but others from Bohemia, Germany, Netherlands or other countries2; moreover, they may select to show their Polish heritage in one census, but to hide it in another3. Some groups or individuals exclude others from the Polish American community, e.g. those who do not take part in any forms of “Polonian” life (organizations, events, reading the Polish American press, attending cere- monies in the Polish American parishes etc.)4. On the other hand, people from the “outside” may notice the Polish elements in the everyday life of those who think they have completely Americanized5. The language of the “official” documents (Polish or English) may roughly indicate the degree of Americanization of the group they pertain to, but the “private” documents tell us much more. The question of identity is crucial because the way it is answered deter- mines the scope of the research: whom to include and whom to ignore. For the purpose of my research (and of this article) I accept the widest possible definition, i.e. anyone who has some Polish roots and who spent some time in the United States, from a couple of days to the whole life, and presents his or her American experiences, falls within the scope of my interest6. At the same time, one has to be aware that some groups are over- while other are underrepresented in the sources, which distorts the image of the group

1 Comments from the audience of the conference Archiwalia do dziejów polskiej emigracji politycznej z lat 1939–1990, Warsaw, December 3–5, 2014; comments from the audience of the International Women Associates (IWA) of Chicago meeting on May 12, 2014 devoted to Donna Ubrikas’ My Sister’s Mother. 2 See e.g.: M. P. Erdmans, The Grasinski Girls. The choices they had and the choices they made, Ohio 2004, p. 69–70, 251. 3 See: M. Waters, Ethnic options: Choosing identities in America, Berkeley–Los An- geles–Oxford 1990. 4 K. Hrabyk, Polonia w Stanach Zjednoczonych i w Związku Radzieckim, “Kultura i Społeczeństwo”, No. 4 (1970), p. 121–128. 5 Comments from the audience of the Third Tuesday Polish Book Club at the Polish Museum of America, April 14, 2014. 6 On the concept(s) of ethnic identity see: K. Chandra, Constructivist theories of ethnic politics, Oxford 2012, p. 51–177; L. Romanucci-Ross, G. De Vos, T. Takeyuki, Ethnic identity: Problems and prospects for the twenty-first century, Altamira 2006. The Polish American narratives, memories and identities...

as a whole. Reconstruction of the Polish American past would certainly 69 benefit from enhancing the set of available sources. There are at least two more “negative” reasons not to ignore “personal” sources in the research of the Polish American past (“negative” means that without these sources the results of the research would bring poorer results). First, the official documents of the Polish American organizations have always been “polished” before publication and tend to omit any controversies. Any issues that could distort the overall positive image of the organization are either completely ignored or summarized in a short statement, such as “the issue has been discussed”7. The documents do not tell us who discussed, how, or what arguments were used. In the Cold War era this technique prevented the intelligence of the communist Poland from getting insight into the internal conflicts and problems of the Polish Ame- rican ethnic group. Even if the Warsaw regime got minutes of the meetings of the Polish American Congress, which was the case in 1979–19818, they could learn hardly anything more from them than from the widely available press publications. Today, however, this often prevents historians from deeper understanding of the Polish American realities. I am not sure if the leaders of the PAC had the communist intelligence in mind when implementing those practices or whether they rather cared about the publicity within the American society, especially that the style of the minutes has not changed after 1990. Second, and more importantly, many elements of the Polish American life have not been documented on paper at all, especially when we want to go beyond purely organizational matters of the largest Polish American institutions and societies. Many groups did not (and still do not) care about documenting their activities, not to mention problems, dilemmas and choices of individual Polish Americans. Mary Waters noticed a shift from the

7 E.g. “Przewodniczący Komisji Interpelacji del. Gregorek czyta więc raport Komisji i odpowiedzi prezesa Rozmarka, które prezes uzupełnia ustnie ku zupełnemu zado- woleniu Izby.” (Delegate Gregorek, head of the Parliamentary Question Committee, reads the Committee’s report and Chairman Rozmarek’s answers, and Chairman adds his remarks, which is utterly satisfactory to the house.”); Protokół trzeciej kon- wencji Kongresu Polonii Amerykańskiej odbytej w hotelu Chelsea, Atlantic City, N.J. w dniach 30, 31 maja i 1 czerwca 1952, p. 17. 8 They were passed to the Polish intelligence officers by Reinhold Smyczek, director of the PAC from New Jersey. See his personal file: IPN BU 0 1824/104. Joanna Wojdon

70 studies of ethnic groups towards the studies of individual ethnic identities as better corresponding with the realities of “new ethnicity” of the 1970s and beyond9. Many things, big and small, were happening informally, were ephemeral only and have not left any “official” traces10. There are places today where the Polish American life flourished in the 19th and 20th centuries, but there was no influx of new immigrants, while the “old Polonia” almost completely Americanized11. Scarcity of the “official” documents seems to be an important factor driving researchers to the “private” documents. They help adopt new research perspectives and new models of historical narratives. The books by Mary P. Erdmans show the opportunities that “private” sources open to the researcher (and thus show “positive” reasons to refer to them). Opposite Poles is based on the participating observations of the rivalry between established Polish Americans and (relatively) newly arrived Polish immigrants in Chicago in the early 1980s. The Grasinski Girls tells the stories of the third- and fourth-generation Polish Ameri- can women as presented in the interviews by the author’s aunts. Erdmans describes in detail her research methods and presents the difficulties she experienced with collecting and processing data, such as separating being a niece or an activist from being a researcher, taking notes and authorizing manuscript12. Both projects were time consuming and emotionally absorbing. Both were not typical in the Polish American scholarship. But both presented invaluable insights into the spheres otherwise beyond the reach of the academic research. In the case of Chicago in the 1980s, the primary sources are extremely biased, as they were created by the activists of the conflicted groups13. In the case of the Grasinski sisters, such

9 M. Waters, op. cit., p. 8. 10 K. Ciechorska, Polacy, Polonia, Amerykanie polskiego pochodzenia – “nowa etnicz- ność” młodych przedstawicieli Polonii w Południowej Kalifornii, “Przegląd Polonij- ny”, No. 1–2 (2008), p. 59–73, mentions a mailing list as the only trace left by one of the organizations of young Polish Californians. 11 See: A. Jaroszyńska-Kirchmann, The Polish Hearst: Ameryka-Echo and the Public Role of the Immigrant Press, University of Illinois Press 2015, Epilogue. 12 M. P. Erdmans, op. cit., p. 1–22; M. P. Erdmans, Opposite Poles. Immigrants and Ethnics in Polish Chicago 1976–1990, Pennsylvania State University Press 1998, p. 13–16. 13 The history of one of the conflicting groups, written in A. Jarmakowski, Pomost. W sprawie wolności. 1978–1994, Warszawa 2013, was based on such sources and written by the organization’s activist. The Polish American narratives, memories and identities...

people as Erdmans’ aunts: “ordinary”, uneducated women taking care of 71 their families, not involved in any organizational life, usually do not leave any sources at all while they, together with their families, constitute the majority of the Polish Americans. What I find as an advantage of Mary Erdmans’ works is her positive attitude towards the people and processes she is describing. She seems to accept life as it is and tries to understand people and their motives and appreciate them even if she does not agree or does not want to follow them. There is no nostalgia for the lost “Polishness” in her books. Nor does she give advice or comments on what could have been done better. Let us now present an overview of the “private” sources useful in the Polish American research. Private correspondence and memos are located in the archives and in the private collections. Despite the fact that they are often pre-processed by the authors before being deposited in an archive, and some things deliberately are omitted, these sources show us the motives of actions, their background, the perception of certain events and processes. Correspond- ence and notes by Magnus Kryński, Slavic languages professor of the Duke University, a translator of the poetry of Wisława Szymborska into English, show us his desire to become the main speaker of the Polish American interests at the White House and the Department of State. To achieve this, he aimed at undermining the position of the Polish American Congress in the Washington administration. It seems that this, and not any idealistic motives, was the main reason of his campaign to revoke Yalta in 1984 and the following years14. Analyzing drafts of some official papers can be exhausting, but it may shed light on the nuances that would otherwise remain unnoticed. Hand- written remarks on the margins can tell us more than the documents (e.g. minutes, reports) they are put on. The official documents of the meeting of the Polish American journalists and publishers under the auspices of the Polish American Congress in Chicago on April 30, 1976 only tell us that the participants discussed many important matters, such as the issues of the press in the Polish and in the English language, the advertisement market and the need of its consolidation, the status of the journalists, and plans to run one nation-wide Polish American newspaper. However, the handwritten

14 Connecticut Polish American Archives, Papers of Magnus Kryński, box 4, file 28. Joanna Wojdon

72 remarks by Edward Różański, one of the participants, state that there was completely no agreement between the discussants as for the plans for the future and that everyone was against everyone else15. The big problem of the private collections of the Americans of Polish descent is the fact that they are dispersed, not always professionally processed and not very well publicized. Processing the huge collection of the American Relief for Poland by the Polish Museum of America takes ages, and thus only official minutes are available so far (luckily, the minutes of the monthly meetings seem to be quite accurate as they were not intended to be published). The PMA’s collection of Jerzy Przyłuski, one of the most active post-WWII immigrants in Chicago, has never been fully unpacked. Several boxes of documents, notes and correspondence would be invaluable for example for the researchers working on the Polish nationalists in exile. Numerous photographs will become useless unless properly described and as the time passes it will be more and more difficult to find people capable of recognizing individuals, places and events16. There is no central database of the Polish American archival resources. The attempts to create one, undertaken in the late 1990s by the Polish In- stitute of Arts and Sciences in America seem to be discontinued. The Pol- ish National Archives include in their databases only the files of the Polish American institutions that they had processed. The Polish researchers are not aware of the mere existence of many American archives that have some papers of the Polish American individuals or organizations17. The language barrier is another problem. As a result, many valuable resources have never been taken into consideration by the Polish researchers, especially those dealing with the post-World War II immigrants from Poland18.

15 Immigration History Research Center. Papers of Edward and Loda Różański, box 38, folder 1. 16 Visit at the Polish Museum of America, spring 2014. Talks with Małgorzata Kot, Halina Misterka, Jan Loryś. 17 The Institute of National Remembrance has organized two conferences on the archives related to the Polish diaspora in the Cold War era. Archiwalia do dziejów polskiej emigracji politycznej z lat 1939–1990 took place in Warsaw on December 3–5, 2014; Polonica in foreign institutions – research on the history of the Polish political emigration 1939–1990 is scheduled for April 20–22, 2016. 18 Cf. J. Wojdon, Wiesława Piątkowska-Stepaniak, Polska w Nowym Jorku. Idee, spo- ry, nadzieje emigracji politycznej w latach 1940–1990, Opole 2012, review in “Polish American Studies”, No. 2 (2013), p. 105–109. The Polish American narratives, memories and identities...

Diaries, memoirs and other literary works are written with the in- 73 tention of presenting personal views of their authors. They are widely used by historians, including the historians of the Polish American group. At least five caveats should be kept in mind while planning to work with these sources on the post-WWII history of the Polish ethnic group in the United States. First, people tend to publish their memoirs (and diaries from the past) when they get old. Therefore it is easier to find diaries and memoirs related to World War II and immediately post-war emigration than to the more recent waves. Younger people often need some form of encouragement. Wie- sława Piątkowska-Stepaniak managed to collect written testimonies of the immigrants from the 1990s19 and of the Polish American journalists20. The former help to question stereotypical images of the troubles that the newly arrived immigrants have to face in America: many of them settled down rather smoothly, sometimes thanks to the assistance of established Polish Americans, and generally enjoy their new lives21. The latter bring a lot of details of the difficult period in the history of the Polish American press at the end of the 20th century when it was losing its readership. Second, authors pay most attention to extraordinary moments of their lives. Therefore, the war experiences of the Polish Americans sometimes dominate in such books; when the war was over, “they lived happily ever after” and the post-war period is either completely missing or only very briefly mentioned22. In a similar manner, “important” events and people occupy more space than “regular” friends and everyday life. Kaya Mirecka- -Ploss mentions Jan Karski in the very title of her memoirs: Jan Karski – człowiek, któremu powiedziałam prawdę [Jan Karski – a man whom I’ve

19 My, emigranci. Wspomnienia współczesnych Polaków z życia na obczyźnie, ed. by W. Piątkowska-Stepaniak, Opole 2007. 20 Autoportret zbiorowy. Wspomnienia dziennikarzy polskich na emigracji z lat 1945– 2002, ed. by W. Piątkowska-Stepaniak, Opole 2003. 21 M. Kula, Polskie niepokoje podczas pobytu w Stanach Zjednoczonych odczuwane, “Twórczość”, No. 2 (1991), p. 66–81, supported those observations. 22 E.g. The Mass Deportation of Poles to Siberia: A Historical Narrative based on the written testimony of the Polish Siberian survivors, Siberian Society of USA 2009; T. Mikosz-Hintzke, A Polish Family’s Odyssey, San Jose–New York–Lincoln–Shang- hai 2001. Joanna Wojdon

74 told the truth]23, though most part of her book has absolutely no relation to Karski. The memoirs of Bill Biega and of Jan Krawiec can serve as counte- rexamples24. Third, strong and especially negative emotions find their way to -me moirs easier than the neutral description or positive feelings. Some people seem to write to share (or to cure) their traumas25. For Jan Lechoń, a Polish poet who settled down in New York City, writing a journal was a form of prescribed therapy26. On the positive side of the scale, Chester Parks’ Life in the Old Neighborhood… And Beyond offers a description of the social advancement and Americanization of a second-generation Polish Ameri- can who grew up in a Chicago Polish neighborhood27. Fourth, some memoirs may adopt other writing genres. Some authors claim to write historical monographs but in fact these are their memoirs, though some primary sources have been used to compile them. Personal views and experiences dominate in those books, however. There is some agenda behind the narrative (e.g. promoting the role and achievements of the author or promoting their organization versus others). The existing historiography is usually ignored, and so is the critical attitude towards the sources. The case of Władysław Zachariasiewicz and his Etos niepod- ległościowy Polonii amerykańskiej28 can serve as an example. The author (104 years old today), a distinguished Polish American activist of various organizations and institutions, presents the endeavors that he participated in during his long life, claiming that it is the first book on the post-WWII Polish American history (which is not). Autobiographical elements and insights into the Polish American realities from the past can be found in the Polish American literary fiction. The books by Anthony Bukoski should be mentioned as the most recent

23 K. Mirecka-Ploss, Jan Karski – człowiek, któremu powiedziałam prawdę, Katowice 2014. 24 B. Biega, Thirteen is my lucky number: The dramatic true story of a WWII Polish resistance fighter who became a successful American businessman, Plainsboro 1996; J. Krawiec, Od Bachórca do Chicago. Wspomnienia, Warszawa 2015. 25 See e.g.: E. Jesko, The Polish American, Lincoln (Nebraska) 2007. 26 J. Lechoń, Dziennik, Poznań 1992. 27 Ch. Parks, Life in the Old Neighborhood… And Beyond, The Mystic Publishers 2006 (Kindle edition 2012). 28 W. Zachariasiewicz, Etos niepodległościowy Polonii amerykańskiej, Warszawa 2005. The Polish American narratives, memories and identities...

examples of this genre29. Analyzing these works requires methodology of 75 literary rather than historical studies. Another interpretative difficulty arises when the authors of memoirs incorporate secondary literature into their own narratives. While editing memoirs of Jan Krawiec, a Polish American journalist and activist from the Chicago area30, I was able to locate in his manuscript long excerpts from my own book on the history of the Polish American Congress that had been published in 200831, but also fragments of Etos niepodległościowy by Zacha- riasiewicz – without any bibliographical references. Of course, I could be proud of the fact that I was able to reconstruct the past in a way that a participant regards it as his memoirs. But are these really his memoirs? What is the author’s “own” in the book? And what about the works that I am not familiar with and therefore could not identify? Interviews – oral history. A major Polish American oral history project was undertaken in 1976–1977 in Chicago by Mary Cygan thanks to federal funds available for ethnic studies at that time. It concentrated on the then-retiring generation of the economic migrants from the turn of the 20th century. Altogether 140 Chicagoans of Polish descent who arrived in Ame- rica between 1880 and 1930 were interviewed and 350 hours of testimonies were recorded, dealing mostly with the issues of the interviewees’ adap- tation to the American society. Thoroughly following the methodology of oral history, the interviews were recorded, transcribed and then deposited in the Chicago History Museum, with copies made for the Loyola Univer- sity and the Polish Museum in Chicago. The files contain biographical data of the interviewees, index cards, signed release forms, transcripts and recordings. Thematic tapes were prepared dealing with specific issues: early weeks in America, family life, life in the old country, passage and arrival, reasons for deciding to leave, recreation, religion, weddings, women and work. Teacher’s Guide for using Oral History Materials on the Immigrant

29 E.g. A. Bukoski, Twelve below zero, St Paul 1986; idem, Children of Strangers, Dal- las 1993; idem, North of the Port, Dallas 2008; idem, Time between trains, Duluth 2011. 30 J. Krawiec, op. cit. 31 J. Wojdon, W jedności siła. Kongres Polonii Amerykańskiej w latach 1968–1988, To- ruń 2008. Joanna Wojdon

76 Experience was also developed32. The list of interviewees starts with bishop Alfred Adamowicz, and includes both well-known Polish American activists, such as Sabina Logisz – a long-term librarian at the Polish Museum of America, as well as file-and-rank members of the Chicago Polonia. Despite the fact that the collection is almost forty years old, it is still used by the researchers today, most recently by Megan E. Geigner in her article on the Polish American theater in Chicago in the WWI years33. Today, new generations of Polish Americans can be approached and new research questions asked. The Grasinski Girlssets one path of inquiry: on the Americanized generations of “old Polonia”. I interviewed three Polish American women of the second generation (born into the immigrant families) who presented the problems they had to face as children and teenagers (mother tongue, name, customs), the choices they made and the benefits they enjoy in their adult life34. Another path of research can be everyday problems of new immigrants of the post-WWII, and especially the post-1960, period. A set of interviews from the 1980s with the former “Solidarity” trade union members who settled down in America was published in the book Region USA by Andrzej Krajewski in 1989. The interviews are rather journalistic than historical in character, however. Due to the time when the book was published, it could only cover the initial period of the sojourn of the “Solidarity” immigrants in the United States35. The same period is presented in the collection of ten interviews with the representatives of the “Solidarity” immigration wave in Ann Arbor, Michigan, carried out in 1989 by Karen Majewski. She used the methodology of oral history and deposited both tape recordings and scripts (more or less accurate) at the Connecticut Polish American Archives.

32 M. Daniels, Oral History Archives of Chicago Polonia (Project) records, 1976–1977. De- scriptive Inventory for the Collection at the Chicago History Museum, http://chsme- dia.org/media/fa/fa/M-O/OHACP-inv.htm (accessed December 12, 2015). 33 M. E. Geigner, Performing the Polish-American Patriot: Civic Performance and Hyphe- nated Identity in World War I Chicago, “Theatre History Studies”, Vol. 34, No. 1 (2015), p. 59–78. 34 The paper based on these interviews was presented during the annual meeting of the Polish American Historical Association in Atlanta in January, 2016, and one of the interviews, with Christine Przybyła-Long, is published in this issue of “Wrocławski Rocznik Historii Mówionej”. 35 A. Krajewski, Region USA: Działacze “Solidarności” o kraju, o emigracji, o sobie, Lon- don 1989. The Polish American narratives, memories and identities...

In 2015 Anna Reczyńska from the Jagiellonian University applied for 77 a grant to collect testimonies from the “Solidarity” immigration wave in the United States and Canada, but her application was rejected. There is some interest in the “Solidarity” migrants at the Institute of National Re- membrance. It is crucial to interview these while they are still active. It would be also interesting to record the testimonies of the “silent” immigration from the Peoples’ Republic of Poland of the 1960s and 1970s. People are willing to talk. There are no institutions, neither in the United States nor in Poland, willing to engage in such projects, however.

Participating observations – notes from the field Participating observation belongs to the methodology of social studies rather than of history. When applied to the research on the Polish Americans, such as Everyday Life and Festivity in a Local Ethnic Community: Polish- -Americans in South Bend, Indiana by Janusz Mucha (Boulder 1996) and Our Way: Family, Parish, and Neighborhood in a Polish-American Commu- nity by Paul Wrobel (Notre Dame 1979), it benefits from historical findings in presenting background, “setting up the scenery”, but at the same time brings valuable data on the Polish American communities at the time of the research, which has become history by now. Reactions to Paul Wrobel’s book show how difficult it may be to present researcher’s findings to a -lar ger Polish American community who is not very much open to criticism36. I have never used participating observation as a dominating research method, but observations of the Polish American life, mostly in Chicago in 2014, did broaden my understanding of this group and its subgroups, of various Polish American identities and perspectives, which is reflected, among others, in the footnotes for this article. I could understand, for example, that participants of the PAC meetings could have been annoyed that they were not given opportunity to ask their president questions, while there was time for lengthy speeches of “important” persons, and, on the other hand, that the participants of the 3rd of May parade could be “proud to be Polish”. I appreciate the endurance of the participants of WWII and their care of so many people and issues, as well as the efforts needed to organize any Polish American event. At the same time I have a feeling that

36 P. Taras, A. Pienkos, T. Radzialowski, Paul Wrobel’s Our Way – Three Views, “Polish American Studies”, Vol. 37, No. 1 (Spring, 1980), p. 32–51. Joanna Wojdon

78 I managed to take part only in a tiny part of what did actually happen during the six months that I spent in the Windy City. I do not think it would ever be possible to decide that the research using the participating observation is complete.

One can complain about the scarcity of “official” documents reflecting the Polish American life. “Private” sources may help but cannot solve all the problems. Moreover, they create their own. They are even more dispersed, distorted, fragmented and incomplete than the official documents. On the other hand, they reflect more nuances, bring more perspectives and more color to the image of the Polish Americans in the second half of the 20th century. Still, they do not guarantee to reconstruct the Polish American history to exactly reflect the reality. After several years of my research on the post-WWII Polish American history I can say there are still more questions than answers. The Polish American narratives, memories and identities...

The article concerns different kinds of “personal” (in contrast to Joanna Wojdon79 “official”) sources used by historians dealing with the post-World The Polish American narratives, memories War II Polish American history. The Author considers advantages and identities in the and shortcomings of analyzing personal correspondence, personal historian’s job memos, diaries and memoirs, formal and informal interviews and other oral testimonies, but also difficulties and problems they bring to a researcher. Studying those types of source is however often crucial in the absence of official archival documents reflecting e.g. the ethnic identity of the large group of the Americans of Polish descent, or the backstage of the process of their assimilation and organization in the United States.

Michał Kierzkowski

[Poznań]

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Oral history and historical education in Poland. Possibilities and application

Wrocławski Rocznik Historii Mówionej Rocznik VI, 2016 ISSN 2084–0578

Introductory Notes Every time I read or hear in the media about young Poles’ successes in international knowledge competitions I am fulfilled with joy. It is caused by the fact or, despite the fact that these competitions concern topics that I do not deal with on every day basis, i.e. the exact sciences, technology, life sciences. The spirit of creative activity prevails over ordinary reproductive recalling of knowledge already learned throughout the cumulative learning process. Young people fascinated by chemistry, physics, IT or biology, encouraged by their mentors to search actively for possible solutions to certain problems start discovering, as though immersed in creative frenzy, new ways to achieve what prior generations of researchers only dreamt of. Their fresh ideas reaching beyond rigid frames of school subjects (and these ideas require knowledge not only on biology, chemistry or technology but also biochemistry and biotechnology etc.) tend to be so innovative that they find application in numerous branches of industry and science. What is more, winners of such competitions are warmly welcomed by the best universities in the world. What concerns me however is the question: why is it that we often hear about young people winning competitions in widely understood science and barely never about winners of competitions concerning the opposite field of interest i.e. humanities, in particular in history? Both Michał Kierzkowski

82 disciplines of science are present throughout the entire education process at school. Are there no international humanities competitions? In my opinion, the problem lies elsewhere and is rooted in the education process at school. Both kinds of competitions require possessing a certain knowledge. The difference is in the starting point of this knowledge. In exact science competitions knowledge is a crucial basis for certain practical actions, ex- periments etc. (I need to know the basics of mechanics to build a remote control robot model) whereas competitions in the humanities require “knowledge of...” itself, to know as many facts about something or someone as possible (I’ve read everything about the Napoleonic Wars so I fulfilled my aim). Creativity and generation is reduced, there is no way of discovering something new, unknown to the rest of the world. It reflects the quality of our education system. That leads to my question that I would like to ask from the perspective of a history methodologist: is it possible to teach history in a more creative way that will encourage pupils to take part in the knowledge generation process instead of only listening? In my opinion it is possible. But if so, why there are so many people unable to notice that? Does it mean that people outside the educational system who say that “teachers can’t teach” are right? I would not say so. Again, the problem lies elsewhere, much deeper. Later in this paper I would like to focus on the presence of oral history in teaching history at school as a tool for teachers. In my opinion, this presence is specific and by saying it I mean running away from traditionally understood history and its abundance in our life. As far as education is concerned, running away involves elements that teach us understanding and empathy towards topics existing outside of the official historical discourse. Oral history is one of these elements. It is oral history that enables pupils to discover their own history and makes them more sensitive to social ties and relations between the generations. I would like to illustrate ideas mentioned above with chosen examples of applying or possibility of applying oral history in teaching history in Poland and simultaneously indicate how many possibilities there are yet to be used1.

1 In this paper I will refer only to a couple of examples of oral history in the entire education process in Poland, for more detailed explanation and examples see: I. Lewan- dowska, Oral history we współczesnej Polsce – badania, projekty, stowarzyszenia, “Wrocławski Rocznik Historii Mówionej”, Vol. 1 (2011), p. 81–103. Oral history and historical education in Poland...

The issue with history 83 Before proceeding to enumerate reasons why oral history is not present in education process at school2, I would like to focus on condition of history in Poland as a part of our education and culture and its entanglement in politics. If we are unaware of these limitations, the presence of oral history in education process loses its importance. In order to illustrate issues mentioned above I would like to refer to two leaders of methodological thought in Poland, that is: Wojciech Wrzosek and Jan Pomorski. As Wrzosek reasonably indicates in his publication Czy historia ma przyszłość? (Does the history have a future?), it would be hard to imagine any of the existing societies functioning without history. As for now, we don’t know what kind of changes in our perception and understanding of civilisation would make us think that history is no longer needed. And that is all as far as positive attitude towards knowledge of the past is concerned. In most cases, people need history to have the other dimension described by Wrzosek: Usually when people are asked if the history is needed, those who answer that it loses its importance refer not really to history but to information about events from the past, they really mean spectacular facts from the history of their nation, country, that their country and its neighbours took part in. Do we need this kind of information of the past? Maybe, but we can live happily without them. Contemporary people who don’t know the exact date of The Battle of Racławice or Peace of Westphalia, who don’t remember the date of the first Polish free election, Congress of Vienna or Peace of Thorn are not worse IT specialists, ecologists, engineers or physi- cians because of the lack of this knowledge. Not possessing this knowledge on history understood as a collection of archival facts does not make their life harder in any way. […] So, if we perceive history as in the example presented above, the answer to the question “do we need to possess knowledge of the past?” is no. If our perception of the history is limited to this kind of thinking, the answer is clear-cut: we do not need history at all. In my opinion, huge number of people perceive history this way. It is caused both by the factual and event-based approach to teaching and learning history3.

2 Here I’m focused mainly on methodologies and historiography concerning history and theory and practice of oral history. I do not feel competent to discuss methods of teaching history and education process on its own. 3 W. Wrzosek, Czy historia ma przyszłość?, [in:] Gra i konieczność. Zbiór rozpraw z historii historiografii i filozofii historii, ed. by G. A. Dominiak, J. Ostoja-Zagórski, W. Wrzosek, Bydgoszcz 2005, p. 11–12. Michał Kierzkowski

84 Let’s think about our school education referred to as factual and methods of verifying knowledge gained this way. In most cases the exam involved answering following questions – What? Who? Where? and When? So, according to this method, sufficient knowledge on e.g. the Prussian Homage means knowing that: Zygmunt I the Old with Albrecht Hohenzollern, on the April 10, 1525 in Kraków market square. Probably the exact date would be an extra information. What would happen if we asked someone not professionally connected with history to prepare at least 10-sentence narrative about this event explaining its significance? I suppose that no one would be able or willing to do that. It is because our approach towards understanding the past is mainly factual and event-based. No one reflects on the basic question i.e. why do we need history, what do we need it for and why do we learn it at school? By agreeing with Wrzosek that we need history only to be able to understand, give meaning and domesticate4 the present, it seems obvious that we are seeking escape from factual and event-based way of understanding history in education process. The escape from specific understanding and treatment of history has also been discussed by Pomorski. Here, an exit point is a connection of knowledge of the past and politics, which seems inevitable. Now it is time to ask if this relation may be perceived from the perspective of the social experiencing of history. The answer is obvious and positive. It has been done this way before in the USA, where, referring to relation between history of the victors vs. the history of the defeated, we could observe many takeovers and revolutions in the past decades. The defeated, who were unable to speak their minds before are now becoming visible and bound to make history by changing old standards of political correctness. Innovative, non-standard methods of teaching history are both an important part and the driving force of these changes. The situation in Europe is totally different, especially in its Eastern Central part that was strongly influenced by the Soviet Union. According to Pomorski: Europe that went through two world wars and two kinds of totalitarianism in the 20th century, started to fear living with “too much history”, the past that separates and envenoms nations […]. Overcoming the history took the form of escaping from it. Escaping from it in two ways5.

4 Ibidem, p. 13. 5 J. Pomorski, Ucieczka od historii jako element poprawności politycznej – tezy, [in:] Pamięć i polityka historyczna. Doświadczenia Polski i jej sąsiadów, ed. by S. M. No- winowski, J. Pomorski, R. Stobiecki, Łódź 2008, p. 112. Oral history and historical education in Poland...

The first one, less connected with this paper, is a kind of exposing me- 85 mory to give it an ethic dimension. According to Pomorski, it makes it function as a “cultural religiousness”. Second way of escaping from history which is monumental and burdened with totalitarianism is pursued at schools where, on one hand, we deal with moving away from traditional way of teaching history and, on the other hand, introducing elements that teach pupils understanding and empathy towards topics that were kept outside the official historical discourse for years. Contemporary condition of the history, especially in schools, is poor because it needs to deal with two main issues that, in my opinion, may be overcome by introducing oral history.

The issue with oral history The legitimacy of oral history in education process at school results from three different ways of perceiving this research discipline. The first one sees oral history as a research method but also as an independent discipline or social movement, paradoxically – if we took into consideration its complicated ad- aptation process at universities – it is the essence of what may be referred to as “practising history”. In the second one, history is equated with a unique sphere in which we observe interplay of key methodological problems concerning historical research such as the issue of truth, the opposition of subjectivity/objectivity, the position of a historian in constructing/reconstructing the past reality, the function of narratives and historical sources. In the third one, oral history is seen as a method to break rigid academic structures, which means that history as a form of practising science may be both an academic discipline and a social undertaking at the same time. This approach perceives oral history as a many- -sided network connecting the historian, the witness to history and the audience – recipients as a specific fusion of the past, the present and the future based on human memories and experiences. This enables us to locate history closer to the people. All those ways of perceiving oral history are meant to prove that it is a fully-fledged research practice supporting history as a science field. This approach to oral history makes it a way to escape both from the method of teaching history based only on archival facts and events and the abundance of martyrdom in our history. It is because this approach promotes inter-generational and social creation of collective identity based on remembering what we feel connected with the most. Such opinions result from many years of experience in teaching history with the use of oral history. As Marta Kubiszyn explains: Michał Kierzkowski

86 As far as teaching practice is concerned, shaping attitudes targeted to realise the values mentioned above requires, among other things, moving away from standard teaching methods and introducing individual innovative methods developing imagination and critical thinking, teaching pupils how to communicate and work in group but also referring to widely understood sociocultural local heritage. […] These aims and tasks may be reached within local education, also called community education, understood as a method of organizing the life of local community so it can realize certain socio-educational tasks and as a tool to introduce social changes. Referring to oral history as this kind of education method is not only a great way to inform people about their environment and developing closer ties between generations and support activities promoting protection of historical and cultural identity but it can also support development of democracy and civil society through activation of local communities and strengthening identity of individuals6. On the one hand, the author refers here both to collective and individual memory as a source of knowledge of the past presented from the perspective of ordinary people with whom we feel more connected and we are able to domesticate our here and now better. On the other hand, we learn to understand and have empathy towards these aspects of the past that were marginalised, supplanted by the abundance of martyrdom in our history. Dobrochna Kałwa perceives this process similarly: The dialogue between a professional researcher and a witnesses to history makes us aware how many meanings and functions history may have – experienced, told and reproduced in inter-generational dialogue. It is (or may become someday) an educational and civil activity as it enables people to build collective identity, solve conflicts and activate the society and these are only a few examples. This current combining civil society and education played an important role in creating – in opposition to the official historiography – perception of the modern history and building post-communist collective memory. […] Oral history proved to be a quite interesting tool for social activation in local communities as it develops

6 M. Kubiszyn, Edukacyjne implikacje projektu dokumentacyjnego i animacyjnego w środowisku lokalnym – między teorią a praktyką. “Historia Mówiona Miasta Lub- lina” Ośrodka Brama Grodzka – Teatr NN, “Wrocławski Rocznik Historii Mówio- nej”, Vol. 2 (2012), p. 103. Oral history and historical education in Poland...

closer inter-generational ties, creates collective memory and identity and it 87 is a great way to teach history7. It may seem that the remarks of this kind result from the importance and constant presence of oral history in Polish educational system. Un- fortunately, this is not the case. Its presence is only a fraction of what it could be. I will only mention a few observations which concern the attitude to oral history of those who could use it in their educational activity. Ho- wever, I will not mention a complex problem of negative attitude towards this research method adopted by a large group of historians-academics8.

7 D. Kałwa, Historia mówiona w krajach postkomunistycznych. Rekonesans, “Kultura i Historia”, Vol. 18 (2010), http://kulturaihistoria.umcs.lublin.pl/archives/1887 (accessed March 20, 2016). 8 This is not my intention to address this problem in the main text, but in my opinion this negative attitude is caused mainly by the nature of the oral source as a historical source. Therefore, consider important to shortly present the two main stands on this issue. The first one concerns German individualistic historicism. Its postulates in relation to general history were clearly expounded by Leopold von Ranke, who listed among others the pure admiration for truth that is the willingness to get to know the past, thorough, in-depth and, what is important, source studies, universal interest in pure cognition, examining the causality, objectivity and the awareness of totality of historical phenomena. Fulfilling those postulates which are elements of a research method of written sources, was to be helpful in establishing the facts from the past and presenting them to the reader. According to that a historian was to become a kind of impartial observer, calculating discoverer of the truth who would be able to study the past breaking away from his time (Cf. R. Stobiecki, Historiografia na przełomie XIX i XX wieku. Krajobraz po bitwie, “Biuletyn Polskiego Towarzystwa Historycznego”, November 2005, p. 11–22). The cult of a written source also played an important role. Its definition was so narrowed down that it did not encompass not only oral sources but also earlier historiographical works. As Andrzej Feliks Grabski rightly noticed: “Ranke’s criticism of modern historiography led him to the conclusion that for scientific, critical history historiographical sources are much less valuable as a historical source than archival sources, especially those in the form of documents” (A. F. Grabski, Dzieje historiografii, Poznań 2003, p. 469). The role of a historian understood in this way was not assessing the past and leading the way to the next generations but revealing the truth about the past. Marceli Handelsman held a similar view on understanding a historical source. Although in his classification he took into consideration the oral tradition, he only considered historical documents as the proper historical sources (see: M. Handelsman, Historyka, Warszawa 1928, p. 45; G. Labuda, Próba nowej systematyki i nowej interpretacji źródeł historycznych, “Studia Źródłoznawcze”, Vol. 1 (1957), Michał Kierzkowski

p. 3–52). However, other historians hold a completely opposite view, for instance Krystyna Kersten who in her reference to the history of 1960s emphasized the need to generate sources by historians, understood by her as oral sources. In her view, using eye-witness accounts, including oral accounts, in historical research is neither new nor characteristic of modern times. According to her a historian dealing with the recent history, called by Kersten “life history”, cannot avoid in his or her work generating oral sources which entails the need to develop new methods of critical analysis of these accounts (see: K. Kersten, Historyk – twórcą źródeł, “Kwartalnik Historyczny”, Vol. 2 (1971), p. 313–330). This kind of mistake was made by modern historians of our region which was mentioned in the above cited text by Dobrochna Kałwa, who consider oral accounts as equal to typographical sources through employing the same research method to both kinds of sources. This procedure together with scepticism about oral accounts and prudence in employing them result from the need to faithfully reconstruct historical reality which Kałwa, following Sorin Antohi, calls the dominance of paleo-positivistic paradigm (see: D. Kałwa, op. cit.). In accordance with Kersten’s postulate, Andrzej Paczkowski also highlights the obviousness of oral accounts being present in recent history research. However, he locates their source in a press interview and calls oral history an academic sub- discipline which is a “history” only by name because it is more frequently present in sociology, anthropology or social psychology and not in history as a practice aiming at learning about the past and understanding it (see: A. Paczkowski, O osobliwościach badań nad historią najnowszą, [in:] Historyk wobec źródeł. Historiograﬁa klasyczna i nowe propozycje metodologiczne, ed. by J. Kolbuszewska, R. Stobiecki, Łódź 2010, p. 163–171). In my opinion, all those problems and nuances have their roots in allowing latitude in understanding, defining and classifying oral history, even though certain attempts have been made to clarify those issues (see: M. Kierzkowski, Historia mówiona – próba definicji pojęcia, “Wrocławski Rocznik Historii Mówionej”, Vol. 4 (2014), p. 5–20). The climax of the discussion on understanding and using oral history by Polish researchers of the recent history was reached after the publication in 2009 of Paweł Zyzak’s book entitled Lech Wałęsa. Idea i historia. Biografia polityczna legendarnego przywódcy “Solidarności” do 1988 roku. Historians, journalists and politicians took part in this discussion. Leaving aside Paweł Zyzak’s object of studies itself, each participant of the discussion referred to oral history in relation to that object. It happened because Zyzak, from the very beginning, manifested the presence of oral history in his work. I attempted to objectively prove (see: M. Kierzkowski, Oral history a najnowsza historia Polski. Wokół książki Pawła Zyzaka, Lech Wałęsa. Idea i historia. Biografia polityczna legendarnego przywódcy “Solidarności” do 1988 roku, [in:] Uwikłania historiografii. Między ideologizacją dziejów a obiektywizmem badawczym, ed. by T. Błaszczyk [et. al.], Poznań 2011, p. 123–132) – leaving aside the question of the fundamental error made in the sources, for instance in confusing credibility and authenticity of a source – the presence of oral history in Zyzak’s work Oral history and historical education in Poland...

Therefore, a question arises – why is there very little attention devoted 89 to oral history in schools? Firstly, future teachers very often do not have an opportunity to learn more about oral history during their studies. It is almost absent from the curricula of historical studies at universities even as a non-compulsory subject, not to mention teaching modules9. The uni

was only declarative. However, it is not possible to reach this conclusion on the basis of the opinions held by other participants of the discussion, like Sławomir Cenckiewicz (see: S. Cenckiewicz, Histeria zamiast lektury, http://www.rp.pl/artykul/285344. html, accessed December 1, 2015), Piotr Gontarczyk (see: P. Gontarczyk, Biografia nieodpowiedzialna, http://www.rp.pl/artykul/283737.html, accessed December 1, 2015), Jacek Żakowski (see: J. Żakowski, Powrót Galla Anonima, http://www.polityka. pl/tygodnikpolityka/kraj/287627,1,powrot-galla-anonima.read, accessed December 1, 2015) and Mirosław Czech (see: M. Czech, Biografia Wałęsy. Prawicowe sikanie pod wiatr, http://wyborcza.pl/1,75515,6415763,Biografia_Walesy__Prawicowe_sikanie_ pod_wiatr.html, accessed December 1, 2015) who do not referre to the oral history in general but instead, to Paweł Zyzak’s understanding of oral history which did not contribute to global reflection on the topic. This important remark nearly escaped the discussants’ attention. Unfortunately, many claim that “practitioners of oral history still treat Zyzak’s work as an example of a lack of reflection upon the method although the author did exactly what other historians would have done if they had been in his position. He simply used the selected accounts to portray a bigger picture of the past reality” (see: P. Wrona, Żywe źródło historyczne. Historia mówiona oczami historyka, [in:] Historia mówiona w świetle nauk humanistycznych i społecznych, ed. by S. Niebrzegowska-Bartmińska [et al.], Lublin 2014, p. 249). However, I believe that the author is not entitled to express an opinion on behalf of all historians. Moreover, I support all those who hold a view that regardless of the types of historical sources they cannot be treated as sources of truth. They are not the basis ofa historian’s work but only starting points (see: J. Topolski, Jak się pisze i rozumie historię. Tajemnice narracji historycznej, Poznań 2008, p. 279–290). In the case of oral history, it is vital to assume that working with oral accounts entails the need to interpret a source as some kind of cultural text which in turn means conducting various analyses, for instance the analyses of cultural patterns of remembering or recollecting memories as well as diversified narrative layers. 9 Non-compulsory classes on oral history were/are conducted at the University of Warsaw, the Jagiellonian University, Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, the Pontifical University of John Paul II in Kraków, the University of Warmia and Ma- zury in Olsztyn. Oral history is also one of the subjects conducted within the framework of Public History at the University of Wrocław. Michał Kierzkowski

90 versity should be a place where students can get such knowledge10, but it’s not commonly offered to them. For the same reason it is also absent from schools. Secondly, even if it finds its way to enter university and future teachers have an opportunity to hear about it, it still will be treated with reserve. It is because oral history is largely influenced by postmodern changes in science and is in opposition to what can be called “great mod- ernistic historical narrative” which still dominates in educational system. Oral history is not such a type of narrative thus it is not present at schools. Thirdly, oral history is treated as some kind of intellectual fashion coming to Poland from the West and for this reason criticised and marginalised as a alien element which was not present in our historiographical tradition. Fourthly, there is a belief among teachers, resulting from the above- mentioned arguments, that oral history itself is not “historical” enough. As a blend combining various elements like history, anthropology, sociology, psychology and many other disciplines, it is treated as a mixture which does not have its identity and definitely not a “historical” one. Therefore, it does not fit into the model of the present history education at schools. The same problem concerns those who deal with this unique hybrid. They represent various scientific, artistic, social and cultural communities which leads to the multiplication of discourses about the past which is inconven- ient for multiplicity of historical narratives at schools. Fortunately, the situation is slowly changing. There are more and more attempts at inviting oral history to Polish schools. These are usually external initiatives. Thanks to the simple and explanatory presentations of positive effects of this educational method in our neighbouring countries, especially the southern ones, the trust towards this basic model of establishing intergenerational bond is increasing.

Oral history after all I would like to present below the increasing presence of oral history in history education at Polish schools as one of the ways in which teachers may engage their students in the process of learning. Several various actions are

10 See: M. Kierzkowski, Oral history – “Historia Badającego i Badanego”. Uwagi o spe- cyfice relacji ustnych w kontekście badań historycznych, [in:] Obserwacja uczestni- cząca w badaniach historycznych. Zbiór studiów, ed. by B. Wagner, T. Wiślicz, Za- brze 2008, p. 36. Oral history and historical education in Poland...

involved in it. I will focus on those which are supposed to be some form of 91 support for teachers as well as on those which would directly engage students’ imagination.

I Competitions One of the most basic methods of engaging and employing oral history in history education and schools is organising competitions which will stimulate students to pursue a unique quest for the signs of the past in the present time. The competitions are usually organised by external subjects and are addressed to the students from all over Poland. One of such competitions is a project “I will tell you about the free Poland” (“Opowiem Ci o wolnej Polsce”) carried out since 2007 by the Centre of Civic Education (Centrum Edukacji Obywatelskiej), Polish Institute of National Remembrance (IPN) and the Warsaw Uprising Museum, involving organising meetings between students and witnesses of historical events. The organizers define the contest as follows: The goal of the project is to familiarise students with the events from the recent history of Poland, showing how Polish civil society was shaped throughout the last decades. The key elements of the project are meetings and interviews with witnesses of historic events conducted by students. Young people have an opportunity to hear both familiar and less known stories, get to know the lives of those who actively participated in historical events, discover the history of a town or a region and feel the atmosphere of the past times. Students’ task is to carry out interviews with those who actively participated in political and social life objecting to the political system in the years from 1939 to 1989. The meeting should be audio or videotaped and then described. Next young people pass the knowledge that they gained to others through organising exhibitions and performances and recording radio broadcasts. In this project students are very independent, they can make their own choices and express various ideas. It is hoped that the above-mentioned actions will contribute to shaping young people’s identity, strengthening the bond with their places of birth and living and arousing patriotism and civic responsibility11.

11 http://www.ceo.org.pl/pl/opowiem-ci-o-wolnej-polsce/news/opis-programu (accessed December 1, 2015). Michał Kierzkowski

92 The idea behind the competition is to gradually engage students in meti- culous and inventive searching for the traces of the past in our reality. Stu- dents take part in the classes which aim is to prepare them for the meetings with witnesses to history, prepare questions concerning the historic event in which their interlocutors took part, then they carry out the interviews and finally they make a transcript of the whole or a part of the interview to later describe it or transform into a literary piece. Moreover, they collect documents – family photos, letters, prepare photographic documentation connected with people and events. All these actions are supposed to commemorate the past and propagate knowledge among local communities. Finally, each team needs to prepare a report on their project. The project lasts for nearly a year as it starts in August, when the recruitment process begins, to June, when the final conference is held. The teachers are also -en gaged in the project supporting the students and coordinating their work. E-coaching course which was introduced during the last edition of the project is addressed mainly to the teachers as the questions of selecting suitable teaching methods for the aim of the classes, potential advantages and di- sadvantages of the meetings or the issue of copyright are raised in it. Addi- tionally, throughout the project and even after its realisation, teachers and students can make use of auxiliary materials and previous projects which are collected on a special website. Although the competition engages both teachers and students, the main goal of the project is for students to extend their knowledge about 20th-century Poland, to acquire new competences connected with the technical aspect of oral history and most importantly to arouse their interest in local community and region and establish bonds with their cultural and intergenerational heritage. Another competition called “Close History” (“Historia Bliska”) has been organised regularly for 20 years. The event is an initiative of The KARTA Centre (Ośrodek KARTA) which is co-financed by Polish Ministry of Cul- ture and National Heritage of the Republic of Poland and other institutions. So far there have been 18 editions of this competition, which has turned it into an independent institution with its well-developed website and patrons. The format of the competition and the main ideas behind it have not changed since its beginning and are as follows: The projects are supposed to be about history which is “close” because of its time, place and relations. Thus it concerns the local history so the closest places, communities or people including the history of the so-called little homelands which is present in sources, testimonies or private documents. Oral history and historical education in Poland...

It is also about the facts from local history that are not familiar to larger 93 groups of people, a story which hasn’t got its narrator – perhaps some kind of mystery, important but forgotten event or achievement, unusual story – the history of war and peace, courage or conformity, victory or failure... The topic may concern various spheres of life – everyday life, work, fight, social, religious, cultural, scientific and economic transformations, family and neighbour relations, those between the state and a citizen as well as relations between fellow countrymen and foreigners, their traces can be found in disputes about the past but also in the disputes about memorials, patrons or cemeteries12. This competition has been attracting large groups of junior secondary school and secondary school students. Students can present their work in one of the possible formats – a film or an audio broadcast, a multimedia presentation or a text concerning important local issues in the 20th-century Poland. Until today the topics were as follows: Daily life in Poland in the years 1944–1956; Citizen vs. the authorities in the years 1956–1980; The most important event in the history of my community. Witnesses and testimonies; Family in the 20th century; Work in the times of the Polish People’s Repub- lic – for yourself, for the community or for the system?; Foreigners among fellow countrymen in the 20th century; People in motion – migration, promotion, social degradation 1914–1989; Disputes about commemorating the past – memorials, cemeteries, patrons; Everyday life at the turn of 1944 and 1945; Religious life in the times of Polish People’s Republic – individual, community, institution; The disobedient of the 20th century; Little homeland in memory and testimonies; 1989 – end, turning point or beginning...?; Stigma of Second World War – fate and memory. Regardless of the topic of the project, it is worth remembering that the starting point is always the willingness to find the other person who is close to us and to realize that he or she is also a part of this multi-narrative history. Thanks to employing oral history in education, our historical identity changes. History is no longer something unfamiliar, present only in school textbooks but it becomes a part of ourselves which is present in the memory of our family and friends.

12 http://historiabliska.pl/regulamin.php (accessed December 1, 2015). Michał Kierzkowski

94 II Projects I have mentioned two contests with a long tradition and a countrywide recognition. However, there are also many actions which incorporate the use of oral history which are exclusively local in their character and they are in a way a result of the need to stimulate the community and propagate local identity. In this case I have selected two examples of projects which are the results of grass root initiatives and not external, top-down stimula- tion so they are not supposed to be universal in their territorial scope. This examples are among many local projects undertaken in the past few years. The “Memory Hunters” (“Łowcy Pamięci”) is carried out in Krotoszyn from 2014, originated by a local Janina Gwiżdż Society, Culture Centre in Krotoszyn and Hieronim Ławniczak Regional Museum in Krotoszyn. The project is divided into two parts. The first one involves collecting memories of the oldest inhabitants of Krotoszyn commune. Secondary and junior secondary school students together with their teachers are responsible for collecting memoirs and saving them on data carriers. Recorded stories usually consisted of the happiest and the most traumatic experiences connected with local history of the last decades. Later the accounts are used in the second part of the project, in preparing multimedia exhibition which is later presented on the market square in Krotoszyn as well as in the Museum in Krotoszyn (last such a presentation was in August and September 2015). As the organizers explain: Our project takes place in the last possible moment to collect and preserve interviews with local “eyewitnesses to history”. People who remember such historic periods like the pre-war years, World War II, or the post-war period pass away as the time goes by. We cannot make the mistake we made regarding the insurgents during the Greater Poland Uprising in 1918. Despi- te the technical possibilities we had, we didn’t get any memoirs from that time. Such memoirs stored on electronic devices and later transcribed on that basis would be an impressive source of information about our town and region, especially from the point of view of ordinary inhabitants13. The whole project which evolved from the idea of enriching and diversifying school education into something of a kind of intergenerational dialogue reinforcing the group identity was also appreciated by the local-

13 https://web.facebook.com/LowcyPamieci/info/?tab=page_info (accessed December 1, 2015). Oral history and historical education in Poland...

-government in Krotoszyn, which considered the project “Łowcy pamięci” 95 to be “Best Local Initiative of 2014” in the field of culture and education. The second project which, from my point of view, originated for similar reasons, is called “Traces of the Second World War locked in memoirs, monuments and roadside crosses”, realized in 2005–2006 by pupils of the final year of primary school and the first year of secondary school from the Complex of Schools in Grabiny in the Podkarpackie region. The main subject of the project was clearly specified in time and space. It covered the years 1939–1945 and could be realized in the closest surroundings of the town. A starting point for the realization of the whole project was oral history: The pupils had to prepare the list of people – eyewitnesses to history – with whom they would conduct interviews about the past. It was necessary to compile the list of places of the events that had been particularly influential for the history of Grabiny and the surrounding area. The collection of summaries from meetings and conversations, narratives of eyewitnesses and descriptions of places and events were published in “Księga wspomnień” (“Memoire book”). They also prepared a multimedia presentation and the album called “Zacho- wać dla potomności” (“Preserve for the posterity”) containing photographs (as well as illustrations) of the nearby places related with World War II14. Although the pupils were first heading towards the oldest members of their families to write down their memories from the bygone years, this attempt of building or renewing intergenerational relations existed also in the open public space. The purpose of the project involving the oral history or even basing on it was not to reconstruct the reality of life in the bygone era as in a historical reconstruction, or the answer to the question “how was it like at that time?” The aim was rather to fulfill the need of discovering in your life the roots of the previous generations, which would lead to an easier answer to the question “where did «today» come from?”

III Back up for teachers Oral history, which allows teachers to engage pupils in an untypical performance within the school education, becomes a stronger and stronger tool for overcoming existing schemes. The mentioned competitions and

14 http://uczyc-sie-z-historii.pl/pl/projekty/lista-projektow/zobacz/62 (accessed Decem- ber 1, 2015). Michał Kierzkowski

96 projects are a proof for that. But it would not happen without teachers and their will to act. This is the reason why any projects helping teachers and showing them the way to accustom school education of history in Poland to oral history deserve particular attention. We should not forget about the fact that during the first stages of pedagogical preparation oral history still plays an insignificant role. Fortunately, more and more of webpages and materials for teachers become available every year. The idea of providing educational packages for diversifying school education process is a very helpful thing. The packages usually accompany the final stages of various oral history projects. The -pa ckages prepared by the KARTA Centre and produced thanks to the financial support of the European Commission are worth mentioning. I am thinking here about the packages for the projects called “Kreuz-Krzyż w XX wieku. Polska i niemiecka pamięć pewnego miasta, Mauthausen-Gusen” (“Kreuz- -Cross in the 20th century. Polish and German memories about a certain town, Mauthausen-Gusen”) and “Wrzesień 1939” (“September 1939”). Such packages include some interesting information in the form of index of fragments of memories, profiles of heroes, photographic documentation and complete lesson plans and are available on CDs. There is also a possibility of downloading them for free from the website15. The “Grodzka Gate – NN Theatre” Centre from Lublin prepared a similar project, proposing complete lesson plans containing memoirs and materials for teachers. They relate to the main themes raised by the Centre, such as Oral history of Lublin, Polish-Jewish town in the Lublin region; House, school and work – everyday life in Jewish Lublin; My little homeland; Social awareness of the image of Jews and Polish-Jewish relations on the basis of oral history of Lublin. The online materials are available as well16. In my opinion, the best online platform in Polish on that issue is the webpage Uczyć się historii. Doświadczenie totalitaryzmów XX wieku (Learning history. The experience of totalitarianisms in the 20th century), initiated and run by the KARTA Centre in collaboration with Polish and foreign partners. The description of the project says: “Learning history” website – the project by KARTA Centre – is a platform for publication of educational projects dedicated to history of Poland

15 http://www.dsh.waw.pl/pakiety/ (accessed December 1, 2015). 16 http://tnn.pl/k_309_m_3.html (accessed December 1, 2015). Oral history and historical education in Poland...

and its neighbors in the 20th century. Special emphasis is placed on the 97 experience of the two totalitarian regimes: Nazism and communism in WWII, their heritage and contemporary debates about them as well as citizen education and human rights promotion. The web site is addressed to teachers and other persons or institutions working with children and the youth. It intends to be a platform for exchange of opinions and deepening of knowledge, source of inspiration for work and studies as well as a laboratory for testing of the new methods of acquiring and exchanging knowledge about history17. The website, which is divided into several sections, is the knowledge bank for teachers who want to include innovative ways of teaching during their lessons. At least 4 main sections of the webpage are really worth mentioning. First of all, the Projects section, with an index of all Polish projects which highlight the value of experience of self-directed history learning by pupils, and a need for using many possible solutions and tools that go beyond the foregoing standard notion of teaching history. One of these notions is of course oral history. The second interesting section (Articles) includes many inspiring texts about history for teachers and learners. There are subsections: dydaktyka (teaching), e-edukacja (e-education), historia (history), nauka (science), prawa człowieka (human rights). The important fact is that the Article section is the one where teachers can share their experience and thoughts by sending their own texts. The third section, particularly interesting for me, is Materials, the place to provide downloads, which can be utilized by pupils and teachers for learning and teaching history, but not exclusively for them. Thanks to an interior filter dividing the content, there are subsections as well: Education, History, Methodology, and Sources. The last section, really valuable for teachers, is Linkownia (Links). This is a set of useful links of museums, memory places, funds, aid schemes, educational resources, archives, digital libraries, research institutes and historical- -educational portals. In the end, it is worth mentioning that the webpage is an archive for materials from all the editions of the contest “Historia bliska” (“Close History”). The other virtual place, equally rich in content and interpretation possibilities, is “Świadkowie historii” (“Eyewitnesses to history”) – an educational programme and a website, mainly for teachers, operated by Polish National

17 http://uczyc-sie-z-historii.pl/pl/o-nas (accessed December 1, 2015). Michał Kierzkowski

98 Centre for Culture since 200818. The original purpose was to gather, archive and share in an electronic form the narratives and memoirs of forgotten, silenced or unknown heroes of the modern history. A further initiative – and up to this time the only one – for teachers and educators of the “Eyewitnesses to history” project involved a publication entitled A book for oral history. Handbook, prepared by scholars: Marta Kurkowska-Budzan, Ewelina Szpak, Andrzej Drobik, Marcin Jarząbek and Marcin Stasiak. The project was aimed at practitioners of oral history and it treated and presented it as an element of releasing the history understood in the traditional way also in the educational system from the previous standards of historical knowledge and introducing it to the new standards. The book contains also a practical guidebook for preparing, conducting and evaluating the oral history project. The project “Eyewitnesses to history” itself changed its priorities over time. Now it focuses only on promoting oral history e.g. through creating a comprehensive database of entities dealing with the idea of gathering memories and oral narratives. Eventually, I would like to mention the project “Archiwa społeczne”19 (“Community archives”) originated thanks to the initiative of the KARTA Centre and financed by the National Audio-visual Institute and the Pol- ish Ministry of Culture and National Heritage. This initiative provides an excellent database for history teachers, who include oral history in their lessons. The main purpose of this project is to create an independent grassroots archive movement, which would develop from many different associations, libraries and foundations, and which would form a network of community archives, which are being created. […] as an effect of the grassroots civic activity. Its main mission is an active work for saving and preserving the cultural heritage, and its purpose is to gather, preserve, develop and share materials of the non-government archive resources20. The community archives understood as a part of the database of the website – there are already 450 such entities – gather various materials such as memoires, pictures, documents from everyday social and local life, and of course the recorded narratives. Therefore, they are a supplement

18 www.swiadkowiehistorii.pl (accessed December 1, 2015). 19 http://archiwa.org/index.php (accessed December 1, 2015). 20 http://archiwa.org/as_definicja.php (accessed December 1, 2015). Oral history and historical education in Poland...

of the deficiency of knowledge about history of everyday life of common 99 people, which is insufficiently documented in many different state- ar chive resources.

Conclusions The presented overview of the possibilities and applications of oral history in Poland is only a trigger for further discussion. The role of oral history in the educational process in many countries in the world, and hopefully in Poland in the future as well, seems to fully justify the task I decided to take up. All the more so we still lack satisfactory analyses on the local market showing not only the potential of the presence of oral history at schools, but also the reason why it is essential, or even obvious that oral history should be taught at schools. Research conducted in Poland is mainly of practical form, similarly to the research in other countries. The theoretical look plays a secondary role or is of even lesser importance. The reality is that the researchers, instead of asking “how should we act, so that oral history could function as a fully-fledged form of the reflection about the past?” concentrate on the question “how can we benefit from oral history?” The lack of the theoretic look makes this method often the purposeless practice. It becomes a more or less reflective way of registering various stories without the awareness of the process of generating the historical source. I am far from the two extreme opposite attitudes, according to which we become either the supporters of the belief that it is necessary to assimilate all the knowledge about the topic to be able to go forward to the practical side of oral history, or we recklessly claim that the theory should wait until we are ensured that all living eyewitnesses to history are heard. Neither of these attitudes is comprehensible for me. Going back to the existence of oral history in the process of education – both practical and theoretical aspect of history need to be taught simultaneously. We have lost too much time to postpone any of the mentioned activities, or to treat any of them of greater importance. Oral history in the process of education of history is a way for running away from the existing primate of the factual and event-related, as well as the monumental one, burdened with the legacy of two great totalitarianisms of the 20th century. The oral history itself is a kind of a basis for building intergenerational relations, which are the ground for the sense of building the local community and the sense of its identity and integrity. This identity lets us discover all these little histories which make us more sensitive to other people. By taking a closer look at the past and learning it, one can better understand the present. Michał Kierzkowski

100 Michał The article deals with an issue of the possible applications of oral his- Kierzkowski tory to teaching history at Polish schools. The author states that oral Oral history and historical education in history as an element of educating young people should become a nat- Poland. Possibilities ural part of teaching processes. It can become a factor increasing their and application awareness of their local history and of the links connecting them with the previous generations. It is also an efficient way of avoiding teaching based only on archival facts and events. This statement is illustrated by chosen examples of the use of oral history at schools and discusses the possibilities of its further use. H e l g a Ó l a f s Anna Wojtyńska

[Reykjavík]

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Icelandic chapter in the Polish book: a narrative perspective on Polish migration to Iceland

Wrocławski Rocznik Historii Mówionej Rocznik VI, 2016 ISSN 2084–0578

Introduction1 “There is something strange – writes Tony Fielding2 – about the way we study migration. We know, often from personal experience, but also from family talk, that moving from one place to another is nearly always a major event. It is one of those events around which an individual’s biography is built. The feelings associated with migration are usually complicated, the decision to migrate is typically difficult to make, and the outcome usually involves mixed emotions. [...] Migration is a statement of an individual’s worldview, and is, therefore, an extremely cultural event. And yet, when we study migration scientifically, we seem to forget all this.” Indeed, in the search for theoretical generalizations, the complexity of migration experience and the intricacy of the decision making process tend to be inevitably simplified. Migration has been often explained by a push-pull model – the number of predominantly economic factors that on the one

1 We would like to thank our anonymous reviewers for very informative and extremely helpful comments. 2 T. Fielding, Migration and Culture, [in:] Migration Processes and Patterns, vol. 1, ed. by T. Champion, T. Fielding, London 1992, p. 201. Helga Ólafs, Anna Wojtyńska

102 hand push individuals from the place of origin and on the other pull to their destinations3. Migrants then appear either as rational agents making choices based on the pros and cons calculation or mere pawns governed by economic forces4. Although these factors play an important role in generating and structuring migration streams as well as clearly influence individuals’ decisions, it is often an impulse, emotions or coincidence that eventually de- termines the outcome. Recent developments in migration scholarship give much nuanced picture of international mobility, presenting it not only as economic but also social and cultural phenomena and indicating pervasi- ve reminiscences on sending and receiving societies. New approaches try to overcome previous shortcomings as well as more aptly combine macro and micro analyses5. Yet, in the academic literature, the attention is rarely paid to elusive aspects of migration process and to analyses going down to more personal levels (partly due to ethical concerns not to violate anonymity of the interlocutor). Differently, in the following article, we present the migration story of one Polish woman, whom we call Irena. We describe her daily routi- nes and reflect upon the challenges she confronts, doubts and feelings in the course of her stay in Iceland. We use the story of Irena in order to give more comprehensive understanding of migration experience on its intimate level. Focusing on single narrative does not imply disregard for broader processes that shape migrations. Conversely, we argue – following Caroline Bret- tell6 – that looking at the life of a particular person can inform our general knowledge about migration, migration patterns and migration experiences.

3 D. Massey, Theories of International Migration: Review and Appraisal, “Population and Development Review”, Vol. 19 (1993), No. 3, p. 431–466; Migration Decision Mak- ing: Multidisciplinary Approaches to Microlevel Studies in Developed and Develop- ing Countries, ed. by G. F. De Jong, R. W. Gardner, New York 1981. 4 T. Fielding, op. cit. 5 For review articles about advancements in migration studies, see for example: L. Basch, N. Glick Schiller, C. Szanton Blanc, Nations Unbound: Transnational Pro- jects, Postcolonial Predicaments, and Deterritorialized Nation-States, New York 1994; Migration Theory: Talking across Disciplines, ed. by C. Brettell, J. F. Hollifeild, New York 2000; A companion to Diaspora an Transnationalism, ed. by A. Quayson, G. Daswani, Wiley-Blackwell Publishers, 2013; An Anthology of Migration and Social Transformation: European Perspectives, ed. by A. Amelina, K. Horvath, B. Meeus, Brussels 2015. 6 C. Brettell, Anthropology and Migration: Essays on Transnationalism, Ethnicity, and Identity, Walnut Creek 2003. Icelandic chapter in the Polish book...

Applying a life story pertains to what is called a biographical approach 103 in the social sciences, which commonly refers to “collection and analysis of an intensive account of a whole life or portion of a life, usually by an in- depth, unstructured interview”7. While the usage of these perspectives in social research varies between different time periods and between various social disciplines8, life histories and in-depth interviews are traditionally an integral part of ethnographic work and anthropological writing9. An- thropologists are commonly engaged in collecting stories and producing narratives through interviews, informal conversations or by interpretation of the events witnessed when doing participant observation. However, to a different extent anthropologists integrate life narratives into their practice and process of analysis, allowing for more or less direct usage of several or just a single account from their informants. For some, life stories are of particular interest and they employ biographical or autobiographical documents in their analyses, or incorporate original personal sketches into anthropological texts10. The underlying presumption in favour of utility of life stories is that they can reveal “history and culture as lived” and help to grasp the insights of a given reality11. Correspondingly, the biographical method has been increasingly exercised in the migration research, including (or especially in) anthropological studies of migration, where authors widely refer to accounts of their interviewees or descriptions from the field-

7 R. Miller, Biographical Method, [in:] The A-Z of Social Research, ed. by R. L. Mil- ler, J. D. Brewer, London 2003, p. 15; see also: The Turn of Biographical Methods in Social Sciences: Comparative Issues and Examples, ed. by P. Chamberlayne, J. Bor- nat, T. Wengraf, London–New York 2000; Advances in Biographical Methods: Cre- ative Applications, ed. by M. O’Neill, B. Roberts, A. C. Sparkes, London–New York 2015. 8 The Turn of Biographical Methods…, op. cit.; B. Roberts, Biographical Research, Buckingham 2002; Advances…, op. cit. 9 L. L. Langness, G. Frank, Lives: Anthropological approaches to biography, Novato 1985. 10 For reviews and examples, see: L. L. Langness, G. Frank, op. cit.; Anthropology and Au- tobiography, ed. by J. Okely, H. Callawey, Abingdon 1992; J. L. Peacock, D. C. Holland, The Narrated Self: Life Stories in Process, “Ethos”, Vol. 21 (1993), No. 4, p. 367–383. 11 Ibidem, p. 367. Helga Ólafs, Anna Wojtyńska

104 work12. For instance, in his book about Mexican migrants in New York, Robert Courtney Smith elaborates on the nuances of transnational life with support of numerous references to experiences and narratives of his key informants collected in the course of an extensive multi-sited ethnography conducted in Mexico and New York13. Another interesting example is Micaela di Leonardo’s study of a group of Italian-American families in Northern California, where she combines oral history approach and auto- -ethnographical methods to produce a narrative interpretation of white ethnic identities, placing them in “the context of broader regional, national, and global economic-historical change”14. However, in most of these studies life-stories are typically applied to support the authors’ reasoning and to illustrate different aspects of migration process; they serve as starting points for further discussion or are incorporated into academic analysis. In our article, the biographical account constitutes an essential and actual part of the article. What is important, we tell the story of Irena in the form of literary journalism15. This means it does not clearly follow conventional academic writing, but is more of an example of a non-fiction essay. Yet, in our opinion it meets one of the purposes of this journal to present different applications of oral histories. Furthermore, the criticism of anthropological practice and representation along with acknowledging lack of transparency of ethnographical texts resulted in turn towards reflexivity and literatu-

12 Again, we would like thank our reviewers for turning our attention to existing academic literature applying biographical method to the studies of migration, as for example articles in the “Forum: Qualitative Social Research”, Vol. 4 (2003), No. 3; and review article U. Apitzsch, I. Siouti, Biographical Analysis as an Interdisciplinary Research Perspective in the Field of Migration Studies, “Research Integration” (2007), www.york.ac.uk/res/researchintegration/index.htm (accessed March 20, 2016). 13 R. C. Smith, Mexican New York: Transnational Lives of New Immigrants, Berkeley 2006. See also: P. Levitt, The Transnational Villagers, Berkeley 2001. 14 M. di Leonardo, The Varieties of Ethnic Experience: Kinship, Class and Gender among California Italian-American, Ithaca 1984, p. 12. See also her methodological discussion on combining ethnography and oral history: M. di Leonardo, Oral Histo- ry as Ethnographic Encounter, “Oral History Review”, Vol. 15 (1987), p. 1–20. 15 Helga Ólafs would like to thank Mark Kramer for introducing her to narrative journalism during his seminar at the University of Iceland in 2007. Icelandic chapter in the Polish book...

re16. More often ethnography is considered a kind of writing practice. Also, in 105 the times of “blurred genres”17, anthropologist increasingly resort to alternative ways of obtaining and presenting research and reaching the audience, for instance to creative writing, photography, film, art exhibitions or comic books18. Already Oscar Lewis emphasised importance of literary narration in production of anthropological knowledge. In his classical The Children of Sanchez19, he gave voice to five members of a Mexican family and so provided an epic picture of poverty culture. Such method – Lewis argued – “preserves for the reader the emotional satisfaction and understanding which the anthropologist experiences in working directly with his subjects but which is only rarely con- veyed in the formal jargon of anthropological monographs”20. More recently Maggie O’Neill and Ramaswami Harindranath21 pointed out the importance of biographical approach and artistic creation in participatory action research (ethno-mimesis) with asylum seekers and refugees. In their opinion, one way to combat simplistic, normative and often “sanitized, demonized or hidden”

16 Writing Culture: The Poetics and Politics of Ethnography, ed. by J. Clifford, G. E. Mar- cus, Berkeley 1986; N. Rapport, Representing Anthropology, Blurring Genres: Zig- zagging Towards Literary Anthropology, [in:] Mediterranean Ethnological Summer School, Vol. III, ed. by B. Baskar, B. Brumen, Ljubljana 1999; R. Behar, Ethnography in a Time of Blurred Genres, “Anthropology and Humanism”, Vol. 32 (2007), No. 2, p. 145–155; C. Geertz, Thick description: Towards and interpretative theory of culture, [in:] The Interpretation of Cultures, New York 1973, p. 3–30; V. Crapanzano, Preface & Introduction, [in:] Tuhami: Portrait of a Moroccan, Chicago 1980. 17 C. Geertz, Blurred Genres: The Refiguration of Social Thought, “American Scholar”, Vol. 49 (1980), No. 2, p. 165–179 (reprinted in C. Geertz, Local Knowledge: Further Essays in Interpretative Anthropology, New York 1983). 18 Advances in Biographical Methods: Creative Applications, ed. by M. O’Neill, B. Ro- berts, A. C. Sparkes, London–New York 2015. Journal “Anthropology and Huma- nism” is one of the platforms that encourage publishing in different genres, “including fiction and creative narration, poetry drama and photo essays” as it is informed on the web-side of the journal. An interesting example of research report being published in a form of a coming book see: A. Bartoszko, A. B. Leseth, M. Ponomarew, Public Space, Information Accessibility, Technology and Diversity at Oslo University College, Oslo 2010. 19 O. Lewis, Children of Sanchez: Autobiography of Mexican Family, New York 1961. 20 Ibidem. 21 M. O’Neill, R. Harindranath, Theorizing narratives of exile and belonging: the importance of Biography and Ethno-mimesis in “understanding” asylum, “Qualitative Sociology Review”, Vol. 2 (2006), No. 1, p. 39–53. Helga Ólafs, Anna Wojtyńska

106 representations of asylums is to “create spaces for the marginalized to speak for themselves”22. In their project they were collecting biographical narratives which were then represented through art-forms, such as photography, poetry and creative writing, and finally launched as an exhibition. In a similar spirit, we decided to present fieldwork results in a non-fiction narration. Literary journalism23 adopted by Helga Ólafs in her work, combines a journalist’s endeavour to present facts with literary concern for style and narrative construction. It forms a distinct genre and differs from daily newspapers writings in the level of personal involvement of the narrator. The narrator is expected to be intimate, frank, puzzled and even judgemental; which means applying “qualities academics and daily news reporters du- tifully avoid as unprofessional and unobjective”24. The reporter is not to become socialized as an insider, as Kramer puts it25, but to comprehend the subject’s experiences and perspectives. Literary journalism requires the journalist to be involved with the informant for months, or even longer, and stay alert for meaningful twists of narrative and character26. To be a narrative piece the prerequisite is firstly to have a character to build the story around. Here the character is Irena. Secondly, one needs a leading theme that the character is representing, which in this case is Irena’s migration experience combined with love affair she got engaged in. Narratives involve specific details that illustrate the story and take the reader there. For both the writer and the subject it takes trust, tact, firmness and endurance, and together they confront a wide spectrum of challenges in the period. This methodology in fact adapts the anthropological fieldwork of participant observation, especially the approach in ethnography that emphasizes the interactional character of data collection and life stories as co-constructed

22 Ibidem, p. 41, 43; see also: A. Thomson, Moving Stories: Oral History and Migration Studies, “Oral History”, Vol. 27 (1999), No. 1, p. 24–37; R. Coleman, Oral and Life His- tories: Giving Voice to the Voiceless, [in:] Qualitative Research in Journalism: Taking it to the Streets, ed. by S. Iorio, Mahwah 2004, p. 93–107. 23 Literary journalism is also referred to as narrative journalism or creative nonfiction. 24 M. Kramer, Breakable Rules for Literary Journalists, [in:] Literary Journalism: A New Collection of the Best American Nonfiction, ed. by N. Sims, M. Kramer, Ballantine 1995, p. 21–35. 25 Ibidem, p. 30. 26 Ibidem. Icelandic chapter in the Polish book...

by the teller and the listener27. For this reason literary journalism is also 107 referred to as ethnographic journalism28. The shift towards creative non-fiction in journalism can be seen as somehow parallel to the anthropological movement towards “person-centred” ethnography, focused on portraying lives of ordinary individuals. Both share a common purpose to transfer a stranger into a friend; and common premise that telling in depth story of a particular individual is a better way to familiarise the reader with distant cultures, convey directly the reality of lives different from ours, and so increase our understanding. Rather than presenting mere evidences, “the narratives breathe life into the facts”29, and so can be more appealing to the reader. For journalists the narration can often be a purpose in itself, the way to tell the story that “hugs and holds readers”30. Describing revealing moments in the lives of people enables the journalist to transform “tedious topics” into “tit- illating narrative”31. However, narrative journalism simultaneously can be informing, if focusing on socially relevant issues, and in this way it can influence imagination and sensitivity of the public. It is also bringing to life the voices of the underrepresented groups, in which again it converges with anthropological writing (and oral history), as already mentioned. Researchers have shown that immigrants are inconspicuous in the Icelandic media, and therefore find themselves as excluded from the dominant culture and political discourse. Ad- ditionally, they have been negatively portrayed and presented as a problems or a threat; often discussed in relation to crime news32. At the same time the voices of immigrants are hardly presented in the mainstream Icelandic media. Therefore, presenting migrants’ narratives can bring an unknown group closer

27 J. Cramer, M. McDevitt, Ethnographic journalism, [in:] Qualitative Research…, p. 127–144. 28 Ibidem. 29 J. L. Peacock, D. C. Holland, op. cit., p. 370. 30 B. Giles, Sharing the Secretes of Fine Narrative Journalism, “Nieman Reports”, No. 56 (2002), Vol. 1 , p. 8. 31 Ibidem. 32 H. Ólafs, Polish immigrants and Icelandic media, [in:] Integration or Assimilation? Polish immigrants in Iceland, ed. by M. Budyta-Budzyńska, Warsaw 2011; A. Woj- tynska, U. Skaptadóttir, H. Ólafs, The participation of immigrants in civil society and labour market, 2011, unpublished report available at: mark.hi.is/skyrslur (accessed March 20, 2016); H. Ólafs, M. Zielińska, “I started to feel worse when I understood more.” Polish immigrants and the Icelandic media, [in:] Rannsóknir í félagsvísindum XI, ed. by G. Th. Jóhannesson, H. Björnsdóttir, Reykjavík 2010. Helga Ólafs, Anna Wojtyńska

108 to the majority and balance the one-sided views usually presented in the media. In this way, narratives, give agency (advocacy) and empowerment, while applying creative writing gives a better chance to reach the broader audience. Accordingly, that is the purpose of this article. Importantly, the events in the story are not directly narrated by the informant, but mediated by Helga. Compiling the story of Irena, a sixty-year- -old Polish woman, who decided to come to work in Iceland in 2007, Hel- ga immersed herself in Irena’s life during her entire stay that lasted for 18 months. They came to unofficial agreement that Helga would write Irena’s story and in return she would assist in her integrating into the Icelandic society. In the course of her fieldwork, Helga participated in Irena’s everyday activities, following her to work, language courses and shopping, as well as played a vital part in her life. Since they did not have a common language, they communicated with the help of a dictionary mixing Icelandic, Polish and Italian. They remained in constant contact, mostly through text messages. Additionally, they met at regular and irregular intervals during that period for the interviews that were moderated by an interpreter. Some of the meetings were on Irena’s request as she needed emotional support and intimacy of personal contact. At the end, Helga had several hours of recordings of Irena’s story and reflections on her daily existence that were later transcribed, as well as photographic documentation and an extensive collection of text messages. As a result of such intense interaction, their lives became intertwined and the story of Irena became a part of Helga’s narration; narration of encounter with a stranger so to speak, and thus inevitably ethnocentric. This kind of research method poses obvious epistemological and ethical challenges. As- suming the role of Irena’s gatekeeper, trustee and adviser imminently implied moral considerations33. Moreover, Helga not only had direct effect on Irena’s life, but also had a decisive role in selecting what episodes to bring forward and which to leave in the background when writing the story. This clearly discloses their, after all, unequal positions, both as an author and a subject as well as a local and an outsider. This in turn requires reflexivity, a practice when the reporter becomes self-conscious about his or her social location in

33 This has been in a way acknowledged by Irena herself, when she was repeatedly addressing Helga as her godmother. Icelandic chapter in the Polish book...

the relation to the individual he or she writes about34. However, Helga’s posi- 109 tion and her role in telling of Irena’s story is clearly presented in the narration and in this way we tried to avoid illusion of objectivity.

The story of Irena Sometimes we say things without literally meaning them! Sometimes we do not think before we talk, or consider the meaning our words can have! I first met Irena in Italy in 2002. Her daughter was getting married to an Italian man, Mario, I got to know through a mutual friend. Four years later, in 2006, I met Irena again in Italy. I and a couple of friends from Iceland decided to rent a summer house along with Mario, his wife and her mother – our Irena. All together we spoke three different languages: Icelandic, Ita- lian and Polish, but communicated in English. Irena knew few words in Italian, the words in English she could speak were scarce, and she spoke no Icelandic! Her daughter explained to us that her life took a different path from what she had hoped. Her husband had left her for another woman, she had no job and her life annuity was not enough to live a decent life. She was trained as a needlewoman, and my friend, Alexander, ran a sewing room back in Iceland. Plenty of Poles had moved to Iceland at that time. And Alexander actually needed a needlewoman! “Why don’t you just come to Iceland?”, we said. Her daughter interpreted what we had suggested and that was it. Later that year I received a message from Mario: “Irena is coming to Iceland!” That is how it all started. Irena came to Iceland early in January 2007. We didn’t know each other when she arrived. But we were close when she left. Two women. Two generations. Two different languages. The airport was crowded with Poles greeting other Poles arriving in Iceland. It was a time of a the booming economy in Iceland that created an extensive need for foreign labour and thus resulted in an unprecedented migration to the country, predominantly from Poland. As I was waiting with my daughter Emma, we wondered if we would recognize Irena again. “She is a brunet- te? Isn’t she?”, I asked Emma. Finally Irena arrived with a big suitcase and a stroller and gave us a big smile and kissed us back and forth when she saw us and held us tight when we greeted her. “Dzień dobry” (Good morning) was all I could say, even though it was late in the afternoon. Those were

34 J. Cramer, M. McDevitt, Ethnographic Journalism, op. cit. Helga Ólafs, Anna Wojtyńska

110 the words I knew in Polish. Fortunately, I had learned a little Italian and Irena had picked up some Italian vocabulary from her stay in Italy with her daughter and son-in-law. I had bought a Polish-Icelandic and an Icelandic- -Polish dictionary for each of us. That is how we communicated for the next following days, or rather the next 18 months! We found Irena a place to stay; she started working at the sewing room and gradually got to know her way around the city, and even some words in Icelandic. One day we met downtown. She was walking through the snow, wearing a thick coat and a knitted cap. When she approached me she said: “Irena church”, in Icelandic and handed me an obituary of a young man. I smiled to her: she had decided to go to church and evidently she had joined a funeral. She had added another Icelandic word to her vocabulary. Ire- na showed me the room where she stayed. The landlord had bought some furniture, among other things from a sale from the American defence force. Irena would sleep on a mattress previously owned by an American soldier! She was excited to get to know her neighbours, as other Poles had rented rooms in the same house. “I have started to take the bus. I did so today and yesterday”, she explained to me through our dictionary communication. She added: “It is all going to be okay”. Irena was one of 6000 Poles registered in Iceland at the beginning of 2007, and one of 5600 to arrive in Iceland that year alone. The majority were men, not many in her own age; most of them coming to work at one of the many construction sites in the capital region. Besides this, Poles were finding jobs also in food processing or unskilled services like cleaning, caring for the elderly or in commerce as shop assistants35. I wanted to ask Irena so many questions but to do so I would need an interpreter. I was working at the Intercultural Centre at that time and was able to get access to one. The following weeks and months we met regularly or irregularly at the Centre and she texted me if she needed anything. I was there for her, but she was also there for me later, when we went together to visit her family in Warsaw.

35 A. Wojtyńska, History and characteristics of migration from Poland to Iceland, [in:] Integration or Assimilation?, op. cit. For other studies about Polish migrants in Ice- land see for example: M. Zielińska, Migration and Adult Education: time, place and power – Polish migrants in Reykjavík, Iceland, “Power and Education”, Vol. 5 (2013), No. 2. Icelandic chapter in the Polish book...

“Life is not always predictable!” 111 “My life didn’t turn out...”, she cried when we had our first meeting at the In- tercultural Centre. She wasn’t able to finish her sentence. She told me about the time when her daughter had a baby and she went to Italy to help her with the baby. “I stayed with her for three months but at that time my husband met another woman and fell in love with her”, she said. “My life annuity in Poland is very low, so life is very hard”. I wanted to put my arms around her but instead I continued to ask her how she felt. “I felt very good when I arrived in Keflavík and was happy to see you, and grateful for your assistance”, she said and smiled to me. She was satisfied with her job and the people she worked with were nice to her. She had even got to know a Russian woman working with her, and since Irena had learned Russian in grade school, they were able to communicate with each other. I asked her if she wouldn’t like to meet other Poles in Iceland? “Yes, of course”, she said. The next step was to sign her up for an Icelandic language course. That decision was to lead her to new adventures.

Irena goes back to school after more than a 40-year-long break “Klukkan er korter yfir fimm”The ( clock is quarter past five), explains Anna the Icelandic teacher and points to an explanatory diagram at the black- board. “And when the big hand of the clock is 15 minutes to six, then the clock is quarter to six. And when the hand is on 30, then the clock is half, or 30 minutes to six or past five”, she explains in Icelandic. The students watch her – this is not going to be easy! It was the first Icelandic lesson of five, a so called intensive course. Few students have attended while six cancelled in the last minute. Anna can’t rely on English to explain as Irena and another student from Poland understand limited English. This will be interesting, I think to myself! “What is your name?” asks Anna Irena. Irena looks at me with a question mark written all over her face, but I ignore her question. Anna helped her by saying: “My name is Anna. What is your name?” Each correct answer boosts up the confidence among her fellow students. Each sentence is a small victory, one of many. Learning Icelandic turned out to be difficult for Irena like for many Po- les that after many years got back to school. Moreover, most of them did not plan to settle in Iceland and found it a bit useless to learn a language spoken by so few. The classes were often held after many hours of work, which did not help the students to concentrate. Trying to find and pronounce words in this strange language made them often feel humble as I got Helga Ólafs, Anna Wojtyńska

112 to realize when we sat down with the interpreter. “I got a headache after the first lesson. When I hear people talk Icelandic I am fully aware it is going to be difficult learning it. I am rather shy and if anyone would have said to me five years ago that I would end up alone in Iceland I would have asked the one if he is not okay.” She said that her daughter had supported the idea of coming to Iceland and helped her to make the decision to come. “At first I didn’t take it seriously, but maybe this is my chance in life”. Even though Irena was adjusting in Iceland the first few days had been difficult for her. I realised that after a telephone call from her daughter: “My mom is so lonely. She feels like she is alone in the universe and has no one to lean to”. I felt so bad for Irena. She said that everything is okay during our previous meetings, but that is obviously not true. I reassured her daughter that Irena was doing fine and we all did our best. But there was a sorrow in her voice. I knew the reason; she was unhappy in Italy and she missed her mother. They were close. But soon the sun would shine in Irena’s life. I received the news all the way from Italy that Irena had met a Polish man in Iceland.

“Too old to learn Icelandic but love doesn’t ask about age!” “Tell me all about it”, I asked her when we met to prepare for our trip to Warsaw. “What?” She replied grinning. “Well, I read about it in the tablo- ids”, I said laughing. Irena: “I have to thank you that I got to know him. You are my god-mother”, answers Irena laughing. “You know him!” Irena says. I try browsing through all the Polish men I know in my mind. “We met at the Icelandic course. He then invited me to his home. We drank beer and then we have met since in a coffee house. His name is Mirek”, she replies and smiles like a shy girl. I started laughing and I tell her that I and Anna, her teacher, had actually had a discussion about introducing them to one another. Irena is different. She seems happy. So I ask her how she anticipa- tes her nearest future. She replies without hesitating: “As long as Mirek will stay in Iceland, so will I.”

“I would rather learn English” Irena’s success in the Icelandic language course was to find her love, but she refused to go back to learn more Icelandic. Even though both I and the interpreter encouraged her to learn more Icelandic she refused. And our visit to the Polish Mini Market in Reykjavík didn’t help. I asked the owner Icelandic chapter in the Polish book...

what they were talking about as Irena starts laughing as they spoke. “I just 113 told her it is a piece of cake to learn Icelandic. It just takes time. Maybe five years or so”, the owner replies. “Thank you. This was very helpful”, I replied and Irena put on a triumphant smile. “Irena learn English. No Icelandic”, she said with confidence in her voice. In Mini Market I felt like a stranger. It was all new to me. Like I had suddenly arrived somewhere else than in Reykjavík. The food packages were so bright and colourful. But I felt Irena was relieved, and she smiled when she saw a crossword magazine in Polish and other products she had missed for many months. Mini Market was a society within another society. Costum- ers picked up their weekly papers and Polish advertisements covered the walls. We saw a familiar face; one of the interpreters from the Intercultural Centre. The world is small for the Polish society in Iceland. I was glad that I took Irena to Mini Market. I was happy to see her smile and go home with Polish products in a shopping bag. This good feeling was not to last. Few days later I received an e-mail from her son-in-law: “She hates the dark. She is lonely and she feels unwelcome among other Poles. She says it is typical among Poles. Those who came first don’t want anything to do with those who arrived recently. And they don’t try to hide their opinion. The Polish shop is miserable. Very old newspapers, no books and really unexciting variety of products.” I was totally miserable after receiving the message from Mario but I appreciated it. She was here to stay unless she would decide differently.

Keeping secrets in Warsaw The day has finally arrived. We were going to Warsaw. We were both excited. I watched her cross her chest before takeoff. We stopped in London and while I was looking for a place to sit down for a beer she unpacked her sandwich from home and offered me the other half. I accepted and while I took a bite of the two days old bread I came to think about how different our world were. “Don’t tell anyone about my relationship with Mirek”, Ire- na said in a combination of Italian and Icelandic as we had eventually sat down at the airport with a beer and enjoying our potato skins waiting for our flight to Warsaw. “I don’t want my family to know for now”, she added. “Your secrets are my secrets”, I reply and saw that she felt relieved. It was a happy re-union when Irena and her son Witek met at the airport in Warsaw. He drove us to her home. I was shocked. I had seen pictures from Eastern-Europe and now I was there. I looked at the big gray blocks Helga Ólafs, Anna Wojtyńska

114 side by side and giant advertisements covered some of the walls. The walls in the hallway of Irena’s block were mint-green coloured and I smelled cat urine when I walked in the house. We had to go through a door with iron grills. You could not go through any door without unlocking them. Finally we walked into her apartment and she welcomed me to it; a small apartment with one bedroom. She insisted that I would sleep in the bedroom and she would be in the living room and would not take a no for an answer when I tried speaking against it. Her mother, Maria, a woman close to 90 years old, who lives in the same building, came shortly after we arrived. She cried when she saw Irena. She kissed me and talked to me in Polish. I didn’t understand a word she said. Her son Witek brought a basket filled with Polish gourmet food. Irena offered them Icelandic dried fish and I looked at them chewing the fish with inscrutable looks on their faces. The family had lived all their adult life in this apartment and I wandered how she and her husband with their two children fitted in a one bedroom apartment. Irena had a tight schedule while in Warsaw; family meetings, doctor appoint- ments, and we agreed upon that the Icelandic Eurovision song was a little better than the Polish one. Irena and I were back in Iceland. Irena and Mirek had been in close contact while we stayed in Warsaw. We often smiled secretly to each other when they were texting and her relatives were close by. Sometimes she walked to other room to be able to talk to him in privacy. Just before coming to Warsaw Irena and Mirek were planning to start living together. Irena and I looked at several apartments to find suitable one for them. She was so excited. But now she heard nothing from him. He had gone back to Poland. Irena was sad. My birthday was coming up and I had invited Irena for my birthday party. I received a text from her in the morning: “Helga. Irena not come. Irena feel bad. Mirek no contact”. For the next few days I received more similar text messages from her. We met. She had finally contacted Mirek. He had forgotten his phone and didn’t remember her telephone-number. I was relieved that she had finally heard from him. But it struck me that something was wrong. “Yes, me stress no good. Irena stress no good. Stress my husband”, she said when we met and handed me a birthday present. She was sorry that she hadn’t come. I tried to cheer her up. Summer was here and the weather was good. “Bello summer”, she said and smiled.

Icelandic chapter in the Polish book...

“I don’t feel like having fun” 115 Irena was sad. Her relationship with Mirek was over and she missed her daughter and her grandchild she hadn’t seen for almost two years. “I know so few people in Iceland. There is nothing for me to do during the nights. I mostly talk on the phone to Poland”, she said with such a sad voice. I felt so bad for her and because of her loneliness, so far away from her family. She had got to know people through Mirek but after they stopped seeing each other she didn’t meet with them any longer. “In Poland families stick together and after he broke up with me I automatically stopped meeting friends I got to know through him,” she replies. “But what do you want to do?” I ask like a worrying mother. “I would like to go to Italy to see my daughter. I am bored. It is boring here. Everyone works days and nights. It is difficult doing crosswords every night and go to sleep after work without having done anything”, says Irena and looks at me and her interpreter: “Maybe I should work more so I won’t have to be so much alone. Then I can save more money”. Irena talks about how the Euro has improved and she has already lost a lot of her savings. The Euro is worth almost 100 Icelandickrónur having been previously around 80 ISK. The same time has the Polish zloty gained towards the Euro. “It doesn’t make any sense for Poles working in Iceland any longer”, she says with sadness in her voice. “The reason that I didn’t want to learn more Icelandic is that I don’t intend to stay here very much longer. I am a living example of many Poles that come and don’t know for how long they will stay. They often stay longer than they had planned but for that reason they always postpone learning Icelandic”, Irena says, and adds: “I have already been in one course and met one man. That is enough”, she says laughing. Mirek is still in Iceland at that time but they no longer have contact. “I don’t know why”, she says. It came as a surprise for her but she is doing okay, but misses the people she got to know through him. “I haven’t been successful with men in my life.” She has contact with some Poles but they work a lot, and many at irregular shifts. The young people meet more during the nights, they go out for a drink. “This is not for me”, she says. “I don’t feel like having fun”.

Lost fifth of her savings All the time in Iceland Irena had saved money. She had lived sparingly and taken available extra jobs. For a time being Irena and Mirek planned to buy a house together in Warsaw and she had saved over one million Icelandic krónur. But the króna was dropping. She monitored the currency in the daily Helga Ólafs, Anna Wojtyńska

116 paper and often showed it to me. She was getting worried in March 2008 and texted me: “Good day Helga. Helga question. Euro today cost 104,29 krónur. Change? No change? Wait. Helga decide what do. Maybe talk to man?” I tried to explain the uncertainty and I would try to ask around for advice. But the answers were not clear. A few days later I received another text message: “Good evening Helga. What to do? Euro change, no??? Speak to man?” I told her that she would have to make a decision whether to change all her savings or part of it. To a large extent our communications were through texts, and our dictionaries were used a lot. When she decided to go to the bank to change her Icelandic krónur to Euro she had lost fifth of her savings. It was a good decision as the króna continued to lose its value. In the beginning of July 2008 we had our last meeting with an interpreter. I was reluctant. She had become a big part of my life. I felt responsible for her. There were times I got exhausted, but I did care for her, and she sure could make me laugh. Yet the responsibility was overwhelming at times. I received numerous following text messages from her: “Irena fara ey- rnalokkur” (Irena go earing). I was never to find out what she meant. Maybe she looked at a wrong line in her dictionary. Communicating through a dictionary can never be more than limited. A better dictionary was expensive. She couldn’t afford it, and neither could I. “I am very happy” – she says although I know that her feelings had been hurt. “I got to know many people and everyone was so good to me. I am very happy that I decided to come here, I am happy with everything unless the fall of the Icelandic króna towards Euro”, she tells me laughing and I recall how emotional she was and her fear when she watched her saving almost go up in smoke in front of her. “Poles who live here, live for work. They think about work every hour of the day. Life is work. They think about work, save money and go back to Poland and buy an apartment or a car. I do also know people that live here happily with their families and they want to live here until they are ripe for old age pension. While people have work and can work most people want to be here. But of course the fall of the króna has changed plans for many”. At the turn of September and October 2008 Iceland was hit by financial crisis that started period of economic recession in the country. Three major banks were nationalised. The value of króna dropped significantly, leaving many Icelanders heavily indebted, especially those who took loans in foreign currency. Government introduced strict monetary policy, limiting international transfers. In the aftermath of the collapse, thousand of people, including immigrants, lost their jobs. The events led to social unrest and Icelandic chapter in the Polish book...

many went on streets to protest. Immigrants seemed particularly confused, 117 not always understanding what is happening; without a job and not certain about their future in the country.

End of a chapter, and the beginning of a new one “What about Mirek?”, I asked her at our last meeting. “When I first met him I wasn’t particularly fond of him. He wasn’t my type. But he was caring and gentle so I came to like him. In fact our relationship never ended. It just was over when he went back to Poland. When he came back he never contacted me. He didn’t call or explain to me why he wanted to end our relationship. I think he is just like this – very different from how he was when I got to know him in the beginning. It must have been a game for him, a game that he played”, she explained with sadness. But – the sound of her voice suddenly changed when she told me she had met someone else. “He is a cab driver. I got to know him through a Polish woman who cleaned his house. When he said goodbye to me he said he loved me”, she said laughing. “Look. Most Icelandic men are handsome but he is not. But he is a really good man and sweet and good to be around him. But he wasn’t handsome enough”, Irena says and laughs loud. Irena went back to Italy where I got to know her. Her brother had offered her a job but she did not accept that. Before she went to Italy, she stopped by in Warsaw to say goodbye again. She had saved enough to be able to be with her daughter and her grand-daughter. To start a new chapter.

Conclusions We have presented the story of Irena mediated through Helga’s narration about the time they shared in Iceland. Applying non-fiction writing we tried to avoid producing a static picture, but instead we provide a dynamic encounter between two women – Irena, a 60-year-old Polish woman, and Helga, a 40-year-old journalist, who became close to Irena during her stay in Iceland. A migrant and a journalist. Therefore, we were able to show multidimensional position of an individual, not limited to her migrant status. We present our character, a middle aged divorced woman, as a person with all her complexities, full of emotions, hopes and expectations. Although focused on the particular person, the story reveals some issues that can be familiar to many of the Polish migrants that are living in Iceland or many migrants in general. It discloses some common elements of the everyday reality as experienced by Poles in Iceland – their struggles Helga Ólafs, Anna Wojtyńska

118 with integration and learning Icelandic, encounters with Icelanders and relations with other Poles. As many other Poles, Irena took advantage of opened labour market in European Union to search for work abroad. Like many migrants, she relied on informal contacts to get help in finding job, accommodation and emotional support. Moreover, the Irena’s example illustrates so-called migrants’ transnationalism, the maintained relations with family and relatives across the borders; occasional visits or frequent contacts mediated by communication technology – phone calls, text massages, e-mails and skype. As for Irena, it is not only linkages back to home country, where her son was still living, but also included Italy where her daughter had moved. Again, it shows how the geographical borders of our lived-spaces are stretching nowadays. Yet, it is primarily a story about Irena; as it was our main concern to contextualise migration experience on the intimate level of an individual, which in our opinion gives a better understanding of the interplay between different factors influencing one’s choices and decisions. Migration rarely is a complete project, but often involves ongoing personal “struggles” whether to continue to live abroad, return home or move elsewhere, so the initial decision needs to be constantly re-evaluated and re-assured. Encouraged by Helga and prompted by her family situation, Irena decided to come to Iceland, even not fully anticipating what she can expect in the country. The story of Irena brings close the very meaning of migration and how it is subjectively perceived. It seems that for Irena coming to Iceland was her chance for better life, break from her old routine and a new beginning. Definitely, it takes courage to migrate to another country. Moving to Iceland, Irena added a whole new chapter, totally different from what she had written insofar. Irena had hopes, expectations without knowing who they were. A new purpose. Love and loss. She missed and she was missed. Confrontation with the reality challenged her decision and she needed a new reason to continue being in Iceland. It was a love affair that gave her a purpose and helped her to conquer the loneliness she had suffered from. Eventually, when her relationship came to an end, combined with new un- favoured economic situation, she decided to move away. Apparently even though migration is a “major event” it does not have to be a definite one. When she wrote the last paragraph of the Icelandic chapter she was enri- ched with new experience, but with anticipation and not turning back she left to start a new one. Icelandic chapter in the Polish book...

The paper presents a narrative perspective on Polish migration to Ice- Helga Ólafs,119 Anna Wojtyńska land based on one example of a woman, called Irena. Her biography Icelandic chapter in the served for an anthropological analysis used in biographical approach Polish book: a narrative in social sciences with the assumption that the story of one life of perspective on Polish migration to Iceland a particular person can give some general knowledge – in this case about migration patterns and experiences. The story of Irena presented in this article is also an interesting example of the narrative journalism, since the biography is presented like a non-fiction essay, written by a journalist who accompanied Irena for several months during her stay in Iceland and was actually a part of her migration experience.

Maria Jóhönnudóttir

[Reykjavík]

● ● ● ● ● ●

Oral Tradition and Oral History in Iceland from Settlement to Present Day

Short survey

Wrocławski Rocznik Historii Mówionej Rocznik VI, 2016 ISSN 2084–0578

Introduction Oral history has been well known in Iceland for centuries, but in a very different form than it is seen today. Poems and rhymes were passed on verbally from one generation to the next, like the Old Norse poetry, Edda poems (Ice. Eddukvæði), before being transcribed to parchment. Traditionally, oral history as we know it today, especially before the year 2006, has not been used to a great extent in Iceland. The Centre of Oral History in Iceland was established in 2007, and has had considerable impact, not only on the collection of material, but also on introducing oral history to the public, as well as scholars. Some historians used the oral history method before 2007, but presently it has become a more common practice in historical research. Life experience provides access to the everyday lives of people to historians, as well as important events seen through the people’s eyes. The use of oral history in Iceland is very similar to that in the United Kingdom, where historians use this as a tool to reach new sources of various marginalized groups within societies. Groups like refugees and immigrants, as well as ho- mosexuals, had limited accessed to the media and have been almost invisible in Icelandic history, with very few written sources concerning these groups. Maria Jóhönnudóttir

122 In the first part of this article, I will discuss oral tradition in Iceland from the beginning of the settlement in the year 874. In the second part, I will discuss how oral history was practiced in the 20th century, how it has changed and how the method of oral history is taught in the History Department of the University of Iceland. In the third and last part I will discuss three studies of oral history in the 21th century in Iceland.

Oral Tradition in the Past in Iceland In Iceland, oral tradition has been known since the early settlement in the 9th century and before written sources were available, culture, poetry and a variety of knowledge were preserved through oral transmission. Princi- ples and information from society were passed between generations in the form of stories and poems. Ritual and worship wrapped themselves around the spoken word, either through song or poetry. Legislation was passed and sentences were rendered, without the lawspeaker (Ice. lögsögumaður) having the law written down1. It is believed that the parliament, the Alþingi, was established around the year 930, and the law, parliamentary session and procedural rules of an assembly were all preserved in oral transmission. Each year the lawspeaker had to recite a third of the laws of the country2. Studies on the preservation of information have shown how long accounts or narratives can survive, even for centuries. It does not necessarily mean that the narrative is historically accurate, as stories change with each performance. Formulae were used to remember the narrative. In Iceland, you can see these formulae, like special rules for poetry, such as metre (Ice. bragarháttur), alliteration (Ice. stuðlasetning), rhyme (Ice. rím) and the rhythm of poetry (Ice. hrynjandi í kveðskap). The ancient Norse poetry, the Edda poems, and much court poetry (Ice. dróttkvæði), were preserved in oral transmission until the 13th century, when they were written down on parchment3. Another example of oral transmission in Iceland in the past centuries, is the so-called Turkish invasion. The corsairs were not from Turkey but

1 See: Handritin heima (Runes and oral transmission), www.handritinheima.is/sagan/ upphafritunar/upphaf_bokagerdar.htm (accessed November 15, 2015). 2 See: Alþingi (Parliament), 2004, http://www.althingi.is/pdf/isl.pdf (accessed Novem- ber 18, 2015). 3 Handritin heima..., op. cit. Oral Tradition and Oral History in Iceland from Settlement...

from North Africa, Algiers, and a few of them were from Europe. The reason 123 why it is called the Turkish invasion is because Algiers was than under the rule of the Ottoman Empire4. In 1627, two groups of corsairs attacked the Icelandic coast. The first group made an attack in Grindarvík, looted money and abducted people, but the other group came from Algiers and attacked the East coast, capturing 110 people, and then sailed to Vestmannaeyjar (the Westman Islands). The battle was fierce and about forty people were killed and four hundred taken captive. The people were transported to North Afri- ca and sold into slavery, but about ten percent of them were bought back for money procured by the church and the king. Sources found on this event are based primarily on three stories. Two of these three stories are based on oral testimonies. There are the reports of Kláus Eyjólfsson, lawspeaker and farmer in Landeyjar, who wrote down the story, which he based on oral testimonies from conversations that he had with those who escaped, and his own examination of the evidence in Vestmannaeyjar. Another story is Rev. Ólafur Egilsson’s Reisubók; in this book he describes how he was taken captive and shipped to Algiers, the year he stayed there and the journey back home. In this narrative, we get to know his feelings and thoughts about God, his family and the people in Algeria, who were Muslims. The third story is the story of Björn Jónsson from Skarðsá, based on the two previous narratives and letters as well as on other written sources5.

Oral History in the 20th Century In the 20th century, Icelandic historians paid little attention to oral history. In recent decades, however, they have increasingly been pursuing oral sources, and there are a few signs of it, e.g. in books where the method of oral history has been used, like Togarasaga Magnúsar Runólfssonar skip- stjóra, from 1983, written by historian Guðjón Friðriksson. This book gives an idea of the fisherman’s standard of living in Reykjavík in the early 20th century. The practice of oral history was mainly broadcast by the National Radio in the 20th century. In the summer of 1983, the National Radio recorded accounts from 30 working class people who were asked about their lives in the interwar period6.

4 E. Laxness, Icelandic saga s-ö, Reykjavík 1995, p. 94. 5 Þorsteinn Helgason, Turkish invasion as memory, “Ritið“, 3 (2013), p. 120–121. 6 Jón Guðnason, On oral sources, “Saga”, 1 (1989), p. 15–16. Maria Jóhönnudóttir

124 In 2005, a group of people discussed amongst themselves how to develop the method of oral history within Icelandic history and a few interesting projects had been carried out. Oral history in Iceland was not as popular as in many neighboring countries over the past 25 years. Oral sources were dispersed all over the country and it was necessary to gather them together in one location. Many of them were owned by private companies, individuals, museums and institutions. It was known that various scholars and writers had also used that kind of sources in their work, but it can be said that little tradition on the use of oral history has existed among historians in their own research, so as in teaching in the History Department in University of Iceland. The History Department has no specific courses on the method of oral history. In the B.A. program, there are three mandatory related programs in history: Making History; History of Historical Writing and Philosophy of History; and Concept of History and Presentation of Historical Work. In the first two courses, students get just a glimpse at the oral history method, but nothing more7. That is much different from Iceland’s neighboring countries, e.g. Malmö University in Sweden, which put oral history into their curriculum, even though it gives students a chance to become acquainted with another perspective for evaluating the past and is often more interesting for students rather than written sources. Listening to oral history interviews often better connects them with the past events than reading from paper documents. When overseas oral sources can be obtained through libraries, history associations, museums and schools, in Iceland oral sources can now be found gathered in specific collections in the Centre for Oral History in Reykjavík. Learning oral history method helps students to distinguish different kinds and categories of sources, like primary sources and secondary sources, and to assess their value. Oral history allows students to understand the past firsthand and experience how history affects the emotions and lives of individuals. One of the aims of the present of oral history for history students is that with it they have an opportunity to use this method in their own historical research. It is a part of the debate on the objectivity

7 See: History, BA (courses in 2015–2016), [in:] University of Iceland Course Catalogue, https://ugla.hi.is/kennsluskra/index.php?tab=nam&chapter=namsleid&id=056060 _20156&kennsluar=2015 (accessed November 18, 2015). Oral Tradition and Oral History in Iceland from Settlement...

and bias of history, memory and its limitations, as well as the interpretation 125 of historical information. Last year, at the History Department there were two courses that introduced students to the method of oral history. In both cases students used the method of oral history in their research in a practical way: they had to find a interviewee, make interviews and process them in a scientific way. One of the courses was thematically devoted to immigrants (“Immigrants and migration to Iceland 1900–2008”) and the other to the so called Cold War (“The End of History? The Collapse of Communist Rule in Eastern Europe 1989–1991”). Moreover the History department at the Uni- versity of Iceland offered a particular course on the method of oral history8.

Three Examples of Oral History Studies in Iceland in the 21st century Iceland has not received many refugees since 1956, which is when the first such a group arrived in Iceland. From that time and until 2015, 549 refugees had been granted asylum on the island. In 2006, it was 50 years since those first 52 refugees came to Iceland from Hungary, fleeing the country when the Soviet army invaded Hungry in 19569. This event was considered a milestone for the Icelandic society, therefore, the Centre for Oral History decided to interview those from the refugees who were still alive, register their accounts, and process their oral testimonies. On the website of the Centre for Oral History one can listen to a fragments of an interview taken with Mikael Fransson, who was among those who fled to Iceland in 195610. He was born in Hungary in 1935 and after coming to Iceland he worked as a commercial illustrator and designer and was a pioneer in that field in Iceland. He married an Icelandic woman, and at the time when the interview was recorded he already had two grown up daughters. He was interviewed at his home, where he told the story of his actually two escapes from his country: first, during World War II and the second one in 1956. He also described how he felt when he arrived

8 Birna Björnsdóttir, Oral history and history teaching, “Saga”, 2 (2008), p. 204, 206, 208, 210–211. 9 See: 50 years since Hungarian refugees came to Iceland 24.12.2006, The Red cross in Iceland, http://www.raudikrossinn.is/page/rki_frettir&detail=1001640 (accessed October 31, 2015). 10 Hungarian refugees, Centre of Oral History, http://munnlegsaga.is/index.php? page=ungversku-flottamennirnir (accessed October 31, 2015). Maria Jóhönnudóttir

126 in Iceland, leaving behind everything that was familiar to him: language, country, culture, family and friends, and how his life has been since then11. Of the eleven Hungarian refugees who were still alive in 2007, unfortunately, only two people were interviewed and it is quite unlikely that any more interviews will be done in this project because of the refugees’ age12. There is another institution that has collected oral sources, but in a very different way: the National Museum of Iceland (Ice. Þjóðminjasafn Íslands), which role is to increase and disseminate knowledge of the cultural heritage of the Icelandic nation from the beginnings to the present day13. The museum has sent out a questionnaire with the purpose of gathering information on the lives of “ordinary people”. It’s worth noting that this year Icelandic society celebrates an important anniversary – 100 years since women over 40 were eligible to vote in Iceland. On that occasion the museum is looking for sources from the public regarding the “conditions of the sexes” in Iceland from the late 20th century to the present day. Respondents had to submit written replies based on their memories on this topic, the answers could be as long as the authors wanted and they could submit their names if they wished, but were also permitted to remain anonymous. However, they were asked to reveal their age, gender, residence and profession. The questions regarded the following areas: study and work, home and parenting, childbirth and family size, participation in social activities and attitudes towards gender. The data gathered in this project will be registered in an electronic database and will be made available to scholars as well as to the public14. The third study discussed here, is the investigation by Dr. Íris Ellen- berger, who is an Icelandic historian. In her doctoral thesis she used oral history as a part of her research methods, studying the history of Danish

11 First refugee in Iceland, Centre of Oral History, January 9th 2007, http://munnlegsaga. is/index.php?page=fyrsti-flottamadurinn-a-islandi (accessed November 14, 2015). 12 Collection MMS 23 – Refugee in Iceland, Centre of Oral History, 2007, http://einkaskjol.is/index.php/0nmn6 (accessed November 18, 2015). 13 See: About museum, National Museum of Iceland, http://www.thjodminjasafn.is/ um-safnid/ (accessed November 25, 2015). 14 List 122: conditions of the sexes, 2015, dispatch document, National museum of Ice- land, research in progress, http://www.thjodminjasafn.is/minjar-og-rannsoknir/ thjodhattasafn/rannsoknir/rannsoknir-i-gangi/nr/4663 (accessed November 14, 2015). Oral Tradition and Oral History in Iceland from Settlement...

immigrants in Iceland15. In her ongoing studies she will investigate the fel- 127 lowship of lesbian feminists in the 9th decade of the last century and there are two reasons why she wants to use the oral history method in that research. The first and basic reason is the lack of written sources to this subject. Secondly the method of oral history gives her the ability to challenge a certain settled view of history16. By the mid-20th century, LGBT people truly were the hidden group in Icelandic society, because they were either in hiding or had moved to Denmark. In 1978 an organization “Samtökin 78” was founded17, fighting for the rights of the LGBT community and educating the public about the matter. Prejudice against the homosexual community was very severe in Iceland in the 20 century and through the years of struggle they gain rights now comparable to heterosexual people18. The law on registered partnerships was passed by the Parliament in the 1996 and on marriages in 2010. This way equal human rights became an important Icelandic export commodity and foreign gay people migrated to Iceland. Íris Ellenberger studies how the homosexual people remember the story and those points of view are the framework of the collective memory of this group, becoming a part of national history and memory. The picture underlines that Iceland embraced those people with open arms, but it also includes a certain forgetfulness – the unpleasant memories are swept under the carpet as they are not consistent with the idea of Icelandic society as friends of human rights19. The research of Dr. Ellenberger will directly or indirectly conflict with the accounts that are the foundation of the collective memory of this group, and at the same time, on the national memory. She will use the written sources from both the archive and the media, but since the association is a marginal group it is very likely that such data is scarce. Therefore, this is a suitable opportunity to use the oral history

15 Íris Ellenberger, Danish immigrants in Iceland 1900–1980: social status, integration and cross-nationality, Reykjavík 2013. 16 Eadem, Nations memories and oral history in the light of LGBT nationalism, Con- gress Memory, narrative and oral history (October 2, 2015). 17 78 Associations. Association of lesbian and gay in Iceland, City Archive in Reykjavík, private archive no. 297, http://www.borgarskjalasafn.is/Portaldata/21/Resources/ borgarskjalasafn/skjalaskra/felog/Samtoekin_78 (297).pdf (accessed November 18, 2015). 18 See: Íris Ellenberger, Nations memories…, op. cit. 19 Ibidem. Maria Jóhönnudóttir

128 method. This will be useful in the study of conflict and different interests within marginalized groups. Method of oral history might help to break up the ideas of homosexual people at this time as a single unit with the same interests, goals and desires20.

Conclusion In this article I gave a very brief overview of how the oral tradition and oral history that has been used in Iceland from the beginning of the settlement in 874 to the present day, when history, culture, ethics, etc. was preserved in oral transmission passed from one generation to the next. A good example of that is the Edda poems and the history of the Turkish invasion. But practice of the oral history method is a fairly new phenomenon. Ice- landic scholars did not use oral history in the first few decades of the 20th century. However oral history has gradually gained more respect in Iceland and has become increasingly common as part of the research method and more accepted, especially over the last ten years. This is especially true since the Centre for Oral History was established in 2007. Nevertheless, oral history has not achieved the same popularity among scholars if compared with our neighboring countries. We can see increasing use of oral history method in Iceland; more and more academics and institutions are using this method to gather information about the “common people” and their everyday lives. Therefore, the use of oral history in Iceland is primarily history from below. Powerless or oppressed social groups receive a voice and are able to bring forth new information.

20 Ibidem. Oral Tradition and Oral History in Iceland from Settlement...

The paper gives a short look at the development of the oral tradition in Maria 129 Jóhönnudóttir Iceland, where passing the laws and knowledge about the past events Oral Tradition verbally from one generation to the other was a crucial way to pre- and Oral History serve tradition and identity of the nation since the beginnings. The in Iceland from Settlement Author also presents how the approach to the oral history method in to Present Day. Iceland changed in the past few decades. It becomes more and more Short survey popular among scholars and society in general, especially since the Center for Oral History was established in Reykjavík in 2007. In the article one can read about the latest oral history projects, concerning among others ethnic and sexual minorities in Iceland, and the specificity of Icelandic approach to oral history method.

M ATERIAŁY

ŹRÓDŁOWE / SOURCE

MATERIALS

Christine Przybyła-Long “And she helped four thousand people become citizens of the United States”

● ● ● ● ● ●

edited by Joanna Wojdon

[Wrocław]

Wrocławski Rocznik Historii Mówionej Rocznik VI, 2016 ISSN 2084–0578

Introduction There are more than 9 million Americans of Polish origin, according to the US censuses. Most of them are descendants of the mass migration from the turn of the 20th century, when according to various estimates between 1 and 2 million people came from Polish territories to the United States1. This wave was stopped by World War I and then by the US anti-immigration laws of 1921 and 1924. The DP Act of 1948 opened the next larger influx of Polish immigrants and the “Solidarity” immigration in the early 1980s was the last one2. The term “Polonia” comprises all those groups together with the Poles arriving in smaller numbers with or without an intention to permanently settle down in America. “Old Polonia” created its ethnic institutions, such as parishes, schools, orphanages, press, fraternal benefit associations, choirs, scouting groups and others. Some of them faded away when their members died or Americanized, others have continued to the

1 See: H. Znaniecka-Łopata, Polish Americans: Status Competition in Ethnic Commu- nity, Englewood Cliffs 1976, p. 37–39. 2 For the history of the Polish American group see: J. Pula, Polish Americans: An Eth- nic Community, New York 1995; J. Bukowczyk, The History of the Polish Americans, New Brunswick 2008. Joanna Wojdon

134 present, operated either by the following generations or by newly-arrived immigrants who added their own ideas and structures to Polish American life. The interrelations between various Polonian groups are not easy ones, nor are ethnic identities held by immigrants and their descendants. Most of them do not speak Polish (it is replaced by English often early in the first or second generation) but nurture some kind of continued interest in Polish affairs and some forms of ethnic solidarity. Christine Przybyła-Long repre- sents the second generation of the pre-World War I Polish immigrants. Her life story illustrates the processes and phenomena discussed above but she cannot be characterized as a “typical” Polish American. Her involvement in American (and Polish) political life and her achievements definitely exceed “the average”, yet they show the potential of Polonia. I met Christine Long in 2012 in Chicago during a session of the Polish American Historical Association where I presented the history of the Illi- nois State Division of the Polish American Congress in the Cold War era. She approached me and told me how she had helped the Citizens’ Com- mittee in Poland prepare for the parliamentary elections in 1989 from the scratch: from helping to organize the secretariat, setting up equipment, organizing contacts, etc. Then we met in 2014 when I was in Chicago on Fulbright doing the research on post-World War II Polish American history. She knew my research background and invited me to her apartment in downtown Chicago. On April 2, 2014 we spent almost five hours together. The first two and a half were the basis for the testimony presented below as they form a coherent narrative, starting from Christine’s family history in the United States and ending with her involvement in Polish and Polish American affairs in the early 1990s. It was, thus, a life story interview, but more thanks to Christine’s choice than mine. While listening to the recording I realized that I asked too many questions that interrupted her narrative. The fragments that I removed from the transcript were mostly answers to those questions and did not compose well with the rest of the story. The rest of our meeting was an informal talk on various aspects of the Polish American life and viewing documents from Christine’s private archive. We did not tackle the periods omitted in the main part of the interview (e.g. her early professional career). Christine Przybyła-Long, “And she helped four thousand people...

THE ACCOUNT OF CHRISTINE PRZYBYŁA-LONG3 135 In the Chicago Polish family I was born in 1931 here in Chicago4, in the far Northwest side, now known as Portage Park, where Jesuit house is5. When I went to school at Portage Park Public Elementary School6 there were no other Poles at all. Zero, zero, zero. My parents came here before WWI7. They came by themselves, separately, they did not know each other. My father8 came in 1911, my mother9 came in 1909. They met in New York10. Each had come for political reasons. They were from the Grajewo–Białystok region11. My father had been in jail in Suwałki12. He was caught carrying Polish language newspapers. He was stopped by a “miliziant” (not by tsarist police) and started an argument with him. He got shot. They had to explain themselves. As a result my father went to jail. He was in jail, as far as I understood it, for eighteen months. He had been living in Białystok temporarily and that was political but earlier he had been trained as a tailor in Warsaw13. He was born near Płock14. My mother, on the other hand, was born in Grajewo or near Grajewo. She was an orphan very early on. Her mother15 died a week after childbirth. Her father16 re- married almost immediately. He was employed by the monopol17. I’ve seen only one picture of him looking very distinguished and my mother seemed

3 The account of Christine Przybyła-Long recorded on April 2, 2014 by Joanna Wojdon is in the author’s possession. 4 A city in the United Sates in the state of Illinois and the Midwest. 5 Sacred Heart Mission Parish at 5835 W. Irving Park Road, Chicago, was established in 1934 to serve the Polish immigrants of the area. Initially, Jesuits operated a chapel, and in 2001 the Jesuit Millennium Center was opened, with masses in the Polish language and various social services for the Polish community, including a library and an auditorium. 6 5330 W Berteau Ave, Chicago. 7 World War I started in 1914. 8 A person unknown closer. 9 A person unknown closer. 10 A city in the United States in the southern tip of the State of New York. 11 Today’s northeastern Poland. 12 A town in northeastern Poland. 13 The capital city of Poland. 14 In central Poland. 15 A person unknown closer. 16 A person unknown closer. 17 Liquor industry. Joanna Wojdon

136 to suggest that he was a government employee. He had a new child18, and then he accidently – maybe, I’m not sure – died. His new wife19 visited my mother’s aunt20. My mother’s aunt had a successful business in Grajewo at the border21, at the railroad station. She was a divorced woman, which was not common in that time. She was important enough in the local community that she had a Sunday salon in which visitors would talk politics and philosophy and important things. The mayor and priest would come or maybe only a minister. They were willing to come to her home so presumably she had some importance. I grew up in an entirely American community. My generation was in a peculiar position. Because of the Depression. My brother22 who was 95 when he died, was therefore fifteen years older than I. When he was in high school (and he was truly gifted as far as drawing, architecture, building things) he quit school and I think that was because of the hard times. My father was a small businessman, a furrier and a tailor. In fact, he was good enough when he came to this country, he managed a factory in New York. He was then sewing uniforms, presumably for the American army. He often said that he regretted not going back to Poland by that time. But anyway, they got married and honestly I think he was avoiding the turmoil of the war. He instead later on sold Polish government bonds where everybody lost everything they invested23. Poland established itself. He was active and so was my mother in Chicago. They came to Chicago as a result of this job that he had, managing the uniform factory. As usual, my father did not last long in this job. He thought he knew better than the New Yorkers how to do things. So he ended up leaving them and starting his own business. And that was in a lot of places at various times. He ended up in the northwest side [of Chicago]. My father’s

18 A person unknown closer. 19 A person unknown closer. 20 A person unknown closer. 21 The historical border between East Prussia and Poland (and in the 19th century – Russia) went along the northern boundary of the city of Grajewo. 22 Wesley Przybyła (ca. 1916–2001). 23 Polish government bonds were distributed in the United States in 1919–1920. The response of Polonia was lower than initially expected and so were the profits from the bonds. On details see: T. Radzik, Społeczno-ekonomiczne aspekty stosunku Polonii amerykańskiej do Polski po I wojnie światowej, Wrocław 1989, p. 58–96. Christine Przybyła-Long, “And she helped four thousand people...

store was just a block away from where we lived. My brother Wesley recalls 137 the old Polish neighborhood near Division and Ashland24 and that they lived there, I don’t know for how long. But by the time my brother Eugene was born (7 or 8 years older than me) they were already moving northwest. What instigated that, I have no idea. My guess is that business rather than anything else. And they were never very settled. When I was born... My brother Wesley, when he quit school, did what many young men did in those days during the Great Depression. He hopped on a train without paying for a ticket and he traveled this way across the country. That was OK, he traveled around, he saw all the country, he wrote letters. He got a job in a cookie factory and his two fingers were cut off in an accident. He received employment compensation and was able to come back. But he was told that he was to proceed to do something. So he went to New York, to New Jersey where we had relatives (my fathers’ two sisters25 lived there) and went to a designing school. And then unfortunately we had the approach of the WWII26 and he was drafted. He was in the very first American draft in Chicago27. He had finished school, got a job here in Chicago, working for a Downtown company and he was doing really well but he was drafted in 1940, before the war began. When the war began he served in the Pacific until the late 1944/early 1945. My other brother Eugene28 was fortunate enough to be born later. He became an engineer and later worked in aerospace. What did that mean in terms of Polish American organizations? Obvio- usly, I was not involved during those days after the First World War, with the

24 The famous “Polish Triangle” at the intersection of N Milwaukee, Division and Ashland avenues in Chicago. 25 People unknown closer. 26 World War II started in Europe in 1939, and the USA joined the war in 1941. 27 The Burke-Wadsworth Act, passed by Congress on September 16, 1940, imposed the first peacetime draft in the history of the USA. The registration of men aged 21–26 began next month. In 1942 the age expanded to include men between 18 and 37 years old. By the end of the war approximately 10 million Americans were drafted to the army. 28 A person unknown closer. Joanna Wojdon

138 Polish bonds. My father was active in Sokol29 once upon a time. My mother was involved in Liga Morska30. I knew my mother marched with other ladies in Humboldt Park31. My experience with Polish American organizations during WWII was dual. One of them was because she [my mother] had gone to Poland for this conference of Dni Morza (Sea Days)32. She was a part of the Polish Women’s Alliance then, which has become very Catholic now, but she came from that cohort of the Polish Americans who were not very religious33. She was very active in Polish American organizations, partly for cultural reasons. She was going to concerts, book groups and meetings. I grew up on tea and cakes. Nobody had babysitters in those days and I had been dragged to all those meetings. She was never a big official but she had at least membership in those groups. There were no other children at those meetings. I was born when my mother was thirty-nine so most people of her age had children at the age of my brothers. The youngers did not attend those meetings so much. I didn’t know other children because they didn’t live in my neighborhood. I was going to the Polish Women’s Alliance meetings at Ashland. I remember it was a very nice building. There was a very nice auditorium-like room. They would use that space for concerts or other theatrical performances. I took part in

29 Sokół, or Polish Falcons of America, was a paramilitary organization, addressed predominantly to the Polish American youth, established in 1887 in Chicago. It trained young Polish Americans to fight for the independence of Poland during WWI. Over 20 thousand of them fought in the “Blue Army” under command of General Haller. After the war Falcons evolved into a Polish American fraternal organization. For the history of the Polish Falcons see: D. Pienkos, One Hundred Years Young: A History of the Polish Falcons of America, 1887–1987, Boulder–New York 1987. 30 Sea League of America was a unit of the Poland-based Sea and Colonial League, incorporated in 1930, that propagated the idea of Poland as a sea country and drew plans of Poland’s colonial expansion. 31 Located on the West Side of Chicago, in an area that used to be a Polish American neighborhood in the interwar years. 32 The Sea Days were organized in Gdynia by the Sea and Colonial League between 1932 and 1939, on or around June 29, with the idea to manifest Poland’s presence at the Baltic Sea. 33 Polish Women’s Alliance of America is a Polish American fraternal organization, established in Chicago in 1898, addressed to the Polish American women who then felt discriminated in the male-dominated fraternal benefit societies. For the history of PWA see: A. and D. Pienkos, “In the Ideals of Women is the Strength of a Nation”: A History of the Polish Women’s Alliance of America, Boulder–New York 2003. Christine Przybyła-Long, “And she helped four thousand people...

them. I had no idea what the play was, but it was the first time I was on stage 139 and I couldn’t speak those Polish words. In that early period I remember the first book I’ve ever received as a gift, autographed by the author, Eric P. Kelly who wrote The Trumpeter of Kraków34. He spoke at a gathering of one of these groups. [...] And we belonged to the Po- lish Arts Club35, I mean my parents, my mother actually, as my father was not that interested other than for business purposes. She was very much involved in reading. She could read English and other languages, but she obviously preferred to read Polish, that was easier for her. She read the papers every single day. As did my dad. Both them were active. They were big on the free things this city offered. So we went frequently to the Art Institute36, to the concerts and as far as these Polish American events were concerned they were often literary or musical in nature. They were usually Sundays. The meetings would be in the evening, either because it was the Polish Arts Club which was cultural or because it was “good works time”. And the “good works time” was usually collecting money, particularly for sending overseas. It was things like preparing packages of clothing or food. I remember especially my father: he would wrap packages that other people would send. It could be at Holy Trinity37 but I am not sure. He would wrap these things and sew them up.

The post-World War II years In the immediate post-war period they [my parents] were still preoccupied with the things happening in Poland. Especially my mum, because she had been there in 1939. She was talking about staying, she was going to stay

34 The book, published in 1928, was awarded the Newbery Medal for excellence in American children’s literature in 1929. It tells a story of a 15th-century Polish noble family who fled to Kraków as a result of the Cossack-Tartar attack on their property in the eastern Polish territories. 35 The Polish Arts Club of Chicago was founded in 1926 to promote the Polish art, music and literature in Chicago (and broader in the United States). It organized art exhibitions, concerts, literary competitions and other cultural events. In 1948 it became a member of the newly-established American Council of Polish Cultural Clubs (ACPCC). For the details on its past and current activities see http://www.pacchica- go.org (accessed December 28, 2015). 36 Art Institute of Chicago. 37 Holy Trinity church was founded in 1872 at 1118 North Noble Street in the Chicago Polish neighborhood (Trójcowo), first as a filial church of St. Stanislaus Kostka parish (Stanisławowo), and since 1893 as a separate one. Joanna Wojdon

140 longer, through fall. I was housed in my aunt’s house in New Jersey. She tra- velled throughout Poland and that became an important thing. She met her half-brother38 who was employed by the Polish government in Augustów39. I think he was a forester. His wife was among those who were shipped east40. And my mother was very fond of her. So there was a correspondence with the Soviet embassy trying to locate her. And there was sending money. Eventually she came by way of Kazakhstan and went back to Poland. There was always this stuff with the organizations, how they worked. My parents were involved in the foundation of the Polish American Congress41. I know my father went up to Canada, for a kind of gathering in one time42. I have no idea what it was. There was another gathering in Detroit43 at one time, which was a big gathering44. I wasn’t at the right age so I didn’t belong to the scouts with my brothers. And I didn’t belong to the dancing groups, I was clumsy and I preferred to read. I was registered for Polish Saturday school numerous times but I would not last. It was stubbornness, because there was no advantage to me for going. To go on Saturdays to Polish school45 when during the week I would be in fights at the playground because I had that impossible name.

38 A person unknown closer. 39 A town in northeastern Poland. 40 During WWII, alongside over 300,000 other Poles resettled from the Polish territories occupied by the Soviet Union between September 1939 and June 1941. 41 The Polish American Congress was founded in May, 1944 in order to promote the Polish case in the United States, to prevent Poland’s falling into the Soviet sphere of influence and to support the Polish American ethnic activities. 42 It might be the founding meeting of the Canadian Polish Congress in September 1944. The Polish American Congress and the Canadian Polish Congress cooperated closely in their first years. 43 A city in the United States in the state of Michigan. 44 It might be the Detroit Emergency Conference of American Unity organized on May 28, 1944 by the pro-Soviet Polish Americans with Stanley Nowak in charge, as an opposition to the Polish American Congress. 45 Initially, in the 19th and early 20th century Polish immigrants in the larger Polish American communities sent their children to Polish parish schools. However, in the interwar period, due to both on-going Americanization processes (promoted by the federal administration) and economic difficulties caused by the Great Depression, public schools gained considerable popularity among the Polish American parents, while the parish schools Americanized. Polish language, history and culture were taught in Saturday schools where children enrolled on voluntary basis. Christine Przybyła-Long, “And she helped four thousand people...

And it was a real problem because I was the only kid in that grade school 141 who was Przybyła. It was not exactly an easy name for my teachers to deal with. On the one hand in our class I would draw Krakowiaks skiers and a mountain which I’d never seen, of course, or whatever kind of folklorish knowledge I had, but on the other hand there would be the attempt to forget the fact of this impossible name that nobody could pronounce correctly. I remember a teacher whom I liked who said “That’s a stupid name”. That was followed by kids at the playground. It was in the third grade. And I got in the fist fights and then I got into trouble. It’s a circle: if you fight back, somebody will fight you. So that was a problem. I was not only the only Przybyła, I was the only Christine at school. I was a college graduate before I finally figured out how to answer this, which was very simple: I would say: “I use it as an IQ test: if you pronounce it then you are smart.” You had these people, the Americanized Poles who were just working their way out of the Depression. Many of them worked really hard during the Second World War doing one job or another, and the war ends and DPs46 arrived on the scene47. And that was a very, very, very uncomfortable time. Because I didn’t know what the hell was going on. I was still being dragged to meetings so I would be an observer. The community that was here was somehow an argumentative one among themselves. Everybody had opinions, but it was pretty... it was that you argued with your peer, it was not anything negative. When the immigrants came, who were peculiarly hostile and that was rather odd, I could never understand what was going on and who initiated it48. There would be Sunday manifestacje49 and it was not like political arguments

46 Displaced Persons. 47 Displaced Persons Act of 1948, enhanced in 1950, let over 100,000 Polish Displaced Persons, mostly from the occupation zones of Germany, but also from Great Britain and other European countries, enter the United States between 1948 and 1952. Many of them regarded themselves as political exiles and saw the struggle for independent Poland as their main duty. They expected the same from the old Polonia. They denied the communist authorities of Poland any recognition and lobbied both Polo- nia and Americans to completely ignore “the Warsaw regime”. See: A. Jaroszyńska- -Kirchmann, The Exile Mission. The Polish Political Diaspora and Polish Americans, 1939–1956, Athens (Ohio) 2004. 48 See: S. Blejwas, Old and New Polonias: Tensions Within an Ethnic Community, “Pol- ish American Studies”, Vol. 38, No. 2 (Autumn 1981). 49 Demonstrations. Joanna Wojdon

142 but rather it became a very personalized version of dislike and it was coming from those people from Europe, it was not so much the Polish Americans. They were called names, told they were stupid. They [the Polish Americans] were not very good at defending themselves. I don’t remember any of them saying: “What the hell, we were nice to you guys.” Many of them, we did, signed the papers that say they would be financially responsible50. That’s a risk, especially if you don’t have a lot of money and you don’t know who is coming. And you had these kinds of relationships which were not relationships really, they were on paper. You were being patriotic, you were being whatever and you’d sign the permissions so that the US government let this person in... Nevertheless you would be at a meeting and I remember it quite vividly as... I don’t remember the content, I just remember what I could hear and what I could hear was: “you, you, scums of the earth!” that kind of... It was hostility. The tone that I heard from these folks...51 And so we never actually established relationships with those people because “why bother”. I was going to go to high school. And besides it was my Catholic period and I was busy being Catholic. I was enabled to go to a Catholic school run by the Felician Sisters52. The Felician sisters were anti-intellectual, we didn’t know that. So I went into all sorts of trouble, because I read books that were not approved. They were not any dirty books or even any anti-clerical

50 Each DP applying for an immigrant visa under provisions of the DP Act of 1948 should have had a “sponsor” who signed an “assurance” declaring that he or she would provide housing and accommodation in the United States. In fact, they were not checked if they really fulfilled those obligations and many DPs were left on their own while arriving in the United States. In any case, Polish American organizations encouraged Polonia to sign assurances in order to bring as many Poles in need to America as it was possible. 51 Maria Cieśla from the Polish Museum of America had expressed the similar impression in the interview of June 9, 2014: “The people here in Chicago were very vocal. I don’t think it was a big group. […] I have seen that they were just calling everyone communist.” 52 The Congregation Of Sisters Of St. Felix Of Cantalice Third Order Regular Of St. Francis Of Assisi, known as Felician Sisters, was founded in 1885 in Warsaw by So- phia (Mary Angela) Truszkowska. In 1874 the first Felician sisters arrived in the United States, in a small town of Polonia in Wisconsin. They started educating local Polish American children and publishing textbooks to be used in other Polish schools. By the early 20th century they were present in various Polish American communities across the USA and ran Polish schools for the growing number of Polish immigrants. Christine Przybyła-Long, “And she helped four thousand people...

books but somehow I was in a continuing round of trouble although my 143 grades were good. So then when the time came to go to college I was going to another school, a school operated by School Sisters of St. Francis who were largely of German origin53. And it was interesting because my mother on the first occasion that she met some said “Well, they’re, they believe in training to be smart. That’s a good thing. The Felicians were not good for you”. And she was right. It was a great time. As for the new immigrants, it was also the issue of demography, of one class during the Depression years, who muddled along and lived a decent life and sometimes made a lot of money and who became professionally competent and got their degrees. Those people by the time the immigrants arrived on the scene had been ladies and gentlemen of bounty, they were giving, helping find apartments. The group that arrived tended to be younger. There was a natural division. […] Some of the people who became “prominent” here were those who got a professional education but who decided to stay in the community. This is why Division street or Archer were such centers. Because it was a self-sustaining community. People didn’t mix. That was true of the Polish Jews as well. The Polish Jews worked at the Milwaukee Avenue and Divi- sion. Those people stayed in the neighborhood until everybody moved. And that was after the war when people had enough money to move. Not only enough money, but the Jews from the West side were escaping to avoid Blacks. Suddenly the areas that were Jewish emptied out in about a year and a half. And entire neighborhood became vacant. It was the end of the 1950s, early 1960s. Most people moved to Skokie. When the Jewish people got richer they would move further to Glencoe, Winnetka or Wilmette54. At the same time you were Polish and got richer... or not you, your children got richer, you stayed, then you would move to Des Plains as a start or Arling- ton Heights. There was always this continuous move. What was interesting about this new generation of immigrants, they started out in the suburbs.

53 The Congregation of School Sisters of St. Francis was founded in 1874 in New Cassel, Wisconsin by three nuns from Schwarzach, the German Empire. It is part of the Third Order of St. Francis. 54 Skokie, Wilmette, Glencoe, Winnetka, Des Plaines and Arlington Heights are northern suburbs of Chicago. Joanna Wojdon

144 “And she helped four thousand people…” I intend to have it on my grave stone if I have a grave stone: “And she helped four thousand people become citizens of the United States”. I am truly proud of it. Before that, I had never been terribly fond of Ed Moskal55. My parents knew Rozmarek56. They thought he was lovely. I also thought he was pretty OK. There was something my mother and my father and Rozmarek were part of some stuff but I had little to do with. Anyway, I had heart surgery. I was recovering and was asked to sign a letter of support for a man57 who was running for committeeman58. Why not? I had no reason to dislike the candidate and he was our state senator so why not. When Jimmy Carter59 was running for re-election, all of the local big shot officials in the Chicago Democratic Party were supporting Teddy Kennedy60. I didn’t like Teddy Kennedy. And I didn’t belong to anybody so I could do whatever I wanted. But I did like Jimmy Carter. There were a couple of good things he did during his first term... So my state senator and now my committeeman says: “So you are not doing anything with Teddy Kennedy?” I said: “No, I don’t like him.” “OK, would you like to help with the Carter’s Advance when he comes to Chicago?” I said: “Sure.” I didn’t know anything about advance at that time. Nobody else knew either. It was 1979. Advance, the whole job of going ahead and figuring out what needs to be done and then being there didn’t exist. “Yes, I would be very happy to do this.” So I did advance on that thing and it was largely because there was nobody else who was involved from our area who would do it. I was asked then if – because I actually did my job – and one of the people who

55 Edward Moskal (1924–2005) was president of the Polish National Alliance and of the Polish American Congress in 1988–2005. In the late 1990s he became notorious for his anti-Semitic statements. 56 Charles Rozmarek (1897–1973) was the president of the Polish National Alliance in 1937–1967 and the first president of the Polish American Congress (1944–1967). 57 A person unknown closer. 58 A local party leader. 59 Jimmy Carter (born 1924) was the 39th President of the United States from 1977 to 1981. 60 Edward Moore (Ted) Kennedy (1932–2009) was the youngest brother of John F. Ken- nedy, a US Senator from Massachusetts between 1967 and 2009. He ran against Jim- my Carter for the Democratic Party nomination in the 1980 presidential campaign, but failed. Christine Przybyła-Long, “And she helped four thousand people...

was one of the White House staff61 said: “We really could use somebody 145 who knows how to find the right places in City Hall to get things signed when they’re supposed to be signed and who knows something about the city... Would you be interested in helping the President?” I ended up working full time all along the 1980 presidential campaign and I wasn’t doing advance. Because I am too old, even then I was too old, this is 20-year-old work, not 40-year-old work. So I ended up managing western Pennsylvania in the 1980 presidential campaign. Which meant I also had a go to White House which meant that there were people there who knew my name and who I worked with regularly so I was appointed by the President and I was a member of the National Commission for Vocational Education62 because I was interested then in the whole business of women returning to academic studies or to finish their schooling so that they could get decent jobs. So I was appointed there until Ronald Reagan63 didn’t want any people who lost to be there. So I had my year, and that was all, not four years. So how it happened that I was in the mill. The next time was when there was another election and I really enjoyed doing national elections. I am conscious of, it was coming of in the 1980s, that there was no Polish organization, there was nobody I could go to to say “Help me with this in support of the President”. And it wasn’t because they were all for Kennedy, it was because they didn’t really care. That was really sort of silly because then you will be unhappy when they don’t get what you want. It makes no sense to me so I started trying to think about what can we do about this. Shortly thereafter, here in Chicago, we started having local school councils. I think it was not in that 1980 run, it was in like 1984. So local school councils which is entirely Chicago, the citizens would be elected to run the school, pick the principal, all that. That would be citizens who lived there. And it occurred to me that there were no applications from Poles in Polish neighborhoods who wanted to be in the local school councils. That seemed pretty silly, now I ... you don’t get paid but you get to meet some new people, you get a little bit of power because you get to choose a principal, you get a budget to operate the school. Those are

61 A person unknown closer. 62 Probably National Advisory Council for Vocational Education, established in 1968. 63 Ronald Reagan (1911–2004) was the 40th President of the United States from 1981 to 1989. Joanna Wojdon

146 two big things, power is all about the money. So that bothered me. And at the same time I was also trying to get voter registration done64 because by that time we started to have a little more activity out of some of those who came much earlier. So I decided that even though I was not fond of Ed Moskal I was going to go over because I also knew, by that time I had also become familiar with some of the Solidarity people and so I was picketing, occasionally, not regularly, the Consulate at Lake Shore Drive65. So the issue then becomes: how do we get people involved in this stuff. And I knew the Rostenkowski66 people, by that time. Ewa Wierzyńska67 had put me in touch with the “Solidarity” guys. […] The relations between the old Polish American community and the So- lidarity immigration were not good. Because they were educated, they were perceived as arrogant which they were not and because they had not bowed down to the powers that were here. I was willing for this business of getting Poles to run for local school councils. I worked with the people… When Wa- łęsa came68, when Mazowiecki came to Chicago69 they didn’t know how to do it, I mean the Poles. Chicago was not going to be embarrassed. Richard

64 In the United States citizens are required to register in order to be able to vote during elections. 65 Demonstrations in front of the consulate of the People’s Republic of Poland at Lake Shore Drive in Chicago were organized in the 1980s by the Polish American Con- gress and the Pomost group with the active help of the newly arrived “Solidarity” immigrants after the imposition of the Martial law in Poland in 1981. See: Mary Erd- mans, Opposite Poles: Immigrants and Ethnics in Polish Chicago, 1976–1990, Univer- sity Park 1998. 66 Dan Rostenkowski (1928–2010) was a Polish American US Representative from Il- linois in 1959–1995. During the interview Christine Long said also that he “became more Polish after 1980. It became a point of pride. His office served the people who knocked at the door”. 67 Ewa Wierzyńska (born 1950) emigrated to the United States in 1984, in 1987–1991 was staff assistant of Congressman Rostenkowski. Returned to Poland in 2005 and is active in promoting the legacy of Jan Karski. 68 The first visit of Lech Wałęsa (born 1943), than a head of the “Solidarity” movement, in Chicago took place in November 1989 although it had been scheduled already for 1981. During the same visit, on November 15, 1989, Wałęsa delivered his famous speech to the US Congress. 69 Tadeusz Mazowiecki (1927–2013), the first post-communist prime minister of Poland (1989–1991), visited the United States in March 1990. Christine Przybyła-Long, “And she helped four thousand people...

Daley70 did not want to have a lousy visit by Mazowiecki. They wanted to 147 do it right. The deal was with Moskal to have a committee with many people, including Chris Long who will work on the Advance. She is not going to be connected with City Hall because we have to get somebody into the consulate to talk to the Reds who were horrible to work with. They lied. It was the old guys. I did not have any contacts with them before other than getting a visa when I took my father to Poland in 1975 after my mother died. So I’ve worked my way through the whole bunch of the presidential races, in particularly the second Clinton71. I had people who were one time friends, I had them in my house: a person who’ve been an aid to Al Gore72 when he was a vice-president, who had lived at my home and slept on my floor. We later worked together on Dukakis73 because my daughter worked for Duka- kis in Boston74 where she was at the JFK school and Dukakis was her profes- sor75 and then he hired her. So you knew whom to pick up to work with for the presidential race. I knew these people who were in my house and whom I helped on various trips etc. So what we came down to was that the community was making noises about visas which was understandable and I also understand the reasons why that was a hassle. But I also knew a woman who is now with the World Council on Food Aid, the head of it76, because I worked for her here in Chicago, or worked side by side with her. She worked for Neil Hartigan77 when he was Attorney

70 Richard M. Daley (born 1942), was the 54th Mayor of Chicago (1989–2011). 71 Bill Clinton (born 1946) was the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. 72 Al Gore (born 1948) was a 45th Vice President of he United States (1993–2001) and the Democtratic Party’s nominee for President in 2000. 73 Michael S. Dukakis (born 1933) was a governor of Massachusetts in 1975–1979 and 1983–1991. Representing the Democratic Party, he ran for the US President in 1988 but lost to George H. W. Bush. 74 The capital city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. 75 Dukakis taught public management at John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. 76 Ertharin Cousin (born 1957) is the Executive Director of the United Nations World Food Programme. Among her other duties, she organized Clinton-Gore presidential campaign in Illinois in 1996. 77 Neil Hartigan (born 1938) is a Democratic politician in Illinois. He served as Lieute- nant Governor (1973–1977) and Attorney General of Illinois (1983–1991), and ran for governor in 1990 but lost to the Republican candidate. Joanna Wojdon

148 General of Illinois and was trying to help the community. She’s black. Now she was in the State Department and I knew she would help me if I gave her a good case. And a good case was: “There we have the community, we worked hard, they actually got a round of voting for Bill Clinton, do we really have to screw it up? Do we really have to say to these people whom we’ve finally got to vote for Bill Clinton, that we aren’t going to pay any attention to what they care about? No, we are not going to really do that. Do something, please.” I was making my phone calls on my own to her and saying: “We have to talk to somebody who can help us with that. I will do what I can to publicize an ethnic affair.” I was not on salary, this was all for free. She called me a couple of times and said: “OK, Mary Ryan78 who is in the State Department as an assistant secretary in charge of immigration issues shall see you and we’ll see what we can do and you can put together a list of people to attend. And the list should be people who were willing to come to Washington and make a case to Mary Ryan”. Then I said: “What about Immigration79?” “Well, they’ll send their usual representative” and I said: “That won’t work, that’s the problem. Because Immigration isn’t being helpful, and the fact State wants to be nice is beside the point, it doesn’t matter. And I am not going to tell those people to come to Washington in order to entertain themselves and to have a party, this is crazy. And it can’t work. For that matter, I am doing it on my own dime, you know?” OK. So we were back and forth a bunch of time and finally she calls me and says: “They’ll send their chief administrative assistant from Immigration along with Mary Ryan, isn’t that good enough?” I said: “You know that’s not good enough.” She says: “Yes, it has to be the same rank.” And I said: “You got it! It’s got to be the same rank.” “So who the hell is at the same rank as Mary Ryan? Please, that’s what we need.” Well, then she calls back at night, at eleven o’clock at night two days before and says: “This is not going to work, they’re not going to send anybody at Mary Ryan’s rank” and I said: “So cancel.” Which was very hard to do. Because I already had called everybody, it would have been huge failure and that’s very painful. I mean if you put a lot of energy into trying to make something really good happen, very painful

78 Mary A. Ryan (1940–2006) was an American diplomat, an ambassador of USA in Swaziland in 1988–1990, and Assistant Secretary of State for Consular Affairs from 1993 to 2002. 79 Immigration and Naturalization Service – an agency of the U.S. Department of Jus- tice, between 1933 and 2003. Christine Przybyła-Long, “And she helped four thousand people...

business. At any rate, I said: “Cancel”. So then she calls back. It is now two 149 o’clock in the morning and she says: “We got a deal. So come”. And I said: “OK, we will come”. And I didn’t tell anybody as to what had happened. And there was no sign that we were going to win. It was only that we had an appointment with somebody at the same level. OK. So we come […] and Mary Ryan starts nicely, and the guys from the Im- migration talked hypocritically and it was OK but the issue was not are they nice, the issue was what about the visas. And I had done a lot of work on research on exactly what is the deal with the visas, which is by the way somewhat different now. But I think that two things are still there. The one that says: we have X number of people from all over the world who can come in and then we have X number of people from this country, or that country, or that country who are allowed in80. And the two numbers have to somehow come together. What the problem was: it wasn’t coming together. And they said as much that the Polish visas had been used up for a long time to come. There were no Polish visas to be had so forget it. And I said: “So you mean to say to these people from Chicago, that no? There’s got to be a way. So find the way.” And so they talked some more and the beauty of having had Ertharin work on this thing who was running a very big operation, she was the White House liaison between the State Department and the White House, so that if she said to Mary Ryan who said and etc. so it was that nice thing that I wish that we would get that strength here in the United States, would be good. “How about you go and have coffee?” “OK, we’re gonna go have coffee”. “Well, we don’t want coffee now”. I said: “We want coffee now. We’re going to get coffee so we want to have coffee.” And they stayed, the State Department and the Immigration people stayed. And I said “You know, you got to find the way, and a way that’s legal and I know you can find the way.” And we came back after a while and yeah, they found the way. And the way was, and it was a one-shot deal and would we accept it one time only, adjustment in number of Polish immigrants who can enter or who could have their status fixed here in the United States. “Well, yeah, we would accept that, although we were not in a position to accept anything, these were a bunch of people that I had called up. Well, the deal was that there is distinct number, once a year, this is how many are allowed in but sometimes people

80 The system of immigration quotas was first introduced in the United States in 1921 and later significantly modified. Joanna Wojdon

150 change their minds and sometimes people die and sometimes people say: the hell with you guys, we’re going to Germany or whatever and those visas don’t go away, they don’t disappear, and they are not given to anybody else, rather, these visas exist in Neverland, and they said: Would you accept it as a one-time only that the visas that are available because they had not been used, not only from this year but also from previous years, would you accept those visas for the Polish seekers of visa? “Yeah, we would”. And again, we had absolutely zero authority. But we were there and we had the assistant secretary for the Immigration in State and we had the two guys from Immigration and they cut the deal. They made the deal, we didn’t make it because we couldn’t, we didn’t have the power. But it was understood by all the people who were there what the deal was: that the Poles would get those visas and so four thousand… That was a big deal. And the thing that I can especially find is what followed some time later: because I never said that if, frankly, it hadn’t been for my friendship with Ertharin Cousin, it would not have happened. We worked together on several campaigns, and I didn’t treat her like she was some kind of strange person because she was black. No. And she didn’t treat me like I was some kind of strange person because I was Polish. No. It was just we were friends. It was a wonderful thing. It was 4000. That’s a lot of visas. And it was only because this stringing of liaison that people relate to one another worked. Sometimes it doesn’t work. Moskal asked me who picked a group of people who were there. I was not going to say I did it. I said: “Oh, I don’t know. The Clinton White House has its own ways of making their choices so they made a choice.” “Why weren’t we asked?” I said: “Wow, as far as I know, there were no official Polish American organizations there.” Then I read a piece in a paper in which Ed Moskal claimed that he was the one who made it happen. And I was so pissed off. Because he didn’t have to claim credit. I wasn’t saying anything, I was being silent. […] I’ve had more jobs than you can imagine in my life. I like projects. I like to work on something and then it’s finished. And I don’t have to think about it anymore, until some other time. I worked on the elections in Poland, I had worked on both of the Wałęsa trips to Chicago. Here it is easy. I know the people from Chicago Sister Cities. I was on the Sister Cities and I still am on the Sister Cities Committee81 and the mayor was in charge of the visit.

81 Warsaw is the sister city of Chicago since 1960. Christine Przybyła-Long, “And she helped four thousand people...

“Well, who do we appoint to work on it? Well, she’s done that and she does 151 this Polish stuff. OK. Yeah”. And that’s the end of them. And so I could do all kinds of stuff and they knew I wasn’t looking for a job. And so I would come in and do what I was doing. That was the way it worked. And that was fine because I was happy with that because it would be a project. You could kill yourself for three weeks. But I have this funny heart, I don’t treat it properly but that means that this is the limit of my endurance. And then I’m to stop. One of the things that once happened to me when I was managing Carol Mosley Braun82 when she ran for Senate. I was the first one on the campaign and that was really dumb. But you know, I knew her and I liked her and she knew I got on well with black officials because I had worked for another black member of Congress83 and we had no money. It’s a big state, a hundred and one counties in this state. I used to wake up at three in the morning and I’d say to myself “Oh my God, there is one hundred and one counties in Illinois.” Can you imagine? What a crazy way to wake up? But we had less than a thousand dollars in the bank. But I had gotten her on the ballot which is very hard to do for an insurgent U.S. senator. And if you get on the ballot… And I had people to be volunteers. […] There was no money but I had friends who were feminists in various organizations and I could have a quiet little meeting and I would say: “Look! I know that you don’t have any money to give away but you have people and I know that you know what Carol is about as far as the way she votes, where she stands for God’s sake, what she said. So it’s your job to tell your people they’re for Carol. Well, as a matter of fact that’s exactly how it worked. But I had a cardiac problem six weeks away from primary election. I was walking in my bedroom to the bathroom and I went down flat. And fortunately my husband84 was in the room and he popped me on the chest, and I started breathing again, and I went to the hospital, and I had a nice new scar right here. That was the case and I left that campaign because I had to, there’s no choice. But that’s what happens when you are working intensively on something like this. That’s why I can’t do it as a job. And on the other hand it’s boring to work on things… It’s important to do something with the way governments treat people and people treat government. So I think I inherited that from my parents.

82 Carol Elizabeth Moseley Braun (born 1947) was a US Senator from Illinois from 1993 to 1999. She was the first female African-American Senator, the first African-American senator from the Democratic Party and the first female senator from Illinois. 83 Cardiss Collins (added while authorizing the text). 84 A person unknown closer. Joanna Wojdon

152 Mission in Poland I am an American. But working in Poland was absolutely one of the most wonderful experiences in my life. How did I get there? Tomek Tabako85 lived in our house for 18 months. Tomek came with Wałęsa and I met him and he said he needed a place to stay. We had kids in college then so we had room. But I said: “We don’t take care of our visitors. You’re in charge of your own food because I don’t really know when I might be around to cook anything. You’re welcome to stay at our place”. I called my husband and said somebody was going to come and he said: “Well, OK.” So he came and it turned out I left, because he’d been with us for a while and I was trying to get a job, a real job and I had letters of recommendation from two US senators, and my mayor, and even from Ed Moskal to say that I was a worker and I would like to be there, all that sort of thing. But I was never... First of all I had done some work with Regime people from the Finance Ministry and some of them got immediately turned into capitalistic-inclining people. But I wasn’t going to be picked up for the Depart- ment of Economic, FDN or whatever the initials were. It quickly was apparent that that was not going to be my net – for one thing: I didn’t know enough about establishing the laws, about business. I know a lot about the election law, I know about the laws about business, and I wasn’t really at all interested in it. So I was moaning and I wasn’t able to pick up a job with the White House that would get me to Poland. And Tomek says: “Could I make a phone call?” And I said “Sure, you can”. I didn’t even ask whom he was calling. He called Henryk Wujec86 and he talked to Henryk and he arranged me to work in Henryk Wu- jec’s office and in the Citizens’ Committee87. And it was a great pleasure. In the first place because people were learning how to do something new. Thesenate

85 Tomasz Tabako (born 1958) is a philosopher and a journalist, active in the underground publishing movement in Poland in the 1980s. In 1989 he emigrated to the United States where he graduated from Department of Communication Studies at Northwestern University in 1995 and received his PhD in 2000. He established Polish Humanities Foundation in 1995 and published 2B: A Journal of Ideas (1993–2000). 86 Henryk Wujec (born 1940), a physicist by profession, an activist of the anti-communist opposition in Poland from 1976, in 1988–1990 a secretary of the Citizens’ Committee of Lech Wałęsa that represented “Solidarity” movement in the first semi- -free elections in Poland after WWII, in 1989. He was elected to parliament for four consecutive terms (1989–2001). 87 Komitet Obywatelski przy przewodniczącym NSZZ “Solidarność” Lechu Wałęsie. Christine Przybyła-Long, “And she helped four thousand people...

was brand new again88. And women who worked in that office were most inte- 153 resting people. They had all come out of the Cardinal’s Committee89. I brought along a computer with me that died because of the electrical system which was really bad because we didn’t have that many computers there at the time. I had this portable computer and it got burned out completely in short order. Well, too bad about that. But Tomek arranged the job. And it was a marvelous job. Because my job was basically to help people figure out what to do next. Celiński90 was around and he gave me jobs to do that really worked things together. Geremek91 and Wujec were wonderful bosses, absolutely wonderful as well as everybody else of that group. Teresa Ogrodzińska92 became my good friend. I was supposed to live initially in the housing at the Sejm. That was not going to work out. There weren’t a lot of English-speakers then. It was like “Hmmm?” My Pol- ish… I can understand everything I hear, but I cannot, cannot bring myself to speak Polish. It was a psychological thing. But that was a problem. I spoke with my parents in English… It was a problem. We didn’t make a serious attempt to teach [our children] Polish. After all, I don’t speak Pol- ish. Jerry’s family doesn’t deal with that, never did.

88 Senate was abolished in Poland under communist rule in 1947 and introduced anew in 1989 as a result of the “Round-Table Talks” between the communist authorities and representatives of the democratic opposition. 89 Primate’s Aid Committee (Prymasowski Komitet Pomocy Osobom Pozbawionym Wolności i ich Rodzinom) was established in December 1981, after the introduction of the Martial law in Poland with the task of organizing charitable, legal and moral assistance to people persecuted by the regime and of providing public opinion with the information about their fates. 90 Andrzej Celiński (born 1950) was active in the anti-communist opposition in Poland since the 1970s. In 1989 he was a member of the Citizens’ Committee and was elected senator. In 1999 he joined Sojusz Lewicy Demokratycznej, dominated by the post- -communists, and remains active on the left wing of the Polish political scene. 91 Bronisław Geremek (1932–2008) was a historian and an activist of anti-communist opposition in Poland since the 1970s. He served as an advisor of the “Solidarity” trade union during the strike in the Gdańsk shipyard in 1980. After the parliamentary elections of 1989 he presided over the Citizens’ Parliamentary Club (Obywatelski Klub Parlamentarny) formed by the parliamentarians representing “Solidarity”. 92 Teresa Ogrodzińska (born 1951) is a Polish social activist. She worked in the secretariat of the Citizens’ Committee after the parliamentary elections of 1989. Later she engaged in the NGO sector, especially dealing with children’s education. Joanna Wojdon

154 But I have a cousin, now deceased: Father Charytański was a professor at Bobolanum which is a Jesuit House93. I had met him during various trips I’d made, so I hustled a place to stay. I also first hustled some money for them earlier on, because they were obviously printing probably stuff that they shouldn’t have been printing at that time [1988]. It was supposedly for his catechetical books, but their German printing operation was too fancy for catechetical books, altogether too fancy. They needed hard currency so I came back to Chicago and I found some money for them so they could buy paper in Finland and brought to Poland for their religion books which I never believed were religion books but it really didn’t make any difference. There were probably a few religion books that were published or something… So I ended up living in a Jesuit seminary. I was working one day on a Sunday because we had a job to get finished and a fax came in and the fax was really not intended for me but I took it off the machine. I was the only one there. I took it of the machine and I see that it is a fax written in English from National Democratic Institute, the NDI94. They were planning on coming and so my first reaction was “I’m going to fax you back, boys because if you’re coming next week I am going to see you because you’re going to come to the office I work in so there is no choice in the matter”. So I sent them a fax back that said: “I come from Chicago, I’ve worked for the Illinois Democratic Party, I’ve been a delegate to x number of conventions, I’ve worked on the national campaigns and by the way, isn’t it nice that we’re going to meet in Warsaw to talk about the wonders of Chicago after all?” So they wrote back. They came that week, two guys. We were organizing in the first place, the first meeting, what we were going to do, how are we going to do it, who should we talk to. So it was that thing exactly what I did in the United States, which is: “Well, this guy thinks he is important but he isn’t really” because by that time I’ve been there for

93 Jan Charytański (1922–2009) was a professor of theology. He created a Catechetical Center that published texbooks for religious instruction at schools. Collegium Bo- bolanum is a catholic institution of higher education, part of the Pontifical Faculty of Theology in Warsaw. 94 National Democratic Institute for International Affairs, established in 1983, as part of the National Endowment for Democracy, works with individuals, political parties and other organization worldwide to strengthen democratic mechanisms and practice. It receives financial support from federal funds as well as from private do- nors in USA and abroad. It has “loose affiliation” with the Democratic Party. Christine Przybyła-Long, “And she helped four thousand people...

a couple of months. “But this guy is really important and this one has but- 155 tons to push and who, who knows”. So then I got picked up. So I worked on their conference and did the advance which is more than Advance. We did the trainings for all of the political parties. Because we determined, and I am proud to say I was involved in that, we decided, the NDI, to train the people from all the political parties that had any membership of more than five members (that was the days of the sofa-parties). We were not going to fool around with three guys and their breakfast in the coffee shop, we wanted real parties and we didn’t care what their political background was, except we would not take the guys from the Regime. We took the Peasants, but we wouldn’t take the Regime people. All we wanted to do was to get a party system in operation. I said: “Well, the first thing is everybody will be from Warsaw.” “Yeah, that’s a problem.” “No, we won’t have everybody from Warsaw. How about if we have a rule. I mean we’re paying for it, we Americans (now all of a sudden I am no longer a Polish staff), so we have the right to say if there is going to be five people from each party, well, then three of those people have to be from outside Warsaw. Fair?” “Yeah, OK.” “And then we also have to be sure that we started building up some females who are other than people who do the food packages when people are in jail. How about that?” “Yeah, we’ll insist they have to have at least one woman in each group. So of the five we had to have a mix.” And, well, they said: “Are you sure that’s OK?” And I said: “What’s the matter? You are paying. They got to do it! They want this!” So that was the deal. I ended up with the help of another young person who was on the staff, whose mother was the chief counselor at Żoliborz95. Ewa96. And Ewa became my helper. And she first of all found the names of all the parties we decided we were to deal with. Found out who was in charge, what were the phone numbers, and what were we to do in order to meet them all etc. And she and I would go out. And I was the non-Polish speaker and I was fine. And she was my Polish. And she could deal with that. And we did Advance. And we went to their offices, they didn’t come to ask, we went to them, we wanted to see what it was like. And they wanted to come, to be in this list. The parties decided whom to bring. And it was interesting because one of

95 Northern district of Warsaw. 96 A person closer unknown. Joanna Wojdon

156 the parties, it was one of the old parties, the KPN97, and I said: “Here’s the list, you have five people and one person has to be woman.” And he98 said: “We don’t have any women.” And the woman who was sitting at the desk99 said “I’m a woman and I know about these things.” And she said it in Polish. And she knew I understood what she was saying. And I said: “See, you have a woman, right here.” And so she was it. And she was excellent as a matter of fact. But it was an interesting kind of experience, especially in who was nice to us and who wasn’t. The Peasants100 were difficult. In the agriculture ministry building was where they were meeting, and we couldn’t get an appointment, and got in finally, we were coming on an elevator which got stuck, of course. And we go down, and we got on another elevator, and were on this elevator with some women who were carrying bouquets of flowers and a big cake. God knows why. But we were all smooshed together. We got upstairs and we did our little interview thing and they kept us waiting at least an hour, I think they were having their cake and then the flowers, somebody must have been retiring or the nameday, whatever, but then they saw us and they were very suspicious. More suspicious than anybody else. And we were very clear, we told them always: “We are not making your choices, nobody is.” We have a comprehensive list, everybody is on it, we didn’t bother to say, except the bad guys, that was their problem. That was a long period. So we did this thing. And we had people in from lots of other places. The NDI had money at that time. So we had, besides the group attending and we had American staff from the NDI offices, we brought a guy from Hungary, a number of speakers who were Central-Eu- ropeans, and it worked well. We had translation staff. It was basically people from Washington who were expert in…

97 Konfederacja Polski Niepodległej (Confederation of Independent Poland) was an il- legal Polish political party, established in 1979 in Warsaw by Leszek Moczulski. 98 A person closer unknown. 99 A person closer unknown. 100 The Polish Peasants’ Party (Polskie Stronnictwo Ludowe, PSL) was one of the three political parties officially allowed in Poland under communism. Its leaders seemed to cultivate some traditions of the Polish peasant movement, but at the same time remained absolutely loyal to the communist authorities of Poland. Christine Przybyła-Long, “And she helped four thousand people...

We did another thing then, with NDI. When the presidential race was 157 on101. And that was a different tiny thing. We brought in two experts for the press people from the Wałęsa campaign and from the Mazowiecki campaign. The two people in charge were kept separate from one another and we made a promise and we kept it that they were not allowed to leak information, the impact, it was timed, so that they weren’t in the same country at the same time, isn’t that couldn’t be phone calls but I don’t think they did it. The only overlap was one when it was over with. There was a session with them as to who was going to win. And we all knew who was going to win. Because even though my heart belonged to Wujec and all of those guys, they were my guys, and the Kaczyński people: thank you very much […]. But the fact was it was a lousy campaign. Not all of which was the result of the candidate. Some of it was the candidate, some of it was, everybody was having a good time chatting and not thinking what work to do. But it wasn’t our job.

101 The presidential campaign of 1990, won by Lech Wałęsa. Tadeusz Mazowiecki who was another candidate lost not only to Wałęsa, but also to Stan Tymiński who appeared on the Polish political scene only during that campaign. Joanna Wojdon

“And she helped four thousand people Christine Przybyła-Long is one of the 9 milion Americans of Polish ori- become158 citizens of the gins living in the United States. Her descendatns came to Chicago during United States”. The account of Christine the mass migration from the turn of 20th century and she was born there Przybyła-Long in 1931. In her account Christine Przybyła-Long tells about her childhood

Edited by and a life of a family belonging to the “Old Polonia”. She gives a lot of at- Joanna Wojdon tention to the situation of Poles who migrated to the United States after WWII and to her own political involvement into Polish American affairs after 1990, that was crucial in the case of granting four thousand people american visas. s. Agnieszka OCD Klasztor wpisany w krajobraz wyspy

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opracowanie Marek Szajda

[Wrocław]

Wrocławski Rocznik Historii Mówionej Rocznik VI, 2016 ISSN 2084–0578

Wstęp Islandia z perspektywy współczesnego Polaka wciąż jest odległym, niezbyt dobrze znanym krajem, mimo że od kilku już lat Polacy stanowią najlicz- niejszą mniejszość na tej wyspie zamieszkałej przez około 300 tysięcy miesz- kańców. Ta zwiększająca się każdego roku liczba emigrantów zarobkowych z Polski na Islandię była jednym z powodów podjęcia badań o charakterze socjologicznym1, między innymi szczegółowych studiów dr Małgorzaty

1 Najważniejszymi projektami badawczymi dotyczącymi Polskich migrantów na Is- landii były: projekt badawczy „Integracja czy asymilacja? Strategie stawania się członkiem nowej wspólnoty: przypadek polskich imigrantów w Islandii” realizowa- ny przez Collegium Civitas oraz The Research Center on International Migration and Ethnic Relations w latach 2009–2011; projekt badawczy „Mobilność i migracje w dobie transformacji – wyzwania metodologiczne” prowadzony między 2008 i 2011 rokiem przez Ośrodek Badań nad Migracjami Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego; projekt badawczy „Migranci pracowniczy z Europy Środkowo-Wschodniej w krajach nor- dyckich: wzorce migracji, warunki pracy i praktyki rekrutacji” koordynowany przez Institute for Applied International Studies in Oslo w latach 2011–2012, projekt badawczy „Leisure practices and perception of nature. Polish tourist and migrants in Iceland” współtworzony przez badaczy z Uniwersytetu Gdańskiego i Uniwersytetu Islandzkiego między 2013 a 2015 r. Zob.: R. Raczyński, Polacy w Islandii. Aktywność społeczno-polityczna, Gdańsk 2015, s. 14–16. Marek Szajda

160 Budyty-Budzyńskiej z 2010 r.2 W 2015 r. Ośrodek „Pamięć i Przyszłość” z Wrocławia we współpracy z The Icelandic Research Centre for Innovation and Economic Growth zrealizował projekt badawczy „Polacy na Islandii”, przeprowadzony w ramach większego projektu „Oral history – dziedzictwo kulturowe Polski i Islandii uchwycone w ludzkich słowach”3. W jego ramach nagrana została prezentowana poniżej relacja4. Siostra Agnieszka OCD, karmelitanka, jest jedną z kilkunastu zakonnic przebywających na stałe w Islandii5, która jest krajem w większości prote- stanckim6. Jej pobyt na wyspie trwa już niespełna 32 lata, co czyni ją jedną z najdłużej zamieszkujących ten kraj Polek. Historia przyjazdu s. Agnieszki na wyspę jest ściśle związana z jej życiem zakonnym: po krótkim poby- cie we wspólnocie w Elblągu wraz z kilkoma zakonnicami udała się do Hafnarfjörður, gdzie do dziś istnieje jedyny na wyspie katolicki klasztor. Niniejsza relacja historii mówionej została przeprowadzona 20 sierpnia 2015 r. przez Karolinę Żłobecką i Marka Szajdę7. Kontakt z siostrą i nagra- nie wywiadu było możliwe dzięki pomocy polskiego duszpasterza, ks. Pio- tra Zielińskiego, a rozmowę przeprowadzono w specjalnie przygotowanym dla gości pokoju połączonym z klauzurową częścią budynku. Podczas całe- go spotkania s. Agnieszka OCD była oddzielona kratą od przeprowadzają- cych wywiad, zgodnie z karmelitańską regułą życia zakonnego.

2 Wynikiem tych badań była publikacja zbiorowa Integracja czy asymilacja? Polscy imigranci w Islandii, red. M. Budyta-Budzyńska, Warszawa 2011. Warte odnotowa- nia w tym obszarze jest też opracowanie Islandia. Wprowadzenie do wiedzy o kultu- rze i społeczeństwie, red. R. Chymkowski, W. K. Pessel, Warszawa 2009, oraz opracowanie Anny Wojtyńskiej, zob. przyp. 28. 3 Projekt finansowany z funduszy EOG, pochodzących z Islandii, Lichtensteinu i Nor- wegii oraz ze środków krajowych. 4 Więcej o projekcie badawczym zob. H. Gospodarczyk, R. Rydzewski, M. Szajda, K. Żłobecka, The experience of migration of Poles in Iceland, w niniejszym tomie. 5 Obecnie w gronie polskich sióstr przebywających na wyspie są również dwie siostry ze Zgromadzenia Sióstr Misjonarek Miłości. W Islandii znajduje się jeszcze kilka sióstr z Filipin. 6 Religią dominującą na wyspie jest Ewangelicko-Luterański Kościół Islandii. Według statystyk katolicy stanowią ok. 3,5% populacji Islandii. Por.: R. Raczyński, op. cit., s. 194. 7 Archiwum Ośrodka „Pamięć i Przyszłość”, AHM-akcesja, relacja s. Agnieszki OCD, 20 VIII 2015 r. (sporządzili Karolina Żłobecka i Marek Szajda). s. Agnieszka. Klasztor wpisany w krajobraz wyspy

Opowieść karmelitanki dotyczy głównie jej pobytu na wyspie, co na tle in- 161 nych relacji polskich emigrantów czyni ją o tyle wyjątkową, że s. Agnieszka niemal cały ten czas spędziła w murach klasztoru. Szczegółowo opisuje ona okoliczności przybycia sióstr do Islandii, charakteryzując przy tym wyspę oraz jej mieszkańców – otwartych, niezależnych i muzykalnych. Charak- teryzuje przy tym klimat Islandii, który bardzo wpływa na rytm życia na wyspie, a także kontakty z okolicznymi mieszkańcami odwiedzającymi klasztor i stosunek luterańskiej ludności do katolickich sióstr. W swej relacji s. Agnieszka wiele miejsca poświęca innym Polakom i ich pobytowi na Islandii. Ciekawy jest tu szczególnie wątek uchodźców z obozu przejściowego z Austrii, którzy przylecieli do Keflavíku w 1982 r.

Siostra Agnieszka OCD i Marek Szajda podczas nagrywania relacji, Hafnarfjörður, sierpień 2015. Fot. K. Żłobecka, Archiwum OPiP. Marek Szajda

162 Obecnie wiele z tych osób opuściło Islandię, udając się m.in. do USA. Z perspektywy zakonnicy wyjątkowa jest też grupa polskich muzyków, którzy od wielu lat pracują w orkiestrze filharmonii w Reykjavíku, a przy- byli na wyspę głównie w latach 80. XX w. Kolejne fale migrantów z Polski s. Agnieszka charakteryzuje na tle sytuacji gospodarczej Islandii i jej spe- cyficznego rynku pracy. Niektóre informacje na temat karmelitańskiego klasztoru na Islandii i przylotu sióstr z Polski pojawiły się kilka lat temu w artykule Rafała Ra- czyńskiego8. Niniejsza relacja znacznie poszerza wiedzę na ten temat, m.in. osobistą perspektywę jednej z uczestniczek tych wydarzeń, która mimo obecności i życia na wyspie, przygląda się jej jednak trochę z zewnątrz, bo z zamkniętego klasztoru. To pozwala siostrze wysnuwać ciekawe wnioski, dotyczące zarówno Islandczyków, jak i Polaków. Na potrzeby niniejszego opracowania transkrypcję relacji poddano ko- rekcie językowej, usuwając powtórzenia i monosylaby, których brak nie zakłóca prezentowanej treści. Aby lepiej przedstawić dynamikę wywiadu, pozostawiono pytania kierowane do świadka historii przez prowadzących rozmowę (zapisane kursywą), a w nawiasach kwadratowych umieszczono informacje o pojawiających się w trakcie rozmowy emocjach lub braku- jące słowa, co pomaga lepiej zrozumieć sens prezentowanej wypowiedzi. W przypisach zamieszczono dodatkowe wyjaśnienia oraz ważne odwoła- nia bibliograficzne. Niniejsze opracowanie relacji nie było konsultowane, autoryzowane przez świadka historii.

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Relacja s. Agnieszki OCD Czy mogłaby Siostra opowiedzieć nam, jak to się stało, że trafiła Siostra do Islandii? Jestem Karmelitanką Bosą z Klasztoru Niepokalanej Pani Jasnogórskiej i Świętego Józefa w Hafnarfjörður na Islandii9. Ten klasztor istnieje od 1939 r., ale w [19]83 r. wyjechała grupa sióstr, która była tutaj poprzednio z Holandii10. Zaszła potrzeba sprowadzenia tutaj nowych sióstr i właśnie

8 R. Raczyński, Elbląski ślad – klasztor Mniszek Karmelitanek Bosych w Hafnarfjörður, „Tygiel”, nr 69 (4/2013), s. 63–68. Autor opisuje w nim m.in. historię przyjazdu sióstr na wyspę oraz ich życie codzienne. 9 Klasztor mieści się przy ul. Olduslod 37 w Hafnarfjörður k. Reykjavíku. 10 Idea powstania klasztoru żeńskiego związana była z rozwojem katolicyzmu w Is- s. Agnieszka. Klasztor wpisany w krajobraz wyspy

było poszukiwanie takich sióstr karmelitanek, czyli mniszek, dla Islandii. 163 Prymas Glemp11 zwrócił się do Karmelu w Elblągu12, ponieważ tam było sporo powołań, sporo sióstr we wspólnocie, czy siostry nie są gotowe pod- jąć takiego wyzwania i przyjechać na Islandię, żeby tutaj się osiedlić w Kar- melu13. Oczywiście, jeżeli chodzi o Karmel, jest to specyficzne [miejsce], są to wspólnoty, bo każdy klasztor jest autonomiczny i jeżeli jakaś dziewczyna wstępuje do danego klasztoru, to jest w nim na całe życie14. Więc jeżeli chodziło o wyjazd na Islandię, potrzebna była dobrowolna zgoda po- szczególnych sióstr. Ja byłam wtedy w nowicjacie15 i pomyślałam o tym, że to jest takie wyzwanie Jezusa i nie mogę mu odmówić czegoś takiego, żeby wyjechać też z ojczyzny. Nie tylko wyrzec się dla Niego różnych innych rzeczy, ale też ojczyzny i kontaktów z rodziną, bo trzeba powiedzieć, że w [19]84 r. były to jeszcze czasy komunistyczne i bardzo był utrudniony kontakt z zagranicą. Jako przykład podam, że już po przyjeździe tutaj mama jednej z sióstr chciała porozumieć się telefonicznie, to na połączenie czekała tydzień i otrzymała je o drugiej w nocy, także takie to były realia. Więc w tamtych czasach taki wyjazd dla nas oznaczał brak kontaktu z ro- dziną i w ogóle, jakby taki wyjazd do bardzo misyjnego kraju16.

landii. Już w 1929 r., kiedy to poświęcono kościół katedralny pw. Chrystusa Króla w Reykjavíku, miejscowy biskup zaczął poszukiwania zgromadzenia zakonnego, które chciałoby założyć nową wspólnotę na wyspie. Ostatecznie pozyskano Karme- litanki z holenderskiej diecezji Haarlem, które przybyły do Islandii 1 III 1939 r. z mi- sją założenia nowego Karmelu. Siostry wróciły do rodzinnego kraju w 1983 r. Por.: http://www.karmel.is/index.html (dostęp: 10 II 2016 r.). 11 Kardynał Józef Glemp (1929–2013) – polski prezbiter (1956), biskup katolicki (1979) i kardynał (1983), prymas Polski w latach 1981–2009; por.: Konferencja Episkopatu Polski. Informator 2013, red. zespół KEP, Tarnów 2013, s. 33, 51. 12 Właściwie Karmel pod wezwaniem Niepokalanego Poczęcia Najświętszej Maryi Panny w Elblągu, zob. http://www.karmelelblag.pl/ (dostęp: 10 II 2016 r.). 13 Z pewnością kardynał Glemp znał siostry z elbląskiego klasztoru z okresu swoich rządów diecezją warmińską w latach 1979–1981. 14 Szczegóły życia zakonnego sióstr karmelitanek określone są w Regule, Konstytu- cjach zgromadzenia oraz w pismach założycielki, św. Teresy z Avila, zob. Konstytu- cje, [w:] Teresa z Avila, Dzieła mniejsze, Kraków 2014, s. 249–273; Sposób wizytowa- nia klasztorów, [w:] ibidem, s. 275–303. 15 Nowicjat jest kolejnym po postulacie etapem formacyjnym w zgromadzeniach za- konnych. We wspólnotach karmelitańskich trwa zazwyczaj dwa lata. 16 Sformułowanie „kraj misyjny” w XX w. było dość powszechnie używane również w kontekście dawnych krajów katolickich, które stały się protestanckie. Marek Szajda

164 Więc przyjechała tutaj w marcu 1984 r. grupa polskich mniszek, Karme- litanek Bosych, i ja byłam w tej grupie. W taki sposób się tutaj znalazłam, podobnie jak może jeszcze i inne siostry. Ale cóż było wtedy charakterystyczne dla Islandii. Wiemy o tym, że Islandia jest bardzo małym krajem wyspiarskim17. Wszyscy wiedzą, że wyspiarze też mają specyficzne podej- ście do życia, do swojego kraju i do swojego patriotyzmu, a jeżeli chodzi o Islandczyków, jest to jeszcze tym bardziej specyficzne, że Islandię zasied- lili Wikingowie, którzy uciekali z Norwegii, ponieważ nie chcieli się poddać królowi norweskiemu18. W tym czasie, około 874 r., był pierwszy król – jeden z Wikingów ogłosił się królem w Norwegii, był to Harald Pięknowło- sy19. I niektórzy Wikingowie, każdy z nich był panem na własnej posiadło- ści, nie chcieli się poddać jego władzy, więc uciekali z Norwegii i osiedlali się tutaj na Islandii. Islandczycy całkowicie cenią sobie niezależność, są absolutnie… Zresztą nawet, ja tak może za dużo tych dygresji podaję, ale tak mi się to kojarzy z bardzo znaną książką, bardzo. Właściwie jedynym laureatem Nagrody Nobla na Islandii to jest Halldór Laxness20. I on napisał książkę Sjálfstætt fólk, co nie wiem, na pewno ta książka jest przetłumaczona też na język polski21, ale to oznacza „niezależni”. Nie wiem, jaki jest dokładnie tytuł w języku polskim, jak to jest przetłumaczone, gdzie on mówi jak, do jakiego

17 Odnośnie zarówno do obszaru, jak i populacji Islandii. 18 Okres ten nazywany jest na Islandii landnamstiden – „czasem zajmowania ziemi”. Por.: G. Szelągowska, Od kolonii do państwa niepodległego. Islandia od XII do XX wieku, [w:] Islandia. Wprowadzenie…, s. 32. 19 W okresie rządów króla Haralda Pięknowłosego część jego poddanych, niezadowo- lona z decyzji podejmowanych przez władcę, uciekała z ziem norweskich, głównie na pobliskie wyspy. W ten sposób nasiliła się kolonizacja m.in. Szetlandów, Orkadów, Hebryd, Wysp Owczych oraz Islandii. Być może częściowo migracje te miały zwią- zek z bitwą pod Hafrsfjordem (872 r.). Zob.: W. Chrzanowski,Harald Pięknowłosy (ok. 850–933). Król Wikingów. Postać władcy norweskiego na kartach „Heimskringli” Snorriego Sturlussona, Kraków 2011, s. 99–101, 118–120. 20 Halldór Kiljan Laxness (1902–1998) – islandzki pisarz, prozaik, autor dzieł opisu- jących specyfikę kulturową oraz życie codzienne Islandczyków, m.in. powieści Sjálfstætt fólk (pol. Niezależni) z lat 1934–1935. W 1955 r. otrzymał Nagrodę Nobla w dziedzinie literatury „za wyrazistą moc epicką, która odrodziła wielką sztukę pro- zatorską Islandii”. Por.: http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laurea- tes/1955/laxness-bio.html (dostęp: 10 II 2016 r.). 21 Halldór Kiljan Laxness, Niezależni. Saga islandzkiej doliny, Warszawa 1956. s. Agnieszka. Klasztor wpisany w krajobraz wyspy

stopnia Islandczycy nie chcą się poddawać władzy innych. Więc oni tu za- 165 wsze chcieli tworzyć taką swoją społeczność, niezależną od nikogo. Utwo- rzyli w 930 r. już parlament22, nie w 1900, tylko 930 r., tak że oni zawsze chcieli być niezależni. I Islandczycy niesamowicie dbają o interesy swojego kraju, pomimo tego, że na przestrzeni wieków była tutaj bardzo różna sytuacja. Katastrofalne wybuchy wulkanów, jak koniec XVIII w., kiedy wy- ginęła jedna trzecia ludności z powodu trujących gazów23, potem głodu, ale Islandczycy zawsze trwali, zawsze chcieli być po prostu niezależnym tutaj narodem. W związku z tym, oni też zawsze dbają o interes swojego kraju i między innymi przekłada się to na to, że nigdy nie otwarli w ten sam sposób; pomimo, że Islandia jest bardzo zbliżona pod względem men- talnym, gospodarczym, przepisów prawa do Skandynawii, bardzo swoje przepisy upodabnia do przepisów Skandynawii, nigdy nie otwarła swoich granic w taki sposób jak Skandynawia, czy inne kraje zachodniej Europy, na emigrantów. Więc kiedy ja tutaj przyjechałam w [19]84 r., muszę powiedzieć, że Po- laków można by policzyć na palcach obu dłoni może. W każdym razie na pewno tak przed wojną jeszcze, drugą wojną światową, Islandia była bardzo biednym krajem, więc nawet nie była atrakcyjna dla imigrantów24. Jeżeli chodzi o obcokrajowców, to może byli tu jacyś Duńczycy. Czasem jacyś, ponieważ Islandia była zawsze, te wody wokół Islandii, cudownym łowi- skiem ryb, więc też tutaj zaglądali zawsze marynarze francuscy, angielscy, niemieccy. Nawet tutaj Hanza25 miała dosyć duże kontakty. Więc pod tym względem Islandia może miała jakieś kontakty, czy mieszkali tutaj jacyś obcokrajowcy, natomiast nie była w tych czasach atrakcyjna, dlatego, żeby polepszyć sobie byt i tutaj przyjechać. Ale po II wojnie światowej nastąpił

22 Tak zwany Althing – zgromadzenie dysponujące władzą ustawodawczą i sądowni- czą, powołane przez islandzkie rody. Por.: G. Szelągowska, op. cit., s. 32. 23 W latach 1783–1784 duże szkody wywołała erupcja wulkanu Laki położonego na po- łudniu Islandii. Por.: M. Dąbski, Dymiąca wyspa okiem przyrodnika, [w:] Islandia. Wprowadzenie…, s. 28. 24 Owe zapóźnienia były widoczne nie tylko w gospodarce, ale i w demografii. Słaba kondycja ekonomiczna kraju spowodowała powszechne w końcówce XIX w. emigra- cje. W latach 1870–1914 wyspę opuściła około 1/8 mieszkańców. Zob.: G. Szelągow- ska, op. cit., s. 38–42. 25 Chodzi o związek hanzeatycki skupiający w celach handlowych miasta europejskie, funkcjonujący w okresie późnego średniowiecza i nowożytności. Marek Szajda

166 gwałtowny rozwój. Islandia dużo zyskała na II wojnie światowej26 i zaczęła się szybko bogacić, ale mimo to Islandczycy utrzymali taką wielką ostroż- ność w przyjmowaniu obcokrajowców. Jeżeli chodzi o Polaków, w [19]84 r. było ich [na Islandii] niewielu. Kilku [przyjechało] po stanie wojennym27. Islandia przyjęła chyba trzy rodziny polskie z obozu przejściowego w Austrii, z tym, że wszystkie te trzy rodziny już nie mieszkają na Islandii. Wyprowadzili się do Stanów [Zjednoczonych] czy do Szwecji28. Oprócz tego były może trzy Polki, które wyszły za mąż za Islandczyków. Jedna z nich znalazła się tutaj, przyjechała jako pomoc domowa w ambasadzie, i ona sprowadziła dwie swoje koleżanki, które też wyszły za mąż za Islandczyków. Oprócz tego jeszcze była pani Halinka Bo- gatyńska29, która wyszła za mąż za Islandczyka, którego spotkała w Anglii. Pani Halinka była z wykształcenia geologiem i była tutaj bardzo dobrze przyjęta. Pracowała właśnie w Instytucie Geologii. Wiadomo, że Islandia, jeżeli chodzi o geologów, ma duże potrzeby. Ona akurat nie pracowała w takim kierunku, bo tu wielu wulkanologów jest, ale ona była zatrudniona w jakimś instytucie związanym z wodą. Nie pamiętam dokładnie, czym ona się zajmowała. Ona obecnie też mieszka w Stanach. W latach 80. [XX w.] przybyło na Islandię sporo muzyków, ponieważ Islandczycy są niezwykle muzykalnym narodem i bardzo wielu Islandczy- ków, niezależnie od tego, jaki posiada zawód, śpiewa w chórach30. Nawet

26 Tuż po zajęciu Danii przez III Rzeszę, w obawie przed zajęciem Islandii, Wielka Bry- tania zdecydowała o umieszczeniu swoich wojsk na wyspie. 10 maja 1940 r. brytyj- skie wojsko, w liczbie ok. 25 tys., dotarło do Islandii. W kolejnym roku do oddziałów dołączyły również siły amerykańskie i kanadyjskie. Miało to bezpośredni wpływ na rozwój nastrojów niepodległościowych oraz na późniejszą proklamację niezależnej republiki Islandii 17 VI 1944 r. Zob.: B. Piotrowski, Skandynawia powojenna. W cie- niu państwa opiekuńczego. 1944–1975, Poznań 2015, s. 101–102. 27 Stan wojenny w Polsce został wprowadzony 13 XII 1981 r. i zniesiony 22 VII 1983 r. 28 W 1982 r. Islandia przyjęła 26 Polaków, uchodźców politycznych, z obozu przejścio- wego z Austrii, którzy trafili tam na skutek wprowadzenia w Polsce stanu wojenne- go, a wyjechali na Islandię dzięki zaangażowaniu islandzkiego oddziału Czerwonego Krzyża. Zob.: A. Wojtyńska, Historia i charakterystyka migracji z Polski do Islandii, [w:] Integracja…, s. 31. Rafał Raczyński podaje liczbę 23 uchodźców. Por.: R. Raczyń- ski, Polacy…, s. 108. 29 Osoba bliżej nieznana. 30 Por.: E. Murawska, Wokół muzyki islandzkiej, [w:] Islandia. Wprowadzenie…, s. 191–192. s. Agnieszka. Klasztor wpisany w krajobraz wyspy

tworzone są spontanicznie takie chóry. Jako przykład podam: nasz sąsiad, 167 który jest prawnikiem31, codziennie chodzi na basen, rano, i spontanicznie utworzył się tam, może za jego przyczyną, nawet taki chór basenowy. Ką- piąc się, czy siedząc w jakimś gorącym tam [źródle], ponieważ wiadomo na Islandii w basenach jest gorąca woda z gejzerów, śpiewają razem. Więc je- żeli odwiedzają nas jakieś grupy, jakieś dzieci ze szkoły, przedszkola, jakieś grupy, które przypadkowo się spotykają i normalnie nie śpiewają razem, są w stanie przepięknie na głosy śpiewać, z marszu można powiedzieć. Island- czycy są niezwykle muzykalni i w związku z tym zawsze tutaj była potrzeba, duża potrzeba nauczycieli muzyki. Bo to, co jest charakterystyczne dla Islandii, to w każdej najmniejszej miejscowości, osadzie jest basen i w każ- dej najmniejszej społeczności jest chór. Więc to są, można powiedzieć, dwie bardzo charakterystyczne cechy dla Islandczyków. Ci muzycy to są do tej pory. Wielu z nich jest nauczycielami muzyki w róż- nych częściach Islandii, także w Reykjavíku, ale także w Akureyri i tutaj na zachodzie Islandii, w innych miejscach. Więc ta druga grupa Polaków, która tu przybyła, to właśnie muzycy. Dodam jeszcze, że było trzech skrzypków, którzy pracowali w orkiestrze symfonicznej w Reykjavíku. Jeden z nich był ożeniony z Islandką, ale on już nie żyje, natomiast ci dwaj pozostali nadal grają w orkiestrze. I jeden z nich, Szymon Kuran32, który właśnie nie żyje, był bardzo ceniony, był koncertmistrzem wielokrotnie, był kompozytorem też i jest znaną postacią tutaj na Islandii. Oprócz tego Zbyszek Dubik33, któ- ry nadal pracuje w orkiestrze, ma żonę śpiewaczkę operową. Ich dzieci już się czują, są, utożsamiają raczej z Islandią, chociaż regularnie odwiedzali

31 Osoba bliżej nieznana. 32 Szymon Kuran (1955–2005) – kompozytor, skrzypek, muzyk jazzowy związany z Pol- ską i Islandią. Ukończył studia muzyczne w klasie skrzypiec w Akademii Muzycznej w Gdańsku; w latach 1981–1983 zatrudniony w Filharmonii Bałtyckiej w Gdańsku, od 1984 r. przebywał w Islandii, gdzie pracował w stołecznej Orkiestrze Symfonicznej na stanowisku drugiego koncertmistrza. W 1991 r. otrzymał obywatelstwo islandzkie, a trzy lata później prestiżową nagrodę artysty roku. Zmarł w Reykjavíku. Zob.: http://www.polmic.pl/index.php?option=com_mwosoby&view=czlowiek&id=494& lang=pl (dostęp: 10 II 2016 r.). 33 Zbigniew Dubik jest absolwentem Akademii Muzycznej w Gdańsku w klasie skrzypiec (1983 r.). Od 1988 r. jest zatrudniony w Islandzkiej Orkiestrze Symfonicznej, gdzie pełni funkcję koncertmistrza. Członek m.in. Caput Ensemble oraz Bernardel String Quar- tet. Zob.: http://www.sinfonia.is/sinfoniuhljomsveitin/hljomsveitin/hljomsveitin/ persona/22/fyrirtaeki/1 (dostęp: 10 II 2016 r.). Marek Szajda

168 Polskę. Alina34 otrzymała w zeszłym roku chyba bardzo prestiżową na- grodę za rolę swoją w operze. Oprócz tego obydwoje są też nauczycielami muzyki. Ona uczy śpiewu, a on gry na skrzypcach. Więc to jeżeli chodzi o muzyków polskich, którzy mają też swoje osiągnięcia, a trzeba dodać, to jest wiadome, że jeżeli się jest w obcym kraju i jeszcze tak jak zaznaczyłam, Islandczycy są tak wyspiarsko dumni ze swojego kraju, tak bardzo nieza- leżni, więc jeżeli chce się tu [być], ma się jakieś osiągnięcia, to trzeba mieć dużo większe osiągnięcia niż rodowici Islandczycy, żeby otrzymywać takie nagrody i być tak docenionym. Taka duża fala Polaków zjawiła się tutaj dopiero po wejściu Polski do Unii Europejskiej i otwarciu się rynku islandzkiego na zatrudnianie obco- krajowców. Jak wspomniałam, przed wojną Islandia była bardzo biednym krajem, natomiast nastąpił bardzo, bardzo szybki i gwałtowny rozwój po II wojnie światowej, co przełożyło się niestety na to, że Islandczycy bogacili się i zaczęli niechętnie podejmować niektóre prace. W związku z tym Po- lacy głównie są zatrudniani w przetwórstwie rybnym i w budownictwie35. Oczywiście w innych dziedzinach też. Są też Polacy, którzy dobrze opano- wali język islandzki i mają możliwość zatrudnienia nawet w swoim zawo- dzie, z tym, że wielu Polaków przyjeżdża tutaj tylko czasowo i na czasową pracę i nawet nie przykładają się do nauki języka. Jeżeli chodzi właśnie o zatrudnienie w przemyśle rybnym, Islandia jest zamieszkana tylko na obrzeżach, wokół wybrzeży, ponieważ cały interior jest nawet niedostępny do zamieszkania. Jest to wyżyna, która jest kamienną pu- stynią praktycznie i nigdy tam Islandczycy nie mieszkali w interiorze, poza jakimiś banitami. Po II wojnie światowej, kiedy nastąpił taki wielki rozwój, wielu Islandczyków, którzy mieszkali wokół na Islandii, na różnych obrze-

34 Alina Dubik jest absolwentką Akademii Muzycznej w Gdańsku w klasie śpiewu. Obecnie pracuje w Operze w Reykjavíku. Jest m.in. laureatką prestiżowej w środowi- sku teatralnym, islandzkiej nagrody Gríman w roku 2013. Zob.: http://icelandnews. is/rozrywka-i-kultura/ludzie/alina-dubik-otrzymala-prestizowa-nagrode (dostęp: 10 II 2016 r.); por.: Archiwum Ośrodka „Pamięć i Przyszłość”, AHM-akcesja, relacja Aliny Dubik, 24 VIII 2015 r. (sporządził R. Rydzewski). 35 Według badań przeprowadzonych w 2010 r. wśród Polaków w Islandii, w pierwszych latach po przybyciu na wyspę najczęściej podejmowano pracę w przetwórstwie rybnym oraz w sektorze budowniczym. W dalszej kolejności znajdowano zatrudnienie w handlu, magazynach, gastronomii i pracach porządkowych. Por.: D. Gutowski, P. Maranowski, Praca i kultura pracy oczami Polaków na Islandii, [w:] Integracja…, s. 80. s. Agnieszka. Klasztor wpisany w krajobraz wyspy

żach, chciała się przeprowadzać do Reykjavíku. W związku z tym teraz dwie 169 trzecie ludności Islandii mieszka w Reykjavíku36. Natomiast, ponieważ te ło- wiska wokół Islandii są bardzo dobre i jest wiele osad w bardzo niedostęp- nych, można powiedzieć, tak na co dzień miejscach, potrzeba tam po prostu siły roboczej do tego, żeby oprawiać te ryby, bo statki przypływają właśnie do tych małych osad, gdzie mieszka czasem może 300 osób, może 200. Jeżeli już 2000, to już jest jakaś bardzo poważna „baj”37, jak to oni mówią, osada. W ogóle, jeżeli chodzi o Islandczyków to jest taka polityka, żeby jakby ułatwić tym mieszkańcom w tych niedostępnych fiordach mieszkanie tam nadal. Więc buduje się wiele tuneli i ciągle jest taka polityka budowania tuneli przez różne góry, żeby te jakieś 200 mieszkańców, gdzie jest 200 miesz- kańców czy 100, takie osady małe, miały między sobą większy kontakt, i żeby ci ludzie nie chcieli wyjeżdżać do Reykjavíku. Żeby utrzymać te ma- lutkie osady. Z tym, że Polacy czasem z Polski, którzy tutaj przyjeżdżali, bo ktoś im tutaj załatwił pracę albo dowiedzieli się, że jest taka możliwość38, wiedzieli, że lądują czasem 800 kilometrów od większego miasta, w jakiejś mieścinie całkowicie takiej odciętej od świata, gdzie w zimie nawet nie da się nigdzie wyruszyć dalej. To życie często nawet było takie, że praktycznie [tylko] do fabryki rybnej i do hotelu i nawet żadnych rozrywek, żadnych możliwości rekreacji, czy jakby jakichś kontaktów normalnych. Więc może to być zaskakujące, ponieważ w Polsce czy w Europie jednak te kontakty między osadami czy miastami są łatwe, natomiast tutaj przez większą część roku można być odciętym od świata. Zresztą, nawet jeżeli ktoś pracuje gdzieś tam na północnym wschodzie Islandii, najbliżej ma może do Aku- reyri39, jako większego ośrodka, ale jest to może teraz poprawione. Są różne drogi, ale nie były, nie są, to łatwe miejsca do zamieszkania dla Polaków.

36 Według najnowszych statystyk za czwarty kwartał 2015 r., Islandię zamieszkuje 332 750 osób, z czego ponad 120 000 w stołecznym Reykjavíku. Za: Population in the 4th quarter 2015, http://statice.is/publications/news-archive/population/population-in-the-4th-quarter-2015/ (dostęp: 10 II 2016 r.). 37 Prawdopodobnie chodzi o islandzkie bú, oznaczajace farmę, zagrodę. 38 Praca „załatwiana” na podstawie sieci społecznych, jest typowym zjawiskiem wśród migrantów. Również w badaniach z 2010 r., przeprowadzanych wśród Polaków w Is- landii, przylot na wyspę, do pracy zapewnionej przez znajomych czy rodzinę, był najczęściej podawaną okolicznością. Zob.: D. Gutowski, P. Maranowski, op. cit., s. 79. 39 Miasto położone na północy Islandii. Obecnie zamieszkuje je około 18 000 osób. Jest to trzecia co do wielkości i liczebności miejscowość w Islandii. Marek Szajda

170 Więc nastąpił potem w 2008 r. ten kryzys, gdzie wielu Polaków straciło pracę40. Część próbowała wyjechać do Norwegii albo gdzieś indziej się za- trudnić. Część wyjechała do Polski, ale mimo wszystko potem Polacy tro- chę się powymieniali i wydaje mi się, że utrzymuje się mniej więcej stała liczba Polaków41. Teraz, po tym już kryzysie, wielu Polaków, którzy mówili, że przyjechali tu tylko czasowo, jednak ze względu na przyjazne państwo dla ludzi, chce zostać. Pomimo, że no niestety Islandczycy, którzy byli ta- kimi ludźmi bardzo prawymi, to stare pokolenie, teraz ci, którzy się szybko bogacili, czasem chcą też kosztem taniej siły roboczej, kosztem właśnie ludzi, jeszcze bardziej się wzbogacić. Więc to nie jest pozytywne. Nieraz, ponieważ mam kontakty z różnymi Islandczykami, czasem ci ze starszego pokolenia ubolewają nad tym, jak się zmieniło społeczeństwo i jak często jest nastawienie praktycznie na szybki zysk. Oczywiście, że w czasie tego kryzysu, wielu Islandczyków mówiło o tym, że ten kryzys był potrzebny, że troszkę się otrząsną z tego, z tego niesamowitego pędu do budowania, po- siadania, chęci wzbogacenia. Z tym, że właśnie może dwa dni temu rozma- wiałam z jednym z budowlańców i on mówił, że on odczuwa, że znów jest taki stan jak w 2007 r., przed kryzysem. Takiego właśnie pędu do budow- nictwa z zysku; niesamowicie jest napędzone na nowo. Tak pokrótce mogę przedstawić jak to widzę. Może jeszcze jakieś pytania dodatkowe, które...

Czy Siostra pamięta pierwszy dzień tutaj, pierwsze zetknięcie się z Islandią? Owszem, przyleciałyśmy na Islandię 19 marca [1984 r.]. W Polsce już była wiosna, wszystko rozkwitało. Na Islandii właściwie dopiero jakieś tam lotniska, asfaltowe drogi założyli żołnierze, ponieważ w czasie II wojny świa- towej Islandię zajęli najpierw Anglicy42, a potem Amerykanie i po II wojnie

40 O stosunku polskich migrantów wobec islandzkiego kryzysu zob.: M. Budyta-Bu- dzyńska, Islandzki kryzys finansowy a strategie adaptacyjne Polaków na Islandii, [w:] Integracja…, s. 91–122. 41 Według danych zamieszczonych przez Islandzki Urząd Statystyczny w 2013 r. do Islandii przybyło 1315 obywateli polskich. Rok później – 1406. Por.: http:// px.hagstofa.is/pxen/pxweb/en/Ibuar/Ibuar__buferlaflutningar__buferlaflmilli- landa/MAN01404.px/table/tableViewLayout2/?rxid=c1cdea16-3e0d-43de-b857- 6479f525218a (dostęp: 10 II 2016 r.). 42 Zob. przypis 26. s. Agnieszka. Klasztor wpisany w krajobraz wyspy

światowej powstała tu baza NATO w Keflavíku43. I właśnie dopiero żoł- 171 nierze w czasie II wojny światowej założyli pierwsze, zbudowali pierwsze lotniska i w Reykjavíku, i w Keflavíku. Jakieś drogi takie przejezdne zrobili. Więc w [19]84 r. w pełni zimnej wojny tutaj nie było lotniska cywilnego. Było tylko i wyłącznie lotnisko wojskowe. Nie było rękawów do wysiadania czy wsiadania do samolotów, tylko z samolotów wysiadało się na płytę lotniska. Drzwi samolotu otwarły się, a tutaj zawierucha śnieżna. Przywitali nas w takim… Lotnisko wyglądało jak taki może dworzec autobusowy ja- kiś w Polsce, taki z tamtych czasów, i czekali tam na nas Islandczycy. Ale też czekali właśnie ludzie z bazy amerykańskiej, mówiąc do nas po polsku: „Wita was Ameryka” [śmiech], co było dla nas zadziwiające. Przyjechałyśmy tutaj do klasztoru, gdzie też [na nas] czekali. Muszę powiedzieć, że myśmy wylądowały gdzieś koło drugiej w nocy i tutaj też czekali Islandczycy. Klasztor był oświetlony. No i w tej zawiei jechałyśmy z lotniska. Byłyśmy trochę zdziwione, że żadnych świateł po drodze nie ma. Myślałyśmy, że może już wszyscy pogasili światła i śpią. Natomiast dopiero po tym wiemy, że w drodze z Keflavíku do Reykjavíku nie ma żadnych zabudowań – to są po prostu pustkowia lawy. Więc przyjechałyśmy tutaj właśnie; Islandki przygotowały dla nas posiłek. Pamiętam bardzo dobrze, takie bardzo słodkie kakao, jakieś kanapki i byłyśmy bardzo mile przywi- tane, ponieważ Islandczycy bardzo cenili sobie też te siostry Holenderki i chcieli bardzo, aby tu nadal były siostry, które się modlą za nich. Potem następne dni. Był pierwszy dzień właśnie po tej krótkiej nocy. Miałyśmy odwiedziny różnych też innych ludzi, właściwie Islandczyków głównie. Dopiero może po jakimś [czasie], po kilku dniach, zjawili się pierwsi Polacy, którzy nas też przywitali i dawali nam różne rady, z tego już

43 Obecność żołnierzy amerykańskich w Islandii była kontynuacją pobytu w okresie II wojny światowej. 7 października 1946 r. podpisano islandzko-amerykańskie po- rozumienie o statusie bazy wojskowej oraz warunków pobytu Amerykanów w Ke- flavíku. Por.: B. Piotrowski, op. cit., s. 104. W kolejnych latach, już po przystąpieniu Islandii do Paktu Północnoatlantyckiego w 1949 r., zawarto jeszcze jeden układ ze Stanami Zjednoczonymi. Na mocy porozumienia z 1951 r. Islandia otrzymała gwa- rancję bezpieczeństwa i obrony ze strony USA, w razie ataku obcych wojsk i utrzy- mano status baz wojskowych na wyspie. Zob.: T. Cieślak, Zarys historii najnowszej krajów skandynawskich, Warszawa 1978, s. 405. Marek Szajda

172 tutaj, ze swojego pobytu. Ale właśnie no wszyscy nas witali bardzo miło. Taki potem długoletni nasz przyjaciel, właśnie do tej pory, taki aktor44, przyniósł nam biało-czerwone kwiaty. Powiedział, że to są kolory polskie. Poza tym, cóż mogę powiedzieć. Na pewno było to, jeżeli był to już czas, bo koniec marca jest to już wyrównanie, zrównanie dnia z nocą i nie odczuwa- łyśmy wtedy tych ciemności zimowych, ponieważ dzień już wyglądał dosyć normalnie. Ale rzeczywiście różnica temperatur i potem zwykle na Islandii wiosna, jeżeli w ogóle można powiedzieć o wiośnie, to jest koniec maja albo początek czerwca, więc trzeba było długo czekać na to, żeby cokolwiek się zazieleniło45. No oczywiście to jest to. Był czas takiego klimatyzowania się, szoku, że wszystko jest w innym języku, nieznanym zupełnie. Uczenia się języka, zwy- czajów tutaj, poznawania ludzi, ale zaskakujące było rzeczywiście to, że właś- nie takie poznanie Islandczyków, którzy byli tacy prawi, wychowani na Biblii. To starsze pokolenie rzeczywiście było wychowane na Biblii. Myślę, że dla nich te warunki klimatyczne, niepewność ze względu na wulkany, na trzę- sienia ziemi i zwłaszcza na to, że właściwie podstawą ich wyżywienia były ryby i barany, mięso baranie, więc mieli bardzo marne te łodzie, którymi wypływali na połowy, często ginęli na morzu, więc czuli się zależni od Boga. Może przytoczę świadectwo jednej z tych rodzin, która właśnie została przyjęta tutaj w ramach tych rodzin, które były przyjęte z tego obozu przej- ściowego w Austrii46. Pamiętam, że ta żona z tego małżeństwa z jednym dzieckiem, powiedziała nam, opowiedziała nam, że była bardzo zdziwiona, bo tak: no oczywiście, kiedy Islandia przyjęła ich, zapewniła im mieszkanie, pracę itd. Jakieś tam możliwości na początek, ale ona była bardzo zdziwiona, bo poszła do jakiegoś sklepu, zaczęła oglądać futra i spodobało jej się jedno. Przymierzała i sprzedawczyni zaproponowała jej, że „jeżeli chcesz, to możesz wziąć do domu i pokazać mężowi”. Ona mówi: „Ale ja nie mam… nie wiem, jak mam zapłacić czy założyć coś”. Ona mówi: „Nie, to jak już pokażesz, to mi zapłacisz albo oddasz”. I ona była bardzo tym zdziwiona. Właśnie w tamtych czasach było na tyle jeszcze tutaj to społeczeństwo uczciwe, że często nie zamykano domów, absolutnie nie zamykano samochodów, praktycznie ludzie

44 Osoba bliżej nieznana. 45 Jak widać, w pozostałych wywiadach przeprowadzonych w ramach projektu „Polacy na Islandii” wśród wielu Polaków pojawia się tęsknota za znanymi im warunkami klimatycznymi, w tym za wiosną, jaką znali z Polski. 46 Osoby bliżej nieznane. s. Agnieszka. Klasztor wpisany w krajobraz wyspy

wiedzieli, że się nie kradnie, że należy zachować jakąś uczciwość, że należy 173 pomagać innym. Niestety, jak mówię, na niekorzyść zmieniło [się] społeczeń- stwo w wielu aspektach, ale tak, takie były świadectwa Polaków. Wydaje mi się, jeżeli mogę podać inne moje takie uwagi, które mi się w tej chwili nasuwają. Polacy, którzy tutaj przyjeżdżali, jeszcze bezpośrednio po czasach komunistycznych albo i później, wydawało im się często, że tutaj są takie same stosunki, jak w Polsce. Natomiast to państwo ma tradycje de- mokratyczne już wielkowiekowe i inny sposób funkcjonowania. Więc jeżeli chodzi o policję, np. policja tutaj, i urzędnicy zasadniczo, wszelcy urzędni- cy państwowi, mają to przekonanie, że są po to, żeby służyć społeczeństwu. Polacy bardzo często bali się policji, czasem próbowali kłamać, żeby jakoś się usprawiedliwić czy posądzać o to, że policja chce się zemścić albo że może zrobić to czy tamto. Natomiast tu jest rzecz rzeczywiście… Znam taki przykład, że taka nasza znajoma złapała gumę i nie mogła sobie poradzić ze zmianą koła, więc zadzwoniła na policję o pomoc. Policja przyjechała pomóc zmienić koło. Albo taki ksiądz starszy, który do nas przyjeżdżał z Reykjavíku odprawić msze. Pewnego dnia mu stanął samochód, gdzieś tam na drodze, więc zadzwonił na policję, że on musi być tutaj, na ósmą w Karmelu, bo ma odprawiać mszę, a mu się coś stało z samochodem. Czy by go nie podwieźli. I nie było to nic niezbożnego. Po prostu okazało się, że policja tak zrobiła. Oczywiście, że jeżeli chodzi o urzędy, jest to małe państwo, więc jest o wiele łatwiejsza kontrola obywateli. Wiele rzeczy jest ułatwionych. Jeżeli przychodzi się do urzędu, wystarczy podać pesel i właściwie wiele rzeczy jest w sposób bardzo ułatwiony, prosty [załatwiane]47. Bez wypełniania ja- kichś upoważnień, kwestionariuszy i tego typu rzeczy. Bardzo prosto zała- twiane, bardzo szybko, sprawnie. Czasem zdarza nam się, że potrzebujemy też coś załatwiać w urzędach islandzkich. Zwykle jesteśmy przygotowane do tego. Wszystko wypełnione, przygotowane itd. Ale zdarza się, że ktoś przed nami jest w kolejce, jakiś Islandczyk, którego dopiero pani się pyta, co on ma wypełnić, co on ma zrobić. Pani wychodzi zza okienka, poka- zuje mu, skąd wziąć jakiś kwestionariusz, pomaga mu w wypełnieniu i po prostu uważa, że to jest jej obowiązek. Więc pod tym względem trzeba po- wiedzieć, że dla nich jest to nie do pomyślenia, żeby urzędnik, czy ktokol- wiek, kto ma takie zadanie, nie [wiedział], żeby usłużyć petentowi. Czasem

47 Odpowiednikiem polskiego numeru PESEL jest islandzki osobisty numer identyfi- kacyjny Kennitala. Marek Szajda

174 właśnie Polacy są [zdziwieni], potem muszą się do tego przyzwyczajać się, że są panami, można by powiedzieć, w tym momencie, kiedy przychodzą w jakichś sprawach do załatwienia. Z tym, że no oczywiście, pomimo, że są pewne też nawet akcje w szko- łach, przedszkolach, w prasie, gdzie stara się przeciwdziałać, jak oni to na- zywają, rasizmowi, czy spoglądaniu z góry na ludzi obcego pochodzenia, czy właściwie dbają o to i prowadzą takie akcje, to odkąd zwiększyła się liczba obcokrajowców na Islandii, część Islandczyków podchodzi z takim, no właśnie… Nie, nie, podchodzi tak troszkę z dystansem do obcokrajow- ców, zwłaszcza np.: w okresie kryzysu obawiali się często o to, że obcokrajowcy zabierają im pracę, pomimo, że najczęściej obcokrajowcy jednak byli zatrudnieni w pracach, których oni nie chcieli. Po prostu uważali [je] za mało płatne, ale obserwuje się teraz właśnie pod tym względem też takie cofanie się społeczeństwa.

A czy Siostry to odczuwają tutaj też w klasztorze, czy to raczej są takie odległe sprawy? Muszę powiedzieć, że my cieszymy się raczej dużym szacunkiem, natomiast wiemy o świadectwach ludzi, którzy czasem doświadczali właśnie takiego traktowania. My, jako Karmelitanki, no cieszymy się naprawdę bardzo [dużym szacunkiem], nigdy nie spotkałam się raczej [ze złą opinią], raczej spotykamy się z ogromną życzliwością. Ilekroć po prostu mamy ja- kiekolwiek kontakty czy nawet jakieś potrzeby, prośby, to raczej spotykamy się naprawdę z wielkim, wielkim szacunkiem i życzliwością tak, że nie jesteśmy reprezentatywne w tym momencie.

Wracając do tych lat 80. [XX w.]. Czy Siostra może powiedzieć, ile sióstr przyje- chało wtedy do Karmelu? Tak. Przyjechała nas grupa 16 sióstr, w tym dwie siostry wyjechały od razu, w tym samym roku, ponieważ, no to trzeba powiedzieć, tak jak wspomina- łam: klimat, inna mentalność, ta niesamowita izolacja od Polski, to nie jest łatwe. Więc te siostry po prostu powiedziały, że one jednak nie czują, żeby tutaj były w stanie żyć, więc wróciły do Polski. Potem wstępowały tutaj dziewczyny z Polski, więc powstał nowy klasztor w Norwegii48. Grupa sióstr stąd

48 Klasztor ten powstał w Tromsø. Zob.: http://karmelicibosi.pl/?page_id=481 (dostęp: 10 II 2016 r.). s. Agnieszka. Klasztor wpisany w krajobraz wyspy

pojechała do Norwegii, no i potem jeszcze do Niemiec. Potem jedna z sióstr, 175 która tutaj przyjechała, najstarsza z tych sióstr, która tutaj przyjechała, zmarła w 2007 r.49 W związku z tym w obecnej naszej grupie jedenastu sióstr, tylko dwie jesteśmy z tego [19]84 r., natomiast pozostałe wszystkie to są dziewczyny, które tutaj już wstępowały i stawały się Karmelitankami na Islandii.

Ale wszystkie z Polski? Wszystkie jesteśmy z Polski.

A jak wyglądała kwestia z nauką języka u sióstr? Ojej, to jest niestety w naszym przypadku, to jest taka sytuacja, że my mamy bardzo, można powiedzieć, napięty plan dnia50. Mamy bardzo, bardzo dużo zajęć w ciągu dnia, jeżeli chodzi o modlitwę, prace itd. Taki normalny plan zakonny. W związku z tym wciśnięcie tam czasu na naukę jest naprawdę trudne, ale no nauka dla nas jest czymś bardzo podstawowym. Nauka języka, po- nieważ jesteśmy tutaj na całe życie, więc staramy się uczyć. Na początku była tutaj taka Islandka51, która nas uczyła. Potem taki nauczyciel52, tutaj z liceum z Hafnarfjörður. Miałyśmy tak raz, może dwa razy w tygodniu lekcje, a poza tym musiałyśmy się uczyć same, ale czasem, no oczywiście mamy ustawiczne kontakty z Islandczykami, mamy więcej kontaktów z Islandczykami bez po- równania. To jest, głównie mamy kontakty z Islandczykami, mniej z Polakami, więc po prostu ta znajomość języka, można powiedzieć, że się też szlifuje przez te kontakty. Poza tym msza jest po islandzku, czytamy po islandzku, śpiewamy po islandzku, więc po prostu stopniowo nabieramy języka tak, że można po- wiedzieć, że całe życie właściwie się uczymy tego języka. No niestety jest tak, że ponieważ jesteśmy wszystkie Polkami, to łatwiej się wewnątrz rozmawia po polsku, co jest taką przeszkodą w języku, w na- uce języka, ale praktycznie język jest czymś podstawowym dla nas, więc staramy się uczyć. Oczywiście, że w tej chwili są absolutnie lepsze pomoce do nauki języka, bo kiedy przyjechałyśmy, był jeden słownik tylko islandzko-polski. Za bardzo nie pamiętam, jaki zasób słów tam był, ale niewielki.

49 Pogrzeb siostry Benedykty od Jezusa Hostii odbył się w Hafnarfjörður 19 X 2007 r. Zob.: http://www.karmel.is/pol/index.html (dostęp: 10 II 2016 r.). 50 Szczegółowy plan dnia został określony przez Konstytucję Zgromadzenia. Zob.: Po- rządek Ćwiczeń Duchowych, [w:] Teresa z Avila, op. cit., s. 251–252. 51 Osoba bliżej nieznana. 52 Osoba bliżej nieznana. Marek Szajda

176 Nawet nie było słownika polsko-islandzkiego, więc chcąc stworzyć jakieś zdanie, było wiele śmiesznych sytuacji, nawet gdy próbowałyśmy przez telefon coś zamówić w sklepie, czasem otrzymałyśmy coś innego niż zama- wiałyśmy. Jedną możliwością było tłumaczenie, na przykład z angielskiego. Słownik angielsko- albo niemiecko-islandzki, próba wyszukania jakiegoś słówka. Także to były bardzo trudne początki z islandzkim, ale stopniowo po prostu trzeba było się uczyć. Natomiast w tej chwili jest wiele kursów języka islandzkiego, także w internecie, jest wiele dobrych książek, więc ta nauka, pod tym względem nauka jest o wiele łatwiejsza i prostsza.

Czy w tych latach 80. [XX w.] klasztor był takim miejscem, który gromadził Polaków, pod względem religijnym na przykład? Takim swoistym polskim centrum? Na początku próbowałyśmy tu zgromadzić Polaków, ale no tych Pola- ków nie było zbyt dużo, więc okazyjnie, kiedy bywali tutaj polscy księża, czasem u nas w odwiedzinach, to czasem była jakaś msza po polsku i czasem gromadziłyśmy tutaj, prosiłyśmy jakiś Polaków, że będzie msza, czy mogliby przyjść. Z tym, że to było tak. Z tych trzech rodzin, o których wspomniałam, te trzy rodziny dosyć szybko wyjechały z Islandii. Jeżeli chodzi o te trzy kobiety, które były zamężne z Islandczykami, one nie były za bardzo zainteresowane, może w ogóle, uczęszczaniem do kościoła. Bar- dziej miałyśmy takie kontakty, że ktoś ofiarował się nam z Polaków, że nam coś, w czymś pomoże, jakieś zakupy zrobi, bardziej indywidualnie. Nieste- ty tutaj, w ogóle można powiedzieć, że nie powstała jakaś Polonia. Wyda- je nam się, że często jest rywalizacja bardziej między Polakami niż próba stworzenia jakiegoś, jakiejś grupy takiej polonijnej53. Jeżeli chodzi o tych muzyków; mamy zawsze do tej pory, od samego początku, bardzo dobre kontakty z tymi muzykami, z tą rodziną, którą wspomniałam, z Reykjavíku. Natomiast wielu innych muzyków… Mamy też kontakty z taką Dorotą

53 Polacy przebywający w Islandii tworzą różnego rodzaju organizacje o charakterze polonijnym. Skupieni w wybranych towarzystwach, nie zabiegają jednak o współ- pracę pomiędzy innymi środowiskami polskimi. Wielu z Polaków znajduje się na wyspie w celach stricte zarobkowych, co również wpływa na ich zaangażowanie w życie społeczne i kulturalne emigracji. Zob.: A. Wojtyńska, op. cit., s. 38–41. Wię- cej o kategorii Polonii w odniesieniu do przebywających w Islandii Polaków, zob.: M. Budyta-Budzyńska, Aktywność i zaangażowanie imigrantów jako wymiar party- cypacji publicznej. Polskie stowarzyszenia i inicjatywy na Islandii, „CMR Working Papers”, nr 89/167 (styczeń 2016), s. 39–40. s. Agnieszka. Klasztor wpisany w krajobraz wyspy

i Wackiem54, którzy mieszkają w Akureyri, ale nie było to na takiej zasa- 177 dzie, że tutaj było jakieś centrum polskie. Samo przez się, że tych Polaków nie było dużo, a poza tym byli to Polacy bardzo, można powiedzieć, różni, którzy nie czuli się jakby, że potrzebują. Nie było tu też polskiego księdza, więc to nie było na zasadzie takiej, że tu ktoś odprawia msze po polsku i oni gromadzą się wokół polskiej mszy. Dopie- ro, nie pamiętam, w którym to było roku, kiedy przyjechał pierwszy ksiądz polski. Kiedy zaczęli przyjeżdżać Polacy tutaj po wejściu do Unii Europejskiej do pracy, księża katoliccy, miejscowi, zauważyli, że jest problem, że ci Polacy nie rozumieją w żadnym innym języku, tylko po polsku, i że potrzebują ja- kiejś pomocy. Więc taki ksiądz Anglik55 próbował się uczyć po polsku. Ten ksiądz już wyjechał potem z Islandii, ale jako przykład tego, co zdołał się na- uczyć, mogę powiedzieć, że pewnego dnia przyszedł do nas po jakimś kursie, który gdzieś tam znalazł, przyszedł do nas i nas chciał powitać po polsku i powiedział: „Całuję rączki!” Więc widać było, że po prostu trudno mu było się nauczyć. Bardzo trudno było mu nauczyć [się] i mówił, że on często jeździł tam na fiordy zachodnie, odprawiać msze i tam był, tam zawsze jest sporo Polaków, którzy pracują w przetwórstwie rybnym, więc mówił, że czasem jacyś Polacy mówią do niego coraz głośniej w nadziei, że zrozumie, ale nie był w stanie. Więc w pewnym momencie już tutaj Kościół katolicki nabierał świadomości, że potrzebny jest jakiś ksiądz polski i właśnie, nie pamiętam w tej chwili, w którym roku, przybył tutaj ksiądz, pierwszy polski, z Towa- rzystwa Chrystusowego, ksiądz Aleksander Michałowski56. I on zaczął tak podróżować po Islandii, odwiedzać Polaków i odprawiać msze w różnych miejscach na Islandii, ale to nie były lata 80. [XX w.], to już było dużo później.

Po wejściu Polski do Unii Europejskiej? Może, może po Unii Europejskiej, nie jestem pewna w tej chwili, ale to tak było dużo później już. Ci Polacy, którzy byli na początku, oni nie

54 Osoby nieznane z nazwiska. 55 Osoba bliżej nieznana. 56 Ks. Aleksander Michałowski TChrn – prezbiter w zgromadzeniu Towarzystwa Chrystusowego dla Polonii Zagranicznej, w latach 1967–1973 proboszcz polskiej parafii w Luton w Anglii. Później posługiwał również w Aylesbury i Southampton. Od 1997 r. posługiwał w Islandii. Ostatnio, do 2014 r., pomagał duszpastersko w parafii św. Piotra i Pawła w Ziębicach na Dolnym Śląsku. Obecnie, ze względu na podeszły wiek i stan zdrowia, przebywa pod opieką rodziny. Marek Szajda

178 byli zainteresowani stworzeniem jakiegoś ośrodka polskiego. Jak już wspo- mniałam, nie jest łatwo podróżować z różnych miejsc Islandii. Natomiast ci muzycy byli w różnych miejscach. Z tymi, którzy byli tą trójką z Reykjavíku miałyśmy bardzo dobre kontakty, natomiast to nie było na zasadzie stworzenia jakiejś grupy. Więc nic takiego nie zaistniało, tym bardziej że właś- ciwie u nas msza, tak na co dzień, jest po islandzku.

Jak wygląda taki zwykły dzień sióstr? W Karmelu? Wstajemy przed szóstą i wtedy rozpoczynamy od brewia- rza, jutrzni57. Potem jest godzina rozmyślania, potem jest tercja, potem jest chwila przerwy, przed mszą. Potem jest msza, o ósmej58.

Codziennie? Codziennie, tak. Wpół do dziewiątej jest w niedzielę. Potem jest śniada- nie, czas na studium, na taki czas dla siebie. Potem jest czas na różaniec, potem jest znów brewiarz, potem jest praca. Potem jest, do za dwadzieś- cia piąta, za dwadzieścia piąta są nieszpory. Potem jest kolacja, potem jest godzina rozmyślania, potem jest czas na takie różne porządkowe sprawy. Potem jest rekreacja, potem jest kompleta i godzina czytań, a o jedenastej wieczorem czas na położenie się na spoczynek. Tak, muszę powiedzieć, dla ciekawostki, że w lecie właściwie tutaj nie mamy nocy. Natomiast godzina szósta rano w zimie, to jest sześć godzin do wschodu słońca [śmiech], po- nieważ w zimie słońce wschodzi gdzieś koło dwunastej w południe. Jako ciekawostkę mogę podać jeszcze to, że w Reykjavíku południe jest wpół do drugiej, jest czas astronomiczny przesunięty w stosunku do zegarowego. Zrobili to Islandczycy ze względu na to, żeby nie być, no być bardziej może związanymi z Europą. Teraz kontakty są samolotowe dosyć szybkie. Kiedyś, kiedy dopływało się tutaj statkiem, to może nie grało to roli, jaka jest godzina tutaj, jaka w Europie, a teraz ze względu na kontakty handlowe i też komunikację w taki sposób, chociaż ostatnio, w tym roku parlament i w zeszłym roku, już zaczął nad tym dyskusję. Zastanawia się nad zrównaniem właśnie czasu zegarowego z astronomicznym. Mówią, że to jest dla zdrowia, dla organizmu trudne, tak wcześnie stawać w stosunku

57 Modlitwy Liturgią Godzin. Jutrznia jest modlitwą przeznaczoną na poranek, po wschodzie słońca. 58 Zob. przypis 50. s. Agnieszka. Klasztor wpisany w krajobraz wyspy

do rytmu biologicznego. Natomiast są sprzeciwy ze strony właśnie jakichś 179 tam samolotowych firm itd. Tak, że co z tego wyniknie, jeszcze nie wiemy.

Jaki jest charakter prac, które siostry tutaj wykonują? Jeżeli chodzi tutaj o takie klasztory kontemplacyjne jak nasz, najczęś- ciej podejmuje się jakąś pracę ręczną, ze względu na to, żeby móc nie mieć bardzo zajętego umysłu, móc w międzyczasie rozmyślać też. Często w takich klasztorach, w dawnych wiekach jeszcze, było wyszywanie jakichś ornatów itd. I czasem siostry to robią nadal, natomiast w naszym tutaj społeczeństwie, gdzie nie ma jakiegoś dużego zapotrzebowania na orna- ty, nie byłybyśmy w stanie z tego się utrzymać. Więc naszą główną, na szczęście w Skandynawii są bardzo popularne świece, a na Islandii już zu- pełnie szczególnie, więc naszym źródłem utrzymania i naszą zasadniczą pracą jest malowanie świec. Ale my także wypisujemy ozdobne wpisy, takie do księgi gości czy na dyplomach. Także malujemy kartki. Siostry też piszą ikony, z tym, że jest to bardzo czasochłonne i kosztowne, więc może teraz ostatnio zaczęłyśmy trochę, pisałyśmy ikony. Były pisane ikony dla naszego klasztoru, więc nie robiłyśmy to dla ludzi z zewnątrz, pomimo że ikony są w obecnym świecie bardzo popularne, a ikona ma swoje przesła- nie. To jest tak, pod tym względem. Cóż jeszcze my robimy? Oczywiście jest sporo pracy takiej zwykłej. Trze- ba wszystko zrobić w domu. Robimy też… Mamy ogród, gdzie uprawiamy ziemniaki, warzywa, a w warunkach islandzkich to też nie jest takie łatwe, tak z definicji, można by powiedzieć. Gdzieś w środku lata przychodzi ja- kiś mroźny północny sztorm, który często zważa wszystkie liście i niszczy uprawy, więc tak oczywiście nie ma tutaj drzew owocowych na Islandii, nie przeżyłyby ani by nie dojrzały. Jak wspomniałam, zaczyna się tutaj zielenić, gdzieś na początku czerwca, najczęściej, więc często też okrywamy nasze te uprawy taką otuliną akrylową, która pomaga tym roślinom troszkę zyskać ciepła i to sprawia, że te uprawy mogą się udać, a oprócz tego przyśpiesza bardzo uprawy. To, że czerwiec i znaczna część lipca, koniec maja, to jest dwudziestoczterogodzinny dzień, więc po prostu te rośliny mają szansę cały czas [pobierać] słońce, jasno w każdym razie [śmiech].

Chciałbym wrócić jeszcze do tych lat 80. [XX w.], bo Siostra mówiła o tym, że ci Islandczycy byli bardzo mili, porządni, podejmowali siostry bardzo gościnnie. Jestem ciekaw, czy to wynikało z pewnego zainteresowania katolicyzmem, czy też ogólnie takiej ich tutejszej gościnności? Marek Szajda

180 Ja jestem przekonana, że mogło to zarówno wpływać na to, to i to, ale po pierwsze, ponieważ tutaj były najpierw siostry Holenderki, one już zaskarbiły sobie, można powiedzieć, serce Islandczyków. Do tej pory wiele jest takich osób, które mówią, że się za nas modlą. Taka tutaj Islandka59, niedaleka nasza sąsiadka, mówiła, że ona niesamowicie się ucieszyła, kiedy na nowo usłyszała dzwon z klasztoru. Ona jest protestantką w ogóle. Ona też mówi, że się za nas modli codziennie. Tak, po pierwsze Islandczycy przyjęli tutaj protestantyzm, mieli narzucony przez Danię, więc oni zawsze uważali, że są, uważają, że są po trochu katoliccy, to było narzucone. Także nie ma tutaj na Islandii jakiejś takiej wrogości do Kościoła katolickiego. Poza tym właśnie wspomniałam o tych siostrach józefitkach60. Tam ta statua, która jest przed kościołem świętego Józefa, to była wcześniej przy szpitalu świętego Józefa, który jest tutaj poniżej, i ten szpital był zbudo- wany właśnie przez siostry józefitki61, które przybyły na Islandię w 1896 r. z Danii. One niesamowicie dużo pracy tutaj włożyły dla społeczeństwa, takiej bezinteresownej pracy dla społeczeństwa islandzkiego. Wybudowały pierwsze szpitale, założyły pierwsze przedszkole i szkołę, no nie pierwszą szkołę, ale też szkołę założyły, która była bardzo ceniona. I te siostry z wielkim poświęceniem pracowały tutaj dla tych ludzi jeszcze w tych czasach, kiedy Islandia była no niesamowicie biedna. Także siostry, one, jako siostry katolickie, zaskarbiły sobie tutaj serca Islandczyków i oni bardzo je cenili. My, jak mogę powiedzieć, że my trochę korzystamy z tego, co one tutaj zasiały. Też korzystałyśmy z tego, z tego dobrego, tej życzliwości, ale to jest ten aspekt religijny, można by powiedzieć. Zresztą Islandczycy, jak wspominałam, ze względu na tą swoją zależność od trudnych warunków klimatycznych, także jakby szanowali siostry ze względu, że się za ten kraj modlą, że się za nich modlą. Więc to był aspekt religijny. Natomiast następ- na sprawa to jest to, że Islandczycy, ze względu też na te trudne warunki, bardzo byli otwarci na to, nastawieni na to, że zawsze muszą pomóc komuś, kto jest w potrzebie. Tutaj jest cała masa takich, jak to się mówi po polsku… Chodzi mi o takie ratunkowe [grupy].

59 Osoba bliżej nieznana. 60 Siostry rezydujące w Islandii przynależały do Zgromadzenia Sióstr św. Józefa, za- łożonego w miejscowości Le Puy we Francji przez jezuitę Jeana-Paula Médaille SJ w XVII w. Zob.: http://www.catholic.org/encyclopedia/view.php?id=6486 (dostęp: 10 II 2016 r.). 61 St. Jósefsspítali został budowany przez siostry w 1926 r. s. Agnieszka. Klasztor wpisany w krajobraz wyspy

Charytatywne? 181 Nie. Jeżeli ktoś w górach jest w trudnych warunkach, ktoś idzie ratować go. Jak to się nazywają, ratownicze takie?

Na przykład GOPR. Tak, tego typu, ale to nie są profesjonalni ludzie, tylko ochotnicy.

Ochotnicy. Ochotnicy, z tym, że oni mają całe zaplecze. Na przykład na Islandii jest to tak zorganizowane, że w stary rok są tu wystrzeliwane niesamowi- te ilości ogni sztucznych i wyłączność na sprzedaż tych ogni sztucznych mają właśnie ci ratownicy62, którzy za to, za te zyski, sobie sprzęt kupują. Najbardziej profesjonalny i tak dalej, i tak dalej. Mają jeszcze inne akcje, gdzie zyskują sobie pieniądze na ten sprzęt, ale to jest na takiej zasadzie, że oni wiedzą, że można wylądować w trudnych warunkach i że trzeba ko- niecznie ludziom pomóc. Tutaj nawet turyści też często lądują, w jakieś…, nie zdają sobie z tego sprawy, że gdzieś są warunki naprawdę trudne, że tutaj, tak jak w górach zmienia się błyskawicznie pogoda, że może komuś się wydawać, że jest ostrzegany, że słuchaj, tutaj może być taki wiatr, że nie złapie się oddechu. Tutaj jest, może być tak, że po prostu wiatr wybija szyby w samochodzie. Tu może być tak, że cię zmiata z drogi. Może być tak, że wpadniesz w szczelinę lodowca albo coś. Natomiast często turyści, mimo wszystko, nie wierzą, że to jest aż tak, jak jest naprawdę. I potem często lądują w jakichś takich sytuacjach, że czasem tacy ratownicy przeszukują jakiś duży obszar, gdzie Islandczyków też ratują. Czasem tak, bo też właśnie ktoś podchodzi bardzo lekko, bo wydaje mu się, że się uda, a to się nie uda. Więc takie sytuacje są i Islandczycy jakby są wrażliwi na to. Jeżeli ktoś po- trzebuje pomocy to po prostu [jej udzielają], więc taka ogólna życzliwość, żeby pomóc ludziom to jest. Poza tym oni mają taki stosunek, że oczywiście to była zamknięta, ma- lutka społeczność, nie było dużej wymiany genów, przez wieki oprócz tego, że czasem jacyś tam marynarze francuscy, czy inni, tutaj gdzieś zostawiali jakieś dziecko z Islandką. Więc o tyle była jakaś wymiana genów. Tutaj też wiele osób było potem chorych psychicznie, czy jakby niepełnosprawnych

62 Chodzi o ICE-SAR – Icelandic Association for Search and Rescue, które działa w Is- landii od 1918 r., zob.: http://www.icesar.com/ (dostęp: 10 II 2016 r.). Marek Szajda

182 umysłowo, czy w jakiś inny sposób, ze względu na tę małą populację. Oni mają duży szacunek do wszystkich, czy to jest ktoś właśnie jakiś niepełno- sprawny, czy jakiś no taki…

Chory? …chory. Oni mają jakiś taki szacunek i chęć pomocy, więc pod tym względem, takim ludzkim, nie religijnym, zasadniczo mają jakby szacunek do innych ludzi. Jeszcze można powiedzieć w inny sposób, niż zetknęłyśmy się z tym w Polsce, mają taką…, no na przykład, to nie tylko wynika z ja- kichś przepisów Unii Europejskiej, czy jakieś tego typu rzeczy, że oni sta- rają się jak najbardziej, żeby ludzie, którzy mają pełną niepełnosprawność fizyczną, mieli możliwość dostępu wszędzie, czy do teatru, czy do kina, czy do sklepu, czy do urzędu, czy do miejsc turystycznych. Więc starają się, żeby ktoś, kto ma pewne ograniczenia, nie czuł tych ograniczeń. Oni na przykład, taka może była sytuacja, że kiedy przyjechałyśmy tutaj, nawet oni byli tak zaskoczeni, że my jesteśmy w jakimś takim zamkniętym klasztorze. Czy to czasem nie jest tak, że my jesteśmy prześladowane przez bisku- pa, który nas zamknął w klasztorze. Wiecie, to jest, niektórzy może mieli taki pomysł. Mówiłam o tym, że oni zakładając, osiedlając się na Islandii, nie znosili władzy narzuconej im przez króla, więc wrażliwi byli na tą wol- ność, nawet do tego stopnia, że nie wiedząc, dlaczego my jesteśmy, dlaczego wybieramy takie życie, też zastanawiali się [nad tym]. Takie pytania jakieś padły u niektórych, więc no naprawdę jakby Islandczycy mają ogromną to- lerancję, czasem nawet aż za dużą, ale ta wrażliwość na chęć pomocy, na jakby szacunek do innych zasadniczo jest.

Czy Siostra zwiedziła Islandię? To jest tak, że każda dziewczyna, która tutaj przyjeżdża ma na począt- ku okazję zobaczenia czegoś z Islandii. Więc to jest tak. My przyjechałyśmy w tej grupie, która wstąpiła tutaj, natomiast każda dziewczyna, która wstępu- je, to zawsze musi. Natomiast ja, już teraz są takie możliwości, że wiele rzeczy się zna. Zresztą oprócz oglądania różnych przeźroczy, zdjęć, czytania, także zapoznania się z literaturą islandzką, trochę z książkami historycznymi, więc można by powiedzieć, że dosyć dobrze znam Islandię od różnych stron.

Czy Siostra była w Polsce od tego [19]84 r.? Więc tak, po raz pierwszy w Polsce od [19]84 r. byłam w [19]97 r. Bo to się zdarza tak, że Karmelitanki polskie czasem organizują takie sympozjum s. Agnieszka. Klasztor wpisany w krajobraz wyspy

i wtedy przedstawicielki poszczególnych klasztorów bywają na takim sym- 183 pozjum. Więc my nie jeździmy na jakieś urlopy, odwiedziny i tak dalej.

Do rodziny siostry nie jeżdżą? Nie, natomiast czasem na takie sympozjum.

Ja rozumiem, że ten klasztor jest podporządkowany jakiejś prowincji kościelnej w Polsce, tak? Można by powiedzieć, że tak, należy, z tym że jeżeli Karmel, taki klasztor jak nasz, każdy z klasztorów, jest całkowicie odrębną jednostką, czyli my nie jesteśmy w jakiejś prowincji Karmelitanek. Z tym, że zasadniczo, ponieważ jest prowincja Karmelitów Bosych, Polska, dwie prowincje, to my [należymy] do tej północnej prowincji63. W ramach tej północnej prowincji Karmelitów Bosych my też się jakby [spotykamy] z tymi Karmelami żeński- mi. Natomiast każdy Karmel jest autonomiczną jednostką.

A jakie były Siostry wrażenia, odnośnie Polski po przemianach? Po tych kilkunastu latach to już była inna Polska? Tak, z tym że nie mogę powiedzieć, że to było... Cóż powiedzieć. Na pewno to była już trochę inna Polska, absolutnie. Rzeczywiście to w tych czasach, o których wspominałam, tutaj już był inny kontakt i w ogóle, ale może w tym dziewięćdziesiątym, to, co mnie uderzyło to ogrom reklam jakichś. To nie było pozytywne. To, co mnie uderzyło może… Na pewno jest tak, że jeżeli chodzi o zmianę mentalności nie jest to takie szybkie, więc sama zmiana mentalności w Polsce jeszcze wtedy, nie wydawała mi się zresztą. Właściwie ja przyjechałam na to sympozjum, które było w ramach Karmelu, więc może nie miałam aż tak dużo kontaktu z takim światem, ale wtedy może, nie mogę powiedzieć, właściwie no nie pamiętam tak bardzo, bardzo takich jakiś wielkich, uderzających zmian oprócz tego, że by- łam zaskoczona właśnie taką…, brakiem estetyki z powodu nagromadzenia ogromnej ilości reklam. To mnie rozczarowało mogę powiedzieć.

63 Prowincja warszawska Zgromadzenia Karmelitów Bosych pw. Przenajświętszej Trójcy. Marek Szajda

184 Czy w późniejszym czasie były jeszcze jakieś powroty? Jakieś inne zmiany Sio- stra dostrzegła? Tak, może i rzeczywiście, może troszkę tak się gdzieś tam [pozmieniało]. Różne usprawnienia są oczywiście w budownictwie, ale mimo to… Może ja, ponieważ zbyt długo żyję już tutaj, nie mam jakby takiego, że się po prostu czymś bardzo pozytywnie zaskakuję. Oczywiście widzę, że to dobrze, jeżeli już jest coś estetycznego, nowego, pięknego, jeżeli jest coś nowoczes- nego, ale niestety, i muszę powiedzieć prawdę, to nie jest tak, że się bardzo czymś..., coś mnie bardzo zaskakiwało.

Czy Siostra czuje się tutaj jak u siebie? No tak, muszę powiedzieć tak, że absolutnie.

Czy siostry mają jakiś kontakt z rodzinami w Polsce? Oczywiście, kiedyś dawniej to był tylko kontakt listowny. Listy oczy- wiście [miały] też swój czas, wymagało to swego czasu, natomiast teraz, stopniowo, bo nawet telefon był drogi i niedostępny, natomiast teraz, stopniowo, to jest coraz łatwiejszy kontakt, bo właściwie wiadomo, jakie są teraz kontakty, łatwe zasadniczo. Czasem też zdarza się, że rodziny nas od- wiedzają, z tym, że to jest oczywiście, to jest droga, droga impreza, więc nie jest to częste.

Ja chciałbym jeszcze zapytać o te kontakty z innymi narodowościami, bo dzisiaj w kaplicy widzieliśmy też chyba panią z Ameryki Południowej chyba. Może Filipinkę?

Być może. Czy to jest tak, że siostry mają kontakt z tymi innymi narodowościami? To znaczy tak. Do nas, do kaplicy, przychodzą też Filipinki, bo Filipinki, tutaj też jest trochę Filipinek, Filipińczyków. W ogóle to są zasadniczo ka- toliczki, ale najczęściej to, jeżeli chodzi o Filipinki, to w kaplicy, natomiast kiedy przyjechałyśmy, to tu było kilka Niemek, które też były katoliczka- mi i one nas odwiedzały i one były często żonami Islandczyków, ponieważ po wojnie różne Niemki wyjeżdżały z Niemiec w poszukiwaniu mężów też między innymi. Poza tym te siostry józefitki poszukiwały też czasem dziewczyn, które by pracowały w szpitalu, bo one prowadziły całkowicie szpital, był ich własnością i prowadziły całkowicie, były dyrektorkami szpi- tala, więc zatrudniały też jakieś dziewczyny do pomocy, do sprzątania i tak dalej. Więc było trochę tych Niemek, z którymi miałyśmy kontakty. Nadal s. Agnieszka. Klasztor wpisany w krajobraz wyspy

tutaj mam [kontakt] z taką Niemką, która mieszka niedaleko nas. Z tym, że 185 właśnie ci z obcych narodowości wtedy, kiedy istniała tutaj baza, to miały- śmy taki stały kontakt z tymi, bo to byli i żołnierze, ale też były całe rodziny, [które] nas odwiedzały.

Czy byli to głównie Amerykanie? Amerykanie. Tak, tak. Więc z nimi też miałyśmy kontakt, z tym, że potem w 2005 r. chyba wyjechali64. Oczywiście, że się zmieniali, ale utrzy- mywałyśmy stale kontakty z nimi. Zasadniczo ci z obcych narodowości…, utrzymujemy z nimi kontakt taki, oprócz tych Amerykanów oczywiście, ponieważ oni się tutaj asymilują z tym społeczeństwem to na zasadzie, tak praktycznie jak z Islandczykami. Właściwe nawet w języku islandzkim z nimi się kontaktujemy, czasem te Filipinki nie rozmawiają po islandzku, tylko po angielsku, ale na takiej zasadzie. Oczywiście do nas przychodzi sporo ludzi. Czy przychodzi, czy pisze maile. Niektórzy proszą o modlitwę, a czasem przychodzą też porozmawiać w jakichś swoich sprawach, prob- lemach, ale to chociaż nie. Teraz przychodzą różni Polacy też na takiej zasadzie poprosić o modlitwę albo porozmawiać, to siostry, które tutaj są [i] obsługują przy furcie, to często rozmawiają. Ale też Islandczycy, też przy- chodzą, więc i te inne narodowości. Muszę powiedzieć, że właściwie one bardziej nam [się] zlewają z tym społeczeństwem islandzkim.

Mam takie wrażenie, z tego, co Siostra mówi, że to nie jest tak, że tylko katolicy do sióstr przychodzą. Oczywiście.

Jeśli przychodzą Islandczycy, to w większości protestanci. Oczywiście. Tak, tak.

Czy oni też proszą o modlitwę? Tak. Tak, mamy właściwie bardzo dużo kontaktów z protestantami, nawet ponieważ tych katolików nie jest zbyt dużo, to mogę powiedzieć, że nawet bardziej z protestantami mamy kontakty, niż z katolikami, ze względu nawet na ten przekrój społeczeństwa.

64 Wojska amerykańskie opuściły Islandię jesienią 2006 r. Zob.: http://www.iceland.pl/ archiw/060318i2.html (dostęp: 10 II 2016 r.). Marek Szajda

186 Czy w ważnych wydarzeniach, powiedzmy religijnych, jak na przykład Boże Narodzenie czy Wielkanoc, siostry też dojeżdżają do Reykjavíku na jakieś większe, uroczyste celebracje? Nie, nie.

Czy tu siostry organizują też swoje uroczystości? Tutaj są u nas te uroczyste celebracje i tutaj przyjeżdża ksiądz, zawsze. I ludzie też biorą udział w tym.

Ale siostry chyba wychodzą też, bo przecież na wybory na przykład? Oczywiście, no tak, tak. My mamy też obywatelstwo islandzkie i polskie, więc [chodzimy] zarówno na wybory polskie, jak i islandzkie. Wychodzimy poza tym. Czasem trzeba coś załatwić w urzędzie, czy czasem zdarza się, że trzeba coś tam, jakieś zakupy zrobić, trzeba być obecnym, żeby widzieć, co to jest, żeby wybrać. Więc są takie sytuacje, w których się wychodzi, chociaż zasadniczo spędzamy życie w Karmelu, w klasztorze.

I tutaj właściwie codziennie dojeżdża ten polski ksiądz? Nie, nie, nie, nie. Różni, różni [księża]. Ksiądz Piotr65 u nas był ostatnio kilka miesięcy temu. Poprzednio. Tak, tak to najczęściej są różni księża. Są tutaj w tym kościele Świętego Józefa. Są dwaj Argentyńczycy66, więc oni często u nas odprawiają msze po islandzku. Czasem taki ksiądz Patryk67 z katedry odprawia u nas też po islandzku. On jest tutaj od [19]84 r. też. Czasem różni księża albo z Reykjavíku, albo tu, z Hafnarfjörður u nas odprawiają msze.

A siostra, która jest od niedawna, ta, która przybyła tu jako ostatnia, to jak długo już tu jest? No, tak [śmiech]. Ostatnio, tak ostatnio, to wstąpiła może dziewczyna cztery lata temu, ale niestety musiała odejść. A ta, która ostatnio, chyba już jest dziesięć lat.

65 Ks. Piotr Zieliński jest prezbiterem archidiecezji częstochowskiej. Obecnie, w ramach tzw. kontraktu misyjnego, jest duszpasterzem przy kościele pw. Chrystusa Króla w Reykjavíku. Zob.: http://www.emigracja.chrystusowcy.pl/index.php/msze-wite-po- -polsku?sobi2Task=sobi2Details&catid=18&sobi2Id=472 (dostęp: 10 II 2016 r.). 66 Osoby bliżej nieznane. 67 Osoba nieznana z nazwiska. s. Agnieszka. Klasztor wpisany w krajobraz wyspy

187 To już kawał czasu [śmiech]. No tak, tak.

A czy siostry chciałyby, żeby tutaj było więcej sióstr, więcej powołań? Tak. Też modlimy się o powołania [śmiech], żeby dziewczyny…, bo to z Karmelem to jest tak, że jakaś dziewczyna wstępuje do konkretnego klasztoru i tam przechodzi nowicjat i składa profesję wieczystą.

To chyba jest utrudnione, jeżeli siostry są na Islandii. W końcu to dziewczyny z Polski muszą odkryć powołanie. Ale to tak czasem się zdarza, że jakaś dziewczyna w jakiś sposób się dowie o tym. Oczywiście, że to jest bardziej utrudnione, bo w Polsce jakaś dziewczyna widzi, że jest klasztor. Może pójść, porozmawiać, a tutaj się przyjeżdża trochę w ciemno.

A jest możliwość, żeby jakaś Islandka tu wstąpiła? Oczywiście, z tym, że to jest o tyle trudne, że katolików Islandczyków jest bardzo niewielu. I jeszcze trzeba mieć z tych bardzo niewielu jakąś taką dziew- czynę, która właśnie jest w odpowiednim wieku i jeszcze ma powołanie. Dla Boga wszystko jest możliwe, ale, ale to nie jest takie łatwe, bo rzeczywiście. I może też nie sprzyja temu… Właściwie często, żeby móc odczytać powołanie, to trzeba się troszkę zaangażować religijnie, jakby zaangażować. Ja pamiętam, że się zaangażowałam, że po raz [pierwszy], mając dwadzieścia lat dopiero od- kryłam, że Bóg nas kocha i po prostu byłam zadziwiona. Prawda, że Bóg nas kocha, że Bóg jest miłością, że to nie jest jakiś taki Bóg, tylko że to jest Bóg mi- łości i stopniowo, nie będę może opowiadać różnych szczegółów, ale w każdym razie dopiero trzeba nawiązać jakiś kontakt, że można się porozumieć z Bo- giem, można powiedzieć, rozmawiać z nim, żeby móc usłyszeć to jego powoła- nie. Bo niekoniecznie, nawet jeżeli człowiek zaczyna się kontaktować bardziej, jakby żyć w takiej przyjaźni z Bogiem, to nie musi być powołany do klasztoru. Można żyć w świecie normalnie i może to jest właśnie moje powołanie do życia w świecie, do założenia rodziny. Może być powołanie [zakonne], tylko żeby je usłyszeć, to trzeba jakoś mieć te uszy, które słyszą. Więc dlatego w Polsce czę- sto było tak, że dopiero ktoś, tacy młodzi, którzy się gdzieś zaangażowali albo w jakieś tam Odnowy w Duchu Świętym, albo w jakieś inne [ruchy kościelne], gdzie zaczęli się modlić, gdzie zaczęli słyszeć, dopiero mieli szansę na usły- szenie tego powołania. Natomiast tutaj właściwie tak nie za bardzo jest dla tej Marek Szajda

188 młodzieży cokolwiek, w co by się mogli zaangażować. Poza tym wydaje mi się, że no, niestety, obecnie jest tak zmasowany atak na to, żeby zająć całą uwagę człowieka rzeczami, które tak naprawdę nie dają szczęścia, że człowiek [jest] zbyt zaabsorbowany, żeby coś więcej usłyszeć.

W klasztorze jest obowiązkowa godzina kontemplacji, co może ułatwić takie słuchanie. W życiu może być trudniej. Tak [śmiech]. Chociaż muszę powiedzieć, bo u nas się teraz zbiera taka grupa Islandczyków, którzy po prostu są zainteresowani modlitwą, rozmy- ślaniem i życiem duchowym, duchowością Karmelu. Zbieramy się tu raz w miesiącu i tak po prostu sobie różne rzeczy omawiamy, czytamy dzieła Świętej Teresy od Jezusa68. W tej grupie są dwie osoby, które wcześniej się, najpierw chcąc czegoś duchowego, zaangażowały w rozmyślania, medyta- cje wschodnie, ale doszły do wniosku, że to coś nie do końca jest dobre i tak stopniowo odkrywają teraz chrześcijańskie rozmyślanie. Po prostu bardzo, bardzo są tak otwarci, zainteresowani tym, ale właśnie, bo tak można powiedzieć, że obowiązkowa godzina medytacji, a czasem to jest właśnie, żeby to była właściwa medytacja, która rzeczywiście doprowadza człowieka do takiego scalenia, do tego, że się rzeczywiście, spotkając Boga i poznając siebie i poznając Boga, człowiek doznaje naprawdę takiego powrotu, można powiedzieć do raju, do szczęścia, do tego, żeby być scalonym człowiekiem, takim zintegrowanym. Nawet można powiedzieć, że po ludzku człowiek dojrzewa, to jest to nie tylko, że dojrzewa…

Tak fizycznie, duchowo? Tak, ale naprawdę po ludzku dojrzewa, nie tylko religijnie, ale i po ludzku. To jest prawda, czasem właśnie te podróbki medytacji też są takie, które sprawiają, że, to nie chodzi o to, żeby tylko wytrenować się, bo metodą żad- ną nie da się ściągnąć Boga. Boga można ściągnąć miłością, więc po prostu chodzi o to, żeby w sposób przyjazny, normalnie, z nim rozmawiać, tak jak z osobą. Właśnie ta różnica między medytacją wschodnią a chrześcijańską jest ta, że medytacji, w medytacji wschodniej, nie traktuje się Boga jako osoby, natomiast w chrześcijańskiej [medytacji] Bóg jest osobą, z którą się spotykam i to jest bardzo duża różnica.

68 Święta Teresa od Jezusa (1515–1582) – hiszpańska mistyczka i teolog, reformatorka zakonu karmelitów. s. Agnieszka. Klasztor wpisany w krajobraz wyspy

Jeżeli mogę zapytać o te kwestie. Jak już ludzie proszą siostry o modlitwę, to o co 189 właściwie proszą, w jakich intencjach? Bardzo różnie. Wielokrotnie o zdrowie, ale czasem ludzie po prostu przychodzą, mówiąc o tym, jak się czują wewnętrznie. Zresztą mogę, nie wiem, czy podawać różne przykłady, ale może podam taki przykład. Bardzo wiele jest intencji tak jak to, co życie niesie, ale może tak powiedzieć, kiedyś takie, nawet zachowałyśmy tę kartkę, bo ludzie wrzucają w kaplicy kartki, zachowałyśmy taką kartkę. Jakieś dziecko, które ledwie mogło, potrafiło pisać, napisało: „Jezu, ja Cię kocham, spraw, żeby mój piesek wyzdrowiał” – na przykład coś takiego. Jakaś tam kobieta przyszła, ale to przeróżne są, naprawdę. Jest tak dużo intencji, bo po prostu ludzie ze swoimi troskami przychodzą, więc czasem jakieś problemy w małżeństwie, czasem ktoś po prostu czuje się bardzo, jakoś wiele niepokoi i jakiś… czuje się źle duchowo i jakby szuka przyczyn tego i próbuje jakoś z tego wyjść, ale wielu ludzi prosi tylko o modlitwę w takich intencjach zwykłych codziennego życia.

Bardzo dziękujemy za rozmowę.

Monastery inscribed in Sister Agnieszka is a Carmelite nun, who came to Iceland in 1984 to- the landscape of the gether with few other nuns from Poland to create the one and only island. The account of s. Agnieszka OCD Catholic monastery on the Protestant island. In her account sister Agnieszka tells the details about the circumstances of her arrival to Edited by somehow “exotic” Iceland and her everyday life in the monastery in Marek Szajda Hafnarfjörður on the background of the changing mentality of the inhabitants of the island. She gives a lot of attention to the large group of Polish migrants who came to Iceland during last two decades mostly to work in the fish industry and the Icelandic and Protestant surroundings of the monastery. Sister Agnieszka repeatedly emphasizes the great friendliness and goodwill that sister get from the Icelanders. Indeks osób

190 INDEKS OSÓB WYSTĘPUJĄCYCH W OPUBLIKOWANYCH RELACJACH INDEX OF PERSONS APPEARING IN THE PUBLISHED ACCOUNTS

Agnieszka OCD 159, 161–162, 189 Dubik Zbigniew 167 Benedykta od Jezusa OCD 175 Dukakis Michael S. 147 Blejwas Stanislaus 141 Erdmans Mary 146 Bogatyńska Halina 166 Geremek Bronisław 153 Braun Carol Elizabeth Mosley 151 Glemp Józef 163 Budyta-Budzyńska Małgorzata 160, Gore Al 147 170, 176 Gospodarczyk Hanna 160 Carter Jimmy 144 Gutowski Daniel 168–169 Celiński Andrzej 153 Harigan Neil 147 Charytański Jan 154 Jaroszyńska-Kirchmann Anna D. 141 Chrzanowski Witold 164 Kaczyński Jarosław 157 Chymkowski Roman 160 Kaczyński Lech 157 Cieśla Maria 142 Karski Jan 146 Cieślak Tadeusz 171 Kennedy Edward Moore 144 Clinton Bill 147–148, 150 Kennedy Teddy zob. Kennedy Collins Cardiss 151 Edward Moore Cousin Ertharin 147, 149 Kennedy John F. 144–145, 147 Dąbski Maciej 165 Kuran Szymon 167 Dubik Alina 168 Laxness Halldór 164 Indeks osób

Long Chris 147 Raczyński Rafał 159, 162, 166 191 Maranowski Paweł 168–169 Radzik Tadeusz 136 Mazowiecki Tadeusz 146–147, 157 Reagan Ronald 145 Médaille Jean-Paul 180 Rostenkowski Dan 146 Michałowski Aleksander TChrn 177 Rozmarek Charles 144 Moczulski Leszek 156 Ryan Mary A. 148–149 Moskal Edward 144, 146–147, 150, 152 Rydzewski Robert 160, 168 Murawska Ewa 166 Sturlusson Snorri 164 NN Dorota 176 Szajda Marek 159–160 NN Ewa 155 Szelągowska Grażyna 164–165 NN Jerry 154 Tabako Tomasz 152–153 NN Patryk 186 Teresa od Jezusa św. 188 NN Wacław 176 Teresa z Avila 163, 175 Nowak Stanley 140 Truszkowska Sophia (Mary Angela) 142 Pessel Włodzimierz K. 160 Tymiński Stan 157 Pienkos Angela T. 138 Wałęsa Lech 146, 150, 152–153, 157 Pienkos Donald E. 138 Wierzyńska Ewa 146 Pięknowłosy Harald 164 Wojdon Joanna 133, 135 Piotrowski Bernard 166, 171 Wojtyńska Anna 160, 166, 176 Przybyła Eugene 137 Wujec Henryk 152–153, 157 Przybyła Wesley 136–137 Zieliński Piotr 160, 186 Przybyła-Long Christine 133–135, 158 Znaniecka-Łopata Helena 133 Pula James S. 133 Żłobecka Karolina 160 Indeks nazw geograficznych

192 INDEKS NAZW GEOGRAFICZNYCH WYSTĘPUJĄCYCH W OPUBLIKOWANYCH RELACJACH THE INDEX OF GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES APPEARING IN THE PUBLISHED ACCOUNTS

Akureyri 167, 169, 176 Elbląg 160, 163 America, United States of America, USA zob. Europa 137, 142, 165, 169, 178 Stany Zjednoczone Ameryki (Ameryka) Europa Środkowo–Wschodnia 159 Ameryka Południowa 184 Europe zob. Europa Anglia 177 Filipiny 160 Ashland 137–138 Finland zob. Finlandia Athens 141 Finlandia 154 Augustów 140 Francja 180 Austria 160, 166, 172 Gdańsk 153, 159 Aylesbury 177 Gdańsk 167–168 Białystok 135 Gdynia 138 Boston 147 German Empire, Germany, III Rzesza zob. Boulder 138 Republika Federalna Niemiec Canada zob. Kanada Grajewo 135, 136 Chicago 134–139, 142–147, 149–151, Great Britain zob. Wielka Brytania 154, 158 Hafnarfjörður160 , 162, 175, 186, 189 Dania 166, 180 Hafrsfjord 164 Detroit 140 Hebrydy 164 East Prussia zob. Prusy Wschodnie Holandia 162 Indeks nazw geograficznych

Hungary zob. Węgry Śląsk Dolny 177 Iceland zob. Islandia Southampton 177 193 Illinois 134–135, 146–148, 151 Stany Zjednoczone Ameryki (Ameryka) Islandia 159–172, 174–177, 179–182, 133–142, 144–149, 152, 154–155, 158, 185, 187, 189 162, 166, 171 Kanada 140 Suazi 148 Kazachstan 140 Suwałki 135 Kazakhstan zob. Kazachstan Swaziland zob. Suazi Keflavik 160, 170, 171 Szetlandy 164 Kraków 139, 163, 164 Szwecja 166 Le Puy 180 Tarnów 163 Lichtenstein 160 Tromsø 174 Luton 177 University Park 146 Massachusetts 144, 147 Warsaw zob. Warszawa Michigan 140 Warszawa 135, 141–142, 151, 154–156, New Brunswick zob. Nowy Brunszwik 160, 164, 171 New Cassel 143 Washington zob. Waszyngton New Jersey 137, 140 Waszyngton 148, 156 New York zob. Nowy Jork Węgry 156 Norwegia 160, 164, 170, 174 Wielka Brytania 141, 166 Nowy Brunszwik 134 Wisconsin 142–143 Nowy Jork 133, 135–138 Wrocław 136, 159–160 Orkady 164 Wyspy Owcze 164 Oslo 159 Ziębice 177 Pensylvania 145 Płock 135 Poland zob. Polska Polska 134–136, 138–141, 146, 150, 152–153, 157, 159–160, 162, 166–167, 169, 172–175, 177, 182–183, 187, 189 Prusy Wschodnie 136 Republika Federalna Niemiec 141, 143, 150, 166, 174, 184 Reykjavik 162–163, 167–169, 171, 173, 176, 178, 185, 186 Rosja 136 Russia zob. Rosja Schwarzach 143 Skandynawia 165–166, 179

KRONIK A

NAUKOWA / SCIENTIFIC

CHRONICLE

Unnur María Bergsveinsdóttir

[Reykjavík]

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The Icelandic Centre for Oral History: Collection, Preservation, Research, Growth

Wrocławski Rocznik Historii Mówionej Rocznik VI, 2016 ISSN 2084–0578

The importance of oral history as an historical method has been steadily growing for the past decades. The same goes for the field of audiovisual archiving. Iceland is no exception to this international development and oral sources are being created at a growing rate as technological advances have made them an attractive option for historians and other academics. Until recently however, access to existing oral sources on Icelandic history was limited by the fact that no Icelandic institution or museum focused specifically on their collection and preservation. The only catalogued and easily accessible collection of oral sources was the Folkloric Collection of the Árni Magnússon Institute for Icelandic Studies. This changed in 2007 when the growing interest in oral history led to the foundation of the Oral History Centre of the National Library. The role of the Centre is twofold. As an archive the Centre aims to collect and preserve oral sources on Icelandic history and heritage and to make its collections accessible to both scholars and the public. Furthermore the Centre actively encourages the use of oral sources along with the promotion of oral history as a history method. This article chronicles the history Unnur María Bergsveinsdóttir

198 of the Centre and presents an outline of the Centre’s functions, both as an audiovisual archive and as a Centre for oral history.

About the Centre For the first 5 years The Icelandic Centre for Oral History was run indepen- dently as a collaborative unit of four academic institutions: The National and University Library of Iceland, The History Institute of the University of Iceland, The School of Education and RIKK – Institute for Gender, Equality and Difference, University of Iceland. Collaboration began in the spring of 2005 and a formal contract was signed in June 2006. In August two historians were hired to prepare the establishment of the Centre1. They worked for six months under the auspices of a steering group that included one representative from each of the founding institutions2. It should be noted that Guðmundur Jónsson, history professor at the University of Iceland, played a key role in bringing the four institutions together and has led the work of the Centre, as a Managing Director from 2007–2012, when the Centre became a part of the National Library and headed the work of the steering group, and later the advisory board from 2007–20153. One of the first tasks of the preparation team was mapping the scope and quantity of oral sources in museums and archives all around the country. It was already known that a significant amount of material was to be found in the possession of private parties such as historians, ethnographers, anthropologists, biographers and journalists. This was done by contacting Icelandic parties where such material might be found. In total 72 museums and institutions were contacted, including all Icelandic local history museums and regional archives. The results from this survey showed that the collections of Icelandic

1 The author of this article was one of those two historians and the Centre‘s project manager from 2007–2009, since 2015 also a member of the Centre‘s advisory board. Much of the information and insight presented in this article is gained directly from the author‘s work for the Centre. 2 See: Samstarfsnefnd um undirbúning að stofnun Miðstöðvar munnlegrar sögu, 2007, Skýrsla um undirbúning að stofnun Miðstöðvar munnlegrar sögu, Miðstöð munnlegrar sögu, Reykjavík (Raport on preparing the Centre for Oral History), Reykjavík, p. 3. 3 See about “Miðstöð munnlegrar sögu” (the Centre for Oral History) on the website of the University of Iceland, http://sagnfraedistofnun.hi.is/midstod_munnlegrar_sogu (accessed November 27, 2015). The Icelandic Centre for Oral History

museums held a surprising amount of oral sources or at least about 3000 199 hours of material. In most cases access to this material was problematic. Only a small part of this material had been properly catalogued so in general it was difficult for potential users to decide whether a recording would contain relevant information or not. In some cases the material was stored on a medium that was in a state of physical decay and could therefore not be accessed without risk. In other cases obsolete formats complicated access. Few museums had the technical means necessary to access material stored on obsolete formats and to transfer them onto newer and more easily accessible formats. They also often lacked the financial means to ensure correct storage environments and thus preservation. In their replies to the future Centre, many of these parties declared an interest in working with the Cen- tre in order to remedy the situation and cooperate towards the twofold goal of ensuring the safeguarding of the oral sources in their collections and of providing easy access to them4. Another important part of the preparation work was to shape a model that would best serve the goals of the future Centre. The preparation team gathered information about how other archives and institutions that focused on oral sources and oral history conducted their work and built on this information to make suggestions about procedures for the acquisition of materials, preservation, documenting, cataloguing, describing and management of the collections. A visit was made to the department of oral history in the British Library to learn about collection management and preservation principals. Visits for the same purpose were also made to The Literary Archives of the Finnish Li- terature Society (SKS) in Helsinki, the Folklore archives of the Danish Royal Library in Copenhagen and The State Media Archive in the Danish State and University Library, also in Copenhagen. The information and insight gained from these visits proved very useful for the preparatory work. In addition one of the historians on the preparation team attended a workshop on Oral History held by the British Library and the Oral History Society. The team also looked into legal concerns regarding copyright and collaborated with the steering group on a code of ethics. This code was intended to guide the work of the Centre itself and also to be offered as general recommen- dations regarding the practice of oral history within the Icelandic academia.

4 Samstarfsnefnd..., p. 7–8. Unnur María Bergsveinsdóttir

200 The Centre for oral history was formally opened on January 26th 2007. To celebrate the occasion the Centre organized a conference on oral history. Speakers came from Iceland and other parts of Scandinavia, including Dr. Lauri Harvilahti, the Director of the Folklore Archives of the Finnish Literature Society, and Britta Bjerrum Mortensen from the Folklore archives of the the Danish Royal Library. The Centre’s website5 was launched the same day along with an exhibition presenting material from the Centre’s collection, where visitors could listen to recordings and learn about oral history as a historical method. The events attracted a large audience of both academics and students and ignited a discussion about the condition of oral history in Iceland6. The Centre’s office has from the beginning been located in the National Library. Daily work in the Centre is carried out by one employee, with additional specialists and students being hired to work on particular projects when the budget allows. The Centre has from the start reached out to both students and academics and its services soon began to attract those who were interested in working with oral sources. The Icelandic Centre for Oral History became a part of the National Li- brary in 2012. The steering group became an advisory board that participa- tes in strategic decisions, gives advice on collection projects, and supports in obtaining the additional funding for particular projects7. This organizational change secured the long-term financing of the Centre and cemented a binding commitment by the educational authorities to promote research in oral history and the preservation of oral history material.

5 See: www.munnlegsaga.is (accessed November 27, 2015). 6 Samstarfsnefnd..., p. 3. At the time of writing the Centre’s advisory board consists of Guðni Th. Jóhannesson (representative of the History Institute of the University of Iceland), Örn Hrafnkelsson (representative of the National Library) and Unnur María Bergsveinsdóttir (representative of the Icelandic Historians Association). See: http://munnlegsaga.is/index.php?page=adstandendur (accessed November 27, 2015). 7 See: http://sagnfraedistofnun.hi.is/midstod_munnlegrar_sogu (accessed November 27, 2015). The Icelandic Centre for Oral History

The Centre as an audiovisual archive 201 The Centre collects all the materials on Icelandic history and heritage. It is now hold about 800 hours of digital material in 124 collections. Audio recordings constitute the major part of the material in the Centre’s archive but few of them do hold extensive interviews on audiovisual formats. 90 collections are accessible online (in whole or in part). The Centre’s archival materials include also photographs, notes, partial or full transcripts and other personal sources obtained at the time of making of the recording. In addition to the already developed materials the archive holds several hundred hours of recordings in analogue format. These are now being transferred to digital files and catalogued. Even though the first audiovisual archives came into existence about a century ago, it is only in the second half of the 20th century, when in- expensive tape recorders became easily available and that these collections began to grow at a steady pace8. At the same time the audiovisual archiving has faced rapid technological changes. Formats have evolved from the analogue to multiple digital ones. Carriers of data have changed. Cataloguing, along with access, has also moved into the electronic realm. In the 1990s the need for audiovisual archivists to develop a common theoretical and methodological approach became obvious. In 1998 UNESCO published the first edition of its guide, Audiovisual Archiving: Philosophy and Principles9, which presents guidelines, intending to synthesize the views of professionals on that field. In accordance with these international guidelines the Icelandic Centre emphasizes the importance of careful documentation and inventory. Material is catalogued and described using archival-based concepts and rules. Precise records are important, not only concerning the origin and context of each document, but also the management of the archives. This information includes the original data carrier’s location in the archive, its condition, action taken to restore or repair original data carrier and the transfer of analogue documents into digital formats. The program used for cataloguing and describing the collections is Access to memory, which is maintained and supported by the ICA (International Council on Archives) and the work is done according to the ISAD(G) standard (General International Standard Archival

8 R. Edmondson, Audiovisual Archiving: Philosophy and Principles, Paris 2004. 9 Ibidem. Unnur María Bergsveinsdóttir

202 Description). Cataloguing and describing has been focused on those areas of the collection where the demand has been perceived to be greatest. The process of obtaining the oral history recordings is a very important part of the registration process and a necessary first step in the cataloguing. The Centre operates within a framework of contractual and copyright law. An accession contract or agreement on the transfer of archival materials is made for each acquisition, stating the voluntary transferring of the collection to the Centre, without any financial consideration. This contract permits the Centre to authorize the use of the material by a third party and is the most important and most often used agreement when it comes to audiovisual archives10. The storage facilities of the National Library meet all standards for storing fragile archival materials. When analogue acquisitions are acquired the original data carrier is always conserved and its content is transferred onto digital format, what ensures future access. The new backup copy is identical to the original and its content is not modified in any way.

The Collections The content of the Centre’s collection is very diverse as the Centre gathers all oral sources on Icelandic history and heritage. In first years of activity the Centre received a great amount of materials in analogue format, from those who had such oral sources in their possession and wanted to secure their existence or give an access to them. Most of this came from individuals, for example historians who had recorded interviews on diverse topics in their research work. The Centre was also contacted by individuals from all over the Iceland who had conducted interviews to preserve the history of places and local communities, life stories of individuals or accounts of vanishing customs. Some smaller museums and archives have handed over to the Centre’s collections the old analogue recordings in return for digital copies for their local use. This serves local interests as well as the interests of all those interested in oral sources on Icelandic history and heritage. An example of material gained from such cooperation is a collection of recordings from Minjasafnið á Hnjóti, a local history museum in one of the smallest and most remote communities of Iceland. Also the History

10 See: “Accessioning”, https://ysuarchive.wordpress.com/archives-policies-2/accessioning/ (accessed November 27, 2015). The Icelandic Centre for Oral History

Institute of the University of Iceland has chosen to preserve an old ana- 203 logue material from their archives by handing them over to the Centre in exchange for digital copies. Most audiovisual archives collect material rather than create it by themselves. The Centre for Oral History in Iceland however actively seeks to create new oral sources. The Centre originated in collaboration between academic research institutions and the National Library, even before its formal opening, initiated research projects, intended to collect and work with personal sources various topics and questions. The advisory board decides what projects are implemented and helps to organize it and finance it. In some cases the Centre hires a historian (or an academic from another discipline) to do the interviews, develop them and present the research results. The Centre also cooperates in projects implemented by other institutions or academics. Below I will present some of them, which built specific collections in our archive. Project “Memories from the feminist movement” focuses on the Ice- landic feminist movements of 1965–1980. The idea for the project originated and was developed by RIKK – Institute for Gender, Equality and Differ- ence, and one of the partners was The Icelandic Women’s History Archives. The Centre for Oral History carried out the project and partially financed it. The archival collection contains interviews with 17 women who were active in the women’s movement in that time and who tell about one of the most controversial movements in Icelandic history. The oral history material was summed up in a documentary Sixteen Red Stockings. Sixteen Red Stock- ings, mixed with animation, graphics and music and was well received (also awarded for the best Nordic documentary at the Polar Film Festival 201211). “Crisis Stories” is a documentary and research project on the events which began in November 2008 and which Icelanders soon started referring to as “The Collapse”. The project was initiated by the Centre, documenting events that were just unfolding. “Crisis Stories” documented a social experience and registered how those events affected personal lives of individuals from different social groups. Special attention was given to the historical and political meaning given by the interviewed individuals to this “Collapse”. It was considered important to collect these personal testimonies while the

11 See: http://icelandiccinema.com/film/Women-in-Red-Stockings (accessed Novem- ber 27, 2015). Unnur María Bergsveinsdóttir

204 events were still taking place and while their consequences and effects still remained to be seen. Interviewees were encouraged to share their view of how the great history influenced their daily lives. The project was carried out between 2008 and 2010 and the collection contains the accounts of over 100 individuals from all over the Iceland. A historian, Magnús Helga- son, has already used this sources in his research on the changes in consu- mer culture and politics in the wake of the financial crisis of 2008. The Centre has cooperated in two projects concerning “The Culinary Heritage of Reykjavík”. Within the first one the Centre collaborated with a local association dedicated to the research the Icelandic culinary heritage, helping to find a qualified interviewer, to structure the project and the interviews and loaning the recording equipment. The interviews focused on culinary traditions and methods and the effects of rapid technological changes and globalization after the World War II. This project culminated in a well-received exhibition about Reykjavík food culture throughout the 20th century. The interviews were an important part of the exhibition and added a personal dimension to the subject. The second project consisted of is a series of interviews with members of the Icelandic Chefs Association. In the accounts the chefs gave an overview of their career, with emphasis on how the modern developments in cooking have effected not only their working environment but also the culture of home cooking. These two collections are valuable sources on Icelandic culinary culture, open to all those who wish to explore this part of our heritage. “The Nobel Laureate and his neighbors” project focuses on the writer Halldór Laxness, Iceland’s only Nobel laureate, who died in 1998. The Centre collaborated on that with Gljúfrasteinn, a museum dedicated to the writer. This institution is located in the valley where writer grew up and later, as an adult, built his family a home. This oral history collection contains interviews with 14 neighbors of his, who remember the writer and talk about their friendships with him. The interviews are meant to add a personal dimension to the presentation of Laxness in the museums and to be a source for future research on the poet and his work along with a daily life in that particular rural location. The Icelandic Confederation of Labour asked the Centre for the cooperation on making a series of interviews that chronicled “A Hundred years in the History of the Icelandic Confederation of Labour”. The Centre prepared Þorgrímur Gestsson, a historian and journalist, to collect the interviews and provided recording equipment. Historian Sumarliði Ísleifsson The Icelandic Centre for Oral History

then used the material in his research on the history of the confederation 205 and of the social struggle of Icelandic workers. The oral history material is preserved in the Centre’s archive, where it is accessible to all interested in it. The interviews have been catalogued and described. “Memories of Reykjavík” is a collection of interviews conducted in 2007–2009 with about 90 people of different age groups and different parts of the city, who were asked about their everyday life, growing up in Reykjavík, about their household and school life, leisure time, so as their thoughts on their nearest environment and the effects of the dark winters on their lives. In order to reach out to the society the interviews were recorded in a movable recording studio, a small wooden hut that provided good recording conditions. Thanks to that for three years this project was a regular part of Reykjavík’s big events like the city’s Culture Night and Museum Night. The youngest interviewees were still in kindergarten and the oldest were seniors who described a childhood in a city quite different from the present Reykjavík. Each interviewee received a CD with recording of his or her story, along with a letter of thanks. The purpose of this project was to create a collection of sources concerning the personal experiences and perspective of Reykjavík’s citizens on their everyday life in the city. Chosen parts from the interviews have been presented on the National Radio and the interviews are accessible through online streaming. A few secondary school teachers have used certain parts of these interviews as a teaching aid when teaching about Icelandic history and society. “The first Refugees” project focuses on the experience of a group of Hungarian refugees that arrived in Iceland after the Hungarian revolution in 1956 was crushed. Thanks to the initiative of the Icelandic Red Cross department, a group of 52 refugees arrived to Reykjavík the day before Christ- mas 1956. This was the first time in history when Icelandic government formally agreed to receive refugees. Later half of this group became Icelandic citizens. When the Centre for Oral History was opened 14 of them were still alive and still living in Iceland. While the story behind this political decision of their migration to Iceland is well documented, very little was known about the personal experience of this group. Considering the risk that their memories would be lost, as the remaining members of this group grew older, the Centre initiated a project to document their story and recorded their accounts. Unnur María Bergsveinsdóttir

206 Access The importance of access to the collected oral histories was from the beginning an important part of the Centre’s vision. Deciding about the best way to provide access for users of the collections was however not a simple task. The integration of the Centre’s collections with the National Library’s catalogue took a long time for technical reasons. In addition there were legal questions concerning copyrights, but also ethical questions concerning among others the intentions of those who originally created the archival material. Much of the sources in the collections had been created with the intention to be used for future research and studies. In relation to some of them however it was not clear whether their creator had meant to share them with others for any future use. A small part of sources was limited with specific access restrictions agreed between the interviewee and the interviewer, that had to be taken into account. Since 2015 the whole catalogue of the Centre’s oral history collections can be found online and more than two thirds of the resource is directly accessible there (at least partly), by online streaming at www.einkaskjol.is, in the National Library’s online catalogue for private papers. All the sources comes with a short description of its content, the names of interviewer and interviewee and with information about the material’s origin. Full transcriptions are available just for some of the interviews. The Centre’s advisory board considers this ease of access to be one of the Centre’s greatest contributions in the field of oral history in Iceland, as providing those material to public is an efficient way to promote their dissemination and the use of oral history as method.

Dissemination and research The Centre for Oral History seeks to stimulate discussion on oral sources and oral history, to encourage and facilitate the creation and use of oral sources and to offer information and education on oral history. The Centre’s webpage is the starting point for many people who wish to know more about oral history. One can find there articles with the theoretical basics of oral history along with information on practical matters. This includes information about what constitutes good interviewing technique, the selection of recording devices and their proper use and advice on how to seek out and contact interviewees. Furthermore the website presents the Centre’s guidelines on how to transcribe and preserve an interview along with the Centre’s code of ethics and advice on how to correctly secure the rights of use and preservation. The Icelandic Centre for Oral History

The Centre offers workshops aimed at all those who are interested in creat- 207 ing and working with oral sources. These workshops cover the basics of oral history as a history method along with an introduction to the use of oral history in Icelandic history research. The participants receive a short training in how to prepare and conduct a successful interview. Finally the workshops explore different methods of how the produced sources can be presented in museums and exhibitions or online. These workshops are based on the methodology and instructions of the British Library and the British Oral History Society. To stimulate the use of oral history among future scholars the Centre works with the University of Iceland, bringing education about oral sources and oral history into the classroom of students of history, ethnology, anthropology, archeology and more. Teachers from both the History Depart- ment and from the Department of Applied Studies in Culture and Commu- nication have chosen to use materials from the Centre’s collections to train their students in the making of radio documentaries. The effects have been broadcast by the National Radio. The Centre also works with the School of Education, introducing future teachers to oral history and its many uses in teaching children about their national and local history. In order to stimulate the academic discussion the Centre regularly or- ganizes and hosts conferences on oral history. The main topics of interest at the Centre’s conferences are methodology and ways to use oral sources in the schoolroom. The Centre provides practical service along with the dissemination of information. Many scholars and students find themselves obliged to resort to interviewing when traditional sources are silent or when the researcher wishes to delve more deeply into particular questions. In order to aid these researchers and encourage the preservation of and access to these sources, the Centre offers visitors advice on the scope and planning of the interviews, along with practical advice. In addition the Centre offers the loan of high quality recording devices, free of charge. The Centre encourages those who make use of these services to get permission from the interviewees for the material to become part of the Centre’s collections and in most cases this turns out to be the result. Finally it should be noted that the Centre seeks to stimulate interest in oral history by actively presenting the interesting contents of its collections to the public. This is done for example by presenting chosen samples of material, along with context, on the Centre’s webpage, through collaboration with the National Radio. Unnur María Bergsveinsdóttir

208 The Icelandic Centre for Oral History has now been active for almost a decade and so it is appropriate to conclude the presentation of the Centre by considering how its work has served its goals. As mentioned earlier, facili- tating access to oral sources is a very straightforward way to encourage the use of oral sources and oral history. Online access to the Centre’s collections serves this goal excellently. Future plans include further transcribing of the accounts and the assignment of keywords, which will make the Centre’s collections even more useful. The Centre’s very varied projects’ subjects are another important contribution, combining collecting materials with the research. Those serve not only to create new sources on Iceland’s history and heritage but also help set a standard for working with oral sources and demonstrate varied examples of the opportunities that the use of oral sources offers. It should be noted the Centre’s workshops are the only oral history workshops offered in Iceland and judging by attendance they obviously meet an existing demand for this kind of information and training. Finally the conferences the Centre has organized have created a platform for discussion on an academic level. It is apparent to the author that the Centre has stimulated both the production of oral sources about Iceland’s history and heritage and the use of oral history as a history method. As a permanent part of the National Library the Centre will without a doubt continue contributing to the field of oral history in Iceland. Katarzyna Bock-Matuszyk Ewa Sowińska

[Wrocław]

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„Oral history – dziedzictwo kulturowe Polski i Islandii uchwycone w ludzkich słowach”

Wrocławski Rocznik Historii Mówionej Rocznik VI, 2016 ISSN 2084–0578

Przez ostatni rok Ośrodek „Pamięć i Przyszłość” z Wrocławia wraz z The Ice- landic Research Centre for Innovation and Economic Growth z Reykjavíku realizował projekt, którego głównym celem było uchwycenie różnorodno- ści kulturowej Islandczyków i licznie mieszkających na ich wyspie Polaków oraz rozwijanie metody historii mówionej1. W sierpniu 2015 r. grupa młodych badaczy z Polski wyjechała na Islan- dię, gdzie wraz z kilkoma Islandczykami, wykorzystującymi w swych badaniach naukowych metodę oral history, wzięła udział warsztatach pro- wadzonych przez polskich i islandzkich ekspertów: prof. Martę Kurkow- ską-Budzan, prof. Joannę Wojdon, prof. Hannesa H. Gissurarsona, prof. Guðniego Th. Jóhannessona i prof. Pawła Jaworskiego. Celem warsztatów

1 Projekt finansowany z funduszy EOG, pochodzących z Islandii, Lichtensteinu i Nor- wegii oraz ze środków krajowych w ramach programu „Promowanie różnorodności kulturowej i artystycznej w ramach europejskiego dziedzictwa kulturowego” w ramach MF EOG 2009–2014. Katarzyna Bock-Matuszyk, Ewa Sowińska

210 było zapoznanie tej międzynarodowej grupy z odmiennym podejściem do metodologii historii mówionej w obu krajach, czemu służyła również wi- zyta w Center for Oral History przy Uniwersytecie Islandzkim, a także za- znajomienie się z historią i kulturą obu krajów, które łączy tak duża grupa Polaków. Od lat 80. XX w., a zwłaszcza po wejściu Polski do Unii Europej- skiej, migrowali oni bowiem na wyspę, by obecnie stać się najliczniejszą z mieszkających tam mniejszości narodowych. Głównym celem wyjazdu na Islandię Hanny Gospodarczyk (Uniwersy- tet Warszawski), Roberta Rydzewskiego (Uniwersytet Adama Mickiewicza w Poznaniu), Marka Szajdy (Uniwersytet Wrocławski) i Karoliny Żłobe- ckiej (Uniwersytet Jagielloński) była realizacja projektu badawczego „Po- lacy na Islandii”. W jego ramach, z wykorzystaniem kwestionariusza py- tań opracowanego na warsztatach, naukowcy nagrali relacje biograficzne mieszkających na wyspie Polaków. Jedna z tych relacji, siostry Agnieszki, karmelitanki, została opublikowana w niniejszym tomie wraz z krytycz- nym opracowaniem tego źródła przez Marka Szajdę, a szczegółowe wnioski z realizacji projektu badawczego jego uczestnicy opisali w tekście poniżej. Relacje posłużyły do przygotowania tematycznej wystawy „Polacy na Islan- dii”, która w grudniu 2015 r. została zaprezentowana na wrocławskim Ryn- ku oraz w Internecie na stronie projektu www.poland-meets-iceland.eu2. Istotnym elementem projektu „Oral history – dziedzictwo kulturowe Polski i Islandii uchwycone w ludzkich słowach” była również konferencja naukowa, na której badacze z Polski, Islandii i Czech przedstawili wiele zagadnień metodologicznych związanych z wykorzystaniem historii mó- wionej, jak również realizowane w poszczególnych krajach i instytucjach projekty gromadzenia i udostępniania relacji historii mówionej. Artykuły naukowe powstałe w oparciu o wystąpienia konferencyjne zostały opubli- kowane w niniejszym tomie.

2 Autorem koncepcji merytorycznej wystawy jest dr Iwona Nowak. Oral history – dziedzictwo kulturowe Polski i Islandii...

211

1. Grupa badawcza projektu „Polacy na Islandii” podczas wizyty w the Center for Oral History w Reykjavíku, sierpień 2015 r. Fot. z Archiwum OPiP.

2. Robert Rydzewski w trakcie nagrywania relacji Magdaleny Przewłockiej w Hella, sierpień 2015 r. Fot. z Archiwum OPiP.

3. Wystawa „Polacy na Islandii” (źródło: www.poland- meets-iceland.eu).

Hanna Gospodarczyk [Warszawa] Robert Rydzewski [Poznań] Marek Szajda [Wrocław] Karolina Żłobecka

[Kraków]

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The experiences of Polish Wrocławski Rocznik migrants in Iceland Historii Mówionej Rocznik VI, 2016 ISSN 2084–0578

1 Sometimes the Icelanders couldn’t hide their astonishment, why we are coming here, what attracts us here. Usually they asked about this very gen- tly. They asked about Poland and so on, what is going on there in Poland. They just wanted to know why, what brings us here. Suddenly, on this small island, thousands of Poles appear. They couldn’t understand that concept, why so many people all of a sudden want to come and live here. [...] How- ever, what was visible through these questions, was the lack of Icelanders’ experience with immigration in general, the notion of immigration and immigrants, which was absolutely marginal here before, say, year 2000. And those immigrants who were coming here were immediately, as if inevitably, maybe not forced, but took on features such like they had to learn the

1 The paper presents the results of the research project “Poles on Iceland” realized within the project “Oral history – cultural heritage of Poland and Iceland captured in human words” supported by a grant from Iceland, Lichtenstein and Norway through the EEA Grants and co-financed by Polish funds. Hanna Gospodarczyk, Robert Rydzewski, Marek Szajda, Karolina Żłobecka

214 language, and by a specific time, they even had to officially change their official name to be registered as an Icelander. This quasi conception of this new immigration, this economic immigration was entirely new to the Ice- landers. And they had reasons to be puzzled, to learn where it comes from, why, and so on”2. For a long time Iceland was inhabited almost exclusively by indigenous people. Also, over the decades of the 20th century, the number of foreigners did not exceed 2% of the population. This situation started to change in 1990’s, and particularly after 2005, when a great influx of foreigners was noted as a result of the economic prosperity, industrial development, and socio-economic changes. The economic recession and the downturn of 2008 led to departure of some of the foreigners, but according to the statistics published by Statistic Iceland3, in January 2015 29,192 immigrants lived in Iceland4, which is 8.9% of the population. The largest group among them – 10,933 individuals – were born in Poland. Over the last decade, Poles have become the largest minority on the island, ahead of Lithuanians, Danes, Germans, and Filipinos. Iceland is a part of the European Economic Area and opened its job market to Poles in 2006. The factors that contributed to Poles moving over there were:

2 “Czasem Islandczycy nie mogli ukryć zdziwienia, dlaczego my tu przyjeżdżamy, co nas tu przyciąga. Zazwyczaj bardzo delikatnie się o to pytali. Pytali się o Polskę itd. Co się tam dzieje w Polsce. Właśnie chcieli wiedzieć dlaczego, co nas tu sprowadza. Na małą wyspę, nagle zjawia się tysiące Polaków. Nie rozumieli konceptu tego, dlaczego tutaj ludzie nagle chcą w takiej ilości przyjechać i zamieszkać. [...] Natomiast, co było widać z tych pytań, to brak doświadczenia Islandczyków w ogóle z imigra- cją, pojęcie imigracji, imigrantów, które to tutaj było zupełnie marginalne, przed powiedzmy rokiem 2000. I ci imigranci, którzy tu przyjeżdżali, byli od razu jakby siłą rzeczy, może nie zmuszani, ale nabywali cech, takich, że musieli się nauczyć języka, do któregoś tam roku musieli tam nawet zmienić oficjalnie imię, żeby być zarejestrowanym jako Islandczyk. Ten jakby koncept tej nowej imigracji, tej imigracji zarobkowej był zupełnie nowy dla Islandczyków. No i mieli powody, żeby się dziwić, żeby się dowiadywać, skąd się to bierze, dlaczego itd.” Archive of the “Remembran- ce and Future” Centre (Wrocław), AHM-akcesja, interview with Tomasz Chrapek, 24.08.2015 r. (recorded by M. Szajda). All interviews quoted in that paper are being preserved in Archive of the “Remembrance and Future” Centre. 3 Icelandic statistics. Immigrants and persons with foreign background 2015, http:// www.statice.is/publications/news-archive/population/immigrants-and-persons- -with-foreign-background/ (accessed December 1, 2015). 4 According to Statistic Iceland an immigrant is a person born abroad with two foreign born parents and four foreign born grandparents. The experience of migration of Poles in Iceland

the very good economic situation, the accession of Poland to the European 215 Union, and the Icelandic exoticism5. The following paper is divided into four sections. In the first part we present aims of the research project “Poles in Iceland” and methodological approach that was used. In the second and third part we will proceed to the description of different waves of Polish migration to Iceland and the first -im pressions of the newcomers. In the fourth section of the paper we will discuss the push and pull factors of Polish emigration. In this point we would like to highlight that our remarks should be treated as a result of preliminary research limited by time and scope which could be developed in further research.

Methods and aims of the research project The goal of the research project “Poles in Iceland” realized within the project “Oral history – cultural heritage of Poland and Iceland captured in human words”, implemented by the “Remembrance and Future” Centre (Wrocław, Poland) in cooperation with the Icelandic Research Centre for Innovation and Economic Growth (Reykjavík, Iceland) was, among others, to record biographical accounts of Poles living in Iceland. The main issues discussed during the interviews were the reasons why Poles chose this culturally and climatically different country and the ways they do or don’t fit in, especially taking into account the 2008 economic crisis. The project was based on the oral history methodology, and the decision regarding the type of interview was developed during the workshop on methodology and research questions. The research team selected the topic-oriented interview as a basic tool. The most important aspect, from our point of view, was the interviewees’ stay in Iceland; hence we have decided to limit information related to the previous period of our interlocutors’ lives only to their place of origin, educational path, family and work. The opening question was “How did you happen to be here?”, which turned out to be the best one, since it combined life in Ice- land with its prelude (usually) in Poland. The interviewees who responded to that question briefly presented their life in Poland, the circumstances of their decision to go to Iceland, and automatically passed onto stories about their life in Iceland. During the workshop, we had also defined the basic themes which became the axis of the interviews. One of those aspects was professional

5 M. Budyta-Budzyńska, Wstęp, [in:] Integracja czy asymilacja? Polscy imigranci w Is- landii, ed. by M. Budyta-Budzyńska, Warszawa 2011, p. 9. Hanna Gospodarczyk, Robert Rydzewski, Marek Szajda, Karolina Żłobecka

216 life and work in Iceland, which we expected to be the main reasons of migration for the majority of Poles. It was important to find out whether they knew before leaving Poland what kind of job they were going to get, who helped them to find work; what they do in their jobs, how an ordinary working day looks like, what kind of obstacles or difficulties they face. We also tried to trace their professional path and understand their possibilities of upward mobility in Ice- landic society. The interviewees’ language itself was also of importance to us in this respect: whether they “got”, “organized”, “arranged for” a job. The second major theme for us was their relations with the Icelanders, their opinions about them, whether the native Icelanders counted among our interlocutors’ friends; whether they are people our interlocutors spend time with. This question led also to discussing Icelandic culture and mentality in the way it is perceived by Poles. The third leading issue was family. The research team posed the question of whether the whole family is united on the island, whether some kin live in Poland, whether the children learn Polish language and culture, what kind of difficulties they face when raising children in two cultures. Another issue was the role of media in keeping in touch with the family in Poland, finding out news from Poland, and social media as a tool for the integration of Poles in their own group. Topics which we chose during the interviews naturally connected with the issue of Icelandic language skills, which was crucial for relations with Icelanders, or working conditions. Within the project framework, we have recorded 20 oral history accounts. Our interlocutors were both sexes, born in the 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s. Five of them came to the island in the 1980s, two in the 1990s; two people also came to Iceland before the job market opened to Poles in 2006, and others – between 2006 and 2008. Our interviewees work in the food processing industry, services and as specialists. The recordings took place mostly in Reykjavík, but also in Hella, Hvolsvöllur and Hafnarfjörður in the southwestern part of Iceland. We found our interviewees in various ways, and the biggest support we got was from the Polish chargé d’affaires in Reykjavík, Lech Mastalerz, and a PhD student at the University in Reykjavík, Anna Wojtyńska. We also established contacts with people involved in the “Project Poland” and a Pol- ish school in Reykjavík. In looking for interviewees, we were supported by Halldóra Steinsdottir and María Smáradóttir Jóhönnudóttir from our Ice- landic research team. A few of informants volunteered in response to an announcement placed on one of the Polish websites, and others were contacted through a Polish catholic priest in Reykjavík. The experience of migration of Poles in Iceland

Polish migration to Iceland 217 The history of Polish migrants in Iceland is more complicated and longer than one may think. Every year the number of Poles on the island increases, but probably no one could say when the first arrivals started. In order to enable a deeper understanding of the case, we would like to present the story of migrations from Poland to Iceland, especially during last four decades, based on our researches. Iceland is a quite new and not so clearly recognizable country. Icelanders only obtained their independence in 1944. It was the beginning of the big development of the economy that caused so many changes in next decades. A period of economic prosperity in the 1980s and the 1990s was a positive influence and gave rise to Polish migrations. So many changes in recent decades, especially in the economy, reshaped the country into an attractive place for people from abroad6. Historians locate the origin of migrations from Poland to Iceland in the beginnings of the 20th century. That perspective responds to the dozen or more pre-war travellers, some of whom stayed on the island over several years. At the beginnings of the 20th century Abraham Wołowski, who was descendant of a Warsaw Frankist family, was working as a tailor in Iceland, but only temporarily7. Travellers from Poland: Maurycy Komorowicz, Fer- dynad Goetel or Czesław Centkiewicz visited the island during the interwar period. Afterwards the following books were published: Notatki z po- dróży po Islandii (Notes from a trip around Iceland) or Wyspa na chmurnej północy (The island in the cloudy north). Another perspective appears during time of the Second World War. In 1942 dozens of sailors, who had worked on a Polish ship called “Wigry”, drowned near the Icelandic coast. After that they were buried in the local cemetery in Reykjavík8. For years that graves were the most significant place in Iceland presenting some connections with Poland. The situation of migration was changed in the 1960s. Cooperation between Poland and Iceland led to some arrivals of Polish engineers, shipyard

6 A. Wojtyńska, Historia i charakterystyka migracji z Polski do Islandii, [in:] Integra- cja…, p. 32. 7 Ibidem, p. 30. 8 W. Czop, Tragedia s/s WIGRY styczeń 1942 roku, Oficjalna strona Związku Zawodo- wych Kapitanów i Oficerów, http://zzkptiof.nw.pl/Tragedia%20ss%20WIGRY.html (accessed December 1, 2015). Hanna Gospodarczyk, Robert Rydzewski, Marek Szajda, Karolina Żłobecka

218 workers and others. That fact was proved by a document entitledIceland: an information about the country and trading practical guidance, published by Polish Office of Foreign Trade in 1958. Probably this group of tradesman and workers erected in 1961 a monument to memory of the Polish sailors. Although some of that people decided to stay for longer in Iceland, it was only a prologue to something bigger that turned up later. The first migration group, or more precisely – a wave, is rather connected with the 1980s, when the Polish diaspora could be really noticeable in Iceland. One group which settled in the capital in the middle of the 1980s consisted of several musicians: violinist, singers and music teachers, who signed contracts in a local orchestra. In our opinion it was possibly thanks to the good reputation of Bohdan Wodiczko, who had conducted the Reykjavík orchestra several years earlier for a couple of years. We had a great opportunity to talk with representatives of that group, for example Robert Rydzewski recorded an interview with Andrzej Kleina9 and Alina Dubik10, people who have worked in Iceland since the end of the 1980s. The second important group of the first wave were Carmelites nuns. -Si ster Agnieszka, who was in a pioneering group of sisters, told us a story about her life in a Convent on the island. She arrived in 1984 into Hafnarfjörður, where she has lived since than. In her narration it is worth seeing the various contexts of moving into Iceland: There was a search for Carmelite nuns for Iceland. And primate Glemp asked the Carmelite Convent in Elbląg, because there were a lot of vocations to live in convent and many nuns in the community. He asked if sisters are ready to make a decision and come to Iceland, and to settle down in a Car- melite Convent. Of course, when we are thinking about Carmel, it is specific community, because every convent is autonomous and if a girl decides to join a chosen convent, she stays there all her life. When an expedition to the Iceland was being considered, the voluntary agreement of individual nuns was demanded. I was then in novitiate and I thought that it was a kind of challenge from Jesus and I couldn’t refuse something like that, to go out of Poland. Not only to utterly different things, but also the leaving of the homeland and not being in touch with family. You have to know, that in December of 1984, it was communism regime [in Poland] and contact with

9 Interview with Andrzej Kleina, 20 & 24.08.2015 r. (recorded by R. Rydzewski). 10 Interview with Andrzej Kleina, 24.08.2015 r. (recorded by R. Rydzewski). The experience of migration of Poles in Iceland

people abroad was quite difficult. As an example I can say, that after our 219 arrival here, the mother of one sister wanted to call. She was waiting one week for to be connected, and she received the call at nearly 2.00 am. in the morning. It was a reality. And in that time such an expedition seemed to have no contact with family and was something like going to a missionary country. In March 1984 the group of Polish nuns, the Discalced Carmelite Nuns, arrived and I was in this group. In such a way I came here. And perhaps so did other sisters11. In the 1980s other Poles came to Reykjavík. Among our respondents were Stanisław Bartoszek12, the author of the Polish-Icelandic dictionary and Witold Bogdanski13, who for years served as an unofficial Polish consul on the island. Last but not least we must mention that during the martial law in Poland a group of Polish migrants arrived to Iceland, but we didn’t have a chance to contact anyone from that group14. Some of them migrated to the USA and Canada after they had received Icelandic citizenship.

11 “Właśnie było poszukiwanie takich sióstr karmelitanek, czyli mniszek, dla Islandii. I prymas Glemp zwrócił się do karmelu w Elblągu, ponieważ tam było sporo powo- łań, sporo sióstr we wspólnocie, czy siostry nie są gotowe podjąć takiego wyzwania i przyjechać na Islandię, żeby tutaj się osiedlić w karmelu. Oczywiście, jeżeli chodzi o karmel, jest to specyficzna wspólnota, bo każdy klasztor jest autonomiczny i jeżeli jakaś dziewczyna wstępuje do danego klasztoru, to jest w nim na całe życie. Więc jeżeli chodziło o wyjazd na Islandię, potrzebna była dobrowolna zgoda poszczegól- nych sióstr. Ja byłam wtedy w nowicjacie i pomyślałam o tym, że to jest takie wyzwanie Jezusa i nie mogę mu odmówić czegoś takiego, żeby wyjechać też z ojczyzny. Nie tylko wyrzec się dla niego różnych innych rzeczy, ale też ojczyzny i kontaktów z ro- dziną, bo trzeba powiedzieć, że w [19]84 roku były to czasy komunistyczne i bardzo był utrudniony kontakt z zagranicą. Jako przykład podam, że już po przyjeździe tutaj mama jednej z sióstr chciała porozumieć się telefoniczne, to na połączenie czekała tydzień, otrzymała je o drugiej w nocy. Takie to były realia. Więc jeżeli w tamtych czasach taki wyjazd dla nas oznaczał brak kontaktu z rodziną i w ogóle jakby takie…, wyjazd do jakby bardzo misyjnego kraju. Więc przyjechała tutaj w marcu 1984 roku grupa polskich mniszek, karmelitanek bosych, i ja byłam w tej grupie. W taki sposób się tutaj znalazłam. Może i jeszcze inne siostry.” Interview with s. Agnieszka OCD, 20.08.2015 r. (recorded by M. Szajda & K. Żłobecka). See also the edition of the whole account of s. Agnieszka’s account earlier in this yearbook. 12 Interview with Stanisław Bartoszek, 19.08.2015 r. (recorded by K. Żłobecka). 13 Interview with Witold Bogdański, 23.08.2015 r. (recorded by K. Żłobecka). 14 A. Wojtyńska, op. cit., p. 31. Hanna Gospodarczyk, Robert Rydzewski, Marek Szajda, Karolina Żłobecka

220 The second period of migration appeared in new political and social circumstances. After the first free election in Poland and political breakthrough Poles got a new opportunity to go abroad. Not only to close European countries, but also further. An increase of migration during the decade was based on a need for a better job and honest wages. What is more, newcomers from Poland built a specific migration network that pulled friends and acquaintances to arrive into Iceland. Beata Grochowska, who worked in fish processing industry, described that fact in an interview: The first time I heard about Iceland was when my sister came to me. She said that she was leaving home. It was a little surprise for me, because then in Poland was various information that Polish women had been taking to various mafias and [take away] passports and so on […]. For me it was a shock. I said: where are you going? To the end of the world! What about staying in touch with us? My sister went. I bought the ticket in December, but because we were scared and we were in group of 5 women, and each of us had children, our future employer let us stay during the holidays in Poland. We came here on 7th of January, just in time after Three Kings Day, the year [19]9715. Next, the third wave of migration was triggered by the Polish accession to the European Union. The opening of the labour market in various countries of Western Europe intensified migrations. Poles wanted to find legitimate, well-paid jobs. One of the most important target destinations was Iceland, which opened its labour market to foreigners from the new EU countries in 2006. It resulted in a rapid increase in the number of Polish migrants on the island. Within the next three years, the group had doubled in size and exceeded 10,000 people. The vast majority of our interviewees went to Iceland during this period and have been living on the island ever

15 “Pierwszy raz usłyszałam o Islandii, jak siostra przyjechała do mnie. Powiedziała, że wyjeżdża tutaj do pracy. To było dla mnie troszeczkę takie zaskoczenie, bo wtedy w Polsce były takie różne wycieki, że właśnie zabierają Polki do różnych mafii i [za- bierają] paszporty i tak dalej […]. Dla mnie był to szok. Mówię: gdzie ty jedziesz? Na koniec świata! Jaki z tobą będzie kontakt? Po przyjeździe jej [siostry] tutaj przyje- chałam, bilet miałam kupiony na grudzień, ale szef ze względu na to, że są święta, a myśmy, nas było 5, że nas było 5, przyjechało Polek, i każda miała z nas dzieci, więc zostawił nas na święta w Polsce. Przyjechaliśmy tutaj 7 stycznia, akurat na Trzech Króli, rok [19]97”. Interview with Beata Grochowska, 22.08.2015 r. (recorded by M. Szajda). The experience of migration of Poles in Iceland

since. Most of them were young people who were able to find a better job, 221 not necessarily in fish processing, but also, after a few years of learning the Icelandic language, in their profession. Today, we can see in that group the beginnings of a process of assimilation and, in many cases also, accultura- tion. Children who were born to migrant families are already raised both in the Polish and Icelandic traditions. A crucial period in the process of migration to the island was the economic crisis, which began in 2008. When the economy collapsed, not only the number of migrants from abroad fell down, but also the emigration of natives from Iceland was quite noticeable. Many Poles did not take the risk of staying in Iceland16. A good example of a return to the homeland is the situation of Anna Wojdałowicz, who at this time returned to Poland17. This experience confirmed to her that it is worth doing it once again and to return to the island. Her re-migration coincided with the end of the crisis. That certainly had an impact on staying in Iceland. Currently post-crisis migrations are creating the fourth period, which appear to be on a solid, stable and increasing level. There is not as dynamic growth of Polish citizens as there was after 2006, but number of arrivals is still rising, and the incoming groups are still relatively young. Notably, the Poles currently residing in Iceland do not form a unified society that could be called a Polish community. In fact, each of the above groups is of separate migrations assigned to particular periods and created their own organizations, for example: the Association of Polish-Icelandic Friendship, Project Poland, etc. Only a few of them are working together to integrate immigrants. Also, the Catholic ministry, which in many countries plays an important role, isn’t a strong centre gathering Poles together in Iceland. One of the reasons for this phenomenon is certainly the large distances between the towns and villages in which they work, and weather conditions that make it difficult to travel, especially in winter. Moreover, the fact that lots of jobs are seasonal and employees return regularly to their native countries does not support strong social relations in a group.

16 M. Budyta-Buczyńska, Strategie adaptacyjne Polaków w czasie islandzkiego kryzysu finansowego 2008–2010, “Center of Migration Research Working Papers”, 66/124 (2013), p. 12. 17 Interview with Anna Wojdałowicz, 23.08.2015 r. (recorded by H. Gospodarczyk). Hanna Gospodarczyk, Robert Rydzewski, Marek Szajda, Karolina Żłobecka

222 Landing on the Moon – first impressions from Iceland In the eyes of Poles the very first moments in Iceland are very diverse. The perception of the natives and environment depends on the kind of emigration wave, period of arrival and pre-departure knowledge about the hosting country. Nevertheless, some preliminary remarks can be drawn for our informants. The first wave of Polish emigrants in the 1980s knew very little about Iceland. Those who knew something about the country were people who dealt with international trade and who had the chance to travel abroad or had friends in Iceland. Some of the few places in Poland where one could get information about the world beyond the Iron Curtain were shipyards and harbors in Poland. Witold Bogdański, a worker at the port of Gdynia in communist times, rally co-driver and later an activist fighting for the rights of the Polish minority in Iceland, got his first Icelandic newspaper from a foreign sailor. From it he found out that Iceland has very low population density and lives on fishing. Others, who had not have contact with foreigners knew no more than it was spread in common knowledge in that time in Poland about Iceland, that is to say: Gorbachov and Reagan meeting in Reykjavík in October 11, 1986. Thus, the very first moments in Iceland were shocking for all newcomers. It is worth mentioning that especially for the first wave of Polish emigration it was often their first travel outside the Warsaw Pact countries. In the narratives of Poles we have heard that they had a feeling that they landed on the Moon. Alina Dubik, who arrived in 1989, said: I was shocked. Now when go from Keflavík to Reykjavík you can see something. Those times, when I arrived, the airport was far from being pretty, but beside this I was shocked that there was no trees, it was March, full of snow, from time to time behind the snow stuck out a crater, you know, some bulges on the ground. I had a feeling that we had landed on the Moon. […] When we landed I said: oh no, we should go back home18.

18 “Ja byłam w szoku. Teraz jak pan jedzie z Keflavíku do Reykjavíku, to teraz coś widać, a jak ja przyleciałam, to mało tego, że port lotniczy nie był zachwycający, to szokiem dla mnie był brak drzew, to był marzec, pełno śniegu, gdzieś spod tego śniegu wy- stawały jakieś kratery, wie pan, jakieś nierówności. Ja miałam wrażenie, że wylądo- wałam na księżycu. […] Po prostu, jak już tutaj wylądowałem, to pomyślałam, no nie, chyba trzeba wracać”. Interview with A. Dubik. The experience of migration of Poles in Iceland

The austere and volcanic landscape, wind and low temperature present 223 even during summer – all those elements stand out in interviews with emigrants. Nevertheless, the harsh climate seems not to be any obstacle for those who want to settle down in Iceland. All waves of Polish migrants were positively surprised with the welfare system and the high absorbency of the labour market, particularly before the financial crisis in 2008. Many Poles were expecting long days or even weeks looking for job. This caused misunderstandings. Emigrants keeping in mind that Iceland is an expensive country brought food supplies with them from Poland. Border police, who come across tea and coffee in the baggage, were confused. There were asking about every single product, as recounts one of emigrants. Therefore, newly arrived Poles felt offended and Icelandic officers were suspicious. A few hours later newcomers noticed that all those supplies were senseless because workers who were invited to work received at the beginning free of charge accommodation, and an advance of a few thousands Icelandic krona in order to cover basic needs. Others, who were not invited to work and had to look for a job after arrival found one within a few hours or days. Trying to describe the perception of the host society we will recall statements of Poles about Icelanders, however considering the sample was limited, we do not lay claim any deeper analysis. Many Poles do not keep in touch with Icelanders outside work. There appears to be a clear distinction between professional and private life. In their free time each group enjoys time with the closest family, in case of Icelanders or with friends, in case of Poles. Poles and Icelanders rather do not mingle. However these who live longer on the island say that Icelanders just need more time to build a friendship. “Once you get to know them better, you will be friends for- ever” – as some of interviewees told us. Although, there were rarely complains about discriminatory statements and practices against immigrants, many newcomers were surprised how helpful Icelanders were in their first days. Janusz Zacharek, who had arrived to Iceland with his children in 2006, recounts his first encounter with Icelanders: I came with children. Baggage on my back and nothing more, because I could not take anything more. So they [neighbours] have seen that I am with children. Literally after one day of my arrival they knocked the door Hanna Gospodarczyk, Robert Rydzewski, Marek Szajda, Karolina Żłobecka

224 […] and brought me tableware and a few the most important things [...] saying it is to start your new life with your family19. As we can see in the size of Polish population in Iceland neither the harsh climate, nor the closed, at first glimpse, Icelandic society discourages Poles to immigrate. One of the most important factors that incited Poles to come to the island was work which we will discuss in following subchapter.

Work as a pull factor Discussing different views on the work ethic and the meaning of work in individuals’ lives can help us, to some extent, understand cultural differences between Poles and Icelanders. Talking about the workplace and the economic situation with Poles in Iceland enabled our research team to sketch some preliminary thoughts on what it means to live and work in Iceland. Even though some tend to think about Iceland in terms of lone, remote island with its own mythological logic and customs, this country underwent rather typical economic changes. At the beginning of 1990s, Iceland implemented a programme of rapid privatization and liberalization of the economy. After joining the European Economic Area (EEA) in 1994, Iceland opened its market for foreign investment and labour force needed especially in the construction and fisheries sectors. The accession of Iceland to the EEA significantly changed the landscape of labour market in this country. Befo- re, workers moved seasonally within Icelandic regions to factories needing a bigger labour force. They were mostly Icelandic and lived in special housing provided by companies or factories. From the late 1990s, the influx of foreign workers to the construction and service sectors changed this pattern: new nationalities started to come to Iceland for work purposes. Firstly, it was the fishing industry that absorbed most of workers – by 1996, 70% of all new work permits granted to foreign workers in Iceland were issued to firms from this modern and industrialized sector20. The two

19 “Ja przyjechałem z dziećmi. Wiadomo, walizki na plecach i nic więcej, bo nic więcej nie mogłem ze sobą zabrać. Więc oni widzieli dzieci, że jestem z dziećmi. Dosłownie następnego dnia do drzwi pukają ludzie […] i przychodzą Islandczycy z kartonami na przykład, zastawa prawda tam, kilka talerzy różnych tam potrzebnych [...] żebym ja na początek mógł w jakiś sposób rodzinnie funkcjonować”. Interview with Janusz Zacharek, 24.08.2015 r. (recorded by M. Szajda). 20 U. D. Skaptadóttir, A. Wojtyńska, Gender Migration from Poland to Iceland. Women’s Experiences, [in:] New Subjectivities: Negotiating Citizenship in the Context of Migra- tion and Diversity, ed. by D. Golańska, A. M. Różalska, Łódź 2008, p. 21. The experience of migration of Poles in Iceland

year adjustment period for newly accepted UE members which lasted from 225 2004 to 2006 only slowed down the influx of immigrants. When in 2006 a work permit was no longer needed from new-comers, a large number of Poles came to Iceland. In 2007 alone, the Polish diaspora on the island increased from 3,221 to 5,996. Overall, during the Icelandic economic boom in the years 2003 to 2008 overall employment increased by 14%21. What’s important, it is in this period that the foreigners started to work not only in a factories or construction sites, but also in service sector (such as retail, health care or public transport) and thus had more occasions to have everyday contact with the Icelanders. The crisis which hit Iceland in late 2008 led to many lay-offs especially in the construction sector. It forced Polish migrants to apply different survival strategies: some of them left Iceland for another Western country, some returned to Poland some stayed in Ice- land but changed their work specialization. For example, Ryszard22 who first came to Iceland as a construction worker, after the crisis changed his vocation and now works in a hotel. This trend is visible in the division of the labour market in 2010: most people are employed in cleaning (20%), hotel and restaurant work (16%), followed by manufacturing (16%) and the construction industry (16%).

Why Iceland? Poles who came to Iceland decided to leave their home country mainly in hope of receiving higher salaries than in their homeland or obtaining stable work in general. This motivation was cited by 61% of Poles in the study from 201023. In our interviews, we could observe how important for choosing Iceland as a place of immigration were familial and friendship ties. Our interviewees came to Iceland hoping that they would get a job and because they knew someone who had already worked there. As Anna Wojadłowicz presented it: So it started like that: my friend was here and one summer she came to Poland for holidays and asked if I wanted to come to Iceland for work. At

21 A. Wojtyńska, Polish workers in the capital area of Iceland, Rannsóknir í félagsvísin- dum XIII. Erindi flutt á ráðstefnu í október 2012, Reykjavík 2012. 22 Interview with Ryszard & Jadwiga Hukało, 20.08.2015 r. (recorded by H. Gospodar- czyk). 23 H. Þórarinsdóttir, A. Wojtyńska, Polonia Reykjavik 2010, MIRRA – Miðstöð Inn- flytjendaRannsókna ReykjavíkurAkademíunni, Reykjavík 2011. Hanna Gospodarczyk, Robert Rydzewski, Marek Szajda, Karolina Żłobecka

226 first I thought: Iceland, what a place – dark, gloomy, etc. and I hesitated a little. But then I was like: why not? I didn’t see any perspectives for me in Poland24. The lack of “perspectives” as she calls it, encouraged her to leave Po- land for Iceland. After almost a year in a small town she decided to stay in Iceland for good, this time with her little daughter. “nagrywanie pracy” (helping to get a job, arranging a job) by friends and kin meant that in the beginning networks existing in Poland reproduced themselves in Iceland. As Tomasz Chrapek describes it, the circle of friends from the university served as a point of reference while coming to Iceland: My friends stayed there and their social life flourished and they found the apartment and what’s interesting is a lot of people from our tourist club that year […] went to Iceland to visit, to work a little, knowing that there is a base in Akureyri, that they would find a job there25. However, with more and more Poles coming to Iceland each year, the regional identity ceased to constitute an important factor in social life of Polish immigrants, with more importance given to the circles of family and coworkers. Before the crisis in 2008/2009 the salaries were significantly higher than those in Poland and enabled Poles working in Iceland to support their families in the homeland. Marcin Cieśliński mentioned that financial conditions before the crisis were appealing and often helped Poles to maintain two households – in Poland and in Iceland: For sure, financial conditions attracted us. It was a huge difference in -sa laries: here and in Poland. When I started working here, in 2007–2008, I got

24 “To się zaczęło tak, że właśnie moja koleżanka była tutaj i któregoś lata przyjechała właśnie na wakacje do Polski i pytała się mnie, czy miałabym ochotę przyjechać do Islandii do pracy. W ogóle najpierw myślałam, że: Islandia, gdzie to w ogóle jest, dale- ko, zimno i w ogóle. I tak troszeczkę wahałam się, nie wiedziałam, czy jechać. Ale tak sobie pomyślałam, że raz kozie śmierć, spróbuję. Nie widziałam dużych perspektyw, co robić w Polsce później”. Interview with Anna Wojdałowicz. 25 “Później znajomi zostając tam, ich jakby życie społeczne tam rozkwitło oczywiście i znaleźli sobie mieszkanie i też, co ciekawe wiele osób z tego właśnie naszego tury- stycznego klubu w ciągu tego roku […] wyjechało na Islandię, żeby zobaczyć, żeby trochę popracować, jakby z wiedzą, że już jest tamta baza w Akureyri, że znajdzie się tam pracę itd.” Interview with Tomasz Chrapek. The experience of migration of Poles in Iceland

a few times more money for a few times less work. […] Here, cost of living is 227 very high but in comparison to Poland… people sent money to Poland, it was a lot of money26. However, the fact that especially before the crisis salaries were high, meant for some that one member of the family worked abroad and sent money to Poland, to children and spouse who stayed in the homeland. Some families of immigrants after some time decided to join their husbands or fathers, others split. Women joining their husbands in Iceland rarely just take care of children and household – they, immediately after arrival, enter the labour market. For instance, Danuta Radwańska27 came to Iceland following her husband who had come 8 months earlier. After her daughter was admitted to nursery, she started to work in a job arranged by her husband before she came. In the case of families without small children, the entrance to labour market was similarly quick for men and women alike. Especially in the pre-crisis times, getting a job could take less than an hour – as Tomasz Chrapek remembered it: We really found a job in an hour. It was unimaginable. The first place we went to was the Labour Office. During the meeting with the counselor she tried to find us a job, she was sending our applications to various companies. And during that meeting my phone called with an offer! It was like half an hour of job searching. So it went really fast28. According to quantitative research from 2010, the level of deskilling (wor- sening of one’s professional position and skills) among Polish immigrants

26 “Na pewno też kwestie finansowe [przyciągały]. To naprawdę była bardzo duża różnica w zarobkach tutaj i w Polsce. Ja zaczynając później pracę już tutaj, właśnie na przeło- mie 2007/2008 roku, no to zarobiłem kilka, kilkakrotnie więcej, robiąc kilkakrotnie mniej. […] Życie bardzo drogie tutaj, ale jednocześnie to przełożenie na polskie warunki... Jeżeli ludzie wysyłali pieniądze do Polski, to było bardzo dużo pieniędzy wtedy”. Interview with Marcin Cieśliński, 20.08.2015 r. (recorded by M. Szajda). 27 Interview with Danuta Radwańska, 24.08.2015 r. (recorded by H. Gospodarczyk). 28 “Pracę znaleźliśmy naprawdę w ciągu godziny. Nie wiem, jak to stwierdzić, bo to było aż niewyobrażalne. Poszliśmy do urzędu pracy, to było pierwsze miejsce, do któ- rego poszliśmy, skierowaliśmy się szukać pracy. I podczas rozmowy z urzędniczką […] ona na bieżąco próbowała znaleźć nam pracę, co polegało na tym, że przesyłała nasze aplikacje przez Internet do różnych firm. Co ciekawe podczas tej rozmowy z nią już zadzwonił mój telefon z ofertą, więc generalnie ciężko powiedzieć, to było naprawdę pół godziny szukania pracy, tak. Więc zaczęliśmy bardzo szybko pracę. Potoczyło się to bardzo szybko”. Interview with T. Chrapek. Hanna Gospodarczyk, Robert Rydzewski, Marek Szajda, Karolina Żłobecka

228 was very high: 75% women did not use their education in their work in Ice- land29. Among our interviewees we saw a different process: some of them got higher education, vocational training or gained new skills and climbed upwards on the professional ladder in Iceland. For instance Anna Wojdało- wicz, who started as an average production worker got promoted to a position of mediator between the Icelandic employer and Polish employees and works nowadays in the office. As she explains, in Iceland formal education is less important than skills and capacities: Here there is this attitude that if you are up to a job, if you know how to get things done and you do your job right, that’s fine – work and do it!30 Nevertheless, it should be underlined that Anna gained her position thanks to her good knowledge of the Icelandic language and the fact that she negotiated with her employer for the change of her position. After few years in a chicken processing assembly line she decided that for health reasons she needed a change and started to seek a new job – only then the employer offered her clerical work. Anna’s story shows the importance of the Icelandic language in fully participating in the Icelandic labour market and striving for a better paid position. Other interviewees who did not know Icelandic well continued to have low-skilled jobs such as cleaning or working in the food industry. However, even they noted big differences between their work experience in Poland and in Iceland, mainly because they had “dual frame of reference” – they compared working conditions in their homeland and abroad31. Putting the salaries and financial conditions aside, the Icelandic labour market was very absorbent: jobs were relatively easy to find and well-paid. Icelandic workers are mostly unionized and Polish employees tend to gain on collective bargaining. They had to learn what their labour rights are and how to use them, but in one case we heard of it helped getting paid by unreliable employer: Often immigrants, the others abuse them. They don’t know their rights, they don’t use their rights. Once I didn’t get my salary, nobody did. Eve- rybody whispered behind their backs, this and that. And I went to labour

29 A. Wojtyńska, Polish workers… 30 “Tu jest coś takiego, że jeżeli ty się nadajesz do tej pracy, że jeżeli masz coś w gło- wie i umiesz i robisz to dobrze – to pracuj, rób to!” Interview with Anna Wojdało- wicz. 31 See: A. Wojtyńska, Polish workers… The experience of migration of Poles in Iceland

union and got paid after two weeks. And then others did it. You have to 229 know your value, if you know who you are, it’s OK32. Poles compared themselves to Icelanders and contrasted their diligence and work effectiveness with the Icelandic laid-back attitude towards work. Ryszard, who worked before the economic crisis in construction, mentioned that during the construction boom, Icelanders wasted a lot of resources and felt no rush to finish their work quickly. As he joked about his first works experience on the island: During two months, we built 84 kilometers [of fence]. And when 7 Ice- landers stayed there – we went for three weeks to Poland, they built only one kilometer! [laughs] One kilometer that collapsed and we had to rebuild it!33 At the same time, most of Poles we spoke to in Iceland value the slower pace of work and life, the work-life balance in Icelandic society. Marcin Cieśliński even used the metaphor of “handbrake”: I have this impression that after I came here from Poland it was like somebody put a handbrake on me. My life slowed down here, it was… I didn’t know what to do with my time. And I think this is a reason why we are here. You don’t have this craziness you have in Poland. When we were in Poland… […] you had to [work] from dawn to dusk. And today, if we were in Poland, I wouldn’t be home by this time. And here, I finish work at four, I have time for my children, I can play with them […]34.

32 “A właśnie z tym wykorzystywaniem, często emigranci sami dają się wykorzystywać. Raz, nie znając swoich praw, a dwa, nie wykorzystując swoich praw. Ja powiem taką sy- tuację, taki przykład, że pewnego razu nie dostałem wynagrodzenia i nikt nie dostał wynagrodzenia. Wszyscy mówili po cichu za plecami, że coś tam, coś tam. A ja poszedłem do związków zawodowych i za dwa tygodnie miałem to wynagrodzenie. No i później wszyscy zrobili tak samo i też dostali. Trzeba jakby znać swoją wartość, jeżeli człowiek zna swoją wartość, wie kim jest, to OK”. Interview with Marcin Cieśliński. 33 “My przez dwa miesiące zrobiliśmy 84 kilometry. A jak zostało siedmiu Islandczyków – bo byliśmy tylko trzy tygodnie w Polsce, zrobili zaledwie jeden kilometr [śmiech]! Który jeszcze się zawalił, musieliśmy go poprawiać!” Interview with R. & J. Hukało. 34 “W ogóle takie moje wrażenie, jak właśnie przyjechałem z Polski, to tak jakby mi koś włączył hamulec ręczny po prostu. Tu moje życie tak zwolniło, że to było… po prostu ja nie wiedziałem, co mam zrobić z czasem. I myślę, że to jest też powód, dla którego jesteśmy. Że nie ma takiego wariactwa, jak w Polsce. Jak byliśmy w Polsce... [...] trzeba było od rana do wieczora [pracować]. I dzisiaj na przykład gdybyśmy byli w Polsce, to jeszcze nie byłbym w domu. A tutaj kończę pracę o czwartej, mam czas dla dzieci, mogę się z nimi pobawić”. Interview with Marcin Cieśliński. Hanna Gospodarczyk, Robert Rydzewski, Marek Szajda, Karolina Żłobecka

230 Especially those who did not succeed in Poland found in Iceland decent working and living conditions. Difficulties with integration, the tough climate and the longing for family left in Poland notwithstanding, relatively good working conditions encouraged Poles to stay in Iceland. Concluding our preliminary remarks on Poles working in Iceland, the quote from one of our interviewees, Marek Cichocki, tells us a lot about the reasons why some Polish immigrants stay in Iceland longer than just for summer job and plan their future there: I liked here that an employee is an employee here. I would be surprised if somebody didn’t receive his salary here or something. I was hit by this melancholic calm that is not to be found in other Scandinavian countries. You can work, you can melt in this society35.

Conclusion The oral history method which enabled our Polish informants to present their shortened life biography and, more importantly, their experiences of immigration to Iceland turned out to be very productive in grasping different feelings about living in Iceland. We can conclude that the experience of working, living, raising children and getting to know Icelandic culture in most cases changed the ways in which Poles define and talk about society, family, justice and landscape. For some of them, Poland remains their homeland that they would like to come back to eventually (for example for retirement); others plan to stay in Iceland or to move to another country. We hope that oral history interviews collected during the research project “Poles in Iceland” will serve also to other scholars in their analysis of different immigration patterns and experiences or in constructing their research agenda. What we could notice, is that in the former waves of Polish migration to Iceland the pull factors, that is lack of job opportunities, unemployment, the difficult economic situation in Poland played a great role. Later, in the recent wave of migration, also pull factors started to emerge – for example, some knowledge about Iceland, previous touristic visits there, opinions of friends and family. Emigration to Iceland was only

35 “Spodobało mi się to, że pracownik jest pracownikiem. To znaczy, że tutaj zdziwił- bym się, gdyby ktoś komuś nie chciał zapłacić za nadgodziny albo coś. […]. Uderzał mnie ten melancholijny spokój, którego chyba nie ma w innych państwach skandynawskich. Można pracować, można się rozpłynąć w tym społeczeństwie”. Interview with Marek Cichocki, 21.08.2015 r. (recorded by H. Gospodarczyk). The experience of migration of Poles in Iceland

a part of the recent changes in the Polish presence abroad. Iceland can con- 231 stitute a very attractive country for Polish skilled and unskilled employees and we can assume that Poles will remain a significant minority in Iceland. More research, focused on the developments of the Polish community and its internal dynamics on the island, mixed marriages and the raising of children in a different cultural context or ethnic niches could deepen the knowledge on the impact of migration on individuals and communities.

Michal Šmíd

[Praga]

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Memory of Nations narrates the Stories of the 20th Century

Wrocławski Rocznik Historii Mówionej Rocznik VI, 2016 ISSN 2084–0578

Four people received the Memory of Nations Awards at the Prague State Opera House on 17 November, the day when we in the Czech Republic celebrate the Struggle for Freedom and Democracy Day. For six years Post Bellum, a Czech non-profit organisation, along with its partners have been bestowing the Awards on witnesses who bring their testimonies to the general public with our help and who have proven with their very lives that integrity, courage and human dignity are not empty words. Las year we commemorated the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II, so our nominations focused on people who experienced the war firsthand. Even- tually, the Awards were bestowed on Mrs Anna Hyndráková1 who survived Auschwitz while all her relatives perished in gas chambers; Mr Viktor

1 See Anna Hyndráková’s testimony at the Memory of Nations portal: http://www. pametnaroda.cz/witness/index/id/95?locale=en_GB (accessed December 1, 2015), together with numerous additional sources like photos. Michal Šmíd

234 Wellemín2 who fought in the Middle East and on the Western Front as a member of the international Czechoslovak army; Mrs Lýdia Kovářová3 who, aged sixteen, concealed guerrillas from Nazi soldiers; and Branislav Tvarožek4 who was an active participant in the Slovak National Uprising. More witnesses, including Award winners from the previous years, were present in the audience. Discussing the evening, we realised that this may have been one of the last opportunities where we could encounter so many direct witnesses of the war in one place. That was one of the moments when the purpose of our work – capturing the authentic recollections of people who may not be with us in a matter of months or years – stands out more acutely than ever. We try to capture not only their account of the historical events that we have read about in history textbooks, but also their motivations, trying to get to know them and understand how and why they did what they did at a certain point in time, and to map their life experience.

Post Bellum and Memory of Nations One could say that it was the frustration of radio reporters5 that spurred the formation of Post Bellum fifteen years ago. They often found themselves filling the brief of newsroom editors who needed to “bolster” news programmes with coverage of the approaching anniversary of the end of the war. In situations such as this, a reporter may be sent to an official -re membrance event with the following task: “Go there, find a war veteran and record them.” The reporter then approaches a veteran, the veteran is glad to talk and delivers a thirty-minute narration on the spot. The reporter edits this into a five-minute sequence, yet eventually just fifteen seconds are -ac tually aired. That was when the “Founding Fathers” of Post Bellum said: “We capture unique testimonies which, however, are eventually useless.

2 See Viktor Wellemín’s testimony: http://www.pametnaroda.cz/witness/index/id/653 (accessed December 1, 2015). 3 See Lýdia Kovářová’s testimony: http://www.pametnaroda.cz/witness/index/id/3731 (accessed December 1, 2015). 4 See Branislav Tvarožek’s testimony: http://www.pametnaroda.cz/witness/index/ id/5203/#en_5203 (accessed December 1, 2015). 5 For example Mikuláš Kroupa, who was formerly a reporter of Czech Radio and the Czech department of BBC World Service. About the very beginning of the whole project, see http://archiv.postbellum.cz/cz/o-nas/o-nas.aspx (older version of current webpages which are being under construction, accessed December 1, 2015). Memory of Nations narrates the Stories of the 20th Century

What if we documented witnesses more thoroughly and systematically?”6 235 So a team of enthusiasts formed from young journalists, students and historians, who started seeking out and recording the memories of war veterans. Since these documenters often worked with the Czech Radio, a public broadcaster, they were allowed to use radio equipment and archive data- intensive recordings there. The next step in the collaboration was Stories of the 20th Century – a documentary series broadcasted by the Czech Ra- dio every week since 20067. These are original radio documentaries based primarily on the recordings made by the Post Bellum reporters. The radio show has become hugely popular8 and has been one of the most frequently downloaded shows in the Czech Radio audio archive for a long time9. In 2008 Post Bellum made an agreement with the Czech Radio10 and the newly established Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes11 on setting up an online archive – the Memory of Nations web portal (www. memoryofnations.eu). Post Bellum is the chief project coordinator and has contributed its entire archive, which at the time included hundreds of audio recordings of witnesses’ recollections. The Czech Radio provides a powerful server and technical facilities. The Institute is the chief project editor and the sponsor of international collaboration. Each of the above entities undertook to assign at least one full-time position to the shared project,

6 The inspiration and intentions were expressed e.g. at one of the first media articles about the newly born documentary project, see: http://zpravy.idnes.cz/v-unikatnim- -archivu-je-i-hlas-prokuratora-vase-fqm-/domaci.aspx?c=A060914_192529_doma- ci_rb (accessed December 1, 2015). 7 Up to 50 minutes-long radio documentary, broadcasted weekly and to be found at the archive of the Czech Radio online at http://www.rozhlas.cz/plus/pribehy/ (accessed December 1, 2015). 8 The Stories of the 20th Century radio broadcasting format was later on transformed also into a written form, published weekly at the www.idnes.cz news portal, see: http://zpravy.idnes.cz/pribehy-20-stoleti-0zx-/domaci.aspx?klic=64153 (accessed December 1, 2015). Since 2015, the Stories are being published at the news portal Echo24, see: http://echo24.cz/s/pribehy-20-stoleti (accessed December 1, 2015). 9 This information was provided upon internal analysis of the Czech Radio, i.e. it is not publicly available. 10 The only public radio station in the Czech Republic. 11 About the Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes, an institution based on the law 181/2007 of the legal code of the Czech Republic, see https://portal.gov.cz/ app/zakony/zakonPar.jsp?idBiblio=64947&nr=181~2F2007&rpp=15#local-content (accessed December 1, 2015). Michal Šmíd

236 which gave rise to the workgroup that has been at the helm of the Memory of Nation project now into its seventh year. The brunt of the organisational work and project financing has been with Post Bellum since the beginning; as a non-profit organisation it depends on subsidies and donations. The involvement of state and/or public institutions assures the stability for the project. The current operating model of the team leading Memory of Nation has proven a good example of long-term collaboration between the state and the non-profit sector12. The Memory of Nation archive allows Internet users to learn about hundreds of witnesses’ stories in a text form (containing a short biography and a larger article referred to as the witness’s story), with samples of the recording in the form of audio or video clips, photographs and, as the case may be, links to other publicly accessible resources. Users can also register as e-researchers. They complete a researcher form (similar to the registration in “brick-and-mortar” archives) and then they can study full unedited recordings, accompanied by transcriptions to facilitate navigation in the recordings (often quite long), as well as other material (personal documents, photographs etc.). Researchers can also comment on the various witness portrayals and debate with other researchers. The access to any material is provided only with the consent of the witness and/or the administrator of the recordings13. In addition to the standard full-text search and search by the witness’s name features, the Memory of Nation portal currently also enables navigation by related witness topics and categories, or epochs and anniversaries. Every witness should be linked to a certain category and also to a specific event of restricted duration. This allows for singling out individuals or dozens of individuals out of hundreds, based on their recollections related to a specific phenomenon or event.

12 See: http://archiv.postbellum.cz/en/annual-reports/annual-reports.aspx (accessed De- cember 1, 2015). 13 See the form of such consent: http://www.memoryofnations.eu/page/index/title/ downloads (accessed December 1, 2015). Memory of Nations narrates the Stories of the 20th Century

237 Current statistics for Memory of Nations (figures as of 25 November 2015)14

Category Amount Year-on-year increase

Witnesses in the database 5,493 818 Witness testimonies 511 published 2,651 (newly published witnesses) 8,033 Photographs in the database 33,073 (or 25 new photographs a day) Clips in the database (audio 1,858 and video) 15,023 (or six new clips a day) 522 Registered researchers 4,932 new researchers for 2015

Number of visitors to the Memory of Nations portal in 201415

Visits 224,109

Page views 888,742

Pages per visit 3.97

Average duration of a visit 00:03:12

Share of new visits 63.58%

14 15 International cooperation Since its inception, the goals of Memory of Nations included – aside from archiving the testimonies and making them accessible – to inspire and invite cooperation with similar organisations from Czech and abroad16. The Office of the Government of the Czech Republic provided support to the development of the portal in several language versions17 and to the organisation of

14 See: http://archiv.postbellum.cz/cz/vyrocni-zpravy/vyrocni-zpravy-post-bellum.aspx (accessed November 25, 2015). 15 Ibidem. 16 See the list of cooperating organizations: http://www.memoryofnations.eu/page/index/title/project-partners (accessed November 25, 2015). 17 The number of language versions depends on the current grant project including foreign partners, which means that up to date of publishing this article, there were records in 13 languages, including e.g. Georgia or Armenian. Michal Šmíd

238 the first symposium shortly after the launch of the Memory of Nations portal in November 200818. We offered Memory of Nations to our European partners as a platform where other institutions and projects can present the results of their work in the form of edited interviews with witnesses19. The system is set up so that the witness’s portrait is published in his or her native language, and the shortened biography and sample clip transcriptions are published in English. Also, every recording is linked to a specific documentary project20. Despite huge effort and the support of other institutions (such as the International Visegrad Fund), our ambition hit its limits. We realised that digitising and processing the Post Bellum collection of recordings, to which the database was tailored, is immensely demanding in terms of time and human resources. Still, since 2009, we have been able to successfully spread our know-how mainly in Central Europe and in the former Soviet Union countries (primarily in Ukraine and Georgia). At present, international cooperation works mostly on the basis of specific shared projects with secured funding, such as the Iron Curtain Stories21 – a project mapping the lives of people who lived “in the shadow of the Iron Curtain” that used to divide the post-war Europe. More recent projects include 1980 – a Turbulent Year in

18 See: http://www.ustrcr.cz/cs/prvni-badatelske-sympozium-internetoveho-portalu-pamet-naroda (accessed November 25, 2015). In September 2009 a second symposium took place in Prague, which resumed the newly gained experience with the running of the Memory of Nations portal. See: http://www.ustrcr.cz/cs/druhe-mezinarodni- -badatelske-sympozium-portalu-pamet-naroda (accessed November 25, 2015). 19 All of the Memory of Nations partners are following the technological methodology of unification of archive’s outputs, which is accessible online at http://www.memoryofnations.eu/data/page/File/PN_metodEN_200x150.pdf (accessed November 25, 2015). 20 See the list of 48 running or finished projects: http://www.memoryofnations.eu/project (accessed November 25, 2015). 21 The project “Iron Curtain Stories” was realized by six European institutions on the field of oral history or documentary work with testimonies. The total of 101 recorded witnesses formed the first part at the Memory of Nations portal, see: http://www. memoryofnations.eu/project/detail/id/41 (accessed November 25, 2015), and second at the webpage on smartphones application dealing with places of memory, i.e. connecting a specific testimony with an exact GPS location, forming together a route through those places, see: http://www.ironcurtainstories.eu/ (accessed November 25, 2015). Project was supported by the European Commission as a part of the Europe for Citizens Programme. Memory of Nations narrates the Stories of the 20th Century

Poland and the Czechoslovak Reaction22, organised last year in a coope- 239 ration with Polish Ośrodek “Pamięć i Przyszłość” with the support from the Czech-Polish Forum.

“Heroes” vs. “normal people” Despite the quite extensive list of activities of the partners who contribute to Memory of Nations, more than 2/3 of the portal’s content is the work of Post Bellum. As I mentioned, the reporters initially focused mainly on war veterans, but over time they included other groups of witnesses – Holocaust survivors, resistance members and political prisoners, both from the Nazi and the communist eras. But Post Bellum wanted to hear the voice not just from the victims of the totalitarianism of the 20th century, but also from the people who were part of the ruling or reprisal system23. Finding such a witness who is willing to speak openly is much more difficult, but we succeeded in recording a few, among others the former communist state attorney Karel Vaš24 who was responsible for some of the capital punishments in the 1950s and until his death remained convinced that he had done the right thing. Some might suggest that we are only interested in “heroic” lives and disregard “normal people’s” stories. We believe this is not the case25. The

22 See: http://www.memoryofnations.eu/project/detail/id/58 (accessed November 25, 2015). 23 E.g. the testimonies of the Communist Secret Police interrogators, see: http://www. memoryofnations.eu/category/detail/id/25 (accessed November 25, 2015). 24 The testimony of Karel Vaš, see: http://www.memoryofnations.eu/witness/index/ id/200/#en_200 (accessed November 25, 2015); M. Kroupa, Tichý obyvatel domova dů- chodců (A silent inhabitant of a retirement house), “Lidové noviny” from November 15, 2007, http://www.lidovky.cz/tichy-obyvatel-domova-duchodcu-dmv-/zpravy-domov. aspx?c=A071115_125852_ln_bezpravi_hel (accessed November 25, 2015). See also the chapter of the radio documentary Stories of the 20th Century, based on Vaš’s testimony, http://prehravac.rozhlas.cz/audio/2790083 (accessed November 25, 2015). 25 A highly interesting speech on this topic offered the director of Post Bellum, Mr Mi- kuláš Kroupa, at the Czech local variant of TED project (TEDxPrague) on 3 March 2012, see: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4n5Wpaeiry0 (accessed November 25, 2015). Kroupa quoted the story of Pavel Macháček, who ended up at concentration camp due to a complicated combination of events, in which the main role played his friend František Listopad, see the testimony of P. Macháček: http://www.memoryofnations.eu/witness/ index/id/224/#en_224 (accessed November 25, 2015). There’s a chapter in a documentary comic book Ještě jsme ve válce (We’re Still at War, the English translation is being prepared for publishing), based on his story, published in 2011, see: http://jestejsmevevalce.cz/ (accessed November 25, 2015). Michal Šmíd

240 hundreds of witnesses told us dramatic and often incredible stories of resistance members and war veterans alongside the stories of people whose lives were swept away by history when they lost their farms in the collectivisation, were forced to relocate, or accidentally witnessed a gunfight at the end of the war. We always want to know the witnesses’ full story: about their childhood, youth, and everything what formed their life and how the experiences like World War II were reflected in their lives. This is also why we try to meet with every witness at least twice26. Some time ago, there were lengthy debates on who “belongs” and who “does not” to the Memory of Nations27. Eventually we settled that we are interested in the narrations that transcend strictly private confines and reflect history in one way or another – whether this involves a conscious act on the part of the narrator, being a victim (or even an agent) of the ruling power’s arbitrariness, or being a passive witness to an event, albeit one who takes an attitude towards it. We adopted a statement of Daniel Kroupa, that the “human life has several dimensions within which we live – and some of those dimensions are historical, while others are unhistorical, so to speak. The unhistorical dimensions are those where we focus on satisfying our needs [...]. Such “unhistorical” life is cyclical. [...] You cannot write a story about such a life – there is nothing to write about.

26 The Memory of Nations’ approach to the oral history method was by historian Da- vid Weber in The narrated Memory of Nation[s], or what is the oral history method, see: http://www.memoryofnations.eu/page/index/title/oral-history-method (accessed November 25, 2015). Post Bellum, however, doesn’t follow explicitly the oral history rules established in the Czech context e.g. by M. Vaněk, P. Mücke, H. Pelikánová, Na- slouchat hlasům paměti: Teoretické a praktické aspekty orální historie, Prague 2007; or M. Vaněk [et al.], Orální historie. Metodické a „technické“ postupy. Univerzita Pa- lackého v Olomouci, Olomouc 2003. Post Bellum established its focus more likely as a “documentary journalism”, while the “method” itself is being created at the exact moment of the interview with the witness, rising from his/her ability of narration or specific life experience. Each of the interviews is being held on different levels – both of the “history segment”, i.e. focused on facts and connotations, as the “psychological segment”, i.e. an attempt of the interviewer to lead the witness into open expression of his or her motivations and feelings, both negative as positive. This way, Memory of Nations provides a wide mosaic of historical explanations by individuals. 27 Those debates were held mainly at the meeting of the members of the Memory of Nations Collegium, a community of philosophers, university teachers and scholars, historians, documentarists and journalists (the full list of participants see http:// kolegium.pametnaroda.cz/, accessed November 25, 2015). Memory of Nations narrates the Stories of the 20th Century

[...] History begins when you transcend this limited framework you are 241 closed in, when you step out of these confines that keep you immune to all of the unpleasant things that may bother you. Sometimes you step out voluntarily; sometimes someone may help you to. Only then does something happen that a story can be told about.” 28

We try to retell the stories Aside from making audio recordings of interviews with witnesses to history and storing them inthe Memory of Nations’ base, over the last two years Post Bellum has been developing further documentary activities, like shooting video interviews using the EyeDirect technique29. Two HD cameras are used for the shoot in a soundproof mobile studio (using suspended screens, acoustic panels, and sound and light systems). The mirror device shows the interviewer’s face to the witness, so the witness does not feel the discomfort of having to look into the camera lens. The big task in the next months is to reconstruct the Memory of Nation database so as to allow for presenting the data-intensive video recordings to the same extent as audio files. The project titledStories of our Neighbours30 has yielded a considerable amount of interviews with witnesses in recent months. It is intended primarily for the students of the second stage of primary schools and has taken place in dozens of Czech towns. Working with a teacher and a trained Post Bellum instructor, student teams seek out witnesses in their neighbourhoods and record their stories. In doing so, children aged 13–15 learn to use recording equipment and work with archive documents. In addition to teaching modern history “in a different and more fun way”, the goal of the project is to make space for civic education, to inspire teachers to use witnesses’ testimonies for teaching, to give schools technological

28 A lecture of D. Kroupa given at the Post Bellum‘s office on 24 April 2014; transcription available in the archive of the Memory of Nations. 29 This technique was invented by the documentarist Errol Morris and applied e.g. on his documentary The Fog of War, see: http://www.errolmorris.com/content/eyecon- tact/interrotron.html (accessed November 25, 2015). A deeper explanation of the technique’s use at Memory of Nations, see: The Annual Report for 2014, http://archiv.postbellum.cz/en/annual-reports/annual-reports.aspx (accessed November 25, 2015), p. 13–14. 30 See: http://www.pribehynasichsousedu.cz/pp/novinky/ (accessed November 25, 2015). Michal Šmíd

242 know-how, create an environment for students to discuss the essence of totalitarian regimes, instruct the participants about resources broader than history textbooks, and facilitate contact between teenagers and the elderly who often suffer from loneliness and isolation from the modern society. Let me briefly introduce some other activities of Memory of Nations through which we want to bring the stories and the topic of memoir culture to the general public. We have completed several exhibition projects in the public space. The biggest success was the Heydrich 7031 exhibit on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the assassination of Reichsprotektor Rein- hard Heydrich. We built a structure evocative of a Nazi concentration camp on Karlovo Square in Prague and used it as a venue to show 70 stories of the protagonists of the period’s events. An estimated 45,000 visitors saw the exhibit within five weeks32. Our most successful publication is titled We’re Still at War33 – a set of 13 original documentary comic stories based on the recollections accessible on the Memory of Nation portal. In 2003 we developed the Memory of Nations mobile app34 enabling smart phone and tablet users to learn about hundreds of stories set in specific locations. Based on the stories and locations used in the application, we created the Memory of Nation Sites35 publication – a guide instructing readers on the places associated with World War II history in all Czech regions. As mentioned before, we have been bestowing the Memory of Nations Awards on the witnesses whose stories appeal to us and inspire us. This is our way of saying thank you to people who brought their stories to the general public with our assistance. There is also the Memory of Nations Club of Friends36. It brings together hundreds of people who support our work – the Club of Friends is a broad community of people with acute interest in our past. We regularly organise

31 See: http://heydrich70.pametnaroda.cz/ (accessed November 25, 2015), https://www. youtube.com/watch?v=U73UF6d5BFA (accessed November 25, 2015). 32 The exhibition was open to public from May 27 to June 30, 2012. 33 See: www.jestejsmevevalce.cz (accessed November 25, 2015). 34 To be found online, also with possibility of downloading into any smart-device at www.mistapametinaroda.cz. 35 Místa Paměti národa [Memory of Nations Sites], ed. by P. Nosálek, Prague 2015. 36 Currently, the Memory of Nations Club of Friends consists of almost 900 members, and the number is increasing steadily every week. Its members meet regularly during expeditions around the Czech Republic, organized by Post Bellum approximately every three months. Memory of Nations narrates the Stories of the 20th Century

discussions, tours and trips to memorable sites for Club members. These re- 243 gular meetings give us valuable feedback which we use in our work. In conclusion, let me quote philosopher Daniel Kroupa once again, as I believe his words capture the essence of our work: “If there are to be people in our society who will do more than just look on the current developments, who will use their heads to think and rate the options, and then act based on such options, then those people need to see the stories of people who acted this way in the past – in the times when others cared about se- curing their little lives and privacy. For example, take the people who fled to England via Poland or to the Soviet Union back in 1939 when the Nazis occupied our country and made it their Protectorate, because they wanted to fight the Nazi regime. It can also be the stories of people who refused to have their farms collectivised somewhere in the country, and it can also be the stories of young people who wanted to pursue, say, independent theatre careers in the 1970s and 1980s while the regime was trying to discourage them and yet they endured. This is why I believe that those individual stories are testimonies to the meaning of human life.” Autorzy

244 AUTORZY / AUTHORS

Unnur María Bergsveinsdóttir – is an Icelandic historian. She has worked with oral history both as a researcher and as a project manager for the Icelandic Centre for Oral History from 2007–2009. She is now focused on an oral history project that chronicles the origin of Icelandic punk culture in the early 1980s.

Katarzyna Bock-Matuszyk – historian; doctor of humanities, graduate of the Historical Institute at the University of Wrocław, coordinator of research projects of the „Remembrance and Future” Centre (Wrocław), member of the Polish Oral History Association. [email protected]

Hanna Gospodarczyk – graduated from the Institute of Ethnology and Cul- tural Anthropology (University of Warsaw) and from Chair of Arabic and Islamic Studies (University of Warsaw). PhD-student at University of Warsaw, Artes Liberales Department and Historical Department. She conducted research in Lithuania and Poland and was granted with scholarships in Copenhagen (Denmark) and Tunis (Tunisia). [email protected] Autorzy

245 Marcin Jarząbek – historian and sociologist; assistant professor in the Institu- te of History at Jagiellonian University in Krakow. Studied in Jagiellonian University and in Central European University in Budapest. Doctoral dissertation (defended in 2014) was dedicated to the collective memory of the First World War veterans in interwar Poland and Czechoslovakia. Mem- ber of the Board of the Polish Oral History Association. [email protected]

María Smáradóttir Jóhönnudóttir – born in 1971, in Reykjavík, Iceland. She is a practical nurs and works for a long time in that field, in 2011 she started her history studies in University of Iceland, and finnish the B.A. in 2014, dealing wit the subject of immigrants to Iceland.

Michał Kierzkowski – historian; in 2010 he defended his PhD thesis entitled Oral history as a research method for history. Historical-methodological case study at the Institute of History of UAM in Poznań. Author of several scientific articles, co-editor of collaborative works. He published among others in “Kwartalnik Historyczny” (History Quarterly), “Historyka – studia metodologiczne” (Methodological studies of a historian) as well as in “Porównania” (Comparisons). Scholarship recipi- ent of the Kościuszko Foundation (2007–2008). His interests evolve around methodology of history, theory of memory and oral history with particular focus on Central Europe. [email protected]

Wiktoria Kudela-Świątek – took her M.A. degrees in history (2007) and in Russian philology (2010) from Jagiellonian University; in 2012 she defended her PhD dissertation, National- and Religion-motivated Perse- cution as Recollected by Poles in Kazakhstan. A Study of Oral History at Jagiellonian University’s. She benefited from scholarships granted by the Polish government (2001–2007) and by the Local Government of Vinnytsia in Ukraine (2009–2010), she was also a grantee of the Polish Ministry of Science and Higher Education’s scholarship at the Pushkin State Russian Language Institute in Moscow (2009–2010). She is a member of the International Oral History Association and Polish Oral Histo- Autorzy

246 ry Association. Author of three monographs, she has edited or co-edited several publications and written a number of articles in Polish, Russian and Ukrainian, dealing primarily with oral history, but also touching upon the subjects of memory (including the realms of memory and collective memory), the histories of Poles exiled to the East in the 19th and 20th centuries, the Holodomor, Soviet mass-deportations, every-day life in the Soviet Union and identity transformations in the former member states of the Communist Bloc. Her book on the history of the persecu- tion of the Poles deported to Kazakhstan during WWII, Odpamiętane… O historii mówionej na przykładzie narracji kazachstańskich Polaków o represjach na tle narodowościowym i religijnym (2013), was nominated for the 2014 Identitas Prize for the Best Book in the Humanities. [email protected]

Marta Kurkowska-Budzan – Assistant Professor at the Department of His- tory of Historiography and Methodology of History, the Institute of History at Jagiellonian University in Krakow. She has held postdoctoral fellowships at the US Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC (2002) and the Remarque Institute, New York University (2001). Her recent research concerns the cultural anthropology of sport and leisure in Poland 1945–1989 and projects in which she has been engaged for past two years include: “Little Township, 1945–1989” and “Lifestyles in Communist Poland”. A recently completed project on the symbolization of the past in contemporary public and private discourses resulted in the book Antykomunistyczne podziemie zbrojne na Białostocczyźnie. Analiza współczesnej symbolizacji przeszłości (Anti- communist armed underground in the Bialystok region. The analysis of contemporary symbolization of the past), 2009. She is also the author of Historia zwykłych ludzi. Współczesna angielska historiografia dziejów społecznych (History of the people. English social historiography), 2003, and co-author of the first Polish textbook on oral history: Historia mówiona. Elementarz (Oral History. The Primer), 2008, as well as co-editor of anthology Oral History. Challenges of Dialogue, 2009. She is a member of editorial boards of „Historical Anthropology Yearly, Status Quo. Anti-disciplinary Journal” and „Historyka. Studies in Methodology”. [email protected] Autorzy

Helga Ólafs – a journalist and PhD-student in media studies at the Univer- 247 sity of Iceland. She writes about media representation of immigrants in Iceland. Her master thesis was about the uses of Icelandic media among Polish migrants in Iceland.

Robert Rydzewski – is a cultural anthropologist and documentary radio- -maker in the Reportage and Documentary Studio at the Polish Na- tional Radio. Currently his is a PhD-student in Cultural Anthropology Program at Adam Mickiewcz University in Poznań. His scientific interest are transformation of post-Yugoslav cites in Republic of Macedonia and Polish contemporary migration. [email protected]

Ewa Sowińska – studied history at the University of Wrocław as well Eng- lish literature at the University of Bologna. Since 2014 she has been working in the “Remembrance and Future” Centre, coordinating research projects. [email protected]

Marek Szajda – PhD-student in history at the University of Wrocław. He is interested in jewish studies, history of Poland in 20th century and oral history. [email protected]

Michal Šmíd – editor of the www.memoryofnations.eu Internet portal in Prague, worked as a journalist and web editor. From 2001 employeed in the Office for Nazi Victims set up by the Czech–German Future Fund. Since 2008 working in the Publishing Section of the Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes of the Czech Republic and cooperating with the Post Bellum Foundation and Czech Radio on the internet portal that provides an online archive of witness testimonies, called Memory of Nations (Paměť národa in Czech). Autorzy

248 Joanna Wojdon – is an associate professor at the Institute of History, Uni- versity of Wrocław, Fulbright and Kościuszko Foundation alumna. She specializes in history education, public history and post-WWII Polish American history, is a board member of the International Society for History Didactics, of the Polish American Historical Assocation and of the Presidium of the Migration Studies Committee of the Polish Aca- demy of Sciences. Her monograph White and Red Umbrella. The Polish American Congress in the Cold War Era (1944–1988) has just been published by Helena History Press. [email protected]

Anna Wojtyńska – an anthropologist, graduate of ethnology at the Warsaw University, currently PhD-student at the Faculty of Anthropology at the University of Iceland. For the past few years she has conducted research on Polish migration to Iceland.

Karolina Żłobecka – is a PhD-student at the Institute of History at the Ja- giellonian University. Her research interests are oral history, memory studies and social history of communism. She took part in many projects based on oral history and biographical approach. She is president of the Polish Oral History Association. [email protected] Autorzy

WYKAZ SKRÓTÓW 249 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

AHM – Archiwum Historii Mówionej B.A. – Bachelor of Arts (ang. licencjat nauk humanistycznych) CA – Conversational Analysis (ang. Analiza Konwersacji) DP Act – Displaced Persons Act (ang. Ustawa dotycząca przesiedleńców) EEA – European Economic Area (ang. Europejski Obszar Gospodarczy) EOG – Europejski Obszar Gospodarczy GOPR – Górskie Ochotnicze Pogotowie Ratunkowe IT – Information Technology (ang. Technologia Informacyjna) JFK – John Fitzgerald Kennedy LGBT – Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender (ang. lesbijki, geje, osoby biseksualne, osoby transgenderyczne) NATO – North Atlantic Treaty Organization (ang. Organizacja Traktatu Północnoatlantyckiego) NDI – National Democratic Institute (ang. Narodowy Instytut Demokratyczny) NGO – Non-Governmental Organization (ang. organizacja pozarządowa) NSZZ „Solidarność”– Niezależny Samorządny Związek Zawodowy „Solidarność” OCD – Ordo Fratrum Carmelitarum Discalceatorum Beatae Mariae Virginis de Monte Carmelo (łac. karmelici bosi) PAC – Polish American Congress (ang. Kongres Polonii Amerykańskiej) PMA – Polish Museum of America (ang. Muzeum Polskie w Ameryce) TChrn – Towarzystwo Chrystusowe dla Polonii Zagranicznej (chrystusowcy) USA – United States of America (ang. Stany Zjednoczone Ameryki) WWI – First World War (ang. I Wojna Światowa) WWII – Second World War (ang. II Wojna Światowa) Spis treści

250 SPIS TREŚCI TABLE OF CONTENTS

ARTYKUŁY I STUDIA / ARTICLES AND STUDIES Marta Kurkowska-Budzan On the Fieldwork in Oral History Research • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 7

Marcin Jarząbek It is good to ask good questions – posing questions in oral history interview as a theoretical problem • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 21

Wiktoria Kudela-Świątek From private memory to the collective image of the Ukrainian Holodomor • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 33

Joanna Wojdon The Polish American narratives, memories and identities in the historian’s job • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 67

Michał Kierzkowski Oral history and historical education in Poland. Possibilities and application • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 81

Helga Ólafs, Anna Wojtyńska Icelandic chapter in the Polish book: a narrative perspective on Polish migration to Iceland • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 101

María Jóhönnudóttir Oral Tradition and Oral History in Iceland from Settlement to Present Day. Short survey • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 121 Spis treści

MATERIAŁY ŹRÓDŁOWE / SOURCE MATERIALS 251 Christine Przybyła-Long, “And she helped four thousand people become citizens of the United States” edited by Joanna Wojdon • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 133

s. Agnieszka, Klasztor wpisany w krajobraz wyspy opracowanie Marek Szajda • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 159

Indeks osób występujących w opublikowanych relacjach / Index of persons appearing in the published accounts • • • • • • • • • 190

Indeks nazw geograficznych występujących w opublikowanych relacjach / The index of geographical names appearing in the published accounts • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 192

KRONIKA NAUKOWA / SCIENTIFIC CHRONICLE Unnur María Bergsveinsdóttir The Icelandic Centre for Oral History: Collection, Preservation, Research, Growth • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 197

Katarzyna Bock-Matuszyk, Ewa Sowińska “Oral history – dziedzictwo kulturowe Polski i Islandii uchwycone w ludzkich słowach” • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 209

Hanna Gospodarczyk, Robert Rydzewski, Marek Szajda, Karolina Żłobecka The experience of migration of Poles in Iceland • • • • • • • • • • • • • 213

Michal Šmíd Memory of Nations narrates the Stories of the 20th Century • • • • • • 233

Autorzy / Authors • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 244

Wykaz skrótów / List of Abbreviations • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 249