The Color of Courage Wins Prestigious Benjamin Franklin Awards
2015/04/15
The cover of The Color of Courage - A Boy at War:
The World War II Diary of Julian Kulski
The Color of Courage – A Boy at War: The World War II Diary of Julian Kulski has won the Gold Award for Interior Design and the Silver Award for Autobiography/Memoir in the 2015 Benjamin Franklin Awards.
The winners were announced at a ceremony held in Austin, Texas, on 10th April 2015. Now in its 27th year, the Benjamin Franklin Awards, sponsored by the Independent Book Publishers Association (IBPA), is the premier awards competition in independent publishing, recognizing excellence in the field. There were nearly 1,400 entries this year.
In his foreword to this remarkable diary of a boy soldier during World War II, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Lech Walesa calls The Color of Courage “a superb lesson on humanity.” The Chief Rabbi of Poland, Rabbi Michael Schudrich, who wrote the introduction to the book, praises The Color of Courage as “an inspiring read.” Dr. Zbigniew Brzezinski of the Center for Strategic & International Studies says: “Compelling, readable, and very moving.”
We’re absolutely thrilled to learn that The Color of Courage has won the 2015 Benjamin Franklin Awards. It’s so exciting to be both a Gold and a Silver winner! We knew we had something special with this rare look at World War II through the eyes of a young boy soldier, and we took special care in creating the book. We’re gratified that the Ben Franklin judges agree with us! – said Aquila Polonica president Terry Tegnazian
Julian Kulski was a 10-year-old boy scout living in Warsaw when the Germans invaded Poland in 1939. His diary follows his wartime experience from age 10 to 16. He quickly begins his own personal war against the Germans with small acts of sabotage but soon, at age 12, is recruited into the Underground Army by his Scoutmaster, where he is trained in weapons handling and military tactics. Kulski undertakes a secret mission into the Warsaw Ghetto, is captured by the Gestapo, beaten, sentenced to Auschwitz, rescued, fights in a Commando unit during the vicious street fighting of the 1944 Warsaw Uprising, and ends as a 16-year-old German POW... finally risking a dash for freedom onto an American truck instead of waiting for “liberation” by the Soviets.
Kulski’s diary is enriched by more than 150 photos and illustrations, 13 maps, and 11 “Digital Extras,” which are short videos created by Aquila Polonica from historical film and audio material that bring Kulski’s story to life in an unprecedented way.
The book's interior design, typesetting and cover art are the work of talented Los Angeles designer Ewa Wojciak, Senior Lecturer of Fine Arts at the USC Roski School of Art and Design. Although this is her first book for Aquila Polonica, Wojciak has an extensive background as a designer and creative director primarily for the entertainment industry, with a client list that includes Disney, CBS, HBO, Sony, Universal Pictures and Fox, as well as in advertising agencies and print media. Winning the Gold Award for her design of The Color of Courage, Wojciak brings a fresh, contemporary look to this historical memoir, with pull quotes that draw the reader through the text, organic placement of images within the text, and an innovative use of thumbnail images and QR codes augmented by URLs to incorporate the multimedia Digital Extras into the print book.
Aquila Polonica is an award-winning independent publisher based in Los Angeles, specializing in publishing the Polish WWII experience in English. The company is a member of the Association of American Publishers (AAP) and the Independent Book Publishers Association (IBPA). Aquila Polonica’s titles are distributed to the trade in the U.S., Canada, U.K., Europe, Australia and New Zealand by National Book Network.
All of Aquila Polonica’s books to date have won one or more awards. Aquila Polonica titles have been reviewed in major media such as The New York Times, The Atlantic, The New Republic and Publishers Weekly; they have been chosen as Selections of the History Book Club, the Military Book Club and the Book-of-the-Month Club; audio rights have been acquired by Audible.com and Brilliance. Translation rights for various titles have been acquired by foreign publishers in a number of countries—including most recently Brazilian rights to The Color of Courage, which were acquired by Editora Valentina.
In Księgi Jakubowe / The Jacob’s Scriptures Tokarczuk took a new role: a pugnacious 21st – century’s prophetess, who reaches back to the history of the nation in order to properly shake it up, grill it and interpret it in her way.
The Jacob's Scriptures or a great journey through seven borders, five languages and three major religions, not counting the small ones ... is an insane book. Everything is insane here, starting from the size (900 pages), full title (consisting of several lines), pagination (‘from the end’, as a tribute to books written in Hebrew, and as a reminder that ‘every order is a matter of habit’). The very physical encounter with Scriptures (announced, long - awaited, and written over the period of six years, both confuses and throws off the ‘comfort zone’.
The story itself doesn’t make the reader comfortable either. Although one can discern a distant echo of Olga Tokarczuk’s previous books TheJourney of the Book – People and Primeval and Other Times, the territory through which she leads us this time seems much unpredictable. The story is set in 1752, the region of Podolia (part of Lesser Poland Province of the Polish Crown), a picturesque world, yet devoured by suffering and poverty, and full of dirty yards and ulcerated old women. A man named Jakub Lejbowicz Frank announces that he is the Messiah which marks the birth of heresy within Judaism that later will be called Frankism. His followers reject the law of Moses and the Talmud in favor of Kabbalah, they believe in the Trinity and the Virgin (sometimes identified with Virgin Mary), and they seal their beliefs by converting to Catholicism.
Outstanding writer and essayist and a devotee of Jung, Olga Tokarczuk is an authority on philosophy and arcane knowledge. She is a phenomenon of popularity - admired by both critics and readers.
Tokarczuk goes back to the moment in Polish history that has not been elaborated so far by any other author. Perhaps, this extraordinary story required equally exceptional narrator. It was her very anarcho – mystical approach that enabled to show Poland as a familiar (manors, bishops, shtetls) and unfamiliar place. A country whose religious tolerance and Catholic identity has been questioned.
The Frankist heresy was conceived in a multinational, mixed and diverse society. As a mystical, but also pragmatic movement it disregarded limitations of tradition, dogma and custom. In today’s discourse it could be defined in terms of a challenge to the stale identities and forms, as a prologue to anarchism and socialism. Moreover, the phenomenon described by Tokarczuk is very ambiguous, just as ambiguous is the figure of Jakub Frank, a mystic and a despot, revolutionary and strategist, quack and sage.
Perhaps it is no coincidence that the story of Frank captivated Tokarczuk this very moment. There is a sense of collective urge for self-determination in the air. Polish account about its past invites new interpretations and leaves room for the new, non-obvious narrative at the personal level as much as at the level of the entire population with its entangled Polish-Jewish heritage. Tokarczuk emphasizes in interviews that Jacob's Scriptures is her most ‘pro-social’ project, in which she leaves herself on the side, and writes about other people and for the people.
Jacob’s Scriptures is also pro - human book full of metaphysics. The search for answers to great questions (nature of evil, God’s interventions in human life) intertwine with poetic descriptions of details of everyday life. And although the story is set in 18th century and refers to seemingly esoteric and dark subject, it is nonetheless very important and very relevant today.
Poland owes some of its most impressive achievements in politics and civilization to Freemasonry – from the Four Years' Sejm and the Constitution of the 3rd of May, to...
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Magdalena Parys Wins the European Prize for Literature
2015/04/16
Magdalena Parys on the steps of Konzertause Berlin, Gendarmenmarkt, where the plot of one of her books takes place, 2014, photo: Łukasz Cynalewski / Agencja Gazeta
Magdalena Parys, a Gdańsk-born poet, writer and translator who lives in Berlin, is among the winners of the 2015 European Prize for Literature (EUPL). The list of laureates was announced on 14th April during the opening ceremony of the London Book Fair.
Magdalena Parys was born in Gdańsk, but has lived in West Berlin, where her mother emigrated, since 1984. She studied Polish philology and pedagogy at Humboldt University. She has published two novels: Tunel / Tunnel (2011) and Magik / Magician (2014), both related to German topics. Her second book, recently distinguished by the European Commission, is a story about a “Bulgarian trace” in the criminal activity of the Stasi, but first and foremost, it’s about Poles living in Berlin.
I am shocked and I have to pinch myself to see if it's true. This award opens my way to France, Germany and England. – said the author on Radio Gdańsk.
The aim of the European Prize for Literature is to put the spotlight on the diverse creativity and wealth of Europe’s contemporary literature to promote its circulation within Europe and encourage greater interest in non-national literary works. This year’s twelve laureates are:
Karolina Schutti (Austria)
Luka Bekavac (Croatia)
Gaëlle Josse (France)
Donal Ryan (Ireland)
Rusałka Radzevičiūtė (Lithuania)
Ida Hegazi Høyer (Norway)
Magdalena Parys (Poland)
David Machado (Portugal)
Svetlana Žuchová (Slovakia)
Sara Stridsberg (Sweden)
Edina Szvoren (Hungary)
Lorenzo Amurri (Italy)
My warmest congratulations to the winners of the European Union Prize for Literature! This unique prize is the only book award dedicated to the best emerging authors from all over Europe, regardless of their country of origin or language. With this prize and our continued support for translations of literary works, we are helping literature cross borders and enabling readers to enjoy the wealth of writing talent we have. This is crucial: Literature opens the mind, allowing us to come closer together and understand each other better, which is now more vital than ever.
Tibor Navracsics, European Commissioner for Education, Culture, Youth and Sport said.
The European Prize for Literature (EUPL), supported by the European Commission, has been awarded since 2009 by a consortium selected by the Commission to coordinate the initiative: the European Booksellers Federation (EBF), the European Writers' Council (EWC) and the Federation of European Publishers (FEP). The competition is open to the 37 countries currently involved in the EU Culture Programme. Each year, national juries in a third of the participating countries nominate their winning authors, making it possible for all countries and language areas to be represented over a three-year period. The competition is organised locally, but the award presentation and promotion of awarded works has an international character and involves the whole of Europe.
Since the prize was launched in 2009, the EU had, before the end of 2014, provided funding for the translation of books by 56 (out of 59) EUPL winners, into 20 different European languages, covering a total of 203 translations – on average 3-4 translations per book. The winners are promoted at the Frankfurt and London book fairs and at the Porta festival in Brussels, which gives them a unique chance to present their output on an international level. Thanks to this distinction the authors (or their publishers) have priority in applying for donations for translations from the European funds. The first Polish author awarded with the European Prize for Literature was Jacek Dukaj (2009) for his bookIce (Wydawnictwo Literackie). In 2012 the prize was presented to Piotr Paziński for his novel The Boarding House (Wydawnictwo Nisza).
Each winner receives €5,000. More importantly, they benefit from extra promotion and international visibility. Publishers are encouraged to apply for EU funding to have the winning books translated into other languages to reach new readers.
The twelve winners will be presented with the award during a ceremony at Concert Noble in Brussels on 23rd June, 2015.
I wish for the 12 winners of the 2015 EUPL edition to be translated into many European languages and to find new readers across the continent. I know that European publishers are increasingly awaiting this announcement to find the new voices of Europe. – added Pierre Dutilleul, President of the Federation of European Publishers.
The countries currently participating in Creative Europe are: the 28 EU Member States plus Norway, Iceland, Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Turkey. More countries are likely to join in 2015.
Author: Janusz R. Kowalczyk, Euprizeliterature.eu, Radio.gdansk, transl. Agata Dudek, 15/04/15.
A 19th-century drawing of the skull of Jacob Frank, photo: Jewish Historical Institute (ŻIH), Warsaw
How a Sabbatian sect from Podolia influenced the history of Polish culture and changed the face of Polish Romantic literature.
The figure of Jacob Frank, an 18th-century Sabbatian heretic from Podolia who led a few thousand Jews to the biggest conversion to Catholicism in Polish history, has long been part of a closed chapter of history, drawing attention only from specialists in Jewish mysticism. However, in recent years, this long-obscure and marginal figure has been gaining new significance in Poland.
After a low-key but philosophically pregnant movie,Daas, directed by Adrian Panek (2011), which portrayed Frank as a skilful politician and a possible religious charlatan, there followed a thick novel by Polish best-selling author Olga Tokarczuk.
Księgi Jakubowe (The Books of Jacob) premiered amid the media hype around the opening of the Polin Museum in Warsaw in October 2014, and within a couple of months sold over 70 thousand copies – an impressive result considering the book's content. This over 900-page-long novel comprises several protagonists and narrators, all of them mostly obscure figures from Poland's past, and incorporates lengthy and often complicated contemporary religious discourse, based around debates between the Orthodox Jewish rabbis and a little Sabbatian sect from Podolia. Still Tokarczuk's book has been praised as an attempt at writing an unorthodox history of Poland – and was definitely successful in drawing attention to different areas of Polish history – and showing them from a different perspective.
But the fascinating figure of Jacob Frank and his influence on Polish culture far surpasses what the popular opinions on this subject suggest. While he himself may be credited with creating the greatest breach in the history of Judaism, leading his followers to the biggest mass conversion to Christianity, the movement which he had created caused also a breach within the Polish national paradigm. Frankism inscribed itself in the very heart of Polish culture, provoking one of the most spectacular ideological clashes in Polish Romantic literature. Its repercussions are still visible today. How was it possible?
Frank
Jacob Frank in the final years of his life, photo: Jewish Historical Institute, Warsaw
Jacob Frank was born in 1726 in Korolivka, Podolia (today, part of Ukraine) on the frontier of the Polish Commonwealth. But only one year later, upon the accusation of adhering to a Sabbatian sect, the whole family left Poland and settled in Vallachia, part of the Ottoman Empire.
Here – in Vallachia, Bukovina and Bucharest – Frank would spend most of his childhood and adolescence becoming acquainted with the local Cabbalistic traditions of Judaism and learning the languages of the area, that is Ladino (the language of the Sephardic Jews in the Balkans) and Turkish (but he also knew some Hebrew). On arriving in Poland in 1755 as a Sabbatian Messiah, Frank probably didn't know Polish nor Yiddish, which was the language of the great majority of Polish Jews. Still, within a couple of years, he became the most influential figure of the rebellion against traditional Rabbinic Judaism in Poland.
Edom, that is, Poland
But why did Frank come to Poland in the first place? Frank believed that in order to fulfil the fate of the world, the people of Israel must take a new road. He called it 'walking to Esau', which was an allusion to the biblical story of Jacob and his brother Esau (Gen 33:14), in which Jacob promised that he would meet his brother in Seir... but he never got there. As some biblical commentators explained, the road was too difficult. Frank believed it was his task to fulfil Jacob's promise.
Drawing on Cabbalistic predecessors, Frank identified the land of Esau with Edom, the common general term in Jewish tradition for Christianity and Rome, and began to interpret Edom as Roman Catholic Poland. Thus, going to Esau or Edom would actually mean going to Poland.
Over time, Poland became one of the key elements in Frank's theology and historiosophy, he himself came to think that “Poland holds all that is good in this world”.
But the concept of “going to Esau”, in which Poland was made into some kind of a new Promised Land, had one more revolutionary side. As another Polish scholar Maria Janion suggests, its important element was the rejection of the ancient idea of returning to Palestine – a concept hardly acceptable in traditional Jewish culture.
Anarchy
Frank believed that the road to Esau should lead to “true life” – a central idea of Frank's teaching, which he connected with personal freedom and liberation from all earthly rules. According to Gershom Scholem, this was the road leading also to utmost religious anarchy. Esau and Edom – meant connecting with an unrelenting stream of life, a liberation from all laws – including God's Law.
Accordingly, one of the main ideas taught by Frank was defying the Torah, and many of his activities and rituals were about transgressing the traditional laws of the Talmud, that is the Hallacha. An expression of such unrestrained life can be seen in the sexual freedom of Frank's followers, which also surfaced in the famous incident in Lanckoroń from which Frank's Polish career started. There, in a private house, the gathered followers of Frank danced around a naked woman, kissing her breasts and worshipping her. According to one of the interpretations, the woman symbolized the Torah.
Frank's sect was notorious for sexual promiscuity, accused of adultery and engaging in orgies. However for Paweł Maciejko, author of the new study of Frankism The Mixed Multitude, the sexual promiscuity practised in the sect, rather than a sign of the deviant morality of its leader, may well have been a consequence of the radical emancipation of women in Frank's doctrine, something, as Maciejko claims, unparalleled in contemporary discourse.
Legitimizing the Blood Libel
The most famous Polish painting representing the phantasm of Blood Libel, is exhibited in the Cathedral in Sandomierz; source: Wikipedia / CC
Frank believed that in order to fulfil the ideal of the new Jacob, one had to take on the external form of Edom, and this meant Christianity. This was also in keeping with the Sabbatian idea that religions are only stages on the Road of the Messiah (Frank believed that all religion had a truth buried inside, like a nut in a shell – one only needed to break it loose)
In 1759 in Lviv, he led his followers on a mass conversion to Christianity, a thing unseen in Poland any time before or after. Still, even before this, in a brutal fight with the Orthodox rabbis, Frank had pulled what can be seen as his most successful trick, if also his most ruthless and controversial.
In 1757, during a dispute in Kamieniec Podolski, in an attempt to discredit the rabbis (or the Talmudists, as they were called), Frank and his followers accused them of engaging in a ritual involving the blood of Christians. This way, the Sabbatians confirmed and legitimized the centuries-old Christian phantasm of blood libel. This confirmation of the blood libel by inner Jewish sources, cynical as it was, had the expected consequences.
In the aftermath of the dispute, the Talmud was burnt on the main square in Kamieniec, and Orthodox Jews were widely persecuted, ending only with the unexpected death of the protector of the Sabbatians, Bishop Dembowski.
For Frankists, resorting to blood libel was a way of gaining the power and support of the Polish Catholic elite, but it also meant that they were now forever lost to Judaism – there was no return, all bridges were burnt.
The New Mount Zion
The Black Madonna from Jasna Góra monastery, photo: Wikipedia / CC
In 1760, at the peak of his influence, Frank and his followers entered Warsaw, only to be arrested a couple of months later and incarcerated at the Jasna Góra Monastery in Częstochowa, one of the greatest sanctuaries of the Virgin Mary in the world. What was intended as a temporary detention designed by the Catholic Church to reduce Frank's influence among his followers turned out to be Frank's permanent place of residence for the next 13 years.
It is actually there – in the very heart of Polish Catholicism – that Frank developed the final version of his doctrine and theology, one which remained more or less unchanged until his death.
As Jan Doktór, another scholar specializing in Frankism, notes, at the time of his imprisonment Frank had little knowledge of Catholicism. Now, at Jasna Góra, he was about to have plenty of opportunities to get to know it better – as he was supposed to attend all Holy masses and Church festivities. At Jasna Góra, Frank was under the great influence of the passionate religious cult which surrounded the Virgin Mary, or rather, her image on the famous painting of the Black Madonna that attracted thousands of pilgrims from throughout the whole country.
According to Jan Doktór, at Jasna Góra "the truth of Christianity began to be identified with the cult of the Virgin Mary, who according to Frank was nothing else but the institutional shell of Shekhinah”. [Shekhinah being in Cabbalah the feminine element of God].
A struggle to liberate the Shekhinah from this shell came to be represented as the proper reason and purpose of his stay at the monastery. Thus, the imprisonment at Jasna Góra was transformed into a mystical Tikkun. – explains Doktór.
To put it shortly, at Jasna Góra the Virgin Mary became the central element of Frank's new theology. But there was one little problem: "in the image of the Mother of God from Jasna Góra, the Lady is present only latently. She takes on the living and tangible form in the person of Ewa Frank, the daughter of the sect's leader", as Adam Lipszyc notes.
The Words of the Lord
In August 1772, in the chaos unleashed by the 1st Partition of Poland, Frank found himself free for the first time in 13 years. In January 1773 he arrived in Warsaw, only to leave the capital of Poland two months later – as it turned out, he would never return to Poland... As Jan Doktór notes, during the 36 years of his messianic activity Frank enjoyed freedom in Poland for only 2 and a half years.
In 1773, Frank settled in the Moravian town of Brno, where he dictated a series of esoteric lectures. Written down by his followers, The Collection of the Words of the Lord remains one of the most idiosyncratic documents of Polish literature. Adam Lipszyc described the book as a peculiar combination of picaresque novel and Messianic treatise.
Shortly after writing the book, Frank left Brno and together with his court settled in the castle in Offenbach am Main, where he soon died (1791). However, the significance of Frankism for Polish culture only starts here.
Frankists after Frank
Jacob Frank on his death bed, source: Wikipedia
During Frank's lifetime, the Jewish families which followed his example and converted to Christianity had already began to play an important role in Polish society. This was especially striking in Warsaw, where the vast majority of Frankists settled, and where their number was estimated in 1780 at around 6 thousand (ten years later there were around 24 thousand Frankists in the whole country).
In this first period, many Frankists families were able to secure their economic position, their members becoming successful businessmen and factory owners, effectively dominating several branches of business, like breweries, distilleries and the tobacco monopoly. They also played an important part in the reformative efforts at the time of Sejm Czteroletni (Szymanowscy, Orłowscy, Jasińscy), and many of them were Polish patriots and members of the progressive masonic organizations (Szymanowscy, Krysińscy, Majewscy, Krzyżanowscy, Lewińscy, Piotrkowscy). Frankists were also said to have dominated Warsaw's legal bodies. According to Gershom Scholem, the vast majority of Warsaw's lawyers in the 1830s came from Frankist families. Many of them were budding Polish intelligentsia.
For the first three generations following the apostasy of 1759/60, Frankists strived not to inter-marry with Polish families and took great care to cultivate their own religious tradition. However, by the mid-19th century, this approach was superseded by the practice of full integration. Frankists merged with Polish society – the only remaining sign of their past being names adopted at the time of apostasy.
Despite being at the forefront of the modern acculturating processes and having great benefits for Polish culture, Frankists were accused of insincere conversion, and of putting on false appearances of Christianity and simulating integration, while in fact they were cultivating their Jewish separatism.
Un-Divine Comedy, the Anti-Frankist Drama?
One of the greatest enemies of converts and their role in Polish culture was Zygmunt Krasiński (1812-1859). Considered one of the greatest Polish Romantic poets, Krasiński, who was a descendant of an old aristocratic family, was deeply convinced that Frankists were "a separate tribe, full of the strangest superstition, but in the end, believing in nothing".
One of Krasiński's masterpieces and the key piece of Polish Romanticism read at school even today, the drama Un-divine Comedy, was built around a similar resentment. The piece is an apocalyptic vision of a revolution which upturns the old order of things, brutally crushing the world of the old masters. In this ultra-conservative vision, Jews and converts are portrayed as one of the key forces behind the Revolution.
In fact, in this "flawed masterpiece", as Maria Janion called Krasiński's piece, the author combined several Christian delusions about Jews. The Talmud is defined as a tool instrumental in instilling hate towards Christians, and Jews are depicted as craving Christian blood and world domination. They are represented as the driving force of the Revolution, which becomes a tool in their hands. But the worst are the converts who are seen as false Christians only pretending to believe in Christian dogma, when in fact they are scheming against their fellow citizens.
Scholars pointed to many similarities between Krasiński's drama and the Protocols of the Elders of Zion– the infamous anti-Semitic pamphlet from early 20th century. In many respects the Un-divine Comedy seems like its predecessor. As Maria Janion notes, with this drama Krasiński established a founding myth of Polish anti-Semitism. She went on to call the argument between Krasiński and Adam Mickiewicz which followed the publication of the piece as a key dispute of the Polish cultural paradigm – not only in the 19th, but also in the 20th century – and today.
Mickiewicz and the Frankist matrix
A portrait of Adam Mickiewicz by S.Chejmann; image courtesy of Marek Skorupski / FORUM
In fact Adam Mickiewicz became one of the earliest victims of this myth. Mickiewicz's marriage with Celina Szymanowska (whose both parents descended from prominent Frankist families) in 1834 drew mischievous comments and gossip from the Polish emigre circles. Krasiński called Celina "a Talmudic Jewish woman, a devil, convert, and lunatic”, and believed she was a bad influence on the poet. At the same time, the high society of Polish emigres also gossiped about Mickiewicz's Frankist background (and for Krasiński, he was "the perfect Jew"). Chopin wasn't spared from similar gossip either.
And yet for Mickiewicz – and the fate of Polish culture – his marriage with Celina was of utmost significance. Mickiewicz saw in Celina a Frankist, which is to say, a Jewish Christian. His relationship with Celina only confirmed and further developed some of his intuitions, especially his idea of Polish-Jewish messianism. Mickiewicz deeply believed that one cannot detach Christianity from Judaism, and he also believed that the historical settlement of a huge Jewish population in Poland was part of some divine plan. For Mickiewicz, Polish and Jewish fates were inextricably connected. According to Maria Janion, much of this was derived from the Frankist matrix operating in the poet's imagination.
Mickiewicz's approach to the Jewish issue can be clearly seen in his project for emancipation of the Jews which, among others, he had formulated in a draft of the new Polish Constitution Skład zasad (1848). One of the last signs of the poet's commitment to the Polish-Jewish cause was his travel to Istanbul in 1865, where he attempted to form a Jewish legion, and where he eventually died.
Maria Janion has repeatedly underlined the exceptional place of Mickiewicz's project in the history of Polish culture. She noted that by 'acknowledging the antecedence of Israel [in relation to Christianity] the poet was laying ground for the real Polish-Jewish dialogue”, which however never really materialized.
This vision of Poland, being itself, as Janion points, a part of a wider vision of multi-ethnic and multi-cultural Poland (a vision shared also by Tadeusz Kościuszko), was in stark contrast with the conservative idea of a closed, "homogeneous" nation proposed by Krasiński. It transcended the horizons of most of Mickiewicz's contemporaries, drawing critique from all political fractions.
For Janion, Mickiewicz's vision of a common Polish-Jewish fate and brotherhood remains a remarkable and unparalleled moment in the history of Polish culture, one also which has remained its greatest unrealized potentiality.
Judaeo-Polonia, or Frankism today
Paradoxically, the clash between Krasiński and Mickiewicz and between the two visions of Poland may still be operating today. Janion claims that the cultural and economic success of Frankists in Polish society rather than securing their position, contributed to spreading the myth of Judaeo-Polonia. This phantasm, still popular – in some circles – today, in its exaggerated version, claims that Poland is secretly ruled by Jews (or people that are pretending to be Polish, while in fact they are Jews). Janion shows, that this essentially paranoid mode of thinking, akin to conspiracy theory, in the Polish context is rooted deeply in the story of the integration of a sect started by Jacob Frank.
Polish was chosen as the language of this year's edition of the Harvill Secker Young Translators’ Prize. The winning translator will be announced in October 2015.
The prize, which is now in its sixth year, aims to recognise the achievements of young translators at the start of their careers. Each year, the Young Translators' Prize focuses on a different language and in 2015 – after Spanish, Arabic, Chinese, Portuguese and German – it's time for Polish, announced Harvill Secker at the London Book Fair on April 15th, 2015.
This year’s prize will be judged by renowned translator and twice winner of the Found in Translation award Antonia Lloyd-Jones, author Eva Hoffman, journalist and Deputy Director of the English PEN Catherine Taylor and Harvill Secker editor Ellie Steel.
Maciej Miłkowski, Wist, cover of the book
The entrants will be asked to translate one – and the same for all participants – short story. This year the chosen piece comes from Polish debuting author Maciej Miłkowski. Tatuaż comes from Miłkowski's book of short stories Wist, published in Poland in 2014 (Zeszyty Literackie). The style of his writing has been compared to that of Nabokov, Cortazar, and Kundera. Born in 1980 in Łódź, Miłkowski is also an accomplished translator from English into Polish, author of over 15 translations.
The Harvill Secker YTA is open to anyone between the ages of 18 and 34, with no restriction on country of residence. The winner will take part in mentoring sessions with Antonia Lloyd-Jones, and will also be invited to participate in Crossing Border Festival in November 2015. The winning translator will also receive £1000 and a selection of Harvill Secker titles.
The short story (PDF) and details on how to enter can be found at www.youngtranslatorsprize.com, and the deadline for entries is 31st July. The winner will be announced in October 2015.
Harvill Secker is a British publishing house (an imprint of Vintage Publishing at Penguin Random House) with a particular interest in publishing international literature – home to writers such as J.M. Coetzee, José Saramago, Haruki Murakami, Günter Grass, Henning Mankell, Jo Nesbo, Karl Ove Knausgaard and Umberto Eco.
The Harvill Secker Young Translators' Prize was launched in 2010 as part of the company's centenary celebrations.
The prize is organized in partnership with the Writers’ Centre Norwich, the British Centre for Literary Translation (BCLT), and the Polish Cultural Institute.
Wioletta Grzegorzewska's Finite Formulae & Theories of Chance, translated into English by Marek Kazmierski, has landed a place among the finalists of this year's edition of the international Griffin Poetry Prize.
The Griffin Poetry Prize, established in 2000 by Canadian philanthropist Scott Griffin, is Canada’s most prestigious poetry prize. It’s presented to the author of the best volume of poetry in the English language, or translated into English from any other language. The writers are awarded in two categories, international and Canadian.
The jury, made up of Tim Bowling, Fanny Howe, and Piotr Sommer, nominated three volumes from Canada and three of world poetry out of 560 applications: Wioletta Grzegorzewska’s Finite Formulae & Theories of Chance, translated by Marek Kazmierski, Michael Longley’s The Stairwell, Spencer Reece’s The Road to Emmaus and Wang Xiaoni’s Something Crosses My Mind.
Marek Kazmierski, photo: Bogdan Frymorgen
In her new book Grzegorzewska undertakes a literary journey through her own family history, exploring a century of life, death, love and tragedy in both poetry and prose. With passion, tenderness and humour, she traces a path from the lives of her grandparents in early twentieth-century Poland, through two world wars, life under Communism and the subsequent liberation, to her own experiences as a migrant living in Britain on the Isle of Wight.
Last year's competition also had a Polish accent: Tomasz Różycki’s Colonies, translated by Mira Rosenthal, held a place on the international shortlist for the award as well.
The winners of the prize will be declared on 4 June, and a day before, all the finalists will meet in Toronto for the pre-final poetry reading. The prize in either category is 65,000 Canadian dollars.
Wioletta Grzegorzewska, born in 1974 in Koziegłowy, was raised in Jura Krakowsko-Częstochowska, in the village of Rzeniszów-Hektary. After graduating with a degree in literature studies she lived for a few years in Częstochowa, and in 2006 immigrated to England; three moves later, she settled in the Victorian town of Ryde on the Isle of Wight. She has published several volumes of poetry, the collection Notes from an Island, and the novel Unripe Fruit.
Marek Kazmierski is a writer, translator, and filmmaker. In 2010 he founded OFF_PRESS, a bilingual, independent publishing house in London. He is the editor-in-chief of Not Shut Up, a culture/literary magazine representing artists in prison. In 2013 he published a collection of ten short stories about Poles in Great Britain, titled Damn the Source.
For many decades of the 19th and 20th century much of Polish classic literature was written outside Poland, with authors like Mickiewicz, Norwid, Miłosz and Gombrowicz...
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There are places, people, and artefacts that symbolize Poland better than anything else. Here's our subjective list of Polish symbols.
The Battle of Grunwald
Jan Matejko, Battle of Grunwald / Bitwa pod Grunwaldem, 1878, oil on canvas, 426 x 987 cm, From the collection of the National Museum in Warsaw (MNW), photo: courtesy of MNW
One of the largest battles of Medieval Europe took place on 15th July, 1410 – a date known to every Polish schoolchild. On this day, a joint army made up of twenty thousand Poles, ten thousand Lithuanians and Ruthenians, and about a thousand Tatars, all under the command of King Ladislaus Jagiello defeated twenty-one thousand cavalry and five thousand infantrymen called up by the Grand Master of the Teutonic Order, Ulrich von Jungingen. The Polish-Lithuanian victory paved the way for the rise of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, whose influence in the following centuries spread from the Baltic to the Black sea. Thi battle is the subject of a large scale painting by Jan Matejko.
One of the greatest composers in history and one of the most famous pianists of his time, Frédéric Chopin was born in Żelazowa Wola in 1810. In 1830, Chopin left Poland for Paris, where he spent most of his adult life. Although he never returned to Poland, in his work he constantly drew inspiration from Polish memories: using stylistic patterns found in traditional Polish music (the mazurkas and polonaises) and alluding to events from Polish history – the most famous of them being the Revolutionary Etude, composed upon news of the collapse of the November Uprising in 1831.
Chopin's 24 Preludes are universally recognized as some of the composer's most characteristic works. Not only are they quintessential of his style, but are also deeply...
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Artur Grottger, Battle - a scene from the January Uprising; from the series Polonia, source: Wikipedia / CC
After the three partitions of Poland erased the country from the map of Europe at the end of 18th century, Poland experienced a long period (123 years) during which it was governed by foreign powers (Prussia, Russia and Austria). This period, marked by oppression of Polish political and cultural life, resulted in a series of national uprisings against the occupants: the Kościuszko Insurrection (1794) was followed by the November Uprising of 1831 and the January Uprising in 1864. Poland eventually regained independence in 1918.
Warsaw Destroyed and Re-Built
Napoleon Square with the Prudential skyscraper in downtown Warsaw, 1947, photo: Edward Falkowski / CFK / Forum
During World War II, Warsaw became the scene of two heroic liberation efforts: the Ghetto Uprising in April-May 1943 and the Warsaw Uprising in August-September 1944. Both efforts were brutally crushed by the Nazis, leaving Warsaw utterly destroyed.
The city was then rebuilt in an unprecedented reconstruction effort by the whole nation, which took many decades, but which eventually resulted in such incredible feats as the meticulous reconstruction of Warsaw's Old Town (now on UNESCO's national heritage list).
The reconstruction of Warsaw in 1945 was the first attempt in history to reconstruct not only the individual monuments, but also to recreate the entire historical tissue...
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The first national ensign featuring Poland's national colours – a white eagle on a crimson background – was introduced in the 13th century, following the coronation of King Przemysł II. Interestingly, in those days the crimson dye in Europe was produced using the dried larvae of the scale insect known as the Polish cochineal (Porphyrophora polonica). Red and white were officially adopted as the colours of the national cockade by the Sejm in 1831, during the November Uprising. The Day of the Flag is celebrated in Poland on 2nd May.
Ryszard Kapuściński = Polish Reportage
Ryszard Kapuściński in editorial office of Kultura in the 60s, photo: Aleksander Jałosiński / Forum
As a reporter, Kapuściński witnessed 27 revolutions and was at the fronts of 12 wars, he was also sentenced to death by firing squad at least four times. His endless curiosity and stamina in establishing the truth resulted in books like The Emperor or The Shah of Shahs, which for many decades helped to explain the political conflicts of the 20th century. But Kapuściński is also part of a wider literary tradition often referred to as the Polish School of Reportage, a typically and exclusively Polish kind of non-fiction, which continues today.
Polish non-fiction writing, made famous by Kapuściński, among others, is often considered a national speciality, along with pickled cucumbers and kiełbasa. But what is...
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Szymborska upon hearing the news of receiving the Nobel Prize in literature, Zakopane, 1996, photo: Adam Golec / AG
Within the last 35 years, Poland has had two Nobel Prize winners in literature – and both of them poets: Czesław Miłosz (1980) and Wisława Szymborska (1996). Poland has a strong tradition of poetry , which in this country has been considered a powerful tool of national resistance and redemption, with poets like Mickiewicz and Słowacki taking the role of prophets.
Jerzy Kossak, "The Miracle on the Vistula 1920", photo: FoKa / Forum
The battle fought in August 1920 on the outskirts of Polish capital is often referred to as one of the most important battles in world history. It shattered Lenin's plans to spread Bolshevic Revolution into the Western Europe and helped to maintain Poland's sovereignity in the inter-war period.
Bigos - Polish Dishes
Bigos, photo: Marek Zawadka/Reporter / East News
Most foreigners associate Polish cuisine with żurek (sour barley soup with egg and kiełbasa), pierogi (dumplings), gołąbki (stuffed cabbage rolls), and of course bigos. Bigos stew is a one-pot, stick-to-your-ribs dish made of pickled cabbage, sausage, and bits of pork stewed with mushrooms, onions, dried prunes and spices. It tastes best after slowly cooking for three days.
The history of Polish bigos, commonly known as “hunter's stew” in English, begins many centuries ago. Bigos is a traditional single pot dish, usually made during the... Read more »
Created on 17th September 1980, the Self-governing Trade Union “Solidarity” was the result of a series of strikes and crises which shook the country that year. Very soon, Solidarność, which at its peak counted 10 million people among its members, became a serious threat to the regime. The “Carnival of Freedom” ended 15 months later when the Polish authorities, under pressure from the Kremlin, introduced Martial Law. All independent organizations were made illegal and their leaders interned, among them Lech Wałęsa.
But the social resistance triggered by Solidarity could not have been suppressed. In 1989, when the negotiations between the authorities and opposition began, the activists of Solidarność – which all this time has been operating underground – played an important role. That same year on June 4 the Solidarity-backed candidates emerged victorious in the first partially free parliamentary elections. Next year Wałęsa was elected president of the Republic of Poland.
Białowieża National Park, photo: Marek Kosinski / Forum
Poland has an extremely diverse landscape – and the usual definition 'Mountains in the south, sea in the north' just doesn't cover the beauty and complexity of Polish geography. Poland has 14 UNESCO Biosphere Reserves, defined as exceptionally precious natural areas that represent exemplary harmony between man and nature. One of them is Białowieża National Park, considered the last primeval forest in Europe, and home to the world's largest population of European bison (Polish: żubr).
Other UNESCO reserves include areas in Karkonosze and the Tatra Mountains, Łukajno Lake (home to the largest population of mute swans in Europe), Słowiński National Park (famous for its shifting sand dunes) and the West Polesie Reserve – a land of peat bogs, quagmires, and karst lakes.
Culture.pl sheds light on what a brick castle, a multi-purpose concrete recreational building and wood tserkvas have to say about Polish history.
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The article incorporates material from the book Symbols of Poland
published in 2015 (Bookmark SA), which includes 120 symbolic people, places and things.
4 Polish Writers Who Won the Nobel Prize in Literature
2015/04/30
Wisława Szymborska receives the Nobel Prize for literature in Stockholm , 1996, photo: Rex Features / Forum
Poland has so far had four Nobel Prize winners in literature. Who were they and who could be next?
Since the Nobel Prize in Literature was established in 1901, Poland has had four winners. If the Nobel was a team competition, this would place Poland in eighth position, just behind Sweden, Italy and Spain – and in front of Ireland, Russia, Norway and Japan.
Should we decide to also include writers who were born in Poland (or in the territory that was once Poland), the list would be substantially longer and include names like Shmuel Yosef Agnon (born in Buczacz, wrote in Hebrew), Isaac Bashevis Singer (born in Leoncin, writes in Yiddish) or Günter Grass (born in Gdańsk, wrote in German). But let's stick to the Polish language writers first.
1905: Henryk Sienkiewicz
Henryk Sienkiewicz, photo: Piotr Mecik / Forum
Contrary to what is usually said in this context, Henryk Sienkiewicz didn't receive the Nobel Prize for his 1896 panorama of ancient Rome, Quo Vadis. The reason for this misattribution was the enormous popularity of the book. In fact, the jury awarded Sienkiewicz for his “outstanding merits as an epic writer", and when Carl David af Wirsén, secretary of the prize, presented the award, he repeatedly stressed the importance of a different book in Sienkiewicz's oeuvre: The Deluge (Potop). This historical trilogy set in 17th-century Poland in a time of great political turmoil became a eulogy for the Sarmatic tradition and a source of patriotic hope, as the book was written, as the popular phrase goes, “to cheer hearts”.
In his Banquet speech Sienkiewicz emphasized that the honour of receiving the Nobel Prize was especially valuable for a son of Poland, which at that point wasn't even on the map. He said:
It has been said that Poland is dead, exhausted, enslaved, but here is the proof of her life and triumph. Like Galileo, one is forced to think «E pur si muove» when before the eyes of the world homage has been rendered to the importance of Poland's achievements and her genius.
Władysław Reymont portrayed by Jacwk Malczewski, 1905, oil on canvass, rep.FoKa / Forum, on the right: Noble Prize official diploma for Reymont, photo:FoKa / Forum
Interestingly, one of Władysław Reymont's main rivals running for the Nobel prize in the early 1920s was another Polish writer, Stefan Żeromski. In fact, it was Żeromski who was considered to have a better chance at first, but the heavy critique which landed on the writer after the publication of his allegedly anti-German 1922 novel Wiatr od morza, combined with the Germanophilia of the Swedish jury, resulted in tipping the scale in favour of Reymont. The winner beat also favourites such as Thomas Mann (he would have to wait 5 years for his Nobel Prize), Maxim Gorki, and Thomas Hardy.
The jury awarded The Peasants, a 4-volume “great national epic” depicting one year in the life of peasants living in a small village in the Łódź area. Originally written in 1901-08, the book was translated into Swedish only in 1921 (Reymont's other famous novel Promised Land was translated one year earlier). Reymont didn't go to Stockholm to receive the award, as at that time his health had deteriorated so much that he was convalescing in Nice, France. He died the following year in Poland. He was 58 years old. Not long before his death he wrote to a friend:
“What an irony, a Nobel Prize, money, universal fame, and a man who cannot get undressed without great fatigue. This is the quintessential irony of life.”
Sweden Nobel 1980. Czesław Miłosz receives Nobel Prize from his majesty King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden,photo: Bertil Ericson / SCANPIX SWEDEN / Forum
The 1980 Nobel Prize in Literature for Czesław Miłosz has been always seen primarily in the political context. The jury's decision to award the prize to the Polish emigre poet (Miłosz defected to the West in 1951 and had lived in US since 1960) in the same year Polish trade union Solidarność was formed, has been interpreted as a sign of Western support for political changes taking place in the Soviet Bloc. This political overtone can be heard also in the justification of the verdict, according to which the award went to a poet "who with uncompromising clear-sightedness voices man's exposed condition in a world of severe conflicts". At this time Miłosz was known in the West primarily as the author of The Captive Mind.
Góry Parnasu (The Hills of Parnassus), Czesław Miłosz's unfinished attempt at a sci-fi novel, has been published in Poland 40 years after the poet had abandoned his...
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But this perspective may be especially harming and unfair, as Miłosz – probably more than any other previous Polish Nobel laureate – deserved the award on the grounds of pure literary merit. In his Nobel Prize speech he avoided talking about politics, instead he made the key figure of his lecture Nils Holgersson – the hero of Selma Lagerlöf's The Wonderful Adventure of Nils, Miłosz's favourite childhood book. According to Miłosz, this little boy travelling on the back of a goose, and looking at the world from a great distance but also seeing things in great detail, is the best symbol of the role of the poet. Developing this metaphor and drawing on some of his favourite writers, like Simone Weil and William Blake, Miłosz expressed what could be seen as his poetic credo:
Thus both – the Earth seen from above in an eternal now and the Earth that endures in a recovered time – may serve as material for poetry.
Ten years have gone by since the illustrious writer Czesław Miłosz passed away, although his writing still offers admirers all over the world a window into the...
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Szymborska upon hearing the news of receiving the Nobel Prize in literature, Zakopane, 1996, photo: Adam Golec / AG
Only 16 years after the Nobel Prize for Miłosz the award went to another poet from Poland. Wisława Szymborska was awarded "for poetry that with ironic precision allows the historical and biological context to come to light in fragments of human reality". Compared to Miłosz, Szymborska may seem like a poet of smaller intellectual scope and ambition, hers is the realm of the everyday, the little raptures and despairs brought by daily life, all of it served with the warm irony that has become a key characteristic of her poetry.
The poet, notorious for her shyness and dislike for any public appearances, was at first overwhelmed by the media hype around the Nobel Prize. (Reportedly, her first reaction to the news were the words: Oh, God, why me...). Still she was able to survive the Nobel fuss (or the Nobel tragedy, as she called it), with her trademark charm and intelligence. She started her Nobel Lecture by saying:
"They say the first sentence in any speech is always the hardest. Well, that one's behind me, anyway."
Over the next 15 years until her death in 2012, Szymborska remained impressively distanced from her public image, shunning poetic homages and public recognition, she cherished her privacy and isolation.
Wisława Szymborska is widely known as an exceptional poet, yet her personal history yields much more than exquisite poetry. This series of little-known eccentricities...
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For many years the list of Polish Nobel candidates included the names of Tadeusz Różewicz and Tadeusz Konwicki. With their recent departure (in 2014 and 2015) the probability of Polish Nobel laureate may seem smaller again. Poet Adam Zagajewski remains one of the Polish favourites, and recently the name of Olga Tokarczuk also appeared on the Nobel market.
In order to guide English-speakers towards the Polish authors best suited for their specific tastes, Culture.pl has put together an exclusive guide offering historical...
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Polish non-fiction writing, made famous by Kapuściński, among others, is often considered a national speciality, along with pickled cucumbers and kiełbasa. But what is...
Read more »
Katarzyna Leszczyńska and Sven Sellmer Win The Karl Dedecius Prize
2015/04/29
Katarzyna Leszczyńska and Sven Sellmer, photo: Jan Zappner
Katarzyna Leszczyńska, a German to Polish translator, and Sven Sellmer, a Polish to German translator, have won the seventh Karl Dedecius Prize, presented by the Robert Bosch Foundation.
Katarzyna Leszczyńska was born in 1969 and studied German studies at the University of Warsaw. She then graduated from the School of Social Sciences of the Polish Academy of Sciences and completed her PhD at the Viadrina European University in Frankfurt (Oder). She lives in Zurich, Warsaw and in the Białowieża Forest. Since 2003, she’s translated texts by, among others, Herta Müller, Aglaja Veteranyi and Mariella Mehr. She also publishes essays about German-language literature in magazines such as Pogranicze, Literatura na Świecie and Przegląd Polityczny, as well as organising literary trips.
Sven Sellmer was also born in 1969. He studied philosophy, Indology and classical philology in Kiel. Since 2000, he’s been working as an Indologist, initially in Kiel, and, since 2004, at the University of Adam Mickiewicz in Poznań, where he teaches Sanskrit and Indian philosophy. Since the mid-nineties, he’s translated essays, prose and humanities-related texts from Polish, English and Sanskrit into German. His Polish-German translations include the oeuvres of Henryk Elzenberg, Czesław Miłosz, Marian Pankowski and Zyta Rudzka.
The gala award ceremony, organised by Deutsche Polen-Institut, will take place on 12 June 2015 in Hesse State Archives in Darmstadt.
Every other year, a German and a Polish translator receive prizes for building bridges with language. The candidates are nominated by a German-Polish jury chaired by Professor Karl Dedecius, the doyen of German translators of Polish literature and a distinguished mediator between Germany and Poland. The prize was created jointly by Karl Dedecius and the foundation in 1981 to recognize outstanding work by Polish translators of German. It was supplemented by a promotional prize for Polish translators in 1992, and has been bestowed as a twin prize for both German and Polish translators since 2003.
The Unfortunates by B.S. Johnson, photo: promotional materials
A literary text enclosed in a bottle; ten sonnets, out of which you can build "A Hundred Thousand Billion Poems"; or a novel in a box – “set a book free” says the international project Brumba.
Liberature (lat. liber – free, book) is a type of literature where the verbal and material form of a book co-create an organic whole, and all elements, including the non-verbal ones, can carry meaning. The term first appeared in Poland in 1999 on the pages of Dekada Literacka when Zenon Fajfer published his essay-manifesto Liberature: Annex to the dictionary of literary terms. This manifesto explains how changing one letter may alter the sense of the whole text. Size, typeface and the colour of the font, as well as the unprinted parts of the paper and the kind of paper used, add up to the final perception of a publication. Books which were so far published in the “Liberatural way” are, among others, James Joyce’s Finnegans Wake (written in a quirky code), Raymond Queneau’s A Hundred Thousand Billion Poems (with cut verses of the sonnets which can be configured randomly), B. S. Johnson’s The Unfortunates (with its dust covers attached to cardboard which folds into a box), Eyes-Ore by Zenon Fajfer and Katarzyna Bazarnik (three volumes joined by their covers), Sienkiewicza Street by Radosław Nowakowski (a ten-metre-long cardboard street) and Zenon Fajfer’s But Eyeing Like Ozone Whole (the text placed inside a bottle).
A Hundred Thousand Billion Poems by Raymond Queneau, photo: promotional materials
This type of literature is being revived by authors of an artistic project, Brumba, which is a joint project between Poland, Iceland and Norway aiming to develop and to promote liberature in these countries. Numerous meetings with artists and authors, language workshops and concerts are to spread knowledge and awareness of liberature, and to gather new readers. This series of events will commence with typography workshops conducted by Anton KaldalÁgústsson, an Icelandic graphic designer. The workshops will take place on 9 May 2015 in Warsaw's Galeria V9. Other workshops, realised by art group Massmix and painter Agata Borowa, will be organised in Poland as well as in Iceland and Norway until the end of the year.
Could it be that James Joyce encrypted music into the text of his masterpiece? A Polish Joyce scholar deciphered musical scores from Finnegans Wake and made the results...
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Liberature inspires graphic designers, but also street artists and musicians. The Bydgoszcz-based alternative rock band 3moonboys and the Icelandic punk duo Panos from Komodo will begin an international tour in October 2015. The Polish band’s album 16 published in 2009 is a musical response to the phenomenon of liberature. Its cover was designed by Zenon Fajfer, and the album itself was dubbed “liberock”.
Brumba is organised by a Polish foundation, Vlepvnet; Norwegian cultural centre Hausmania; and the Icelandic Galeria TÝS. The initiative was organised in the framework of the Promotion of Diversity in Culture and Arts within European Cultural Heritage programme.
Efraim and Menasze Seidenbeutel; source: Wikipedia /CC
Inseparable in life and art, they were also inseparable in death. Twin brothers Efraim and Menashe Seidenbeutel died 75 years ago, a few days before the end of WW2
Comparing their biographies in the Polish Biographical Dictionary or the two brothers' own hand-written CV’s – copies of which survived in the archives of Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw – seems like a game of spotting differences. Their lives seem identical up to the tiniest details - just like their physical appearance, which during their lifetime brought about a whole streak of comic cases of mistaken identity, generously feeding anecdote and legend. Physical aspect aside, the Seidenbeutels shared a unique emotional bond, which allowed them to feel, think and even create paintings together. That is, literally 'together'.
Sashe and Menashe
Efraim and Menashe Seidenbeutel (above the portrait of one of the brothers) with other painters at the 1st Warsaw School Exhibition at Zachęta; photograph from the Archive of Fine Arts Academy in Warsaw
Efraim and Menashe Seidenbeutels were born on June 6, 1902 into a poor Jewish family in Warsaw. Their father was a book-keeper who ran a textile business in Warsaw, and the twins had six siblings. Their older brother Józef, who also pursued a painting career, introduced the twins to art, but died of TB in 1923 - the same year Menashe was admitted to the Fine Arts School in Warsaw.
Story has it that during the first year of their studies, the brothers took turns in attending classes, so that they would pay only one student fee. When the truth finally came out, the rector of the school decided that the twins would continue studying with only one fee. At school, their friends called them Sashe and Menashe.
The pair not only looked the same, but they also dressed the same. This however, as Tadeusz Wittlin recounted, was not caused by their willingness to confuse others, but rather because, "they just had the same taste":
"He always dresses the same: blue sport jacket, white shirt, crimson tie with a thick knot, grey flannel pants like pipes, brown Derby shoes that would never get a clean-up, and a light grey hat with a greasy black ribbon, tilted to the back."
Which brother is portrayed in this fragment? It doesn't matter. Wittlin used singular here because he would use the same depiction in the next paragraph – when he was writing about the other brother. He himself never knew which of the Seidenbeutels he was talking to.
In Kazimierz Dolny, where they attended annual arts fairs, one of their showpieces at the annual artists' ball included a farcical classic in which one of the twins would disappear in the box only to pop up from another side of the stage. Another famous anecdote features the two brothers going to a hairdresser and paying only for one cut... (find more on Wikipedia). Undoubtedly, they had a remarkable sense of humor.
My Brother Will Come Do the Nose
Efraim and Menashe (right) with their colleagues painters at the 2nd Warsaw School Exhibition in Zachęta, Warsaw 1931; photograph from the Archive of Fine Arts Academy in Warsaw
However what connected the brothers most strongly was their unique emotional bond, which is also reflected in their painting. In fact, after 1933 - which marks the mature period of their art - most of their works were painted together and signed simply "Seidenbeutel". How did this look in practice? Monika Żeromska, who was friend from school , and one-time model, remembered:
"They would approach and back away from the easel in turns which was very tiresome for the model - seeing this four-legged painter-creature from the corner of your eye. Or one of them would come, paint for a while, then suddenly put down the paintbrush and the palette, and say: ‘My brother will come do the nose,’ and leave."
But even their works created separately have an almost identical style, they share the same sense of colour and form. The critics familiar with their works were always at odds about the authorship. The opinio communis has it that Menashe had a stronger personality, and his paintings were therefore more expressive – he also won more awards than his brother and his oeuvre counts more paintings.
In art, the Seidenbeutels were influenced by the concept of “moderate realism” propagated by their teacher at the Academy of Fine Arts Tadeusz Pruszkowski, a style which relied heavily on past tradition and which had a distinctly anti-avantgardist edge. The brothers painted in the Post Impressionist style of the Ecole de Paris, mostly landscapes and still life scenes, but also portraits. For most critics, the distinctive quality of the Seidenbeutels’ paintings was the brothers' sharpened sense of colour.
Unlike their older brother Józef, who was interested in creating a Jewish national style in art, Sashe and Menashe shunned Jewish motifs. Even their paintings from Kazimierz Dolny - this Polish Barbizon and a town crowded with traditional Jewish life - show no traces of Jewish culture.
Menasze Seidenbeutel, "Widok na Kazimierz nad Wisłą" (View on Kazimierz nad Wisłą), oil on canvas, from the collection of the Jewish Historical Institute,
Holocaust
After the war broke out the Seidenbeutels fled to Lviv where they found shelter at their colleague Maria Obrębska-Stieber’s dwelling. It was here that Menashe produced his last known painting, Martwa natura z zieloną butelką [Still life with a green bottle]. In 1940, the brothers stayed in Moscow for a while – a little later they found themselves in the Białystok ghetto.
It has been suggested that during this period the Seidenbeutels belonged to a group of artists working in a painters’ atelier set up by a German entrepreneur, Oskar Steffen. Here, in what once was a carpenter’s shop in Kupiecka Street, the painters were forced to copy reproductions of paintings by old masters: Rubenses, Titians, Murillos.
Isaac Celnikier, who was 16 at the time and served in the studio as an assistant, remembered that every couple of days German trucks arrived at this "Manufacture of Titians" and transported the paintings to the palace in Dojlidy, were the headquarters of the Białystok Bezirk was located. From there the paintings were taken to Germany, where they were sold.
Since the Germans did not consider this occupation physically strenuous, the painters received neither money nor additional food rations.
In November 1943, after the liquidation of the Białystok ghetto, the Seidenbeutels were deported to the Stutthof concentration camp, and later to KL Flossenbürg. According to Isaac Celnikier, who was a witness to their deaths, Seidenbeutels were murdered when the guard started beating one of the brothers, and the other came to rescue - they were then beaten to death with rifle butts by the guards. It was during the liquidation of the camp in April 1945, only days before the liberation of the camp and the end of WW2.
Author: Mikołaj Gliński, 30 April, 2015,
The photographs in the article come from Joanna Pollakówna's book There Were Two Brothers - Painters (Warsaw 2009).
The author of a book of poems titled “Pomiędzy” will take part in the Lyriktreffen Münster, the one of the most famous poets’ festivals in Europe.
Tadeusz Dąbrowski will present poems from a voluminous collection of poems “Die Bäume spielen Wald”, which was placed on the Lyrik-Empfehlungen list and get enthusiastic reviews in German media. 8th May 2015 the poet will perform in Teatr Miejski; he will also have a meeting with students of Pascal-Gymnasium Münster and Marienschule Münster.
To this year edition were invited, for example: Charles Bernstein, Esther Kinsky, Heinrich deterring and Joachim Sartorius.
Tadeusz Dąbrowski (born 1979) – poet, essayist, reviewer, the editor of the literary bimonthly “Topos”. He has published, for example, in: ''Tygodnik Powszechny'', ''Polityka '', ''Gazeta Wyborcza'', ''Zeszyty Literackie'', ''Chimera'', ''Twórczość'', ''Odra'', ''Res Publica Nowa'' and also in the foreign press, like: ''The New Yorker'', ''American Poetry Review'', ''Boston Review'', ''Agni'', ''Ploughshares''''Harvard Review'', ''Tin House'', ''Poetry Daily'', ''Guernica''. He is the scholar of Omi International Arts Center (USA, 2013), Vermont Studio Center (2011), Lana Literature (2011), the Internationales Haus der Autoren Graz (2008), Minister of Culture of Poland (2007, 2010), Literary Colloquium Berlin (2006, 2012) , Marshal of Pomerania (2005, 2008, 2013) and the Baltic Centre for Writers and Translators (Visby, 2004, 2010). He is also the laureate of Horst Bienek-Preis (2014) c. c. Warsaw literary Award (2014), Kościelski Award (2009), Hubert-Burda-Preis (2008), prize Gedanensis Splendor (2007), GTPS Art Awards (2007), Awards City of Gdańsk for Young Artists (2002). He was nominated for the NIKE Literary Award (2010) and TV Awards ''Pegasus'' (2002). Tadeusz Różewicz awarded him the Polish Culture Foundation Prize (2006). His books were translated into twenty languages. He has written several books of poetry: Wypieki (1999), e-mail address (2000), Mazurek (2002), Te Deum (2005, 2008), Czarny kwadrat (2009) and Pomiędzy (2013). Tadeusz Dąbrowski lives in Gdańsk. He is currently on a Yadoo scholarship in the USA.
Sources: press materials, edited by KK, translated by MK.
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Philip K. Dick: Lem is a Communist Composite Committee
2015/05/13
Stanisław Lem – according to Philip K. Dick, Lem was a composite figure created by a communist committee. photo: Elżbieta Lempp
In September, 1974, the FBI received a letter. The accusations in this letter were shocking – it told of a communist conspiracy aimed at the hearts and minds of America through propaganda in the subtle guise of science fiction. Major science-fiction publishers and organisations had been infiltrated, and their agents, notable figures in the genre, were abroad in the West. The orchestrator of it all was a communist committee, acting under the name... Stanisław Lem.
The unveiler of such an insidious subterfuge was none other than Philip K. Dick, the legendary science-fiction writer. According to his letter, fellow science-fiction great Stanisław Lem, didn't even exist, except for as a figurehead for the purposes of disseminating propaganda. He was “probably a composite committee rather than an individual.” Dick's evidence for this denouncement was that “[Lem] writes in several styles and sometimes reads foreign, to him, languages and sometimes does not.” And the conspiracy spread further still: “The Party operates (a U..S.] publishing house which does a great deal of Party-controlled science fiction.”
In addition to Lem, Dick named three other sci-fi figures associated with him as in on the plot – Peter Fitting, Fredric Jameson and Franz Rottensteiner (also Lem's literary agent in the West). The committee behind the Lem nom de guerrehad the intention of gaining “monopoly positions of power from which they can control opinion through criticism and pedagogic essays is a threat to our whole field of science fiction and its free exchange of views and ideas.” And they were were succeeding: he wrote of the “evident penetration of the crucial publications of our professional organization SCIENCE FICTION WRITERS OF AMERICA”.
Philip K Dick, photo: Leemage / East News
At the time, Dick and Lem were both already successes in science fiction. The Man in the High Castlehad earned a Hugo award, and the rest of his prolific output had garnered him high praise in science-fiction circles. To the FBI, perhaps, Dick may well have been well-placed to catch a communist invasion of science-fiction. It was surely a sinister notion – literature was one thing which passed the Iron Curtain westwards with ease, so communist ideology subverting the readers of science fiction, including a large number of impressionable youth, would have been a sinister plot.
Now, of course, we are entirely certain that Lem was just a single person. But regardless, did Dick have any reason to be worried? Had Dick really penetrated an actual communist conspiracy, and did he have any real justification for seeing Lem (or, at least, the composite figure he represented) as such a menace?
In reality, Lem wasn't even a member of the communist party. He actively avoided association with it and even spoke out against it. Not that he wasn't courted by the communists – the Central Committee and the secretary of the interior of the PRL, Franciszek Szlachcic, had tried to convert Lem to the cause in the early 70s, asking him to support Edward Gierek's cabinet, but Lem abstained. Later in the 70s, he started taking on a more active against the authorities, signing protests against changes in the constitutional provisions regarding leadership of the Communist Party and "friendship with the Soviet Union". His writings for the Parisian emigre magazine Kultura included negative pieces on the PRL.
Whilst (despite Dick's best efforts) Lem may or may not have been a person of interest to the FBI, he certainly was one to the PRL's security services. By 1978, his correspondence with foreign publishers and literary agents was being interfered with so severely that he wrote to the Department of Culture of the Central Committee protesting. This harassment, and the onset of martial law in 1981, cemented Lem's desire to flee Poland.
The leading representative of Polish science fiction, a philosopher, futurologist and essayist, Lem's work also includes realistic novels and satirical texts. Born in...
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But passports were not easily obtainable in the PRL. In 1982, Lem received one and went for a year-long scholarship at the Institute for Advanced Study in West Berlin, but he was unable to take his family with him. His return to Poland was due to fact that critical speech against the communist system could result in him being unable to return, or his family to join him. Finally, after the end of martial law in 1983, Lem received an invitation from the Austrian Writers Society to come to Vienna. This time, his wife Barbara and son Tomasz were able to accompany him first to West Germany, and then on to Austria, where they stayed until 1988.
Evidently, Dick's allegations were unfounded. Lem surely existed, and his communist connections were non-existent. He was even active against the PRL's government, and had been ill-treated by those in power. If Dick's shadowy cabal of conspirators infiltrating science fiction existed, Lem was certainly not it's originator. So why, then, was Dick such an ardent believer in his guilt?
In 1973, Lem became an honorary member of the Science Fiction Writers of America, a gesture of “international goodwill” on the association's part. However, in 1976, 70 percent of the SFWA's voted in favour of a resolution to revoke Lem's membership. A very quick dismissal for such a prestigious author, but the reasons for his quick ejection from the organisation are clear – he didn't seem to regard his honorary membership as any sort of honour. He considered American science fiction “ill thought out, poorly written, and interested more in adventure that ideas or new literary forms” and "bad writing tacked together with wooden dialogue”, and these are just a few examples of Lem's deprecatory attitude towards the US branch of his genre.
Lem, however, considered one science fiction author as exempt from his scathing criticisms – his denouncer, Philip K. Dick. The title of an essay Lem published about Dick is evidence enough of this high regard: A Visionary Among the Charlatans. The essay itself waxes lyrical on Dick's many excellent qualities as a writer, and expounds upon the dire state of US sci-fi. Lem considered Dick to be the only writer exempt from his cynical view of American SF. It seems likely that Dick was unaware of Lem's high opinion of him and that he took Lem's disparaging comments personally, stating in his letter to the FBI:
Lem's creative abilities now appear to have been overrated and Lem's crude, insulting and downright ignorant attacks on American science fiction and American science fiction writers went too far too fast and alienated everyone but the Party faithful (I am one of those highly alienated).
In addition, Dick had another reason for disliking Lem, the result of a previous professional disagreement. In 1972, Lem had translated Dick's Ubik into Polish. Due to the economic restrictions of the PRL, Lem was unable to give Dick his due royalties. Surely losing out on this potential source of income, regardless of reason, would incline Dick unfavourably towards Lem.
Whether a civic duty to defend against the communist menace or a simple desire for revenge were the impetus behind Dick's incriminating letter, there is another factor which could have affected Dick's take on things. He was a frequent user of a variety of recreational chemicals, so no stranger to altered states of consciousness. But in February 1974, Dick was recovering from the effects of sodium pentathol (an anaesthetic strong enough to also be used as a “truth serum”) used in dental surgery for a compacted wisdom tooth, when he received a delivery of opioids from a young woman. Her golden ichthys necklace entranced him in an intelligent pink beam of light – which Dick initially thought a side-effect of the anaesthetic – before discovering it had bestowed upon him clairvoyance and other psychic powers.
In line with Ari Folman's The Congress based on Lem's novel, Culture.pl presnts the best cinematic adaptations of the science-fiction writer's novels.
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This plot wouldn't be out of place in one of Dick's mind-bending novels. An enthusiastic drug user, he often explored themes of the fragility of consciousness and mentality. But after this communion, Dick experienced frequent hallucinations, and even became displaced in time – living two parallel lives, one as an American science-fiction author, the other as a persecuted Christian in ancient Rome.
All in all, it can be assumed that Dick was undergoing a slight disconnect from reality (at least, from our reality) just a few months before he denounced Lem to the FBI. There are certainly numerous other factors at play – the feeling that Lem had ripped him off, or a sense of defensive patriotism against Lem's libels of U.S. sci-fi – but we could also entertain the possibility that this intelligent pink ray of light revealed the shadowy communist conspiracy.
Of course, nothing came of Dick's letter – Lem (man or committee) was safely behind the Iron Curtain, well outside the FBI's jurisdiction, and no embargo of his work took place. Lem's sour relations with the Science Fiction Writers of America and poor opinion of U.S. sci-fi hasn't hampered his popularity – recognition in the West hasn't diminished over the years, with many of his works achieving a wide audience in the form of translations, both new and old, or in adaptations such as Solaris.
It's also worth noting that whilst the FBI may have shown no interest in Lem, Dick was certainly on their radar. His file (which Dick obtained with the US Freedom of Information Act) showed that his denouncement of Lem was not his first contact with the bureau. In fact, he'd written to them numerous other times – just two years before the above-mentioned letter, he'd unveiled another conspiracy to them, this time at the other end of the political spectrum. He was apparently approached in 1972 by a representative of a neo-Nazi organisation who pressured Dick into placing coded messages involving “politics, illegal weapons, etc” into his future novels. He linked this organisation to a series of robberies which happened at his home in California. Given that his later claims involving Lem were not even included in his file, it's very unlikely the FBI gave any weight to any of Dick's theories.
Matthew Davies, 2015. Sources: Science Fiction Studies; The Selected Letters Of Philip K. Dick
Тhe four most beautiful Polish necropoleis pictured by Adam Bujak. The famous photographer offers readers a tour of remarkable sculpture galleries at the Powązki cemetery in Warsaw, the Łyczaków cemetery in Lviv, the Rossa necropolis in Vilnius, and the Rakowicki cemetery in Kraków.
The atmospheric walk through the cemeteries’ dim alleys, sculptures and tombs of famous people photographed in different seasons begins in Kraków, the hometown of the author, known primarily for his photos of Pope John Paul II. The history of the sites is introduced by the expert prof. Jacek Kolbuszewski, literary historian, who this time looks at the history of cemeteries and how their meaning and place in society has changed. He has added poetic fragments to each chapter, as well as descriptions and commentaries to the pictures.
The Aristocratic Rakowice
Rakowicki cemetery in Kraków, photo: Adam Bujak
The nostalgic landscape of the Rakowicki cemetery includes graves of famous aristocratic families covered in snow, neo-Gothic monuments emerging from the autumn fog and busts of famous Cracovians, such as Marek Grechuta and Tadeusz Kantor. The walk with Adam Bujak also takes us to Jan Matejko’s grave lit up by hundreds of candles, and that of the Uhlans fallen near Rokitna in 1915.
Rakowicki cemetery in Kraków, photo: Adam Bujak
The Romantic Łyczaków
Łyczaków cemetery in Lviv, photo: Adam Bujak
The following pages of the album are devoted to the romantic necropoleis at the Łyczaków cemetery in Lviv, where Maria Konopnicka rests, among others. It has sepulchral sculptures by prominent European artists, such as the representative of German classicism Hartman Winawer and Cyprian Godebski, who created the monument of Hector Berlioz at the Père-Lachaise cemetery in Paris.
The Rossa Park
Rossa cemetery in Vilnius, photo: Adam Bujak
The authors remind us of the dramatic fate of Rossa in Vilnius, ruined in the days of Soviet Lithuania, one of the most beautiful cemeteries in Europe. Rossa owes its distinct style not only to the unique nature of the tombstones, but most of all to the beautiful landscape, reminiscent of an English park. Here rest professors of the Vilnius University, August Becu - Juliusz Słowacki’s stepfather, and the mother of Marshal Józef Piłsudski – Maria, whose grave is located in the centre of a military cemetery right next to the entrance to Rossa. Her son’s heart was also buried there in 1936.
Gallery of Art at Powązki
Powązki cemetery in Warsaw (Stare Powązki), photo: Adam Bujak
The story about Polish necropoleis ends at the historic Powązki cemetery – a sort of a gallery of Polish sculpture from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Outstanding artists like Jakub Tatarkiewicz and Xawery Dunikowski left their works there.
Adam Bujak (born in 1942 in Kraków) is an internationally renowned artist, photographer, author of more than 100 albums. He became famous as the personal photographer of John Paul II, accompanying him in the most important moments of his pontificate. He is member of the Association of Polish Photographic Artists, the prestigious British Royal Photographic Society, the International Federation of Photographic Art in Switzerland, and has won more than 60 international and Polish awards. He received a Gloria Artis medal for his contribution to Polish culture.
A Few Friendly Questions to JK Rowling About Polish Culture
2015/05/29
J.K. Rowling, photo by Suzanne Plunkett / Reuters / Forum
Dear Ms Rowling,
Amidst the plethora of heartwarming letters from faithful fans whose lives you’ve saved with your writing, one feels intimidated to write you about a sociocultural matter of relative importance, but I would be honoured if you could answer a few questions about depictions of Polish culture in your oeuvre.
Depictions is a bit of an exaggeration. As far as I am aware – please correct me if I’m wrong – Poland is virtually absent from the Harry Potter series, other than some marginal apparitions in Quidditch-related matters. In Quidditch Through the Ages, we learn that Josef Wronski (possibly an anglicised version of Józef Wroński) of the Grodzisk Goblins gave his name to the famous Wronski Feint, a risky Quidditch move notably performed by Viktor Krum in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. Even those discreet appearances did not go unnoticed by your devoted Polish fans. Allow me to translate an excerpt of the Grodzisk Goblins’ entry on a popular Polish website devoted to Harry Potter:
Yes Yes! You heard properly! Polish wizards also took part in the Quidditch World Cup. Our Polish team played in the 1994 world championship, but the only thing we know about our game is that we played against Ireland, which is now one of the top-ranking teams! Were they that good back then? We can only guess. We also know the names of two players of the Polish team – the Grodzisk Goblins – who played in the championship: Josef Wronski (yes, Wroński!) and Władysław Zamojski.
As you can see, any reference to Poland in your writing will be under intense scrutiny. I imagine this is far from being a unique phenomenon: I do not read Bulgarian, but I imagine Viktor Krum is the star of Bulgarian Harry Potter fan clubs. It is also worth noting that Grodzisk is a common town name in Poland and that the names of those players are perfectly plausible, thus proving that a praise-worthy amount of research went into those meaningless details.
However, the fate of the Polish team in the 1994 Quidditch championship is not what prompted me to write this letter. I decided to write you while reading Robert Galbraith’s excellent Cuckoo’s Calling, which features an ambiguous Polish cleaner called Lechsinka, described in the following manner:
A petite young blonde had appeared in their absence, wearing a pink overall, jeans and a T-shirt, and carrying a plastic bucket full of cleaning implements.
"Derrick," she said in heavily accented English, when the security guard emerged from downstairs. "I neet key for two.""This is Lechsinka," said Wilson. "The cleaner."
She favored Robin and Strike with a small, sweet smile. Wilson moved around behind the mahogany desk and handed her a key from beneath it, and Lechsinka then ascended the stairs, her bucket swinging, her tightly bejeaned backside swelling and swaying seductively.
The first element of this compelling image I would like to address is the origin of the name Lechsinka, which is completely baffling to me, and to the near entirety of the Polish nation as well. It is not a Polish name. As far as I know, it is not a name at all. It is so baffling that the Polish translator of The Cuckoo’s Calling had to rename her Lucynka!
Even more strangely, it is nevertheless a very Polish-sounding name, Lech being the mythical forefather of all Poles, and ‘inka’ a conceivable diminutive. It is, with all due respect, a name I doubt you could have come up with on your own, Ms Rowling. If I had to speculate, I would guess that a woman called Lechsinka exists out there (possibly the victim of a narcissistic father called Lech or Leszek who gave his daughter a made-up feminized version of his name) and that she inspired the character. Perhaps you will choose not to reveal the origin of the name in order not to bring unwanted attention to its real life bearer, but I would be obliged if you could at least reassure us that you had no Machiavellian intention to puzzle your Polish-speaking readers into insanity.
Speaking of reassurance, I would also be incredibly grateful if you had some kind words for your Polish admirers, or about Poland in general. I do not question your intentions in the slightest when it comes to your portrayal of Lechsinka. Over the last fifteen years, you have done more than anyone else in order to fight discrimination. I am convinced that you simply wanted to give your readers an authentic taste of life in London, where a considerable number of Polish women work as cleaners, I am sure. Still, I decided to write you because I spend the better part of my work days battling damaging stereotypes about Poland and its citizens. I wanted to write you because I personally know many petite young blondes with heavily accented English, and lamentably, as soon as they set foot west of the Polish border, everyone instantly assumes they clean or sell sexual favors for a living.
Have you ever visited Poland, Ms Rowling? Would you like to? If so, I foresee loads of ecstatic fans preparing their questions about Josef Wronski and the 1994 Quidditch World Cup.
Can you tell your Szymborska from your Sienkiewicz? Do you think you're well-versed (pun totally intended) in your romantics and your modernists? Take our Polish literature quiz to really test your knowledge.
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