IDEOLOGICAL FORMATIONS OF WITNESSING THE HOLOCAUST IN WARTIME DIARIES OF JAROSŁAW IWASZKIEWICZ AND MARIA DĄBROWSKA

Abstract

The Polish writers Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz (1894–1980) and Maria Dąbrowska (1889–1965) spent the years of brutal German occupation in Warsaw. Both witnessed the establishment of the Ghetto, the 1942 deportations, and the 1943 Uprising, as well as the attempts of the Jewish fugitives to hide on the “Aryan side” of the city. Yet their war diaries reveal contrasting attitudes toward the destruction of the Jews. Whereas Dąbrowska projected indifference by practically ignoring the evolving genocide, Iwaszkiewicz expressed dismay and compassion. Iwaszkiewicz and his wife Anna engaged in rescuing Jews while Dąbrowska showed no sympathy for the Jewish plight. Such polarized responses to the Holocaust by individuals who were contemporaries, fellow writers, and prominent members of the intellectual elite of Warsaw raise questions about the nature of witnessing and responding to atrocities. This essay posits that the differences in these writers' attitudes toward the genocide of the Polish Jews were indelibly tied to the ideological systems that shaped their self-identities.

Notes

Drewnowski, Rzecz russowska, 42–89.

The discussion of Dąbrowska's fiction does not lie within the scope of this article. Let me just note that her literary writing combined the notion of patriotic love for Poland with universal moral values. Her pre-war career started with the novel Ludzie stamtąd [People from Yonder] (1926), and was followed by the acclaimed Noce i Dni [Nights and Days] (1932–33). Dąbrowska's novels are grounded in Polish rural and small town life, and her literary style combined Romanticism and Realism. See for instance, Folejewski, Maria Dabrowska, 20–3.

Drewnowski, Wyprowadzka z czyśćca, 45. All the translations of Polish quotations into English are mine.

Polacy of Żydach.

Drewnowski, The Matter from Russow.

Radziwon, Iwaszkiewicz, 13–51.

Korzeniewska, Pisma Rozproszone, 186, 189–90, 191. The story, “Wspomnienia” [Reminiscences] was first published in 1927.

Iwaszkiewicz, Książka moich wspomnień, 178, 179, 180.

For the romantic tradition, see for instance, Janion and Żmigrocka, Romantyzm i historia.

For an analysis of the Kraków and the Warsaw Schools of Polish historiography, see Serejski, Naród a Państwo, especially 177–307. See also Davies, Heart of Europe, especially 175–208. On the Kraków and the Warsaw Schools and the “Jewish question” see Engel, “On Reconciling the Histories of Two Chosen Peoples,” 922–6.

Iwaszkiewicz, Książka moich wspomnień, 189.

Iwaszkiewicz, Książka moich wspomnień, 381, 382.

BN (Biblioteka Narodowa [The National Library])/ML (Muzeum Literatury [Museum of Literature]) CD nr 8, Tom II, 11.XI.1917–31.XII.1927. The complete diaries were made available in 2005 and I was unable to obtain a printed copy. My thanks go to Professor Drewnowski who allowed me to use the digital version.

Iwaszkiewicz, Książka moich wspomnień, 184, 185, 186.

Iwaszkiewicz, Książka moich wspomnień, 190, 191.

Julian Tuwim (1894–1953), Antoni Słonimski, 1895–1976, Kazimierz Wierzyński (1894–1969), prominent Polish poets of Jewish origins. Jan Lechoń pen name of the Polish poet and essayist Leszek Józef Serafinowicz (1899–1956. Mieczysław Grydzewski, originally Mieczysław Grycendler (1894–1970) a Polish historian of Jewish origins, journalist and editor of the publications Skamander and Wiadomości Literackie.

For Iwaszkiewicz's recollection of Skamander and his young poets-friends, see the chapter, “Portret Artysty w Młodości” [The Portrait of an Artist in His Youth] in Książka moich wspomnień, 184–208.

Steinlauf, Bondage to the Dead, 16–17.

For the discussion of Polish anti-Semitism in the interwar period, see, for instance, Gutman, “Polish Antisemitism between the Wars”; Melzer, “Antisemitism in the Last Years”; and Rudnicki, Równi, ale niezupełnie, 61–78 (“Antisemitism”) and 78–104 (“Towarzystwo Rozwoju Handlu, Przemysłu i Rzemiosł” [The Society for the Development of Trade, Industry and Handicrafts]).

D?browska, “Doroczny wstyd,” 3.

BN/ML CD nr 8, Tom IV, 26.IX.1934–31.XII.1936.

Ibid.

Dąbrowska, “Doroczny wstyd.”

BN/ML CD nr 8, Tom V, 1.I.1937–7.IX.1939.

Anna and Jarosław Iwaszkiewiczowie, Listy 1922–1926, 195, 180.

Anna and Jarosław Iwaszkiewiczowie, Listy 1922–1926, 205.

Iwaszkiewiczowa, Dzienniki i wspomnienia, 56.

Iwaszkiewicz, Notatki 1939–1945, 9.

Błoński's article “Biedni Polacy patrzą na getto” was first published in Tygodnik Powszechny, 11 January 1987. It is a strong criticism of the Polish attitude toward the Polish Jews during the Holocaust. It urges the Poles to admit their failure to extend help to the victims. The title is a paraphrase of Czesław Miłosz's well-known poem “A Poor Christian Looks at the Ghetto” written in 1943 at the time of the Ghetto Uprising. The persona in the poem, who calls himself, “a Jew of the New Testament,” accuses himself of not fulfilling the moral obligation to help the Jews who perished in the Ghetto. See Nathan and Quinn, The Poet's Work, 17–18.

Iwaszkiewicz prepared the Notes for publication in 1945. All the quotes are taken from the Zawada edition (Wrocław: Wydawnictwo Dolnośląskie, 1991). Roman Kramsztyk (1885–1942), a painter who left drawings from the Ghetto, Aleksander Landau, a musician, died in the Ghetto in 1943, Paweł Hertz, born in 1918, a poet, essayist, translator, and editor, Józef Rajnfeld (1908–1940), a painter and draftsman, Iwaszkiewicz's very close friend (Iwaszkiewicz, Notes, 84).

The conduct of Anna and Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz toward the victims of the German occupation was beyond reproach. Posthumously, in 1987, the State of Israel and Yad Vashem awarded them the medal of the Righteous Among the Nations. The heroic acts of rescue of are summarized in The Encyclopedia of the Righteous Among the Nations (Gutman, 2004), 287. I also have copies of the file (marked by the number 956) that Maria Iwaszkiewicz-Wojdowska, the daughter of the Iwaszkiewiczs, submitted with the application for the medal of the Righteous Among the Nations for her parents. The file includes Maria's recollections of the Jewish individuals whom her parents helped, and the testimony of Joanna Kramsztyk-Prochaska, for whom the Iwaszkiewiczs arranged a hiding place together with her mother in the vicinity of their Stawisko estate. Some of the rescued individuals appear under coded names in Iwaszkiewicz's wartime diary. Maria concludes her recollections with the following statement: “My parents saw the help they extended to endangered people as a natural thing and never sought any distinctions or awards. Now, when their home has become the Museum of Anna and Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz, I, their daughter and the curator of the museum, wish to have a trace of their deeds.”

Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz, “W Stawisku w czasie wojny,” 162–75. Among the persons who asked and received support were the writers Zofia Nałkowska and Maria Dąbrowska. The writer and diarist, Stanisław Rembek also visited Stawisko.

Iwaszkiewicz, Notatki, 102–3.

Iwaszkiewicz, Notes, 10.

Iwaszkiewicz, Notes, 82.

BN/ML CD nr 4, Tom IX, zeszyt 2.IV.1943–1.IX.1943.

Blumenfeldowa belonged to the financial and intellectual Jewish elite in Lwów. Dąbrowska met her for the first time in 1938 when she came to give a lecture in Lwów. Then Dąbrowska and her partner Stempowski stayed with the Blumenfelds when they escaped from Warsaw in September 1939. Then Dąbrowska fell in love with Blumenfeldowa. She visited her in Lwów once more in 1940.

BN/ML CD nr 4, Tom IX, zeszyt 2.IV.1943–1.IX.1943.

BN/ML CD nr 4, Tom X, rękopis, zeszyt 2.IX.1943–5.X.1945.

For Warsaw deprivations see, for instance, Lucas, The Forgotten Holocaust, 30.

Lucas, The Forgotten Holocaust, 10–12.

See, for instance, Jerzy Andrzewski's Wielki Tydzień [Holy Week], a short novel written during the Ghetto Uprising in 1943 in which the Poles persecute hiding Jews but also engage in crimes against fellow-Poles. While the novel represents a large spectrum of responses to the Jews, such as Christian pity and courageous assistance to the Ghetto fighters, the tone of the story both highlights and indicts the prevalent atmosphere of moral disintegration in Polish society.

Iwaszkiewicz, Notes, 111.

Iwaszkiewicz, Notes, 6.

BN/ML CD nr 8, Tom VII, 26.XII.1947 – 5.XII.1948.