Home from Home. Poland and the emigration of March 68 in  Plotkies

 

Poldek Sobel

 

Introduction – what are Plotkies:

Plotkies is a private internet Magazine aimed mainly at the March generation. It branched out from a discussion group called ‘Świetlica’, active within  ‘Reunion 68’ movement;[1] 51 issues  have been published so far, with 20 to 60 articles per issue. Its publications include poetry, literature, historical articles, memoirs, interviews, chronicle of various social events, current affairs, and other written by members of this group or of interest to it. To ensure  the authors the security and comfort of writing for like minded and, hopefully, sympathetic people, access to Plotkies is password- controlled,. It is partially archived by ŻIH (Jewish Historical institute in Warsaw) and limited access to past issues is granted to bona fide scholars from learned institutions.

Please note that nearly all the texts quoted were originally published in Plotkies (apart from some poetry that was reprinted there with the permission of the authors).

 

Happy times of our youth in Poland

Numerous materials published in Plotkies deal with the memory of Poland before 1968/70. This memory evokes in the reader warm feelings  resulting from being in one’s own social circle. Every issue contains recollections from the past: photographs and texts relating to the time of our youth in Poland;  particularly valuable are reminiscences relating to the Jewish Summer camps, the so- called ‘kolonie TSKŻ-tu’. In the period from 1958 to 1967/8 up to 10 such annual events took place providing up to 3000 places for children and teenagers.[2]

Cited below is one view  on the significance of youth camps for our generation:

Kolonie – [...] to jest jedna z najpiękniejszych rzeczy, która nas spotkała. [..], myślę, że to jest właśnie ta główna i najważniejsza rzecz, która nas łączy.’

[In my opinion] one of the most beautiful things that happened to us were the summer camps. […] I think they are the main and most important element that unites us.

And a more general opinion on the same subject:

Byliśmy ‘Nowymi Żydami’: bez religii, bez znajomości Biblii i pradawnej historii swego narodu (tą niedawną, Holocaustem, byliśmy naznaczeni),bez tradycji bez języka przodków. A jednak mocno świadomi swego żydostwa. I choć większość z nas była zintegrowana w polskim społeczeństwie, a także w kulturze, to jednak kochaliśmy w sobie to szczątkowe, przez pochodzenie, antysemityzm, Holocaust i dom rodzinny, przekazane nam żydostwo. W klubach i na koloniach mogliśmy je pielęgnować i zbliżyć się do podobnie czujących kolegów.

We were ‘the New Jews’: without religion, ignorant of the Bible and of our nation’s ancient history (but marked by its most recent history - the Holocaust),  the traditions and the language of our ancestors. Yet we were strongly conscious of our Jewishness. And although the majority was integrated into the Polish society and  [Polish] culture we loved these vestiges of Jewishness passed down to us through our origins, antisemitism, the Holocaust and the family home. In clubs and summer camps we could nurture it and be close to  friends who felt likewise. There we had an ‘ersatz’ of a Jewish life, the sense of being a community and the opportunity to express this vestigial ‘minimalistic’ Jewishness which was so dear to us.[…] We had our little world where we felt secure and comfortable. And this little world was a negation of the belief that there was no Jewish life in post-war Poland. Because it was possible  to be  a Jew in that place and at that time.

Although Polish children or teenagers were not excluded from these activities (some of our best youth leaders were non-Jewish, like Czesław Prokopczyk or Wiesław [Fred] Łuszczyna, both March emigres), undoubtedly events and activities organised by TSKŻplayed a decisive role in shaping the identity of Jewish youngsters in Poland.

Youth and students clubs that existed alongside TSKŻ branches throughout Poland were equally important. All in all there were about 21 such organizations in Poland.  The Warsaw club ‘Babel’ was just one among many such organizations. Very interesting articles on similar clubs in Szczecin, Lodz and Bytom were published in Plotkies. There was significant interest in the ‘big beat’ music activities in such clubs, especially in groups such as ‘Następcy tronów’in Szczecin,[3]  ‘Śliwki’ in Łódź[4]or ‘Pilpel combo’ in Warsaw. There were also cabarets, for example  one that was run by Natan Tenenbaum in Warsaw in Babel. Other examples of the rich cultural and social life are the youth amateur theatrical gropu in Bytom or the Łódź youth choir and dance ensemble which achieved significant success in Paris in 1966.[5]

The Jewish schools that existed in Poland provide yet another focus of positive memories. They played a role similar to that of the summer camps but  their contribution to the shaping of the Jewish identity of this generation was much more weighty. The after-school clubs – ‘świetlice’ –which were run by Jewish schools evoke the fondest memories in former pupils. In addition there were Jewish Scout groups who organised various activities, some in conjunction with the famous Polish scout group which was run by Jacek Kuron ‘Walterowcy’.[6]

Apart from the so called TSKŻ youth or ‘Visible Jews’ (mentioned above), who  probably do not constitute the majority of the March emigration, there was a group of so-called ‘invisible Jews’ (Joanna Wiszniewicz)[7] or ‘Polish Jews’ who lived a much more Polish life and therefore their memories of Poland may be characterised by what one émigré who now lives in the US said in an interview to  Plotkies:

W Polsce czułem się Polakiem (ale pochodzenia żydowskiego ) - polska kultura, polska literatura, polskie filmy, teatr, muzyka były mi bliskie. [...]. O istnieniu TSKŻ-tu nie wiedziałem aż do czasu kiedy poszedłem na studia.... Nasze życie w Polsce było dobre, naprawdę nie mogę się skarżyć, bo wychowałem się w Warszawie, chodziłem do normalnych szkół – i czułem się dość „normalny”. Mimo iż miałem pozytywne poczucie, że jestem pochodzenia żydowskiego, do marca 1968 roku czułem, że Polska to jest mój kraj i nie miałem ochoty emigrować.

In  Poland I felt Polish (but of Jewish origin) – Polish culture, Polish literature, Polish films, theatre, music were all close to my heart.  I did not know about  TSKŻuntil I started university. Our life in Poland was very good, I really can’t complain. I grew up in Warsaw, went to good schools and felt quite ‘normal’ […] Despite the positive feeling of being  Jewish until March 1968 I felt that Poland is my country and had no desire to emigrate...

In general, there are few stories in Plotkies of virulent anti-Semitism before 1968,  the tone of the reminiscences is positive; it gives the impression that the post-war generation of Polish Jews believes its childhood and youth to be a period of happiness and closeness to its social milieu be it within the Jewish context (mainly outside Warsaw) or  in the Polish society in general.

 

March 68 in memory of the March emigration

We will now address the memories of March. Relatively few drastic stories are published in Plotkies that differ significantly from what is known about  March experiences.[8]There are descriptions of events in which various people were involved, of arrests and other forms of persecution; of  witnessing or being subjected to abuse and physical violence. Typically, these are stories of interrupted lives, including studies and personal relationships. Here is just an example. This is a fragment of an interview with Sofia Brown (Zosia or Serka Lewinter) who in 68 was a student in Wroclaw:

Nie zapomnę Marca 68. Musiałam porzucić moje studia; były to trudne czasy w moim życiu. Wyjechałam sama do Izraela, moi rodzice dali mi błogosławieństwo na drogę ale pozostali w Polsce i połączyli się ze mną po sześciu miesiącach.

Mówiąc bardziej ogólnie, współżycie polsko- żydowskie, które trwało przez wiele stuleci wtedy dobiegło kresu. [...] Ostatni Żydzi zostali wygnani z Polski po 1968 r.

Po wyjeździe z Polski próbowałam zapomnieć o tym wszystkim, o tym kraju i o ludziach tam żyjących. Wyrzuciłam ze swojej świadomości moją polska przeszłość. Miałam traumę. Nie chciałam mieć nic do czynienia z tym krajem

I will not forget March 68. I had to abandon my studies; it was a difficult time in my life. I went to Israel on my own; my parents gave me their blessing  but they remained in Poland and joined me only 6 months later.

In general,  the Polish-Jewish co-existence that had existed for  centuries at that time came to an end. […] The last Jews were exiled from Poland in 1968.

After leaving Poland I tried to forget that country and the people there. I banished my Polish past from my consciousness. I suffered a trauma. I wanted to have nothing to do with that country.

Another story about personal experiences of March 68 is, I believe, of particular interest to historians, for it illustrates the more sinister, the tragic aspects of the March experience; it is told by an Israeli scholar:

25 lutego (68) wraz z dwoma kolegami odwiedziliśmy profesora Mariana Małowista. Mistrz siedział w fotelu i płakał. Pokazał nam ulotkę, która wyjął ze skrzynki. W niej milicyjno-endecko-komunistyczny grafoman, przedstawiający się jako Mickiewicz, wzywał: Żyda za pejs i za morze.

Profesor Małowist, niedopałek z Getta Warszawskiego, podobno członek grupy Oneg Szabat, był jednym z największych polskich mediewistów i specjalistów od historii społeczno-gospodarczej [...] Wypichcilismy wiec petycję do rektora UW, w której domagaliśmy się idiotycznie i naiwnie, aby rektor zażądał od milicji śledztwa w sprawie ulotek o treści zakazanej kodeksem karnym.

On the 25 of February (1968) I visited prof. Marian Małowist with two friends. Our Master was sitting in an armchair and crying. He showed us a leaflet he had found in his post-box. In it a police-fascist-communist scribbler, who signed his name as Mickiewicz, called : ‘To grab the Jew by his side locks and throw him over the sea’. 

[For the uninitiated] - prof . Małowist was a survivor of the Warsaw Ghetto, probably a member of the Oneg Shabat circle, one of the leading Polish  medievalists and a specialist on social and economic history. … We prepared a petition to the Rector of Warsaw University where, stupidly and  naively, we asked him to demand  from the police to open an investigation on distribution of leaflets containing statements prohibited by the Criminal Code.

The shock dealt by the March events  is perhaps  best expressed in the poetry of Anna Frajlich-Zając,Tamara Sławny,  Andrzej Zalewski, Wolf Greczanik, Eleonora Sekler and other  March émigrés (some of this poetry will be published in the March issue of  ‘Migotania’ - Polish literary magazine). The strongest poetic statement, however, came from Natan Tenenbaum[9]:

Chochoły

…I wiedeńskim pociągiem wyjeżdża dziś Rachel
Z Dworca Gdańskiego obok ‘Umaschalgplacu’
„Dziś odbyły się w kraju liczne wiece, które
w dziesiątkach rezolucji i tysiącach listów
Zażądały, by oczyścić już literaturę
ze syjonistów....”
„Vox populi – vox dei”.
Tak lud postanowił!
... Więc opuszcza „Wesele” Rachela z Bronowic
Z nią krewni, cudzoziemskiej Dywersji filary –
Więc ojciec, doktor Szuman i dziad, Jankiel stary.

Chochoły

...Today in the train bound for Vienna Rachel leaves
From the Gdansk Station by the Umschalgplatz.
‘Today many meetings were held in our country, and in dozens of resolutions and thousands of letters
Demanded to purge its literature from Zionists’
‘Vox populi – vox dei’. The people has decided
… And so Rachel from Bronowice is leaving the “wedding” behind
With her folk, the pillars of foreign sabotage
That’s her father Dr Szuman, and granddad, the old Jankiel

Another voice,  that of Tamara Sławny (based in the USA) thus describes  these tragic events.[10]

Ostatnie Transporty

Już nie ma Baumów i Rubinów
Już nie ma Szteinów i Bursztynów
Już wszyscy znikli z horyzontów
I tylko niedobitki wypełzają
Z najprzeróżniejszych kątów

Ostatnie zahukane żydowskie transporty
Oddają na policji ich polskie paszporty

W pociągach siedzą przestraszone gromadki
O takich czarnych pokręconych włosach
I tak przedziwnie pogarbionych nosach
Pociąg rusza i w świat ich wywozi
I teraz już nareszcie Polsce nic nie grozi
I teraz już nad Wisła będą się rodziły
Rasy czyste, piękne i wysokie
Jasnowłose i niebieskookie

I teraz już nad Wisła jest tylko spokój i cisza
I wszystko jest już rozwiązane
Bo te piąte kolumny zostały przegnane

Final Transports

No Baums no Rubins are left
Nor Steins and no Burshteins either.
They have all disappeared from the horizon
And only the survivors crawl out
From various corners

Last cowed Jewish transports
Hand over their Polish passports to the police

Frightened groups sit in the trains
Their curly black hair
And strangely hooked noses

The train goes into the world
Finally Poland is no longer in danger.

On the banks of the Vistula river only children of a pure race
Will be born: beautiful, tall

Everything is quiet now
On the banks of the Vistula river
Everything has been resolved
Because the 5th column was chased away.

This is how another poet, Leonora Sekler, presents the same situation.

My

Wszystko ma skutki, wszystko ma przyczyny,
tylko my nie wiemy dlaczego cierpimy,
czemu wędrujemy, czemu wciąż tęsknimy...

Czasem grymasimy:
Jedwabne 41 – nie jest jedwabne...
Kielce 46 – nie są powabne...
Październik 56 – za dużo opadłych liści...
Marzec 68 – wiosenny wiatr porywisty...

Gdy uciekamy... nie wybieramy.
Gdy emigrujemy... nie lamentujemy.

My, naród poniżany,
czasem przechrzczony,
naród przerzedzony,
Naród Wybrany...

We

Everything has an outcome, everything has a reason,
Only we do not know why we suffer,
Why we wander, why are we constantly longing….

Sometimes we grumble
Jedwabne 41 – is not silky
Kielce 46 – is not attractive
October 56 – too many fallen leaves
March 68 – spring’s blustery wind

When we flee… we do not choose
And when we emigrate… we do not lament

We, the humiliated people,
Sometimes converted
A people decimated
The chosen people.

The trauma of March events is often evoked in interviews, reminiscences, short stories and  in longer novels, for example in the novel by Viktoria Korb (Germany) published originally in Plotkies or by in the work of Maria Sztauber (France) published before Plotkies begun publication; it is expressed in the works of Eli Barbur and Viola Wein (Israel) and, mainly, in the numerous books of Michał Moszkowicz (Stockholm).[11]

The one single event, which was felt most poignantly by all those who left after 68, was the enforced surrender of Polish citizenship and the ban on travel to Poland for 20 years following emigration

Tamara Slawny expressed it most graphically:

Obywatelstwo
Nie, nie
Nie zabierajcie
Zostawcie to jedno
To obywatelstwo z taką dumą zdobyte
[..]
Zabierzcie wszystko, tylko zostawcie
To obywatelstwo
Do którego każdy z nas miał przecież prawo

Citizenship
No, no
Don’t take it away
Leave just this
This citizenship obtained with such pride
[…]
Take everything else, but leave just this
This citizenship to which
after all, we all had the right.

On the 35^th anniversary of March 68 Michał Moszkowicz summed this issue as follows:

„Sprawa marca” czyli nagłośniona monstrualnie nagonka antysemicka na obywateli polskich pochodzenia żydowskiego nie została nigdy politycznie i moralnie przez państwo polskie rozliczona. [...] Chodzi tutaj nie tylko tyle o ustalenie prawdy historycznej, ile o ustalenie winy i zadość uczynienie krzywdzie moralnej i fizycznej zadanej przez państwo polskie swoim własnym obywatelom.
W „sprawie marca” zbiegają się dwie zasadnicze rzeczy: bezprawne pozbawienie praw obywatelskich i rozbicie osobowości i identyfikacji narodowej u żydowskich ofiar.

Te dwie sprawy nigdy nie zostały naprawione w sposób emocjonalnie, intelektualnie i prawnie rzetelny.

‘The March question”, i.e. the vociferous anti-Semitic campaign against Polish citizens of Jewish origin, was never politically or morally settled by the Polish State […]. The problem is not just the establishment of the historical truth but finding those who were guilty and compensate  the moral and physical harm inflicted by the Polish state on its own citizens. This  question is twofold: illegal stripping of civil rights and  breaking-up of the personality and national identity of the Jewish victims.

These two problems have never been put right properly, neither emotionally, intellectually nor legally

The position upheld by Michał Moszkowicz, who suffered the fate of a  writer in exile along with  ‘normal’ difficulties connected with enforced emigration, is probably among the most extreme and most clearly formulated.

Viktoria Korb, the author of a book dealing with March events,  Ni pies ni wydra (‘Neither fish nor fowl’) wrote at the same time as Michał:

Otóż niewątpliwie wyjeżdżając z Polski uniknęliśmy nie tylko dalszych upokorzeń, ale i dość biednawego, szarawego, zaściankowego czyli jak to się mówi "siermiężnego" życia w zamkniętym polskim bagienku Gomułek i Gierków w jakimś M-3 "za te polskie dwa tysiące" i z paszportem zagranicznym z łaski ubecji. Zażartowałam więc kiedyś wobec pewnego znanego polskiego reżysera, że może należałoby ucałować grób Moczara za wykopanie nas z tego polskiego "raju", na co ten mnie wyśmiał, przypominając, że każdy powinien mieć prawo udać się dokąd chce i bez kopa. Ale ja dalej sądze, że ten kop w sumie nam dobrze zrobił...

Undoubtedly,  having left Poland we not only avoided further humiliation but also a life at once  poor, grey and provincial…( in the closed Polish swamp of Gomulkas and Giereks,)  in a tiny flat on a miserable income, with a foreign passport issued only by the grace of the Secret Police. I joked once, speaking with a famous Polish film director, that possibly one should kiss the grave of Moczar, for having been kicked out from this Polish “paradise” but he just mocked me saying that everybody should have the right to go where they want without  being  kicked out. But I still believe that at the end of the day this kick did us a lot of good.

 

Current  Attitude to Poland

What is the current attitude of the émigrés in general to the issue of engaging with Poland? One émigré, who was among the main protagonists of  March 68 events, Józek Dajczgewand, attempted to establish a political movement (Hatikva 68) aimed at engaging the Polish government in a dialogue with the émigrés but it ended in a resounding fiasco. Another émigré commented on the Hatikva project as follows:

Konkretnie i bez zbytniej stylistyki tworzymy dwie dość rożne grupy:
- ci co z Polski wyjechali w konkretnych okolicznościach i nie widzą żadnych powodów żądać czegokolwiek, wracać do czegokolwiek i nawet rozmawiać z kimkolwiek w sensie naprawczym. Ja do tej grupy należę i jeśli o mnie chodzi to ewentualna reparacja moralna to mogą się Kaczynscy
i inni "inscy" udławić.
Ja z Polski wyjechałem i nie nazywam tego emigracja jako że w mojej definicji emigracji myśl o powrocie jest jej częścią nieodłączna tak jak ewentualne rozliczenia
- ci co z Polski emigrowali i przez całe lata żyli Polska, Solidarnością i wszystkim co ich wiązało
psychicznie i niemal fizycznie z tym krajem. Jak tylko okoliczności na to pozwoliły cześć nawet wróciła a cześć wprawdzie nie wróci ale ma z Polska niewyrównany rachunek krzywd, który chce jakoś tam wyrównać.

To be specific… we form two quite distinct groups:

 -   those who left Poland in specific circumstances and do not see any reason to make any demands, to return to anything or even talk to anybody about  ‘rectifying’ things. I belong to this group and as far as I am concerned I am not interested in any moral compensation. (The Kaczyński brothers or anybody else may get stuffed with it). I left Poland and do not consider it emigration because in my definition of emigration the idea of return constitutes its integral part, as is the eventual settling of accounts;

-   those who emigrated from Poland and for years Poland, Solidarity and everything that linked them mentally and almost physically with this country was their life. As soon as circumstances permitted some of them even returned to Poland and some still have accounts of their wrongs to settle, which they try to do.

In this context one ought to mention the question of regaining Polish passports or citizenship taken away in the wake of March 68 emigration. This topic is touched upon time after time in Plotkies, usually in the context of difficulties in regaining them and refusals. One case, that of Sofia Braun, a deeply religious woman who lives in Israel, is presented in some detail in Plotkies since her application was refused three times, recently by the Administrative Tribunal. During the process of trying to regain her citizenship she heard  the following explanations from various Polish officials:

1. Przecież nikt do Pani nie strzelał, żeby Pani wyjechała z Polski. (Powiedziano w Ambasadzie Polskiej w Tel-Avivie)

2. Władze polskie umożliwiły Żydom wyjazd w 1968, jako ze chcieli oni (Żydzi) poprawić swoja sytuacje ekonomiczną, wyjeżdżając do Państwa kapitalistycznego (Izrael). Polacy nie mieli tego przywileju i dlatego pozbawienie obywatelstwa polskiego nie zrobiło im (Żydom) żadnej szkody.

3. Na posiedzeniu tego Sadu rozpatrującego apelację w sprawie odmowy uznania obywatelstwa w Warszawie. Sędzia powiedział,
"przecież nikt nie zmuszał Pani Serki Lewinter do wyjazdu do Izraela".

1. Nobody was firing at you to force you to leave Poland (this was said in the Polish Embassy in Tel-Aviv)

2. The Polish authorities enabled the Jews to leave in 1968 because they (the Jews) wished to improve their economic situation by going to a capitalist country (Israel). The Poles did not have this privilege and for that reason stripping them of their Polish citizenship did them no harm.

3. During the session of the Court examining her appeal against the refusal to recognize the citizenship the Judge commented: ‘After all, nobody forced Ms Serka Lewinter to go to Israel”

Nevertheless Sofia Braun continued her strugle and in the end regained Polish citizenship.

The émigrés attitude to Poland is also affected by the reoccurrences of popular as well as institutionalized anti-Semitism which unfortunately still  happen. 

 

The older generation

And what about the generation of our parents, a group I have not represented here adequately, mainly because when ‘Plotkies’ came into being not many from that generation were around to tell their stories. Their stories often hark back to WWII as the central event of their life.  But in reality members of the older, Holocaust generation were the real victims of March 68 and Jaff Schatz deals with this issue in his works.[12]  Here is one voice of a person from the parents’ generation who died a few years ago.

Ms Maria Strelcyn, the wife of a prominent professor of African studies, who had left Poland in 1969, said in an interview to Plotkies in 2003

Na pytanie w wywiadzie czy kompensacja za krzywdy marca jest możliwa

Ja osobiście nie życzę sobie
otrzymania jakiegokolwiek zadośćuczynienia za krzywdę Marca. Nie wyobrażam sobie jakie zadośćuczynienie mogłoby być czy jeszcze jedna słowna konstatacja krzywdy (czy to ma jakiekolwiek znaczenie?) lub zwrot polskiego paszportu, jeżeliby się o to wystąpiło. To są czcze gesty wobec tego co się w 1968 r. stało. Nie widzę żadnej formy  zadośćuczynienia, która by mnie zadowoliła.

When asked in an interview for ‘Plotkies’ whether any compensation for the wrongs of March from Polish authorities  is possible, she replied:

Personally I do not wish to receive any compensation for the wrongs of March. I cannot imagine what form it could take, whether yet another statement of wrongdoing (does it have any significance?) or the return of a Polish passport  if one would ask for it. These are empty gestures compared with what happened in 1968.

 

Home from Home outside Poland

Thus one could say that for the generation of post-war Polish Jews ‘Plotkies’ provide ample evidence that March was a generation defining event. In this generation the times preceding 1968 in Poland evoke the sentiment that life was cosy, safe and pleasant, that it unfolded in a closely knit community bound by common experience of childhood and youth, both Jewish and Polish. This world, however, was destroyed by the events of March 68.  Any serious attempt of its resurrect  within the Polish context has so far failed.

Despite returning to their native land for holidays, reunions, conferences and Jewish events Poland became more and more remote to most of  the immigrants. The return of some people from Israel and other countries was, as a rule, prompted by business considerations rather than personal motives. The only events in Poland that attract some interest in émigré circles are the two main Jewish festivals: in Cracow  and in Warsaw. There were also group visits to Poland of émigrés from Israel and excursions called ‘In the footsteps of Polish Jews’ organised by the Danish Coordination Committee. The two Reunions of émigrés from Szczecin, organised in their native city, are in a way unique but those were not events concerned exclusively with March émigrés but Szczecin émigrés as a whole.

I would venture a suggestion that the only attempts at genuine revival of the pre-68  ambiance are the meetings that take place in Ashkelon, Mullsjo (summer camp in Sweden),   during summer holiday in Denmark (organized by Danish Coordination Committee), weekend seminars organised by the Swedish Coordination Committee, similar events in the USA and Jewish Schools reunons - all these amply illustrated in Plotkies!   This is the only way to recapture the atmosphere of our youth. However, this is probably a topic for another lecture!