Zofia Nałkowska (1884–1954)
Author of Medallions
About the Author
Works by Zofia Nałkowska
Dziennik czasu wojny 10 copies
Dzienniki 1930-1939 (część II) 2 copies
Kobiety 2 copies
Pisma wybrane 2 copies
L'amore cattivo 2 copies
Dzienniki 1930-1939 tom 1 1 copy
Dzienniki, t. IV: 1930-1939 1 copy
Dragostea Teresei Hennert 1 copy
Granica 1 copy
Dom nad łąkami : powieść 1 copy
Associated Works
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Canonical name
- Nałkowska, Zofia
- Birthdate
- 1884-11-10
- Date of death
- 1954-12-17
- Burial location
- Powązki Cemetery, Warsaw, Poland
- Gender
- female
- Nationality
- Poland
- Birthplace
- Warsaw, Poland
- Place of death
- Warsaw, Poland
- Places of residence
- Warsaw, Poland, Russian Empire (birth)
Warsaw, Poland - Education
- Flying University (underground Polish education during Russian rule)
- Occupations
- author
- Organizations
- Biuro Propagandy Zagranicznej
Związek Literatów Polskich
PEN Club
Sejm PRL - Awards and honors
- Nagroda Literacka miasta Łodzi (1929)
Państwowa Nagroda Literacka (1936)
Złoty Wawrzyn Polskiej Akademii Literatury (1936)
Państwowa Nagroda Literacka (1953) - Short biography
- Zofia Nałkowska (n. 10 Novembro 1885, Varsovio; m. 17 Decembro 1954 en Varsovio) estis pola verkistino. Post la fino de la dua mondmilito ŝi kiel membro de internacia esplorkomisiono pri la krimoj de Germanio en Pollando (Główna Komisja Badania Zbrodni Niemieckich w Polsce) vizitis naziajn koncentrejojn. La literatura rezulto de tiuj travivaĵoj pri la holokaŭsto estas ŝia verko Medalionoj (pole: Medaliony). En ĝi ŝi detale priskribas la la terurajn suferojn de poloj sub la nazia rego. Ĝi komenciĝas per la sekva, ofte citita frazo: "Homoj al homoj preparis ĉi tiun sorton" ("Taki los zgotowali ludzie ludziom"). Tiu ĉi malampleksa prozaĵaro, publikigita tuj post la milito, fariĝis grava literatura teksto kaj daŭre estas multe legata en polaj lernejoj.
Zofia Nalkowska was born in Warsaw, the daughter of a famous geographer and scholar, and received an excellent education at home. She became one of the country's most distinguished feminist writers and produced novels, novellas and stage plays. Her second novel, Romans Teresy Hennert (Teresa Hennert’s Affair), published in 1924, a scathing social satire, was her first major success. At the end of World War II, Zofia actively supported the Communist regime in Poland. Her collection of short stories entitled Medaliony (Medallions) in 1946 dealt with eye-witness accounts of genocide in Poland as recounted to her. Her own personal diary, entitled Dzieniki, was published in 1975.
Members
Reviews
It's a shocking, factual account of the atrocities committed in Poland in different concentration camps, on the way to them, in Jewish ghettos, and other places of extermination. Nalkowska relates them with no comment, or apparent emotion. Only the motto to the collection hints at the author’s shock and disbelief: “Ludzie ludziom zgotowali ten los.” (People did it to people.)
The accounts come from the hearings of witnesses, detained workers at the camps, a German anatomy professor’s assistant (the professor himself- Dr Spanner- fled in 1944), a cook, an undertaker (or more accurately a woman who took care of graves), people from transports, and direct descriptions of what was left behind in situ. Nalkowska, a playwright and author, was a member of the commission called to examine the crimes against humanity committed during WW II in Poland.
Among the more shocking ones is the description of the production of soap from the cadavers’ fat, but contrary to popular belief, most prisoners in this particular institution in Gdansk-Wrzeszcz, were ethnic Poles.
I had to read it years ago as a part of the high school curriculum in Poland, and having just re-read it, I am equally shocked, and more confident than ever that everybody should read it just to remember what people are capable of.
By the way, there is no subtitle (Jewish Lives) in the Polish version, and in fact, the book is about the extermination of Poles, Jews, and other nations.
Link: Medaliony by Nalkowska (in Polish)
http://www.nowakowska.piwko.pl/materialy/lektury/zofia_nalkowska/medaliony.htm
Link to World War II Atrocities in Poland (Wikipedia)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazi_crimes_against_ethnic_Poles
… (more)
The accounts come from the hearings of witnesses, detained workers at the camps, a German anatomy professor’s assistant (the professor himself- Dr Spanner- fled in 1944), a cook, an undertaker (or more accurately a woman who took care of graves), people from transports, and direct descriptions of what was left behind in situ. Nalkowska, a playwright and author, was a member of the commission called to examine the crimes against humanity committed during WW II in Poland.
Among the more shocking ones is the description of the production of soap from the cadavers’ fat, but contrary to popular belief, most prisoners in this particular institution in Gdansk-Wrzeszcz, were ethnic Poles.
I had to read it years ago as a part of the high school curriculum in Poland, and having just re-read it, I am equally shocked, and more confident than ever that everybody should read it just to remember what people are capable of.
By the way, there is no subtitle (Jewish Lives) in the Polish version, and in fact, the book is about the extermination of Poles, Jews, and other nations.
Link: Medaliony by Nalkowska (in Polish)
http://www.nowakowska.piwko.pl/materialy/lektury/zofia_nalkowska/medaliony.htm
Link to World War II Atrocities in Poland (Wikipedia)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazi_crimes_against_ethnic_Poles
… (more)
Awards
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Associated Authors
Statistics
- Works
- 31
- Also by
- 2
- Members
- 223
- Popularity
- #100,550
- Rating
- 3.9
- Reviews
- 7
- ISBNs
- 58
- Languages
- 9
- Favorited
- 1
By sally tarbox on 15 April 2018
Format: Paperback
This is such a short work - just 49 pages- but so immensely horrifying, as the author (a member of the Commission investigating Nazi war crimes) describes events in wartime Poland.
The chapters are written as accounts by witnesses; calmly, as if merely narrating facts - and all the more powerful for that. Men investigating an anatomical institute where corpses were rendered into soap; memories of a camp survivor; an escapee from a cattle truck transport...
A masterpiece of Holocaust literature.… (more)