Krzysztof Kamil Baczyński (1921-1944)

                                                 Poet of the Warsaw Uprising 1944

                                        

The poetry of World War 2 varies in significance from country to country. Polish independence after World War 1 encouraged a new wave of Polish literature.CULTURE.PL (2)  A group of poets emerged in time to be caught up in the 1939 occupation of Poland by the Wehrmacht in the west and the Soviet Union in the east, coming under total German control once Operation Barbarossa was launched on 30th June 1941. 

Amongst these poets was  Wladyslaw Szlengel, killed during the 1943  Jewish uprising in the Warsaw Ghetto. The mass deportations of  Warsaw Jews to their death at Treblinka had started the year before. Those who remained in the Ghetto rebelled to make a desperate last stand. 

In the Summer of 1944 the Western Allies had landed in France, and were marching on Paris.  The Soviet Armies were driving into Eastern Europe. Both Paris and Warsaw rose in rebellion in August 1944. However, the Soviets hesitated to realise the potential created by the Polish rebel Home Army turning on the German oppressors,even though a joint Soviet- Polish operation to drive the Wehrmacht out of Warsaw would greatly assist the progress westwards. The Soviets also hampered British and US attempts to fly supplies to the parts of Warsaw held by the insurgents. Certainly there is a strong case to suggest that Stalin was content to see the Polish Home Army greatly weakened in order to establish Soviet control over a post-war Poland.DAVIES, McKEEN, MILTON

The 1944 Warsaw Uprising saw Tadeusz Gajey, Waclau Bojarski, Andrzaj Trzebiaski, all three poets born in 1922,and Leon Stroinski born 1921,take up arms, and lose their lives. CULTURAL.PL(2)  Jerzy Ficowski and Anna Swirszcyriska,usually known as Anna Swir, took part, and wrote poetry about their experiences. GEORGE.  Czeslaw Milosz, originally from Lithuania though later to become a leading Polish language poet, lived in Warsaw from 1940 onwards. Milosz assisted the Underground though did  not take part in the 1944 Uprising. Zbignieuw Herbert, who was to become another major Polish poet, also helped the Warsaw rebels, but not as a combatant, in 1944. It is fair to say that literary opposition to the Occupation played their part in building resistance within the City with poets and artists placing their lives at risk. 

 Krzysztof Kamil Baczyński is denoted by Desmond Graham as 'Poland's main 'war poet'' in his anthology 'Poetry of the Second World War'.GRAHAM  Born in Warsaw in 1921, and entered the literary Left milieu at quite an early age. During the occupation -with colleges and university, Baczyński studied at underground educational establishments and edited a  clandestine left wing publication. He assisted the literary bureau of the Polish Home Army and in 1943 joined their ranks as a soldier. In July of that year he became Deputy Commander of 3rd platoon of the of the 3rd Company of the 'Parasol' battalion. CULTURAL.PL (1) 

Editions of poems from the years 1940-1944:

• Zamkniętym echem (Closed Echo), Warsaw 1940 – 7 copies
• Dwie miłości (Two Loves), Warsaw 1940 – 7 copies
• Modlitwa (Prayer), Warsaw 1942 – 3 copies
• Wiersze wybrane (Chosen Poems), Warsaw 1942 (pseudonym: Jan Bugaj)
• Arkusz poetycki Nr.1 (Poetical Sheet No. 1), Warsaw 1944 (pseudonym: Jan Bugaj)
• Śpiew z pożogi (Singing from the Conflagration), Warsaw 1944 (pseudonym: 2nd Lt Piotr Smugosz)

CULTURAL.PL (1) 

On 3rd June 1942  Baczyński married a student called Barbara Drabcynska, who inspired him to write love poetry. He also studied art, and developed some skill as an illustrator.  On 1st August 1944, when the Warsaw Uprising broke out, he gave a collection of his drawings and poetry to a friend. On 4th August 1944 Baczyński, now armed and taking part in the Uprising, was killed by a German sniper at the Theatre Square in Warsaw. His wife Barbara had also taken part in the fighting, and was killed three weeks later. They were later buried together at  Powazki military cemetery in Warsaw.POLISH POETS UNITES 

One poem by Baczyński  that has recently emerged on the All Poetry website-translated into English is 'Elegy for a Polish Boy' . 

Elegy For A Polish Boy

They've taken you, my son, from your dreams and like a butterfly
they've embroidered you, my son. Your sad eyes bleed ore.
They painted landscapes, yellow-stitched, in horror and gore,
they adorned a hanged man like a tree, the sea's waves to ply.

They taught you, my son, your land and its ways by heart
and by its footpaths you sob iron shards for tears.
They tuned you in darkness, fed you in loaves of terror.
You tread, groping through to dark, the road of fear.

And you ascended at night, my golden son, with a black gun
you perceived in the passing of a minute-bristling evil's thirst.
Before you fell, you hailed the earth with your hand,
did it soften your fall, my sweet child, did the heart burst?

English language translations of Baczyński's poetry have appeared in a few collections and are referenced in Norman Davies's ' 'Rising' 44- The Battle for Warsaw'. In 2004 'White Magic and Other Poems ' by 

 Krzysztof Kamil Baczyński, translated by Bill Johnson, appeared. Now extremely hard to get hold of. 

A Melody

Who'll give me back my musings
and the shadow that left after you?
Ah, these days like animals' murmur,
like plants are they - ever younger.

And before long - such little ones,
on a nutshell standing,
we'll sail against the seasons
as if to spite water rings.

The red of blood will be dreamt childishly
as puffed-out cheeks of a cherry.

The metal of storms will be discovered again
through a foamy blow-ball's head.

While the thunder of tears like an avalanche of stones
into little green beetles will change,
thus bending down to the water by turns
we'll incautiously sail to oblivion;
left behind by us on earth
only our shadows shall cry.

Hopefully a new English language edition of the work of Krzysztof Kamil Baczyński will emerge soon. 

All Poetry  Some Baczyński Poems translated into English 

Culture.PL biography  (1)  Baczyński biog.

Culture.PL page about Warsaw Uprising looking at the literary connection (2) 

Polish Cultural Institute (New York) POLISH POETS UNITE feature on Baczyński (English language) 

Krystof Kamil Baczynski  -Poet Soldier of the Home Army, Warsaw ( Youtube video biography, Polish with English subtitles,accessed on 9th January 2025) 

Other related posts from this blog.

Leon Stroinski (Poet of the Warsaw Uprising)  from 2019 

Wladyslaw Szlengel (Poet of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising) 

BOOKS

'Rising'44 -The Battle for Warsaw' , Norman DAVIES, Pan Books, 2004

'Contemporary East European Poetry-An Anthology' ,Edited by Emery GEORGE, Oxford University Press, 1983

'Poetry of the Second World War -An International Anthology' Desmond GRAHAM, Pimlico, 1999.

'Stalin's War', Sean McKEEKIN, Allen Lane, 2021 

'The Stalin Affair- The Impossible Alliance That Won The War' , Giles MILTON, John Murrary, 2024

Pictures

Image of  Baczyński and the memorial plaque marking the scene of his death, in public domain courtesy of 'Wikipedia'. 

Other blogs and contact 

Other blogs :

Bleak Chesney Wold   19th century history & literature blog

A Burnt Ship                17th century history warfare & literature blog 

Contact: Michael Bully     World War 2 Poetry@mail.com   ( please ram words together without spaces) 

Please note that any errors or schoolboy howlers in the above piece are the responsibility of this writer, and not to be attributed to the sources that have been cited. 

Michael Bully

Brighton,  England, 17th January 2025. 

Wladyslaw Szlengel - Poet of the Warsaw Ghetto

                      Poem: A Small  Station called Treblinka 

                                                 

                                               

Warsaw Ghetto: Zelaznej Bramy (Iron Gate) Square , ghetto wall and Lubomirski palace

Walyslaw Szlengel was born in Warsaw, between 1911-1914, the exact date is disputed. He is most known for using poetry to chronicle the 1943 Warsaw Ghetto uprising.

Writing poetry at an early age, Szlengel was already published in literary journals in 1930. It was not long before he was also writing songs and directing cabaret performances, solely in Polish. Some sources maintain that his father, who died in 1934, was a theatre director. Szlengel spent a few months towards the end of 1939 until the early part of 1940 in the town of Bialystock, which was in the Soviet occupied part of Poland but returned to Walicow Street, Warsaw, which  in November 1940 was incorporated into the notorious Warsaw Ghetto.

The Warsaw Ghetto was the area where all Jews of the City were confined behind barbed wire fences and high walls as from November 1940. Jews from other parts of Poland and from Germany, along with Roma people were moved there with as many as 400,000 people being held there . Overcrowded accommodation, wretched conditions, with only an entitlement to starvation rations, as many as ten per cent of the population perished. Random killings by the Germans, public executions of those who fell foul of regulations, the sight of  inhabitants expiring from illness or starvation,  increased the terror and sense of despair.  On 22nd July 1942,  deportations by train began-supposedly on the grounds of 'resettlement; in the east - but the actual destination was the death camp at Treblinka, around fifty miles north-east of Warsaw. As many as 6,000 people could be moved out in a day.

 Szlengel carried on writing, and performing, managing to secure  regular employment at the  coffeehouse Cafe Sztuka in Lesno Street 2 .  Vladyzslaw Szpilman accompanied various artists on piano including the popular singer Wiera Gran.  Cafe Sztuka is portrayed in Ronan Polanski's 2002 film about Szpillman- 'The Pianist' . The weekly Cabaret night 'Life Journal' was organised by Szlengel and where possible satire was encouraged at the expense of the authorities. It seems that Szlengel was using both Polish and Yiddish by this point. However in Polanski's film, the subversive nature of the cabaret at Cafe Sztuka is missed, and one gets an impression of Jews who had money enjoying themselves in the Cafe, being supposedly  oblivious to the suffering of the wider community. Cafe Sztuka was closed, most likely between 19th-22nd of July 1942.

 Wladyslaw Szlengel and his wife were forced to work in a brush factory, but carried on organising literary evenings, and presenting further poetry   The Ghetto population was gradually reducing due to deportation though the Nazis were prepared to leave 'productive' Jews working. In October 1942 Jewish Resistance groups merged together to form the organisation ZOB. Word reached them that the trains were in fact going to Treblinka , a death camp.

 Having the Warsaw Ghetto largely full of younger and physically stronger people, who had no illusions of the dangers they were in, stimulated a number of skirmishes with Germans and those collaborating with them as from January 1943. When the Germans arrived to organise a final mass deportation resistance culminated in the magnificent  Warsaw Ghetto Uprising that begun on 19th April 1943 and lasted until 10th May 1943. Wladyslaw Szlengel and his wife were shot by Germans when the house they were hiding in was stormed on 8th May 1943.

Though the Uprising was facing impossible odds, it is generally regarded as both an act of great  heroism and defiance but also for inspiring the 1944 Warsaw Rising, showing that the Germans were by no means invincible and could be confronted.

I am pleased to be able to reproduce the  Waldysaw Szlengel  poem 'A Small Station Called Treblinka', reproduced here by kind permission of Halina Birenbaum     from the website http://www.zchor.org which features a selection of his work in different languages on the site  Szlengel webpage 

What makes the poem quite haunting is that it is written in the present tense, and though the station itself seems unremarkable, one can never purchase a return ticket. It is not known how widely circulated the poem was, but certainly resistance workers with in the Ghetto were issuing proclamations desperately trying to warn the remaining populace of the dangers they were in.

                                                 Władysław Szlengel

                                                'A Small Station Called Treblinka'

                                               On the line between Tluszcz and Warsaw
                                               From the railway station Warsaw - East
                                               You get out of the station
                                               and travel straight…

                                              The journey lasts
                                              sometimes 5 hours and 45 minutes more
                                              and sometimes the same journey lasts
                                              a whole life until your death …

                                              And the station is very small
                                              three fir trees grow there
                                              and a regular signboard saying
                                              here is the small station of Treblinka...
                                              here is the small station of Treblinka...

                                              And not even a cashier
                                              gone is the cargo man
                                             and for a million zloty
                                             you will not get a return ticket

                                             And nobody waits for you in the station
                                             and nobody waves a handkerchief towards you
                                             only silence hung there in the air
                                             to welcome you in the blind wilderness.

                                            And silent are the three fir trees
                                            and silent is the black board
                                            because here is the small station of Treblinka...
                                            here is the small station of Treblinka...

                                            And only a commercial board
                                            stands still:
                                           "Cook only by gas"

* Translated from Polish to Hebrew by Halina Birenbaum and from Hebrew to English by AdaHoltzman. Yehuda Poliker, son of an Auschwitz Holocaust survivor from Thessalonika, wrote music to the poem and it is featured  on his album: "Ashes and Dust"

On 2nd August 1943, a rebellion broke out at Treblinka itself, when a number of prisoners raided the armoury and organised a mass breakout. The Germans began to start dismantling Treblinka in the Autumn of 1943, and it had virtually fallen into disuse by the time the Red Army took the district in July 1944. Another reason to read the poem to ensure that the horror of  Treblinka is remembered, along with Warsaw Ghetto Uprising and the mass breakout at Treblinka itself.



Sources

 Wladyslaw Slegel- The Ghetto Poet

Culture.PL -Polish Cultural website

The Manhatten Review

Background information on the Warsaw Ghetto by one of the Uprising's leading participants, Marek Edelman can be found here

General News 

Companion blogs

Great War at Sea Poetry Blog

Bleak Chesney Wold   new blog launched 2nd February 2023 Charles Dickens/ 19th century history

A Burnt Ship    Stuart era War and Literature

UPDATE 2025 

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World War 2 Poetry blog welcomes the new War Poetry Review website run by the War Poets Association