Launch of Anka Grupińska’s book 12 opowieści żydowskich (12 Jewish Stories), Czarne, 2013.

The landscape of Jewish towns and villages changed irreversibly after 1945. Synagogues, mikvehs, and Jewish butcher’s stalls disappeared, cemeteries grew over with vegetation. Hanukkah candles went out and Purim graggers fell silent. Thanks to Anka Grupińska’s book this bygone world comes alive again, if only for a moment.

What the heroes of the twelve stories all have in common is the fact that they spent their childhood or youth in interwar Poland, survived the Holocaust and stayed in Poland after the war. There is much that sets them apart, too. They come from different Jewish families, rich and poor, traditional and assimilated, religious, Zionist, Bundist. Their experiences differ, as do their beliefs. After decades, they tell of their childhood, parents and grandparents, daily life and holidays, school, friends and teachers. They speak of the Holocaust and the often difficult life in People’s Poland. Thanks to Anka Grupińska’s book, this vanished world comes alive again in their stories – warm, moving, and often tragic.

The meeting with the author will be hosted by Łukasz Krzyżanowski.

Anka Grupińska - author of exhibitions and author and coordinator of oral history projects. She was a contributor to the underground press, co-founder and publisher of the magazine “Czas Kultury”. Published originally in 1991, her book Po kole. Rozmowy z żydowskimi żołnierzami was republished in 2000 under the new title Ciągle po kole. Rozmowy z żołnierzami getta warszawskiego (Always Circling Around. Interviews with the Soldiers of the Warsaw Ghetto). Her other books include Najtrudniej jest spotkać Lilit. Opowieści chasydzkich kobiet (Lilit is the One Hardest to Find. Stories from Hasidic Women), Odczytanie listy. Opowieści o powstańcach żydowskich (Roll Call. Stories of Jewish Insurgents) and Buntownicy. Polskie lata 70. i 80. (Rebels. The Polish 1970s and 1980s).