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Aleksander Smolar - 'Jews: a Polish Problem' (154/201)

344 views · Published 20 December 2018 · 4:01 · Indexed 6 November 2026

Channel: Web of Stories - Life Stories of Remarkable People · 2018 · News & Politics

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To listen to more of Aleksander Smolar’s stories, go to the playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLVV0r6CmEsFwlxPLurqAOCrabBgGrqLA7

Aleksander Smolar (b. 1940) is a Polish writer, political activist and adviser, vice-president of the Institute for Human Sciences and president of the Stefan Batory Foundation. [Listener: Vitek Tracz]

TRANSCRIPT: There was another issue we published which I'll mention here and which was one of the most important ones in the history of 'Aneks' and possibly resonated the most in Poland. It was the issue that was devoted to Polish-Jewish relations and its title was 'Jews: a Polish Problem'. 'Jews: a Polish Problem' – there were articles, an introduction by Jakub Karpiński called, as far as I remember, 'Asymmetry' meaning that it's a mistake to position Polish-Jewish relations at the same level of responsibility or something like that, asymmetry – as ever with him this was a reserved piece. There was an article by Jan Gross which was the first in a series by him on this subject. You could already clearly see his claws were out, and his attitude which always provoked rebellion in me, but it is, after all, a deliberately provocative piece of writing. There was an article by Włodek Goldkorn, a journalist with 'La Republica' in Italy which was more of a story about a very important book by Yerushalmi – a renowned professor of Jewish history at Columbia University, I think he's no longer alive. 'Zakhor' – the book, 'Zakhor' – is very interesting because he presents how Jews thought about history, how they thought in general – mythology as a way of ordering history. It wasn't until modern times that Jews began to think about history the way it's thought about in the outside world… in a linear way. So that was a very interesting piece and then there was mine which had a few… a great many reprints abroad but also two in Poland. It was reprinted twice on Poland after '89, but during the underground years, so to speak, it was reprinted many times in samizdat publications. It was called 'Taboo and Innocence'. In short it was saying that the Jewish issue in Poland is taboo and that Poles have a tendency to regard themselves as innocent victims of history while maintaining a certain reserve it seems to me. In any case, this collection of articles was hugely popular and it was reprinted a great many times in Poland. However, the profile of 'Aneks' was changing. Initially, it was very reserved relying on reprints of articles from abroad. Later, there was a gradual increase in the number of original articles coming from Poland after which it grew more involved in Polish domestic affairs, in the conflicts which were taking place and the alibi or justification for this was provided by the Polish authors who were writing for 'Aneks' or by the lead articles by Adam Michnik or Jacek Kuroń which we were reprinting. There were also Polish authors, I wrote some articles myself which were expressis verbis political. Judging by the reactions I came across, 'Aneks' became one of if not the most important émigré publications for the young generation. Of course, Kultura has great authority and is an incomparably greater monthly publication and undertaking. Nevertheless, the profile of 'Aneks' and the needs it caters to was closer to people's requirements which was understandable. We had come from the PPR, we had a better sense of it.

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