Aleksander Smolar - 'My friends are my real homeland' (49/201)
133 views · Published 18 December 2018 · 1:18 · Indexed 8 November 2026
Channel: Web of Stories - Life Stories of Remarkable People · 2018 · News & Politics
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: I became increasingly involved in Polish affairs for several reasons: obviously because of my temperament, because of my passions, but also because of what Elie Wiesel once said that, ‘my friends are my real homeland.’ My point of reference were my friends and my responsibility towards them played a significant role because I never believed that I would return to Poland, after all, who could have believed that communism would ever fall? So, in other words, I never thought about this, not even as a tourist. They weren’t letting people like me in. I was allowed in towards the end of the '80s for two days when Isia’s father died and then I was given a visa and spent the entire 48 hours with my friends, not sleeping and, of course, I went to the cemetery, too. This was what I did and other friends – I’m speaking about myself here because this is the story of my life which of course involves other people who were also activists.
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