Eugeniusz Kubiaczyk: “Between despair and optimism”

The impetus for creating this monumental work came directly from Karl Dedecius, the renowned luminary of Polish culture in Germany and one of the most well known translators of Polish literature. Dedecius, who, as a German, lived in Poland for many years and published his memoirs in 2006 (“Ein Europäer aus Lodz”, Suhrkamp, 2006, Polish translation to follow published by Wydawnictwo Literackie 2008), spontaneously directed what was initially a rhetorical question to the audience gathered for an event to mark the presenting of his archive to the European University Viadrina in Frankfurt (Oder): “There must be someone among the Poles living in Germany who would describe his time in Germany and, as it were, intrinsically complement my own memoirs.” Eugeniscz Kubiaczyk was among those present, spoke up, and spontaneously accepted the challenge. After thirteen years, he has now presented the complete work which is almost 1,000 pages long. The manuscript, which originally had the title “Dokąd nogi poniosą” (“Wherever your legs take you”), has been in the Porta Polonica collection since 2017. It consists of 5 parts, each of which is devoted to different sections of the story of his family which emigrated to Sanz near Greifswald:

Part 1: Genesis (1903 - 1925)

Part 2: Apokalypsa (1939 - 1945)

Part 3: Exodus (1945)

Part 4: Deuteronomium (1946 – 1991)

Part 5: Jubileusz. Memorandum. Supplement.

Jacek Barski, December 2022