After Bereza. Polish literature towards the Confinement Centre in Bereza Kartuska. 1939–2018

• Main Author: Arkadiusz Morawiec
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Lodz University Press 2019-12-01
• Series: Acta Universitatis Lodziensis. Folia Litteraria Polonica
• Subjects: confinement centre in bereza kartuska; concentration camps; polish literature; theme and motif; politics of memory
• Online Access: https://czasopisma.uni.lodz.pl/polonica/article/view/6356

The article concerns the inclusion in the broadly understood Polish literature of the theme and motif of the Confinement Centre in Bereza Kartuska (1934–1939). I discussed in it the formation of the image of the concentration camp since it ceased its operation (in 1939), mainly defined by ideology and politics, including the politics of memory. I particularly focussed on works of literature regarding the Confinement Centre created after the Centre ceased its operations. Those include both recollections, mainly by communists (e.g. by Michał Mirski and Jan Wójcik), and works of fiction, including the short story Jestem by Leon Pasternak, the play Bereziacy by Karol Obidniak and Roman Sykała, and novels: Wzbierająca fala by Czesław K. Domagała, Król by Szczepan Twardoch, and Szakale by Robert Żółtek.