Józef Hen, writer, screenwriter, reporter, author of “No 1 Calls”, “The Fool – a large Husband” or “The diary for a fresh Age”, just turned 102. He's incredibly capable, yet annoying to me.
At the same time, while writing in a way that commands reading, it irritates one-sided communicative and the perception of anti-Semitism everywhere. A surviving symbol of what our environment called the Jewish-commun. Joseph Hen was born to a judaic family, as Joseph Henry Cukura in November 1923 in Warsaw. Parents Rubin Sugar (1891-1945) and Eve Sugar-Gampel (1894-1975), They ran a water and hydraulic company. He was raised in the Warsaw Muranów, where he besides went to school. He utilized the experience of the judaic capital in his later works: “Before the large Pause”, “The Theatre of Herod” or “The conflict of Goat Court”. As a 10-year-old boy, he wrote a letter to “Little Review” edited by Janusz Korczak (Henryk Goldszmita) and began working with the writing. Until the war he published 14 texts there called “letters”. Thanks to this, his writing career has continued continuously for 90 years!
War
He survived the German bombing of Warsaw in 1939. As a 16-year-old, he crossed the green border on his own, and found himself close Lviv. It was an highly hard time for a young man. He found employment in Ukrainian pedagogical school in Dąbrowica. As the Wehrmacht approached Lviv, it evacuated into russian Russia. He worked on the construction of the Lviv-Kiy road, then went to Samarkanda, Uzbekistan. After the war broke out, Germany fled the USSR, hiding on an evacuation train for russian citizens. He wanted to get into Anders' Army, close Saratov. But it didn't work, he was detained by a russian patrol. In 1941 he was incarnated like many another Poles, including those of judaic origin to the Red Army. He doesn't truly realize that part of his resume. Culture reported: “He decided that he did not participate in murderous fighting around Stalingrad. He found himself in a work battalion, from where he fled towards Tashkent. He followed Anders' army, which he reached just before her evacuation to Iran; however, he was not incorporated into the army, getting the lowest military category due to circumcision.” I don't truly realize how he could choose his way in the Red Army. That's not how it works. I don't realize why he's doing this part of his life story. I besides cannot realize why, the problem would be judaic origin in the case of service in Anders' Army. The Second Polish Corps had many Polish Jews in its ranks. There were initially about 4,000 of them.
As we know, even before the Corps arrived in Italy, during his stay in Palestine, a crucial part of them escaped from the Polish army. Many of them later joined the conflict to make a national state of Israel. It is hard to blame them, they felt more judaic than Poles. Even the future Prime Minister of Israel was there Menachem Begin. There were besides Jews faithful to Poland, although it was a minority. 838 Polish Jews fought in the Italian campaign, including 132 officers. Of which 28 died in combat, including 1 officer and 53 wounded. Much of the doctors in the Second Corps were Jews. At the end of the war in Rome, judaic veterans of the Second Polish Corps were appreciated. Kurt Rosenberg was decorated with the Order of the “Polonia Restituta” and Jerzy Kluger with the Virtuti Militari Cross for his participation in the conflict of Monte Cassino. That's why this part of Hen's résumé – or actually Sugar seems completely reliable to me.
Sugar went to Samarkanda, and worked first in the pedagogical school, and later in the alcohol factory. There he met his future wife Irena Lebewal. In May 1944 he was in the 2nd Army of the Polish Army. This year he changed his name from Sugar to Hen. It was not unusual, it was the typical behaviour of Jews at the time. Thanks to his literary ability, he became a war correspondent in "The Voice of a Soldier". There he published his first poem "The Faithful Boat". After years, he admitted that he did not appreciate him very much. The graphic manager was there. Jerzy KarolakFather of jazzman Wojciech Karolak. He founded and led a literary theatre of the regiment “Help Rescue”, for which he wrote texts with Leon Pasternak and Stanisław George Lek. He was directed to the Political Officers School in Lublin, which he graduated in 1945. Going to Krakow with his army, he participated in the liberation from Nazism and Germany successively Rzeszów, Dębica, Tarnowa and Bochni. He was decorated with the Knights Cross. He was in the editorial board of military writings “The White Eagle” and “The Soldier of Poland”. Since 1953 he has collaborated with the weekly “World”. He said goodbye to the reborn Polish Army in 1953. He had a captain's degree.
Works
He described his experiences in the fresh “No 1 Calls”, later screened by Kazimierz Kutz and “The Most Beautiful Years”. He wrote: “It’s actually a shame to admit that in the novel, I was so drawn from my biography, but all the scenes in this book are authentic, unimaginable. I didn't compose any things, I hid them, but I didn't add anything. I truly survived these things.” The protagonist of “No 1 Calls,” as we remember, is 17-year-old Bożek, coming from, like Sugar, like Hen from Warsaw's Nowolipia, who escaped from Germany to the USSR in September 1939. After wandering he found himself in the Asian part of the russian Union. He wanted to see Anders, but was allegedly not accepted due to judaic background. On the occasion of his 90th birthday, the author of “The Most Beautiful Years” made a very accurate message on what could have happened if he had become an anderist: “If I had not died at Monte Cassino, after the war I would have been in the West, I would have returned to Poland, even to look for my family. The destiny of the Polish author was evident to me.” Unlike many of his colleagues, Hen did not want to live in the West, but in real Poland, which was the folk one. He knew that this was where he had a chance at a career and a good life. It was most likely not without meaning that there were many Jews in the power of the day, including the safety of security. During the war, he lost his father, killed in 1945 in Buchenwald. His brother Moses was sent to a camp in Rybinsk, where his proceeding about him was lost in 1944. Sister Mirka was murdered in 1942 by Ukrainians. Stella's parent and sister survived the war and left for Israel and lived there in a kibbutz.
His fresh debut was published in 1947 by the book “Kijów, Tashkent, Berlin. The past of the vagrant’. Although he was most likely coerced, he did not sign up for PPR or PZPR. He besides refused to cooperate with the safety authorities of then Poland. Hen himself believes that he succeeded in being independent in the years of Stalinism (Bermanism) During this time he wrote “The unusual City”. A good novel, with a very pessimistic ending. He himself did not appreciate her. It was actually the first fresh I read by Hen. Based on 3 novels by Joseph Hen, as I mentioned Kazimierz Kutz He shot an excellent “Fighting Cross”. Then there were “Two Adam's ribs” directed by Janusz Morgenstern, as well as “April” and “The conflict of Goat Court”. The next films were the legendary “Right and Fist” [based on the fresh “Toast”] with Gustav Holoubek in the lead function and the unforgettable song “Before the Day” performed by Edmund Fetting. A crucial movie was besides "The Life of Kamil Kuranta" and, in my opinion, besides criticized in our "Old Fairy Tale" environment. erstwhile the Sun was a god.” Hen was the author of scripts for Polish moral prose: “Granica” by Zofia Nalkowska and “Chama” Eliza Peanut. He besides tried his hand as a director, in my opinion, by performing a weak tv series “Pearls and Ducats”. In addition to these films, he was a screenwriter of many others.
Personnel from the movie “Daleka is expensive” (photo)
It is interesting that everyone, like fire, avoids reporting that Joseph Hen was the author of dialogues in the movie Bohdana Poręba “The distance is the road” in 1963. And dialogues in this painting are very crucial and breaking the taboo themes of the day. It's an crucial movie in Poręba's career. He defended Hen and felt he was trying to break out of his natural environment. It was the adaptation of 3 stories Ksaver Pruszyński.
Opposition
Hen moves in the 1960s almost as a oppositionist. I don't think that's true. In 1964 he received the Knight's Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta from the state authorities. From 1966 to 1968, he is an influential vice president of the Warsaw branch of the Union of Polish Literature. Only as many others as Marc 1968 came, he became reluctant to power. He admits this himself in 1 of the interviews: “It most likely started at the extraordinary gathering of the Warsaw branch of the Union of Polish Literaries – the ones we called about the photograph from the “Dziads” afiza Dejmek. I put myself at hazard – erstwhile the celebrated speech of Paul Jasienica, who spoke loudly about anti-Semitism... Jerzy Putrament began to tell that it was a provocation, due to the fact that in fact the organization with anti-Semitism fights. I couldn't stand it, and I yelled out of the mediate rows: No! The organization does not fight anti-Semitism!’.
Joseph Hen played the anti-Semitism card as always. He briefly left Poland for Paris. He got a scholarship there. Financial matters proved more convincing than the alleged anti-Semitism of Poland Gomulka. In an interview on Onet, “Life defends and demands reasons,” he says: “The bank paid me money for 4 months in advance, I got dizzy. I call and I ask, what happens erstwhile I take that money and go home? They were worth 4 or 5 times that in the country. Jeleński behaved in order: “You will do as you think”. He wanted me to compose a communicative while I was there – but I said, "No, I gotta go back first." Hen was aware of the position and possibilities that even post-March Poland gave him.
In 1976, he was 1 of the signatories to the alleged "List 101", which was the support of the people of the cultural planet for the "List 59", expressing a protest against the proposed changes to the Constitution of the Polish People's Republic (it was about the introduction of a evidence of a perpetual alliance with the USSR, the governing function of the Polish People's Republic and the dependence on them to respect the rights of citizens of the Polish People's Republic to fulfil their obligations towards the state). At the time he was not disturbed by the fact that 1 of the signatories of the "Letter 59" was known for its national views by legendary airman Stanisław Skalski. At the same time, despite its environmental proximity, it was not included in the core of the NRA and their associates. On the contrary, he again became Vice-President of the Warsaw Union of Polish Literature (1978-1980), and then its president, until the dissolution in 1983. With the KOR-owski environment already transformed into a dressage, he was much closer to it only in the 3rd Poland. He was feigned by Jan Nowak Jeziorański, Adam Michnik, Władysław Bartoszewski and Tadeusz Mazowiecki. He amazed everyone erstwhile he became a associate of the election committee Vladimir Cimoszevich in the 2005 presidential election. His large 100th birthday was organized at the Polin Museum.
Anti-Semitism Obsession
The subject of anti-Semitism is overshadowed, highlighted, insanely exaggerated. I think it's to the detriment of what it says. He became active with the Parisian Culture George Giedroycia, in which he published 3 short stories under the pseudonym Korab (‘Western’, ‘Oko Dajana’, ‘Bliźniak’). "Western" is simply a completely absurd communicative about March 68. A communicative about Rejtan's Warsaw advanced School, where a past teacher recommended students to read Hitler's "Mein Kampf". He's expected to say there's quite a few interesting things about Jews and Gypsies. Totally absurd. Nobody in their right head is able to believe that in Gomulkowska Poland any teacher was carrying prohitler views. During the meeting, manager Janusz Kidawa was angry about it. Hen's hatred of the Jews has seen and sees everywhere, he says himself: "Anti-Semites are invited everywhere and are protected – possibly more likely he may be in trouble, individual who is protesting against it." Hen indirectly accused of anti-Semitism of an excellent author Zbigniew Załuski. He suggested that he expected him to leave Poland in 1968. In a completely different way, Ryszard Gontrz presented the substance in the interview with the “party” party. He even claimed that Załuski defended Hen as an highly capable and useful Polish writer. He thought he was among the “Zambrowski” most likely by accident. Sam Richard Gontrz he did not share that view.
At a very mature age, he returned to autobiographical novels. Three-part “I Am Not Afraid of Sleepless Nights” and “The diary for a fresh Age”. The continuation of Hen's autobiographical work is published 8 years ago "The diary continues". Unfortunately, it is overflowing with obsessive political courts from the “Electoral Gazette” which causes difficulties in reading it. He went even further in his work “I, the depraved” where he described the years 2016-2018 utilizing even the old Michnikowska, but the CODE of narration. Hen is an highly capable author who is read with large pleasure, even erstwhile he is very annoying. At the same time, he created an incredible ability to compose what will delight the decisive factor, keeping the expected distance from it. He succeeded in the People's Poland and succeeded in the 3rd Poland. He can besides sense, transform, and adapt perfectly to the changes that are coming. Just as 1 of the RMS passengers, Titanic, became a symbol of endurance on the evaluation Margaret “Maggie” Brown (Unsinkable Molly), so the symbol of unsinkability in Polish culture became Joseph Hen. He's been present for 9 decades, and no storm in past has sunk him. During this time, his supporters and antagonists were massively drowned.
Łukasz Jastrzeżski
Photo: Wikipedia
Think Poland, No. 47-48 (23-30.11.2025)
