Gustaw Herling-Grudziński

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Gustaw Herling-Grudziński as a prisoner in the Soviet Union

Gustaw Herling-Grudziński (born May 20, 1919 in Kielce ; died July 4, 2000 in Naples , Italy ) was a Polish writer and journalist in exile.

Life

Polish memorial for Gustaw Herling-Grudziński in Jerzewo , Russia (2009)

Gustaw Herling-Grudziński was a son of Jakub Herling-Grudziński and Dorota Bryczkowska. He began studying literature at Warsaw University , which soon came to an end when, in September 1939, the Germans unleashed World War II and invaded Poland . Herling joined the underground organization Polska Ludowa Akcja Niepodległościowa ("PLAN"). In March 1940 he was arrested by the NKVD while attempting to illegally cross the Soviet-Lithuanian border and sentenced to five years in a labor camp. He was sent to the camps in Jerzewo and Kargopol in northwest Russia. As a result of the Sikorski-Maiski Agreement in July 1941, he was released in 1942 and recruited for the Anders Army in the 2nd Polish Corps . He fought in this unit in North Africa and Italy. For his work at Monte Cassino he received the Order Virtuti Militari from the Polish government in exile in London . After the end of the war, he did not return to the now Soviet-controlled Poland .

From 1946 to 1960 he was a member of the Polish Socialist Party . In 1947 Herling was co-founder of the Polish exile magazine Kultura in Rome and became its co-editor for a while and later its Italian correspondent. He moved to London, where he wrote his report on the experiences in the Gulag , which appeared in serial in the London exile newspaper Wiadomości in 1950 , then in 1951 in English translation with a foreword by Bertrand Russell , in 1953 as a book by a Polish publisher in exile and in the same year as well in German translation in the Federal Republic. Herling wrote for the Polish exile press as well as for various political magazines that showed interest in topics from Eastern Bloc societies during the Cold War . From 1952 to 1955 he worked for Radio Free Europe in Munich . Since his marriage to Lidia Croce, a daughter of the Italian philosopher and anti-fascist Benedetto Croce , he lived in Naples . In Italy he also wrote for the political magazine Tempo Presente , founded by Nicola Chiaromonte and Ignazio Silone .

In addition to various prizes from Polish organizations in exile, Herling received the Premio Vittorini and the Premio Viareggio in Italy in 1996 . After the political change in Poland, his work was also able to appear in Poland, and in 1998 he was awarded the Order of the White Eagle .

A commemorative plaque was unveiled in 2012 by Presidents Bronisław Komorowski , Giorgio Napolitano and Joachim Gauck on Herling's house in Via Crispi in Naples. The Polish literary scholar Włodzimierz Bolecki is working on a critical complete edition.

Works (selection)

  • World without mercy. Experiences in Russian prisons and labor camps. By Gustav Herling (old spelling). 1951.
    • A World Apart. First edition, foreword by Bertrand Russell , Arbor House, London 1951. New edition 2005.
    • Inny świat. Zapiski as well asckie. London 1953. (The book was written in Polish.)
    • World without mercy. Foreword by Bertrand Russell , from the English by Hansjürgen Wille. Publishing house for politics and business, Cologne 1953, DNB 451969863 .
    • For samizdat published as " Rote Weißbucher 9, Cologne 1953", DNB 451969871 .
    • World without mercy. Completely revised by Nina Kozlowski from the Polish original. Hanser-Verlag , Munich 2000. TBA : DTV 2004, ISBN 3-423131799 .
  • The Tower and The Island: 2 Tales . From d. Polish. trans. by Maryla Reifenberg. Cologne: Kiepenheuer u. Witsch, 1966
  • With Conrad's eyes . Translation by Friedrich Griese. In: Marek Klecel: Poland between East and West. Polish essays of the 20th century. An anthology . Berlin: Suhrkamp, ​​1995, pp. 121–149 (first 1957, essay on Joseph Conrad : Mit den Augen des Westens )
  • The Venetian Portrait: Tales . Selected and from the polish. trans. by Nina Kozlowski. Munich: Hanser, 1996
  • Diary written at night . Selected and from the polish. trans. by Nina Kozlowski. Munich: Hanser, 2000

literature

  • Dorota Prońko: Postawy ludzkie w relacji do Boga w rzeczywistości andckich łagrów . Saarbrücken: Wydawnictwo Bezkresy Wiedzy, 2014
  • Jan Hammer: The Gulag in "Inny Swiat" by Gustaw Herling-Grudzinski. An analysis of the Soviet camp system . Munich: GRIN, 2013

Web links

Commons : Gustaw Herling-Grudziński  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Gustaw Herling-Grudziński , Vita at UNHCR (en)
  2. ↑ Gustaw Herling ( Memento from May 6, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Gulaghistory
  3. ↑ Literary portrait - German Poland Institute. Retrieved February 25, 2020 .
  4. ↑ Wiadomości see pl: Wiadomości (tygodnik) in the Polish Wikipedia.
  5. ^ Diary written at night .
  6. ^ Il Vittorini a Herling , in Corriere della Sera , October 1, 1996. Elio Vittorini
  7. ^ Premio Viareggio , at premio letterario viareggio repaci
  8. ↑ In Memory of Gustaw Herling-Grudziński , at Culture.pl , November 20, 2012
  9. ↑ The subtitle ("Experiences ...") is in the DNB, but cannot be found in the book itself.
  10. ^ Herling, London 1951 - Polish-English translation by Andrzej Ciołkosz. Anne Applebaum wrote the preface to the 2005 edition , using Herling's book as a main source for her Gulag book (2003).
  11. ^ Herling, Cologne 1953 - From the English by Hansjürgen Wille, foreword by B. Russell, 276 pages. See also: Shalamov, Solzhenitsyn, Applebaum.
  12. ↑ Herling, Munich 2000 - There is also an edition of the Gutenberg Book Guild.
personal data
SURNAME Herling-Grudziński, Gustaw
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Herling, Gustaw
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Polish journalist and writer
DATE OF BIRTH May 20, 1919
PLACE OF BIRTH Kielce
DATE OF DEATH 4th July 2000
Place of death Naples , Italy