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Torture at the hands of the secret police

RELATED STORIES

No-one was immune from arrest
Jan Józef Lipski Social activist
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We know very well that the people who were the object of persecutions weren't limited to those who were strictly speaking anticommunists, nor to social activists or people who had ties with the Church, but that they also included people from the party. Gomułka's arrest made people realise that membership of the party, even at a high level in the hierarchy, provided no protection, and could not stop them from being arrested. I wasn't surprised by this because I'd always felt that at least back then I had more information on these subjects at my disposal than most of my contemporaries, meaning, I knew very well what the Moscow trials were and I knew about the Stalinist purges, I tried to read up about these things, I rummaged through pre-war newspapers and publications on dealing with these matters which is why I wasn't surprised, although generally, people were amazed at these arrests when they said, so how come they're arresting their own under such serious charges? Is it possible that they were acting on behalf of someone else's interests? Perhaps, maybe that isn't the case, but maybe there is something in it, in their arrest. That something was never clearly defined, but I have to say that in the cases where I was able to have closer contact, the people from the party who sometimes were long-standing activists with a significant political past which was impressive, whether you like communists or not, I have to say that their past had been impressive, as it hadn't been about beating people up but about fighting with the occupying Nazis. In addition, being a communist in the inter-war years in Poland meant resigning yourself to spending most of your time, most of your life in prisons. Well, this has to be treated with respect even if you think that the political concept that led to this was wrong, crazy, even if you believe that essentially, these people were furthering the interests of the neighbouring superpower, still these life decisions tend to arouse respect.

Rzecz wyglądała w ten sposób, że wiemy dobrze, że przedmiotem prześladowań byli nie tylko opozycjoniści sensu stricto, antykomuniści; byli nie tylko ludzie związani z działalnością społeczną, z Kościołem, ale również i ludzie w partii. Aresztowanie Gomułki było rzeczywiście takim momentem, w którym wszyscy sobie uświadomili, że przynależność do partii, nawet na tak wysokim stopniu hierarchii, nie jest żadną ochroną, że to nie przeszkadza, by zostać aresztowanym. No mnie to o tyle nie dziwiło, że ja zawsze mam takie poczucie, że w tamtych czasach przynajmniej rozporządzałem większą wiedzą na te tematy niż większość moich rówieśników – to znaczy ja dobrze wiedziałem, co to były procesy moskiewskie i czystki okresu stalinowskiego, starałem się czytać coś na ten temat, grzebałem po przedwojennej prasie i różnych publikacjach na ten temat przedwojennych i w związku z tym nie byłem tym zaskoczony; ale przeważnie było takie zdumienie reakcją na takie aresztowania, że jak to, aresztują tych swoich? Pod tak poważnymi zarzutami? Że czy to możliwie, żeby oni działali w jakimś obcym interesie na przykład? Że to chyba... że tak chyba to nie jest, ale coś w tym jest, że ich aresztowano. To coś nigdy nie było jasno określone i muszę powiedzieć, że w tych wypadkach, które ja... z którymi ja się miałem okazję jakoś bliżej zetknąć, to traktowanie tych ludzi z partii, działaczy partyjnych czasami z dużym stażem, z dużą przeszłością polityczną i to taką ładną, czy się lubi komunizmu czy nie, to trzeba powiedzieć, że ich przeszłość była ładna, polegała nie na tym, że odbijali innym nery, tylko że, no... no, że walczyli z okupantem hitlerowskim; a zresztą w Polsce międzywojennej bycie komunistą to znaczyło decydować się na to, żeby większość czasu, większość swego życia spędzać w więzieniach. I to... no to musi budzić szacunek, nawet jeżeli się uważa, że koncepcja polityczna, która temu towarzyszy jest niesłuszna, zwariowana, że nawet jeżeli się uważa, że to w gruncie rzeczy działa się w interesie sąsiedniego mocarstwa po prostu, ale jednak tego rodzaju decyzje życiowe raczej budzą szacunek.

Jan Józef Lipski (1926-1991) was one of Poland's best known political activists. He was also a writer and a literary critic. As a soldier in the Home Army (Armia Krajowa), he fought in the Warsaw Uprising. In 1976, following worker protests, he co-founded the Workers' Defence Committee (KOR). His active opposition to Poland's communist authorities led to his arrest and imprisonment on several occasions. In 1987, he re-established and headed the Polish Socialist Party. Two years later, he was elected to the Polish Senate. He died in 1991 while still in office. For his significant work, Lipski was honoured with the Cross of the Valorous (Krzyż Walecznych), posthumously with the Grand Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta (1991) and with the highest Polish decoration, the Order of the White Eagle (2006).

Listeners: Jacek Petrycki Marcel Łoziński

Cinematographer Jacek Petrycki was born in Poznań, Poland in 1948. He has worked extensively in Poland and throughout the world. His credits include, for Agniezka Holland, Provincial Actors (1979), Europe, Europe (1990), Shot in the Heart (2001) and Julie Walking Home (2002), for Krysztof Kieslowski numerous short films including Camera Buff (1980) and No End (1985). Other credits include Journey to the Sun (1998), directed by Jesim Ustaoglu, which won the Golden Camera 300 award at the International Film Camera Festival, Shooters (2000) and The Valley (1999), both directed by Dan Reed, Unforgiving (1993) and Betrayed (1995) by Clive Gordon both of which won the BAFTA for best factual photography. Jacek Petrycki is also a teacher and a filmmaker.

Film director Marcel Łoziński was born in Paris in 1940. He graduated from the Film Directing Department of the National School of Film, Television and Theatre in Łódź in 1971. In 1994, he was nominated for an American Academy Award and a European Film Academy Award for the documentary, 89 mm from Europe. Since 1995, he has been a member of the American Academy of Motion Picture Art and Science awarding Oscars. He lectured at the FEMIS film school and the School of Polish Culture of Warsaw University. He ran documentary film workshops in Marseilles. Marcel Łoziński currently lectures at Andrzej Wajda’s Master School for Film Directors. He also runs the Dragon Forum, a European documentary film workshop.

Tags: Władysław Gomułka

Duration: 3 minutes, 4 seconds

Date story recorded: October 1989

Date story went live: 09 March 2011