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My brother Edward, the photographer

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A hostile reception in Paris
Julia Hartwig Poet
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My brother was under the care of Professor Leger. And this was one of my first encounters – it wasn't my first trip to France, of course, because I'd spent several years there earlier – but it was the sort of contact of someone who arrives from a communist country to a free, democratic country where everything, everything about this person and everything that they do is suspect. And I remember having a conversation with the professor – which was supposed to be about my brother and his operation – during which the professor treated me quite harshly initially, because he asked outright: 'Which side is your brother on politically?' I tried to reply, saying that I hope that this had no effect on… 'I can assure you that he is a devout Catholic and he really has no liking for this government.' This relates to my brother Walenty, who later – during the Russian occupation – was dragged around the security service offices where he was forced to sit on an up-turned stool because he’d been the medic for Parasol – the Parasol unit during the Warsaw Uprising. Since he’d been a medic, had survived the uprising in Warsaw, he continued to work in a hospital.

Leczył się u takiego profesora Leger. I to było takie jedno z pierwszych spotkań – nie był pierwszy mój wyjazd do Francji oczywiście, bo przedtem spędziłam tam kilka lat – ale to było moje zetknięcie się takie człowieka, który przyjeżdża z kraju komunistycznego do kraju wolnego i demokratycznego, gdzie właściwie wszystko, co cały ten człowiek i wszystko co on robi jest podejrzane. I pamiętam, że miałam z nim taką rozmowę, która miała dotyczyć spraw mojego brata i jego operacji, ale on właściwie potraktował mnie z początku nawet trochę jakby brutalnie, bo po prostu pytał: „No, a po której stronie politycznej jest Pani brat?”. Więc starałam się odpowiedzieć, że mam nadzieję, że to nie ma, nie ma wpływu. „No, mogę Pana uspokoić, że jest wiernym katolikiem i naprawdę nie podobają mu się te rządy”. To było takie związane z moim właśnie bratem Walentym, który potem w czasie okupacji rosyjskiej był... był ciągany po urzędach, sadzano go na... na odwróconym stołku, ponieważ był lekarzem „Parasola” – oddziału „Parasola” w czasie powstania warszawskiego. Ponieważ był, przeżył powstanie w Warszawie w dalszym ciągu pracował w szpitalu.

Born to a Polish father and a Russian mother, Julia Hartwig (1921-2017) was a Polish poet, essayist, translator and author of children's books. She studied at the University of Warsaw, the Catholic University in Lublin and the Jagiellonian University in Kraków. Czesław Miłosz called her 'the grande dame of Polish poetry'. Julia Hartwig was one of the few poets in Poland who made masterly use of poetic prose. She translated poems by Apollinaire, Rimbaud, Max Jacob, Cendrars and Supervielle, and published monographs on Apollinaire and Gerard de Nerval. She also translated from English, and published a large anthology of American poetry which she co-edited in 1992 with her late husband, the poet Artur Międzyrzecki.

Listeners: Andrzej Wolski

Film director and documentary maker, Andrzej Wolski has made around 40 films since 1982 for French television, the BBC, TVP and other TV networks. He specializes in portraits and in historical films. Films that he has directed or written the screenplay for include Kultura, which he co-directed with Agnieszka Holland, and KOR which presents the history of the Worker’s Defence Committee as told by its members. Andrzej Wolski has received many awards for his work, including the UNESCO Grand Prix at the Festival du Film d’Art.

Tags: France, Warsaw Uprising, Parasol, devout Catholic, Walenty Hartwig

Duration: 1 minute, 19 seconds

Date story recorded: June 2010

Date story went live: 10 May 2011