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How Edward survived Siberia
Julia Hartwig Poet
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At that time when I was experiencing these doubts – wondering how I was to behave in relation to, generally speaking, the new government and the new situation – we had all decided to stay in a group since we knew that this would continue for some time and currently, we weren't in a dire political situation – we just had to print so we discussed this altogether. Whereas in my family, one brother was, I feared, in the uprising while the other one, Edward, was immediately... when the Russians entered Vilnus, was arrested straight away by the NKVD [Narodnyy Komissariat Vnutrennikh Del (The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs)] and first spent some time in a cellar somewhere in Lublin and then he was deported with a group of friends – who were also connected with the AK [Armia Krajowa (Home Army)] – he was deported to a camp in Jogle. There was a camp there which wasn't very pleasant because people had to live in mud huts, and we all know what those camps were like – it was a labour camp. He wasn't accustomed to work and had rather a delicate disposition and his life was in danger and if it hadn't been for... here I have an optimistic story... that those people from Lublin, because there were people there from Lublin who knew who he was, respected him, liked him as he really was very likeable having a very trustful and serene disposition; they actually dragged him with them because they were walking... floating logs and to float these logs, they had to walk a considerable distance and they were wearing these clogs which kept falling off their feet so walking in them was very difficult. These people linked arms with him to help him walk because if the Russians noticed that he wasn't able to walk they would simply have shot him, and so he always spoke about these people who were there with him with enormous gratitude because it was thanks to them that he survived. These were the kind of stories from that period which I found very uplifting. Namely, he was in a tent and he was ill, he was being looked after – people did fall ill and fortunately, they didn't shoot people straight away – and it was just at the time the aurora borealis was visible and he said, 'I want to see the northern lights', and they carried him out and put him in front of the tent and left him there, ill as he was, and he said it was one of the most beautiful polar nights he'd experienced, that it was fantastic, that these colours were all changing and new ones kept appearing and spreading across the entire sky. The others went to sleep mumbling 'Stupid Hartwig', but they liked him very much and whatever he wanted they would do for him. So even in a camp like that there can be this sort of a moment... Then later, he wrote in a piece that they were preparing for the museum in Lublin that once, when they were being marched in single file, he saw something which amazed him – a flower growing by the roadside, and he broke ranks to pick this flower which, of course, provoked them to hit him with their rifle butts to make him return to ranks, but he said, 'I managed to hold on to the flower'. This really shows his enormous sensitivity which I appreciated greatly and which is a great attribute in art, including photography.

W tym okresie kiedy właściwie ja tak przeżywałam takie... takie wahania, jak się mam zachować w stosunku do tak ogólnie mówiąc, do nowej władzy i do nowej sytuacji, a... a jednak wszyscyśmy postanowili w grupie jednak zaistnieć, ponieważ wiedzieliśmy, że to jakiś czas trwać będzie – a w końcu chwilowo nas to nie narażało na żadne polityczne konieczności, tylko po prostu mieliśmy drukować – więc trochę żeśmy się komunikowali razem. Natomiast w mojej rodzinie no jeden brat to się obawiałam, że jest w... w powstaniu; a drugi, Edward, został od razu, jak... jak Rosjanie weszli do Wilna, został od razu aresztowany przez NKWD i najpierw spędził jakiś czas w piwnicy jakiejś w Lublinie, a potem go wywieziono razem z grupą innych przyjaciół, którzy także byli związani z AK, wywieziono go do... do obozu w Jogle – jest taki... taki obóz, no bardzo nieciekawy, bo tam... żyło się w ziemlankach, no i jak wyglądały obozy, to wiemy – to był obóz pracy. A on – ponieważ on w ogóle był nieprzyzwyczajony do pracy i był człowiekiem raczej takiej kondycji delikatnej to właściwie zagrażało jego życiu i gdyby nie... I tutaj mam taką jedną z optymistycznych... takie opowiadanie, że... ci ludzie z Lublina – bo tam byli ludzie z Lublina, którzy wiedzieli, kim on jest, szanowali go, lubili go, zresztą on się naprawdę bardzo dał lubić, bo był takim człowiekiem ufnym i bardzo łagodnym – oni mu... właściwie ciągnęli go, bo to oni szli, spławiali drzewo i do spławiania drzewa trzeba było przejść spory kawał drogi i oni mieli jakieś takie chodaki, które spadały z nóg, i było bardzo ciężko iść, i oni go trzymali pod ręce, żeby on doszedł, bo jeżeli Rosjanie zauważą, że on nie może iść to go po prostu zastrzelą, więc on z wielką wdzięcznością mówił o tych ludziach, którzy tam byli razem z nim i dzięki nim on się właściwie uchował. Ale taką on... właśnie takie opowiadanie z tego okresu, które jest takie bardzo dla mnie podnoszące na duchu. Mianowicie on był w namiocie i był... chorował, tam się nim opiekowano – zdarzało się, że ktoś choruje, tak od razu nie zabijali na szczęście. I akurat był okres zorzy polarnej i on powiedział: „Ja chcę zobaczyć zorzę polarną”. I oni go wynieśli przed namiot, położyli go tak jak chorego, jak był i on mówił, że to był jedno z najpiękniejszych nocy polarnych, jakie przeżył, że to było tak fantastyczne, że te kolory tak się zmieniały, nieustannie były inne, inne i ogarniały całe niebo. No, ale oni poszli spać i nawet mówi, jak burczeli sobie „głupi Hartwig”, ale go bardzo lubili i co chciał, to jednak robili dla niego. Także ta... nawet w takim obozie się może zdarzyć jakaś taka chwila, która... A jeszcze on opisuje w takim opisie dla... który robił dla lubelskiego muzeum, że kiedyś szli w takim... szeregach i on zobaczył coś, co go zdumiało – rosnący kwiatek z boku i on wybiegł z szeregu i zerwał ten kwiatek, i oczywiście od razu go szturchnęli kolbami, wsadzili z powrotem, ale mówi: „Mnie się udało ten kwiatek zachować”. To naprawdę wskazuje na taką jego wielką wrażliwość, którą bardzo, bardzo ceniłam i która no w sztuce się naprawdę przydaje jak się okazało – także w fotografice.

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: Jogle, Lublin, Siberia, Russians, Vilnus, Edward Hartwig

Duration: 3 minutes, 46 seconds

Date story recorded: June 2010

Date story went live: 06 June 2011