Henryk Grynberg
Encyclopedia
Henryk Grynberg is a Polish-Jewish
writer and actor who survived the Nazi occupation. He was an award-winning novelist, short-story writer, poet, playwright and essayist who had authored more than thirty books of prose
and poetry
and two drama
s. Grynberg, known as the “chronicle
r of the fate of the Polish Jews”, tackled in his writings the Holocaust experience
and the post-Holocaust trauma
.
.
From Henryk Grynberg:
I never informed on any one - I was not even asked to do so - and my contacts with Polish Intelligence lasted no more than five months. Then I simply stopped showing up, which was easy because I never accepted any payment from them. A document in my files at the IPN says, "His recruitment assumed future utilization in Izrael and subsequently in the USA. After finishing his studies, Grynberg showed unwilingness to further collaboration. For this reason, the 1st Dep. resigned from further contacts with him." That ultimate "unwilingness" I expressed in 1959 when an intelligence agent wanted me to take with me a letter to Israel and I refused. I revealed my recruitment – or rather attempt at recruitement – to the FBI when applying for U.S. citizenship and for a sensitive position with U.S. Information Agency (which I held for 20 years). The note "Collaboration with Communists," so prominently placed, directs undue attention to a very short and meaningless episode in my biography.
. As an actor, Grynberg had connections with the Jewish State
Theater company in Warsaw. It was during this time when he started publishing prose and poetry.
While the Jewish State Theater company was on tour in the United States in late 1967, he refused to return to Poland. This defection
was an act of protest against the communist regime's anti-Jewish propaganda, and against the censorship
of his writings.
In 1971, after two years of attending graduate studies at UCLA, Grynberg received an M.A. in Russian Literature
and moved to Washington, D.C.
, where Grynberg worked for the U.S. Information Agency (particularly for Voice in America) for a period of twenty years.
and in the United States – Grynberg narrated the stories of “those who died during the war and of those who survived to live afterwards in Lodz, Warsaw, or New York, struggling to come to terms with their own memory and with the fact that others did not remember.” His works were also described as characteristically abundant in “biographical and autobiographical material”, where his Jewish protagonists are the narrators whose personal experiences were “supplemented by the experiences of other ‘survivors’”.
Grynberg was a recipient of all major Polish literary prizes, and of the 2002 Koret Jewish Book Award. He also contributed to the Polish press and English-language journals. His essays and articles appeared in publications such as the Commentary, the Midstream, and the Soviet-Jewish Affairs in London
. Grynberg’s books had been published in English translation, namely novels, Child of the Shadows (Vallentine Mitchell, London, 1969) - reedited as "The Jewish War and the Victory" (Northwestern University Press, 2001); the sequel, The Victory (Northwestern University Press, 1993); documentary prose, Children of Zion (Northwestern University Press, 1997), translated by Jacqueline Mitchell, and "Drohobycz, Drohobycz and Other Stories" (Penguin Books, 2002) translated by Alicia Nitecki, edited by Theodosia Robertson.
Grynberg's books were also translated into the French
, German
, Italian
, Hebrew
, Dutch
, as well as Czech, Hungarian, and Swedish languages.
Grynberg's books: "Drohobycz, Drohobycz," "Memorbuch," "Monolog polsko-zydowski" [Polish-Jewish Monolog] and Uchodźcy (Refugees were nominated for Poland's Nike Literary Award
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
writer and actor who survived the Nazi occupation. He was an award-winning novelist, short-story writer, poet, playwright and essayist who had authored more than thirty books of prose
Prose
Prose is the most typical form of written language, applying ordinary grammatical structure and natural flow of speech rather than rhythmic structure...
and poetry
Poetry
Poetry is a form of literary art in which language is used for its aesthetic and evocative qualities in addition to, or in lieu of, its apparent meaning...
and two drama
Drama
Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance. The term comes from a Greek word meaning "action" , which is derived from "to do","to act" . The enactment of drama in theatre, performed by actors on a stage before an audience, presupposes collaborative modes of production and a...
s. Grynberg, known as the “chronicle
Chronicle
Generally a chronicle is a historical account of facts and events ranged in chronological order, as in a time line. Typically, equal weight is given for historically important events and local events, the purpose being the recording of events that occurred, seen from the perspective of the...
r of the fate of the Polish Jews”, tackled in his writings the Holocaust experience
Experience
Experience as a general concept comprises knowledge of or skill in or observation of some thing or some event gained through involvement in or exposure to that thing or event....
and the post-Holocaust trauma
Psychological trauma
Psychological trauma is a type of damage to the psyche that occurs as a result of a traumatic event...
.
Personal survival
Grynberg and his mother were the only survivors from their family. He spent the years 1942 to 1944 in hiding places. After the war, he lived in Łódź and WarsawWarsaw
Warsaw is the capital and largest city of Poland. It is located on the Vistula River, roughly from the Baltic Sea and from the Carpathian Mountains. Its population in 2010 was estimated at 1,716,855 residents with a greater metropolitan area of 2,631,902 residents, making Warsaw the 10th most...
.
Collaboration with Communists
On 11 October 1956 he signed as an undercovered agent of the 1st Department (Intelligence} of Polish Agency for Internal Security - code name "reporter" as documented by Polish Historical Institute (or IPN), but the report in "Zycie Warszawy" of 1 December 2006 is distorted and unreliable. Grynberg was pressured by the SB, denied that he informed on any one, and reportedly revealed his recruitment to the FBI. See Ted LipienFrom Henryk Grynberg:
I never informed on any one - I was not even asked to do so - and my contacts with Polish Intelligence lasted no more than five months. Then I simply stopped showing up, which was easy because I never accepted any payment from them. A document in my files at the IPN says, "His recruitment assumed future utilization in Izrael and subsequently in the USA. After finishing his studies, Grynberg showed unwilingness to further collaboration. For this reason, the 1st Dep. resigned from further contacts with him." That ultimate "unwilingness" I expressed in 1959 when an intelligence agent wanted me to take with me a letter to Israel and I refused. I revealed my recruitment – or rather attempt at recruitement – to the FBI when applying for U.S. citizenship and for a sensitive position with U.S. Information Agency (which I held for 20 years). The note "Collaboration with Communists," so prominently placed, directs undue attention to a very short and meaningless episode in my biography.
The beginnings of a writer
In 1959, Grynberg graduated from Warsaw University with a master’s degree in journalismJournalism
Journalism is the practice of investigation and reporting of events, issues and trends to a broad audience in a timely fashion. Though there are many variations of journalism, the ideal is to inform the intended audience. Along with covering organizations and institutions such as government and...
. As an actor, Grynberg had connections with the Jewish State
Jewish state
A homeland for the Jewish people was an idea that rose to the fore in the 19th century in the wake of growing anti-Semitism and Jewish assimilation. Jewish emancipation in Europe paved the way for two ideological solutions to the Jewish Question: cultural assimilation, as envisaged by Moses...
Theater company in Warsaw. It was during this time when he started publishing prose and poetry.
While the Jewish State Theater company was on tour in the United States in late 1967, he refused to return to Poland. This defection
Defection
In politics, a defector is a person who gives up allegiance to one state or political entity in exchange for allegiance to another. More broadly, it involves abandoning a person, cause or doctrine to whom or to which one is bound by some tie, as of allegiance or duty.This term is also applied,...
was an act of protest against the communist regime's anti-Jewish propaganda, and against the censorship
Censorship
thumb|[[Book burning]] following the [[1973 Chilean coup d'état|1973 coup]] that installed the [[Military government of Chile |Pinochet regime]] in Chile...
of his writings.
In 1971, after two years of attending graduate studies at UCLA, Grynberg received an M.A. in Russian Literature
Russian literature
Russian literature refers to the literature of Russia or its émigrés, and to the Russian-language literature of several independent nations once a part of what was historically Russia or the Soviet Union...
and moved to Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
, where Grynberg worked for the U.S. Information Agency (particularly for Voice in America) for a period of twenty years.
Works and achievements
Grynberg published his first story in 1959, which was later included in his debut collection, The Antigone Crew in 1963. His works - both while in PolandPoland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
and in the United States – Grynberg narrated the stories of “those who died during the war and of those who survived to live afterwards in Lodz, Warsaw, or New York, struggling to come to terms with their own memory and with the fact that others did not remember.” His works were also described as characteristically abundant in “biographical and autobiographical material”, where his Jewish protagonists are the narrators whose personal experiences were “supplemented by the experiences of other ‘survivors’”.
Grynberg was a recipient of all major Polish literary prizes, and of the 2002 Koret Jewish Book Award. He also contributed to the Polish press and English-language journals. His essays and articles appeared in publications such as the Commentary, the Midstream, and the Soviet-Jewish Affairs in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
. Grynberg’s books had been published in English translation, namely novels, Child of the Shadows (Vallentine Mitchell, London, 1969) - reedited as "The Jewish War and the Victory" (Northwestern University Press, 2001); the sequel, The Victory (Northwestern University Press, 1993); documentary prose, Children of Zion (Northwestern University Press, 1997), translated by Jacqueline Mitchell, and "Drohobycz, Drohobycz and Other Stories" (Penguin Books, 2002) translated by Alicia Nitecki, edited by Theodosia Robertson.
Grynberg's books were also translated into the French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
, German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
, Italian
Italian language
Italian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...
, Hebrew
Hebrew language
Hebrew is a Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Culturally, is it considered by Jews and other religious groups as the language of the Jewish people, though other Jewish languages had originated among diaspora Jews, and the Hebrew language is also used by non-Jewish groups, such...
, Dutch
Dutch language
Dutch is a West Germanic language and the native language of the majority of the population of the Netherlands, Belgium, and Suriname, the three member states of the Dutch Language Union. Most speakers live in the European Union, where it is a first language for about 23 million and a second...
, as well as Czech, Hungarian, and Swedish languages.
Grynberg's books: "Drohobycz, Drohobycz," "Memorbuch," "Monolog polsko-zydowski" [Polish-Jewish Monolog] and Uchodźcy (Refugees were nominated for Poland's Nike Literary Award
Nike Award
The NIKE Literary Award is one of the most prestigious awards for Polish literature. Established in 1997 and funded by Gazeta Wyborcza, Poland's second largest daily paper, and the consulting company NICOM, it is conferred annually in October for the best book of a single living author writing in...
General
- Henryk Grynberg: Biography, Extracts and Articles, Polish Writing, PolishWriting.net (undated), retrieved on: July 27, 2007
- Grynberg, Henryk. Drawing in Memory, Polish Writing, PolishWriting.net (undated), retrieved on: July 27, 2007
- Manetti, Christina. Recording a Lost World: Henryk Grynberg's Memorbuch, W A B (Warsaw), 2000 ISBN 83-88221-17-5 and Central Europe Review, CE-Review.org, January 8, 2001, retrieved on: July 27, 2007
- Henryk Grynberg, Polish Wikipedia, pl.wikipedia.org, 2007, retrieved on: July 27, 2007
- http://www.jbooks.com/fiction/FI_AdamczykGarbowska.htmAdamczyk-Garbowska, Monika. Tales from the Guardian of the Graves, A Review of Drohobycz, Drohobycz and Other Stories/True Tales from the Holocaust and Life After by Henryk Grynberg, translated from the Polish by Alicia Nitecki, edited by Theodosia Robertson, 275 pages, Penguin Books, The Online Jewish Books Company, Good Search, JBooks.com and JFLMedia.com, 2004], retrieved on: July 27, 2007
- Grynberg, Henryk. Children of Zion, Google Book Search, Books.Google.com (undated), retrieved on: July 27, 2007
- Grynberg, Henryk. Children of Zion, Close-Up, Northwestern University Press and Northwestern.edu (undated), retrieved on: July 28, 2007
- Holtzman, Ada. The Children of Zion:"The Tehran Children", JewishGen, Inc. and The Yizkor Book Project, June 2004, retrieved on: July 28, 2007
- Grynberg, Henryk. Children of Zion (Synopsis), Amazon.co.uk, 2007, retrieved on: July 28, 2007
- Ackerfeld, Lance and Joyce Field. List of the Children (Original list of the children who arrived to Eretz Israel in the middle of World War II, after escape from occupied Poland to Russia), JewishGen, Inc., 2004, retrieved on: July 28, 2007