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Henryk Grynberg
A novelist and short-story writer, poet,
playwright and essayist who has won many prestigious literary awards and
is the author of more than twenty books, this chronicler of the fate of
the Polish Jews was born in 1936. Henryk Grynberg and his mother were
the only survivors from their whole, large family. He spent the years
1942-1944 in hiding places and on "Aryan papers". After the war, he
lived in Lodz and Warsaw. He became an actor in the State Jewish Theatre
company in Warsaw; he defected while the company was touring the USA in
1967, and he has lived in America ever since.
Grynberg published his first story in 1959; it was later included in
his debut collection, THE "ANTIGONE" CREW (1963). In the works that he
published in Poland, as in those that he was able to publish as an
emigré (without worrying about the censor), he told 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. As one of his
protagonists asks: "How can people live when everything that made life
worth living is dead?" This is also the principal theme of his poems,
which combine to make up the long lament of a survivor who lives to
cultivate the memory of those who were murdered, who becomes a "keeper
of the graves" in a world infested with nihilism and materialism, a
world increasingly indifferent to the fate of the victims. Grynberg
makes abundant use of biographical and autobiographical material. His
Jewish protagonists are usually the narrators, but their personal
experiences have a metaphorical dimension and are usually supplemented
by the experiences of other "survivors". Grynberg's books are short and
written in a scrupulously economical language where both sarcasm and
lyricism sometimes appear. Each new book is a further record of the
fates of people who have been saved from oblivion by the writer in the
conviction that doing so is not only the duty of literature towards the
victims of the Holocaust, but also a confirmation of the sanctity of
human life itself.
Selected Bibliography
ZYDOWSKA WOJNA (THE JEWISH WAR) (novel). Warsaw: Czytelnik, 1965.
ZWYCIESTWO (VICTORY) (novel). Paris: Instytut Literacki, 1969.
ANTYNOSTALGIA (ANTI-NOSTALGIA) (poems). London: Oficyna Poetow i Malarzy, 1971.
ZYCIE IDEOLOGICZNE (IDEOLOGICAL LIFE) (novel). London: Polonia Book Fund, 1975.
ZYCIE OSOBISTE (PERSONAL LIFE) (novel). London: Polonia Book Fund, 1975.
WIERSZE Z AMERYKI (POEMS FROM AMERICA) (poems). London: Oficyna Poetow i Malarzy,
1980.
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ZYCIE CODZIENNE I ARTYSTYCZNE (EVERYDAY AND ARTISTIC LIFE). (novel). Paris: Instytut
Literacki, 1980.
PRAWDA NIEARTYSTYCZNA (THE NON-ARTISTIC TRUTH) (essays). Berlin: Wydawnictwo
Archipelag, 1984.
SZKICE RODZINNE (FAMILY SKETCHES) (stories). Warsaw: Czytelnik, 1990.
WROCILEM (I HAVE RETURNED) (poems 1964-1989). Warsaw: PIW, 1991.
KADISZ (KADDISH) (novel). Cracow: Znak, 1992.
DZIEDZICTWO (HERITAGE) (prose). London: Aneks, 1993.
DZIECI SYJONU (CHILDREN OF ZION). Warsaw: Karta, 1994.
RYSUJE W PAMIECI (SKETCHING IN MEMORY) (poems). Poznan: a5, 1995.
DROHOBYCZ, DROHOBYCZ (stories). Warsaw: W.A.B., 1997.
OJCZYZNA (MOTHERLAND) (stories). Warsaw: W.A.B., 1999.
MEMORBUCH. Warsaw: W.A.B., 2000 (more...).
SZMUGLERZY (SMUGGLERS) (with Jan Kostanski). Warsaw: Twoj Styl, 2001 (more...).
Selected translations
Czech: ZIDOVSKA VALKA. VITEZSTVI (ZYDOWSKA WOJNA I ZWYCIESTWO), Prague: Aurora, 1996.
Dutch: DE JOODSE OORLOG (ZYDOWSKA WOJNA), Utrecht: Bruna & Zoon, 1968.
English: CHILD OF THE SHADOWS (ZYDOWSKA WOJNA), London: Vallentine,
Mitchell, 1969. THE VICTORY (ZWYCIESTWO), Evanston: Northwestern
University Press, 1993. CHILDREN OF ZION (DZIECI SYJONU), Evanston:
Northwestern University Press, 1997. DROHOBYCZ, DROHOBYCZ. Penguin USA,
2002
French: CALIFORNIA KADDISH (KADISZ). Paris: Edition Balland, 1991.
LA GUERRE DES JUIFS (ZYDOWSKA WOJNA I ZWYCIESTWO). Paris: Balland, 1994.
German: DIE JÜDISCHE KRIEG (ZYDOWSKA WOJNA). Frankfurt: Suhrkamp,
1972. KINDER ZIONS (CHILDREN OF ZION). Leipzig: Reclam, 1995.
KALIFORNISCHES KADDISCH (KADISZ). Frankfurt: Neue Kritik, 1993.
DROHOBYCZ, DROHOBYCZ. Zsolnay, 2000.
Hebrew: HAMILHAMA HAYEHUDIT (ZYDOWSKA WOJNA), Tel Aviv: Sifriath
Poalim, 1968. YALDEY TSIYON (DZIECI SYJONU), Jerusalem: Yad Vashem,
1995.
Italian: LA GUERRA DEGLI EBREI (ZYDOWSKA WOJNA), Rome: Edizioni E/O,
1992. RITRATTI DI FAMIGLIA (SZKICE RODZINNE), Florence: Giuntina, 1994.
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