INTERVIEWEE: Elżbieta Ficowska
INTERVIEWEE’S BIOGRAPHY AND DETAILED THEMES DEVELOPMENT: sztetl.org.pl/en/oral-history...
INTERVIEWER: Joanna Król
OPERATOR: Przemysław Jaczewski
RECORDING DATE: 16th April 2015
RECORDING COPYRIGHT: POLIN Museum of the History of the Polish Jews
THE MOST IMPORTANT THEMES:
00:00:55 - Circumstances of meeting her husband, Jerzy Ficowski - visit to the club of the Union of Writers after finding out about her hidden Jewish origin, atmosphere of the club.
00:03:30 - Ficowski's paternal attitude.
00:04:45 - First marriage to a fellow student, second marriage to Jerzy Ficowski.
00:05:35 - Ficowski's interest in interviewee’s story, an inspiration to write the poem “Your mothers both”.
00:06:08 - Lack of interest in Polish-Jewish relations and lack of Jewish identity.
00:07:20 - Criteria for a sense of identity according to the interviewee: language, tradition, attitude to religion.
00:09:10 - Interviewee's home - warm atmosphere, feeling of being loved, Catholic upbringing, atypically positive history in the context of the Holocaust.
00:12:03 - Lack of trauma due to being too young and having no war memories unlike many other Children of the Holocaust.
00:15:30 - Interviewee's family, mother's concern.
00:16:15 - Comfortable growing up conditions.
00:20:25 - Hiding the interviewee from Jews coming after the war in search of Jewish children.
00:23:45 - Gymnasium of the Felician Sisters.
00:26:15 - Failure to observe discipline, disorderly conduct problem, expulsion from school.
00:28:28 - Learning about Jewish background. Moving to another school, a colleague asked her, the question triggered, recalling inaccuracies from the past,
00:31:00 - Lack of knowledge about the fate of Polish Jews.
00:32:05 - Mother's comment on the interviewee's “Jewish character” as a direct reason for running away from home.
00:33:40 - Rescuing Jewish children from the Warsaw Ghetto and the involvement of Stanisława Bussoldowa in this process.
00:37:40 - The interviewee's views on the anti-Semitic campaign and the events of March 1968 shaped by her mother and her husband.
00:40:55 - Shoah in the works of Jerzy Ficowski.
00:42:50 - Participation of friends in the events of March 1968, farewells at the Gdański railway station,
00:44:35 - Participation of an interviewee in a mass meeting on 8 March 1968 at the University of Warsaw.
00:45:45 - Hearing at the police headquarter.
00:46:25 - The interviewee's belief that her husband will save her from any trouble.
00:47:55 - Lack of any affiliation with the Jewish community until affiliation with the association “Children of the Holocaust”.
00:50:05 - A clearer sense of Jewish identity among younger generations.
00:51:10 - A visit to the club of the Social and Cultural Society of Jews in Poland in order to see what Jews are like.
00:53:20 - A common denominator for members of the “Children of the Holocaust”.
00:54:50 - Interest in the political situation.
00:55:45 - Anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.
00:59:45 - Jerzy Ficowski's signing of many protest letters, including Memorial 59, after which he was banned from publication by the authorities. Poor financial situation, organization of camps for children to earn money.
01:02:45 - Work trip to the United States in 1977, visit to grandfather's brother in Florida.
01:04:10 - Taking up various jobs: e.g. as a cleaner or waitress, impressions of the six-month stay.
01:11:50 - Return to Poland, purchase of car, shopping in a Pewex shop.
01:14:30 - Ways of passing secret information between members of the political opposition in Poland.
01:18:10 - Mechanisms of antisemitism, lack of fear of antisemitism, opposition to antisemitism independent of background.
01:19:50 - The reception of Ficowski's The Reading of the Ashes in Poland and abroad.
01:21:15 - Holding a weekly literary salon, common readings, discussions.
01:22:25 - Marc Chagall's illustration of Ficowski's poem Letter to Marc Chagall.
01:24:30 - Fascination with the theatre, getting into a post-graduate acting course and quickly dropping out because of a small child, acting at the Jewish Theatre.
01:30:00 - Difficult housing situation of the Ficowskis after the birth of their daughter in 1969, reluctance to take over the flat left by the March migrant Arnold Słucki, subsequent moves.
01:31:31 - Flats in Warsaw, underground press in the communist Poland.
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