The suffering touched me too early,
I have burned myself out,
I am the bright ash without desire.
Now, only the silence endures dearly,
When I am still standing in the fire.
Grażyna Chrostowska, Ravensbrück 13th April, 1942 (translated by Jaroslaw J. Gajewski)
Loss of homeland, illness, separation and loss of many members of their families represents the tragic fate of the WWII generation. Learning from the experiences of previous generations is a necessity for the continuation of the human spirit. Thus, each succeeding generation has a moral debt of knowing its history – in particular, by commemorating humanity’s martyrdom.
Nowadays, we wonder how people could survive the horrific concentration camp conditions. Physical survival is one aspect; spiritual endurance is another matter. Poetry and singing, the primary forms of the camp’s spiritual life, lectures about different subjects, reading novels, and theatrical performances were prevalent but strictly forbidden by the camp authorities. Yet mainly poetry, easy to write down on scraps of paper, easy to remember and redistribute among fellow prisoners, somehow defeated physical exhaustion, hunger and, above all, moral degradation.
Poetry, as clandestine activity, was an expression of intellectual and emotional experiences in the camp’s life. It was medicine and, at the same time, nourishment for intellect and artistic sensitivity. So much information about the Ravensbrück concentration camp is available through historical research. But what the prisoners felt and thought was best reflected in poetry.
Julian Przyboś (5 March 1901 – 6 October 1970), Polish poet, essayist and translator, one of the most important poets of the Kraków Avant-Garde, about these poems, said: “these are remarkable documents of humanity, a testimony of heroic spiritual resistance to misery, deception and the threat of death.“
This website presents a collection of Polish poems translated into English. Seventeen authors, former political prisoners of the Ravensbrück Concentration Camp, will introduce us to the atmosphere of those days. To place the poetry in a factual background, I have added fragments of memoirs of former prisoners and some historical information about the Ravensbrück Concentration Camp. It will provide, I hope, a reader with a more comprehensive glimpse into the “heart of darkness” – colloquially called hell on the earth.