TADEUSZ HOLLENDER – ENFANT TERRIBLE DE LÉOPOL1
TADEUSZ HOLLENDER – ENFANT TERRIBLE DE LÉOPOL

Summary/Abstract: The article presents a cross section of the works of a poet, editor-in-chief, satirist, translator of the Ukrainian literature Tadeusz Hollender. Hollender, being the main organizer of cultural activities and literary life in Lvov at the beginning of the 1930s, was born on 30th May in 1910 in Leżajsk and he was killed by the Gestapo on 31st May in 1943 in Warsaw. The publication discusses the main trends of his poems, satires and epigrams: Lvov, Pełtwia, showing their urban ugliness (the poet introduces bizarre fauna and flora, fantastic, gloomy ghoulish, apparitions, irrational associations and supernatural phenomena); the leitmotiv of the café (revealing its indolence, languidness, snobbism, boredom, and fruitless discussion), the National Democratic Party, the radical-nationalistic movement, the Polish Academy of Literature, feudalism, burgesses, Piłsudski’s legions, Sanacja (adherents of Piłsudski and the period of Piłsudski’s rule), empty platitudes of the government, narrow-minded morality, low cultural level of the Polish people, neglect of the provinces, foreign and internal economic and social policy, bureaucracy, preventive censorship, giving false information, racial discrimination, Hitler, Mussolini, Franco, anti-Nazi-satires. Hollender’s poetry is saturated with anti-German activity which manifests in tragic and grim mood and humour; it gives an account of defeats and sufferings. Co-prisoners from Pawiak give evidence of his invincible and heroic conduct. Hollender aroused fighting spirit, unwavering optimism and hope while mocking his enemies to their faces. He was cheerful and eager for jokes, puns, recitation of poems and stories about the world, events and people.

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