„Czy świadek szuka zemsty?” Świadectwo, propaganda, dydaktyka w powieściach obozowych Danuty Brzosko-Mędryk
“Does the Witness Seek Revenge?” Testimony, Propaganda and Didacticism in the Concentration Camp Novels of Danuta Brzosko-Mędryk

Summary/Abstract: The article discusses the now-forgotten literary work of Danuta Brzosko-Mędryk (died 2015), an internee of KZ Lublin, KZ Ravensbrück and KZ Buchenwald, author of seven books, of which five are devoted to the experience of internment. The essay analyses the objectives of the books, especially in the context of the literature of testimony. It also describes the reception of Brzosko-Mędryk’s work in the Communist Poland and today. Her book Niebo bez ptaków [A Sky Without Birds] was successful and the writer was summoned as a witness in trials against the Nazi German authorities of the death camp in Majdanek. Those trials, held in New York and Düsseldorf, became the subject of her other book, Czy świadek szuka zemsty? [Does the Witness Seek Revenge?]. All of Brzosko-Mędryk’s novels were published in the Communist Poland, so they were subjected to the publishing policy of the state. The essay underlines the most important element of the writer’s memories: giving testimony to the heroic attitudes of Polish women held in Nazi German concentration camps.

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