“Circles of Strangeness. An Autobiographical Story” – meeting with Michał Głowiński

Maria Zawadzka, 16 November 2016
During the “Singer’s Warsaw” Festival, organized by the Shalom Foundation between August 28th and September 5th, 2010, took place – as part of the cycle “Jewish literary salon” a meeting with Prof. Michał Głowiński. The author read excerpts from his newest book “Circles of Strangeness. An Autobiographical Story”, in which he paid an unusual homage to Irena Sendler.

Michał Głowiński was born in 1934. He took Polish Studies at the Warsaw University. He was a collaborator of the “Życie Literackie” and “Twórczość” magazines. Głowiński is a professor of the Institute of Literary Research of the Polish Academy of Sciences, a member of the Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences, of the Warsaw Scientific Society and the Polish Writers’ Association. He is a theorist and historian of literature, author of numerous essays and academic works (among others, “Nowomowa po polsku” – “Newspeak in Polish”), as well as autobiographical novels (such as “Czarne sezony” – “Black Seasons”, and “Historia jednej topoli” – “The Story of One Poplar”). The author focuses in his books on subjects such as the extermination of Jews in Poland, growing up in the Polish People’s Republic, he also describes his childhood memories and depicts his loved ones and places that were once important to him. In 2001 Głowiński was awarded an honorary doctorate by the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, and in 2003 – by the Opole University. He is the winner of Herder’s Prize, awarded by the Alfred Toepfer’s Foundation in Hamburg.

Prof. Michał Głowiński is one of “Irena Sendler’s children” – the Righteous Among the Nations rescued him from the Warsaw Ghetto and provided him with shelter on the so-called “Aryan side”. Głowiński pays tribute to Irena Sendler in his newest book “Circles of Strangeness. An Autobiographical Story”, published by the Literackie Publishing House in 2010. Irena Sendler, activist of the underground Council to Aid Jews “Żegota”, saved 2,500 children during the Second World War. Michał Głowiński was one of them. He left the ghetto in January 1943, together with his parents. For a while he had been hiding on the so-called “Aryan” side, until the family’s friend – Irena Sendler – put him in an orphanage run by the nuns of the Servants of Blessed Virgin Mary Congregation in Turkowice. He lived there until the liberation. Irena Sendler also helped his mother – she found her a job as a domestic servant in Otwock near Warsaw. Michał Głowiński described his life during the Second World War in the book “Czarne sezony” (“Black Seasons”). More about Irena Sendler, about the way she organized help for Jews and about the children she rescued on the portal “Polish Righteous”.