Andrzej Szczypiorski

(1928–2000) – prose writer, publicist, reporter, editor, radio dramatist, screenwriter.

Andrzej Szczypiorski attended primary school at the M. Rej Private Junior High and High School of the Evangelical Church of the Augsburg Confession in Warsaw. During the German occupation, he continued his studies at clandestine classes held at the same school. During that time, he began writing; in the spring of 1943, he read some of his stories at a secret literary evening. He was a member of the People’s Guard of the Polish Socialist Party – Freedom, Equality, Independence, using the pseudonyms “As” and “Asia”.

He took part in the Warsaw Uprising in the Old Town. At the start of September 1944, he and his parents left Warsaw along with the evacuated civilian population, and after a short stay in a transit camp in Pruszków, he was deported to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp, where he remained until April 1945. After returning to Warsaw, he joined the Youth Organisation of the Workers’ University Society (OM TUR) and the Polish Socialist Party (PPS). Soon after, he moved to Katowice, where he ran the press department of the Provincial Committee of OM TUR from February 1946 and studied at the Private Secondary School for Adults, where he passed his secondary school leaving examination. From 1947, he worked as a journalist at the Katowice-based newspaper “Gazeta Robotnicza” and also collaborated with the magazine “Młodzi Idą” and the biweekly “Film”, publishing regular film reviews (under the pseudonym “August Rewere”) and theatre reviews in the “Przegląd teatralny” column (signing off as “(a)”, “A.S.”, “(s.)” or “(S.)”). In 1947, he joined the Trade Union of Journalists of the Republic of Poland. In 1948, after the merger of the PPS and the Polish Workers’ Party, he became a member of the Polish United Workers’ Party. He worked as an editor of the daily “Życie Warszawy” (1948–1951), and as manager of the Polish Radio station in Katowice (1950–1955). Between 1951 and 1956, he was literary director of the Stanisław Wyspiański Silesian Theatre in Katowice. From 1956 to 1958, he was an advisor at the Polish People’s Republic embassy in Denmark, then an editor at the Polish Radio in Warsaw until 1964; in the period 1965–1975, he worked as an editor of the weekly “Polityka”, and from 1971 to 1975, he wrote for the monthly “Odra”.

In the late 1970s, he became involved with the democratic opposition (KOR). He also collaborated with the Polish Independence Alliance. From 1977 onwards, his work was published more and more often in the underground opposition newspapers, which led to his internment after the announcement of martial law in December 1981. After the political changes that took place in Poland in 1989–1991, Szczypiorski served as a first-term senator. He promoted German-Polish reconciliation and received the Federal Cross of Merit in 1995 for his efforts in this field. He also advocated for Polish-Jewish reconciliation and rapprochement, and headed the Polish-Israeli Friendship Society (TPPI). He was a member of the Union of Polish Writers, and later of the Polish Writers Association.

In 1946, Szczypiorski made his debut as a journalist with a critical review of a staging of Juliusz Słowacki’s “Lilla Weneda” at the Polish Theatre in Warsaw, published in “Kuźnica” (no. 5; signed: “A. S-r.”). In 1948, he made his debut as a prose writer with the short story “Otwarta brama” (Open Gate), published in the biweekly “Wolni Ludzie” (special issue, April). In 1951, his first radio drama, “Anaconda”, was broadcast.

Szczypiorski’s book debut was a collection of short stories titled “Ojcowie epoki” (Fathers of the Age, 1955). After that, he published over twenty volumes of prose, including novels, collections of reportage and columns, vignettes and essays. In his novels and journalism, Szczypiorski primarily addressed two issues – the problems of contemporary Polish-German relations, and the moral and political conflicts of recent decades. He was best known for his role as a mediator seeking to repair relations between the Polish, German and Jewish nations. He gained great recognition for his novel “Początek” (The Beginning, 1986), in which he presented the varied conduct of Poles, Jews and Germans during the Nazi occupation. According to Szczypiorski, literature is “a kind of mission […] entrusted to writers by society.” He tried to be faithful to this definition of the writer’s role, both in his literary fiction and his memoirs, “Z notatnika stanu wojennego” (From the Martial Law Notebook, 1983).

After the success of “Początek”, he published several other acclaimed books: “Noc, dzień i noc” (Night, Day and Night, 1991), a fascinating novel about the mechanism of political provocation; “Autoportret z kobietą” (Self-Portrait with a Woman, 1994), a psychological novel of manners; and the short story collection “Amerykańską whisky” (American Whiskey, 1987), which won the German Catholic Art and Culture Prize. The work best received by Polish literary critics was the parabolic novel “Msza za miasto Arras” (A Mass for Arras, 1971), which uses real events from the 15th century (plague and famine, the persecution of Jews and heretics) as its historical backdrop. Szczypiorski began writing the novel in the autumn of 1968 in response to the dramatic and shameful events of that spring, centring around anti-Semitism and attacks on intellectuals provoked by the communist authorities. These topics were correctly identified by early readers of “Msza za miasto Arras”, who recognised the important voice of a writer concerned with the moral aspect of contemporary times. In Szczypiorski’s own words: “The European reader accepts literature’s derision of reality, but does not like it when literature derides literature. This reader demands a certain seriousness; he demands that literature live up to its social obligations.”

Szczypiorski has received numerous awards and distinctions for his work. In 1963, he was honoured for his radio achievements with an award from the ZAiKS Society of Authors and the Committee of Radio and Television. He received the Polish PEN Club M. Lepecki Award for “Msza za miasto Arras” (1972). In 1986, he received an award from the London branch of “Wiadomości” for “Początek”. In 1988, he was awarded the Austrian State Prize for European Literature for his entire body of work, with particular emphasis on “Początek”, and in 1989 he won the Nelly Sachs Prize. In 1994, he received the Herder Prize, funded by the University of Vienna, and in 1995 the Andreas Gryphius Prize, awarded by the Artists’ Guild of Esslingen in Germany. He received the Golden Pen Award from the German publishing company Bauer Verlag in 1998 for his contribution to rapprochement between Germany and Poland. His other awards include: the Knight’s Cross (1964), the Commander’s Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta (1997), the “Distinguished for Tolerance” medal (1999), the German orders Pour le Mérite (1995) and the Grand Cross of Merit with Star (1995) and, posthumously, an Honorary Diploma of the Polish-German Award of the Governments of the Republic of Poland and the Federal Republic of Germany (2001).