Józef Hen

(b. 1923) – prose writer, essayist, reporter, playwright, screenwriter and director.

Hen began writing during World War II; a poem of his was published in “Głos Żołnierza”. Autobiographic motifs prevail in his early work, initially related to wartime wandering and service in the Red Army and the Polish People’s Army. In memoirs and diaries, he also returns to his childhood spent in multicultural Warsaw, where he was born in a Jewish family as Józef Henryk Cukier. A characteristic of his oeuvre is introducing thriller, romance, adventure and crime subplots.

His novel “Toast”, also known as “Prawo i pięść” (The Law and the Fist), is set in 1945 in the Recovered Territories and tells the story of Andrzej Kenig, former prisoner at the concentration camps in Auschwitz and Dachau. He joins a group whose task is to secure a property in a spa town called Graustadt (Siwowo). Once there, he realises that the boss is not the doctor he claims to be, and his aim is to loot the abandoned property, including the hospital and sanatorium equipment. Kenig decides to single-handedly stop the looters, which results in a shoot-out in which three people are killed.

Hen also gained acclaim thanks to his biographical essays, including “Ja, Michał z Montaigne” (I, Michel de Montaigne); “Błazen – wielki mąż. Opowieść o Tadeuszu Boyu-Żeleńskim” (A Jester, a Great Man. A Tale About Tadeusz Boy-Żeleński); “Mój przyjaciel król. Opowieść o Stanisławie Auguście Poniatowskim” (My Friend the King. A Tale About Stanisław August Poniatowski). The author appears in them as an erudite and a storyteller, a commentator on history and culture, with a tendency to revise truths considered to be indisputable. For example, in the Poniatowski book the controversial king is shown positively, as a reformer who managed to develop an elite which then went on to build national consciousness.

The author also creates contemporary novels such as “Bruliony profesora T.” (Professor T.’s Notebooks). The book is set in Warsaw in 2005. The eponymous professor, an American specialist in Russian studies, arrives in Poland with a series of lectures, but in fact wants to solve the mysterious death of his friend who lived in Warsaw. Unexpectedly, he gets entangled in a love affair with a much younger woman.

The novel “Pingpongista” (The Ping-Pong Player) was also conceived as a popular work, although its point of departure is serious: Hen refers to the Jedwabne massacre in July 1941. A retired American judge appears at the fictitious town of Cheremiec in 2001. The visitor agonises over the fact that he did not save his Jewish friend – with whom he avidly played ping-pong – from the pogrom. Hen indicates the various consequences of the crime Poles committed against their Jewish neighbours and evaluates the contemporary attitudes towards the pogrom.

Józef Hen’s prose was often adapted for the screen, including such productions as “Crimen” (TV series), “Dwa żebra Adama” (Adam’s Two Ribs), “Królewskie sny” (Royal Dreams), “Krzyż Walecznych” (The Cross of Valour), “Kwiecień” (April), “Mgiełka” (Mist), “Nieznany” (The Unknown), “Nikt nie woła” (No One is Calling), “Ping-pong”, The Law and the Fist, “Rycerze i rabusie” (Knights and Robbers). Hen himself has also written many screenplays for cinema and TV, both originals and adaptations. He is also the director of “Markiz de Pompadour” (Marquis de Pompadour), “Ping-pong”, “Perły i dukaty” (Pearls and Ducats) and the co-director of “Weekendy” (The Weekends).

Hen has received many awards, including Minister of Culture and Art Prize 1^st Class, the Władysław Reymont Literary Award, the Literary Award of the Capital City of Warsaw. He was nominated for the Nike Literary Award. He also received many decorations, such as the Commander’s Cross with Star of the Order of Polonia Restituta, the Knight’s Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta, the Cross of Valour and the gold Gloria Artis Medal for Merit to Culture.