Kobiety Nowej Huty. Cegły, perły i petardy

The history of Nowa Huta began after World War II, when the communist authorities decided to build an enormous metallurgical conglomerate near the bourgeois city of Cracow – for centuries an important centre of the country’s religious, cultural and scientific life, and hence a potential hub of resistance against the regime. Next to it a city for workers was built from the ground up. Carefully planned and constructed within just a few years, today it is considered a gem of urban development. This is because it combines the ideological and aesthetic tenets of Social Realism, Renaissance inspirations and the solid know-how of eminent pre-war Polish architects. Even though not all their plans were completed, even today tourists visit Nowa Huta – now a district of Cracow – to see the famous layout of buildings and streets, and its inhabitants appreciate its well-thought-out infrastructure and greenery.

The book The Women of Nowa Huta. Bricks, Gems and Firecrackers introduces us to a range of very different women who have, over the years, built the area, lived there, worked and fought the communist regime. Girls such as Zofia or Helena, who arrived from villages and towns to join the gangs of bricklayers erecting the first of Nowa Huta’s buildings, are examples of the post-war process of emancipation, with its bright (the social advance of women from disadvantaged families) and dark sides (the brutal displacement of farmers from villages which were razed to the ground so that the district could be built). The life of Jadwiga Beaupré, a representative of the intelligentsia, evokes admiration for the fortitude of a woman for whom the war meant the loss of her husband (murdered in Auschwitz), but also of her son and wealth; however, she still constantly strove to benefit others. As a doctor she worked at a hospital and at a labour camp, and as a conspirator she fought in the Polish resistance. She was the one who established Nowa Huta’s first maternity unit and promoted the idea of childbirth without pain at a time when barely anyone heard about antenatal classes. Other figures in the book include an architect, a director, a bricklayer, a barmaid… The book is enhanced by archival photographs of locations and people.

By collecting all these stories, the highly regarded reporter Katarzyna Kobylarczyk presents both the fascinating tale of the place and a huge part of Poland’s history, while at the same time foregrounding the individual and her universal tribulations.