Gina Szwarc began her memoirs, written in French, 'Les mémoires de Guina. Marek. Les années des marriages" [Memoirs of Gina. Marek. Years of Marriage] with the words: "De ton vivant, lorsqu`il nous arrivait de nous séparer, nous échangions des lettres presque tous les jours. Aujourd`hui, je ne peux esperer d`autre résponse de toi, qu`intérieure, car tu es parti les paupières closes, la bouch cousue.
Bien que dialog entre nous soit changé en monologue, je le continue".
[When you were alive, if we parted ways, we wrote to each other almost every day. Today, I have no hope of your answer, other than that from my own heart (from myself), because you are gone, eyelids closed, mouth sewn shut.
Although the dialogue between us has turned into a monologue, I continue it].
The memoirs, stored in an old, dilapidated paper folder, are 235 single-spaced typewritten pages. Gina wove them together from the memory of her first meeting with Marek, our first trip to the Tatra Mountains, with a short stop in Krakow. And the next one, which took them to Paris via Poznań. The following chapters tell of their life together in Paris, their wartime and post-war fates. In many places, Gina refers to entries from her diary (not preserved), and instead of a detailed description of Marek's military service, she cites his letters written in Scotland in French translation (pp. 134-167). The memoir also includes Gina's poems dedicated to her husband (pp. 132-154).
Under the last word of the memoir is the note: Fini à Paris le 8 Décembre 1962 [Finished in Paris, 8 December 1962].
In 2015, her memoirs of 1919-1921 were published in the series 'Sources for the History of Art' by the Polish Institute of World Art Studies: E. Markowa, 'Choice', Warsaw Toruń 2015.
Renata Piątkowska
