In 1946, Marek Szwarc came to Poland. His three-week journey through the country, during which he met with Holocaust survivors, both Zionists and residents of Jewish settlements in Lower Silesia, with the Catholic clergy and a few acquaintances from long ago, left an indelible impression on him: "As I ran through cities, towns, settlements and villages on this trip - it seemed to me that I saw these beloved figures of my brothers and relatives, friends and acquaintances of the Jews. In the streets, in front of the houses, in the lively traffic of Warsaw, among the ruins, on the roads and fields, I looked for their faces" (p. 16). The void left by Polish Jews was painful, but for Szwarc, the news of repeated acts of anti-Semitism and violence against Jews was equally painful: "I do not know whether the majority or the minority in Poland is poisoned with the deadly venom of anti-Semitism. It is enough that as a Catholic and as a Jew I have felt deeply affected by it". (p. 6; original spelling). He tried to discuss the issue with church representatives, but, as he wrote: "as many times as we tried with Polish priests, even with bishops, to raise this issue of anti-Semitism and persecution of Jews, we encountered indifference, hostility and unwillingness to initiate action to counteract it. However, in my opinion, this question is at the centre of the moral healing of the country, and who else but the Catholic Church in Poland is obliged to deal with it as soon as possible" (p. 6; original spelling). Szwarc began his report with the words: "In the history of the Jewish people, Poland was the sun from whose rays the life of Jewry of almost the whole world drew" (p. 1). Now he saw only a "terrible emptiness", felt the "hellish loneliness" of the survivors and ended his text with pain: "Here is a handful of those remaining, saved by a miracle, and the heart shrinks with anxiety and an indescribable thought - will we be able to save at least this handful from extermination" (p. 16; original spelling).
Renata Piątkowska
