Evenings with Polish Reporters: Volhynia –Polish and Czech Memories
- Where: Václav Havel Library, Ostrovní 13, Prague 110 00
- When: November 21, 2018, 19:00 – 21:00
Same place, different recollections? Czechs and Poles were, alongside Ukrainians and Jews, village neighbours in Volhynia. In the first half of the 20thcentury the picturesque and fertile landscape became the site of bloody battles and the movement of both borders and inhabitants.
“When some kill others come with help” is the motto of Sprawiedliwi zdrajcy (Righteous Traitors) by the Polish journalist Witold Szabłowski (published in Czech by Pant in 2018, translated by Michala Benešová). In the book the author sets off on the trail of the what is known as the Volhynia Massacre, ethnic cleansing of Polish inhabitants in Ukraine in 1943–1944. He also spoke to pastor Jan Jelínek, who during WWII gave shelter at his parochial house to all facing persecution. How do Polish and Czech memories of Volhynia differ?
Taking part in a discussion with the Polish journalist will be the poet and translator Josef Mlejnek, author of the book Volyň tam v dáli (Volhynia in the Distance) (2015) and the descendant of people from Volhynia, and the painter Rostislav Zárybnický, who was born in 1936 in Sklíň and repatriated to Czechoslovakia with his family in 1947.
The debate is part of a discussion series introducing contemporary Polish reporters run by the Polish Institute in Prague and the Václav Havel Library. The event will take place in Polish with simultaneous interpretation provided.