Generation of Columbuses

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The Generation of Columbuses (Polish: pokolenie kolumbów) is a term denoting the entire generation of Poles born soon after Poland regained her independence in 1918, and whose adolescence has been marked by the tragic times of the World War II. The term itself was coined by Roman Bratny in his well-received 1957 novel Kolumbowie. Rocznik 20 and was itself based on the name of Christopher Columbus, as Bratny described the entire generation as the ones who discovered Poland. The term is generally applied to young intelligentsia, but it also includes all young people who, instead of living their lives the way most 20-year-old people do, had to fight against the foreign occupation and study at secret universities.

Among the notable people commonly associated with the generation are:

Krzysztof Kamil Baczyński, a cathastrophist poet who perished in the Warsaw Uprising
Miron Białoszewski, a poet and a writer
Teresa Bogusławska, a poet, arrested by the Gestapo and imprisoned in the Pawiak, she died of tuberculosis in 1945
Wacław Bojarski, a wartime poet and journalist of underground newspapers, died 1943
Tadeusz Borowski, a poet and writer who survived Auschwitz-Birkenau and the Dachau concentration camp only to commit suicide in 1951
Roman Bratny, writer
Olgierd Budrewicz, journalist and Varsavianist
Jerzy Ficowski, poet, journalist and ethnologist, pioneer of research on post-war Jewish and Gypsy life in Poland
Tadeusz Gajcy, a poet, perished in the Warsaw Uprising
Krystyna Krahelska, a girl-guide, poet and singer, model for the monument of the Warsaw's Siren, perished in the Warsaw Uprising
Wojciech Mencel, a poet, perished in the Warsaw Uprising
Włodzimierz Pietrzak, an art critic and author, perished in the Warsaw Uprising
Jan Romocki, scouting instructor and a poet, died in the Warsaw Uprising
Zdzisław Stroiński, a poet, perished in the Warsaw Uprising
Andrzej Trzebiński, a dramatist, novelist and a poet, arrested by the Germans, shot to death in 1943
Józef Szczepański, a poet, perished in the Warsaw Uprising

[edit] References

Marcel Cornis-Pope, John Neubauer, History of the Literary Cultures of East-Central Europe, John Benjamins Publishing Company, 2004, ISBN 9027234523, Print, p.146
Bolesław Klimaszewski, An Outline History of Polish Culture, Interpress, 1984, ISBN 8322320361, Print, p.343
Marek Haltof, Polish National Cinema, Berghahn Books, 2002, ISBN 1571812768, Print, p.76