Marek Edelman - Paying a visit to the First Secretary in Łódź (127/145) скачать в хорошем качестве

Marek Edelman - Paying a visit to the First Secretary in Łódź (127/145)

To listen to more of Marek Edelman’s stories, go to the playlist:    • Marek Edelman - Recollecting my parents (1...   Marek Edelman (1919-2009) was the last surviving leader of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. He had remained in Poland following the Nazi defeat and was active in domestic and international politics while at the same time becoming one of Poland’s leading cardiologists. [Listeners: Anka Grupinska, Joanna Klara Agnieszka Zuchowska, Joanna Szczesna; date recorded: 2003] TRANSCRIPT: We had a friend, a journalist who was a communist but a covert one. She was our friend and she herself began to beat a path to the door of other communists so that they would accept us. On the other hand, and here Cyrankiewicz had stuck his nose in as he was the Prime Minister by then, they couldn't really throw a Jew out into the street, what will people say, they'll think Poland is antisemitic, they have the one Jew, on top of which he was in the AL with the communists, and now they're kicking him out and are going to persecute him. In a word, she arranged for us to have a meeting with the General Secretary in ŁódŹ, and someone told Cyrankiewicz that this was happening. But in the end, she made it possible for us to go to the First Secretary in Łódź, Mr Koperski. Mr Koperski said something and suddenly she, Elżbieta, said to him, 'Mr Secretary, that's all well and good but when you have a heart attack who's going to treat you? Do you have someone who'll look after you? Is there anyone who'll know how to operate on you?' She gave him a proper dressing down, and he said, 'I'll sort it out for you.' And that's what happened. I mean Cyrankiewicz gave the order for us to be given a job except there was nowhere for us to work. We wrote these 10 papers, we were very pleased with ourselves, we'd meet in the morning, drink a little vodka, maybe more than a little, eat a schnitzel and were very pleased with ourselves.