The University of Navarra hosts the presentation of the Spanish translation of "The Crusaders" by Polish author Zofia Kossak.
The School of Philosophy and Letters of the University of Navarra has hosted the presentation of the Spanish translation of "The Crusaders"by the Polish writer Sofia Kossak. Higinio Paterna, translator and publisher of the work, and Pablo Pérez, Full Professor of Contemporary History and professor of the MCCC, participated in the meeting, held at the Madridcampus and framed in the activities organized by the Master's Degree in Christianity and Contemporary Culture (MCCC). The event was sponsorship by the Embassy of the Republic of Poland in Madrid and the Instituto de la report Nacional.
Professor Pérez began his speech by recalling the historical context in which Kossak developed his work and emphasized the importance of Christianity in his narrative. He also pointed out that The Crusaders is a novel that does not idealize the medieval crusade, but presents it in all its crudeness, including the brutality of the time. On the other hand, he alluded to Charles de Gaulle, of whose figure he is an expert, pointing out the coincidence in the chronology of their lives: "Both lived dark times, but also full of light".
For his part, Higinio Paterna delved into his biography and the relevance of his production in the literary panorama. It was a controversial book in its time and continues to be so today," he said. In this sense, his translation, as he explained, has sought to preserve the strength and depth of the original text. Throughout the colloquium, the attendees learned about the life trajectory in which Kossak's production developed. As Paterna pointed out, "he left an indelible mark on Polish history. Although he did not seek recognition, his actions were a core topic in the resistance and in saving many Jewish lives". As she explained, after a staff tragedy that left her with nothing, Zofia Kossak moved to Silesia, a region disputed between Poland and Germany. Captivated by that place, there she wrote about belonging to Poland, a stance that led to her being blacklisted by the Gestapo. Despite this, she became involved in the Polish resistance, risking her life to help those who needed it most.
With a network of collaborators, including priests, she introduced communion in Warsaw's most feared prison. She also founded her own clandestine organization with a strong religious character, convinced that the war was causing moral degradation in her compatriots. In fact, as Paterna explained, she stopped writing novels to devote herself entirely to the propaganda of the Polish underground state. Zofia Kossak denounced from the first moment what was happening in Auschwitz, originally a concentration camp for Polish intellectuals and soldiers, later converted into an extermination camp. Although she did not particularly sympathize with the Jews, she published a graduate manifesto "Protest", in which she called for action and where she stated, "Whoever does not help the Jews is neither a Pole nor a Christian".
As Paterna explained, his organization coordinated the financial aid to the Jews with people of various ideologies, from communists to nationalists. "Hiding them was an extremely dangerous task, requiring logistics, false documents and, above all, absolute silence." One day, returning home by an unusual route, she was arrested by the Germans with propaganda material. Imprisoned in Pawiak, she was tortured and badly wounded, although she maintained "an exemplary attitude". Sent to Auschwitz, where her true identity was discovered, she wrote about her experience in a graduate book "From the Abyss", where she recounted life in the camp "with an unusual vision of hope". After becoming seriously ill and thanks to a bribe from the Polish underground state, she was released.
After the war, with Poland under communist rule, she received a warning that she would not be safe in her country. A senior Interior Ministry official, whose brother had collaborated with Kossak in the same organization, gave her a passport to escape. She went into exile in Sweden, where she suffered financial hardship until she was able to collect royalties for her books. Later, she was reunited with her husband, who had spent the war in a prison camp. To aid his recovery, they moved to a farm in western Britain, where they lived for a decade in anonymity. During this time, a false rumor spread that she had collaborated with the communist regime, which led her to withdraw from public life.
After Stalin's death, Zofia Kossak returned to Poland in 1957. According to Paterna, "she was received with enthusiasm and was able to publish again, although her works had been censored and banned by the communist regime. In an act of consistency with her principles, she refused a literary award from the communist state because of its persecution of the Catholic Church". His last years were spent humbly in the small gardener's house of his former home, which had been destroyed in the war. In 1968, after a visit to Auschwitz, she suffered health problems that led to her death a few weeks later.
