Led by: Paulina Małochleb
How does the memory of war permeate successive generations? One need not experience war firsthand to live with its consequences; simply growing up in the homes of those who remember it is enough. That is where the war lingers longest—in family stories, in silences, and in the ways we love, fear, raise our children, and envision the world. What remains within us of a war we never experienced ourselves? In her new work of narrative non-fiction, “Świat przed nami nie istniał. Jak wojna została w naszych domach” (“The World Before Us Did Not Exist. How War Remained at Our Homes”) Katarzyna Surmiak-Domańska examines inherited memory, silences, and the psychological impact of wartime experiences, crafting a moving account of how the past shapes the present for generations to come.
Katarzyna Surmiak-Domańska is a reporter who has long been associated with “Gazeta Wyborcza”. She is a member of the Literary Union (Unia Literacka) and the Polish PEN Club, and serves as a tutor at the Polish School of Reportage (part of the Institute of Reportage). She is a member of the jury for the Ryszard Kapuściński Award for Literary Reportage. A romance philologist by education, she is the author of the following works of reportage: “Mokradełko” (2012), “Ku Klux Klan. Tu mieszka miłość” (2015), “Kieślowski. Zbliżenie” (2018), and “Czystka” (2021). She is a recipient of the Teresa Torańska “Newsweek” Award, the “Wawrzyn” Literary Award of Warmia and Masuria, and the Kazimierz Moczarski Award from Youth History Clubs. She has also been a finalist for awards such as the NIKE Literary Award and the Angelus Central European Literature Award. She lives in Warsaw and the Białowieża Forest.
In Polish. Free admission.
