A Book at the Museum. “Boundless.” A Meeting with Aleksandra Lipczak

 

They are in their early twenties, students or recent graduates of medicine, chemistry, or the Academy of Fine Arts; they are nurses, seamstresses, or factory workers: Wiśka Kanner from Lviv, Dora Goldszajder from Kielce, Zofia Szleyen from Łódź, the Luftig sisters from Chrzanów, Maryśka Gothelf from Warsaw… and dozens of others. They are driven by youthful rebellion, and their political engagement is spurred by the rising anti-Semitism in Poland, difficult living conditions, but above all, their belief in a better world. When the Spanish Civil War broke out, they joined the ranks of tens of thousands of female and male volunteers from Europe and America to fight fascism in the name of international solidarity.
In this fascinating—and at the same time pioneering—book, Aleksandra Lipczak sheds light on the lives of Jewish and Polish revolutionary women, communists, and anarchists. She recounts their upbringing in the Second Polish Republic, the complicated circumstances surrounding their departure for Spain, their self-sacrificing work behind the front lines, as well as their subsequent dramatic fates, when, after the fall of the republic, they ended up as refugees in detention camps in southern France; their involvement in the French Resistance; and, finally, their disillusionment with communism or their coming to terms with the new order in postwar Poland. The author does not simplify these “herstories” nor does she attempt to force them into predefined molds. With meticulous inquiry, she reconstructs the lives of her subjects, drawing on abundant, previously untapped archives, letters, memoirs, and documents, and speaking with the families of the female volunteers. She strives to understand these women’s emotions, their motivations, their dilemmas, and the decisions that seem unclear from today’s perspective. At the same time, she discreetly recontextualizes this story so that, as we read about the anti-fascist uprising of young Europeans nine decades ago, we cannot help but think about the contemporary world.
This fascinating book, written with passion and political acumen, revives the memory of these extraordinary heroines and allows us to reexamine many myths surrounding our history.