There was freedom in him. Freedom of thought, speech, views and lifestyle. He demonstrated it boldly and brilliantly in Poland, America, wherever he found himself. One hundred and five years ago, on May 16, Leopold Tyrmand, a writer, publicist, critic of communism, was born in Warsaw.
He first learned first-hand what the political concept of the hammer, sickle and red star was in his early youth, in Vilnius during World War II. Arrested in April 1941 by the NKVD for conspiratorial activities, he was sent to the Łukiszki prison with an eight-year sentence. Two months later, after the Third Reich attacked the USSR, he escaped from a transport in the ensuing chaos. He returned to Vilnius, then, pretending to be French, made his way to Germany, where he worked as a waiter, a librarian's assistant and a railway worker.
Leopold Tyrmand in 1958 (Source: DlaPolonii.pl)
Tyrmand's later life was equally daring. He transformed himself into a sailor and tried to escape to Sweden. Captured, he waited until the end of the war in a camp near Oslo. He spent the first year of freedom in Norway and Denmark, and in 1946 he found himself in his native Warsaw.
In his opinion, the capital was filled with shadows of people and places that he remembered from his childhood spent in an assimilated, wealthy Jewish family, in a tenement house on the outskirts of the Old Town, in a good Kreczmar Private Middle and High School on Wilcza Street. Before the war broke out, he managed to complete a year of studies at the architecture department of the Paris Academy of Fine Arts, which turned out to be his first breakthrough event. There, he became familiar with Western culture and American jazz music, which he interpreted as the purest form of independence of spirit and mind.
In post-war Warsaw he took up journalism. He had already published his first texts in the press in Vilnius and Scandinavia. Editors in popular titles with which Tyrmand collaborated in Poland quickly recognized his writing talent, ease of establishing contacts, and variety of interests, including sports.
He spoke several languages and was curious about new things. The then-cult weekly "Przekrój" sent him to the Congress of Intellectuals in Wrocław, where he interviewed Pablo Picasso and Mikhail Sholokhov, among others.
Soon, however, he was thrown out of "Przekrój" for his coverage of a boxing match between Polish and Soviet teams, which violated Polish-Soviet friendship. Stefan Kisielewski, his friend and, like him, a nonconformist, extended a helping hand to Tyrmand. He introduced him to the editorial office of "Tygodnik Powszechny", but - as it turned out - for a short time, because the authorities stopped publishing the magazine for refusing to allow Stalin's obituary to be printed.
Yes, step by step Tyrmand's opposition to enslavement, orders, frauds and manipulations of communist chieftains matured. Until 1955 he had his oasis of freedom in the YMCA building on Konopnicka Street in Warsaw, where he managed to get a small apartment. He lived and worked there and took advantage of the building's unique attractions in the ruined capital, including an indoor swimming pool.
He gained incredible popularity among readers with two books published at that time. "Diary 1954" and especially "Zły" (The Evil) became bestsellers. There were queues for this novel, in which he described the reality of the PRL underworld, each customer received only one copy. At the same time, Tyrmand developed ties with the jazz community, co-founded it, and led concerts. He came up with the name Jazz Jamboree, which has been held in Warsaw since 1958, one of the largest jazz festivals in Europe. Tyrmand was appreciated by Witold Gombrowicz and Marek Hłasko, Sławomir Mrożek and Zbigniew Herbert, whom he supported morally and materially.
Tyrmand was one of those who paid a high price for his uncompromising attitude and escape from the humdrum of everyday life. The authorities considered him an enemy of the People's Republic of Poland. He was followed, wiretapped, his biography was being made difficult, and finally he was banned from publishing for several years and was not issued a passport. After persistent efforts, he received one in 1964. He first left for Israel, where his mother had been living since the end of the war, and then for the United States. He absolutely wanted to get there by ship, to feel like the old emigrants symbolically sailing past the Statue of Liberty.
At first, he didn't think he would stay there forever. Information from his wife, fashion designer Barbara Hoff, who was in Poland, about problems with the publication of his novel "Social and Emotional Life" caused him to change his mind. He understood that there was no going back to a country dominated by censorship.
In the United States, his notes from his life as an emigrant delighted the legendary editor of The New Yorker, William Shawn. They were published in that journal, and Tyrmand gained fame as an original essayist. He also collaborated with the Parisian "Kultura" and lectured at American universities. Until, once again, regardless of the position he had gained, he distanced himself from it when The New Yorker rejected his pamphlet on communism, The Civilization of Communism, (Cywilizacja komunistizmu), and also came into conflict with the editor-in-chief of "Kultura", Jerzy Giedroyc. Once again, he stood his ground, which this time was appreciated by John A. Howard, who invited him to the Rockford Institute, known as the stronghold of resistance to countercultural changes in the USA.
In the United States, Tyrmand reorganized his private life. He married Mary Ellen Fox, a doctoral student of Hispanic studies, and they had twins, Rebecca and Matthew. He died suddenly of a heart attack while on vacation in Florida on March 19, 1985, forty years ago. He is buried in Long Island.
Translation from Polish by Andrew Wozniewicz.
