Czarny ogród

In autumn, there will be a great surprise. A publishing sensation like no other in Poland for a long time. The book by the outstanding journalist Małgorzata Szejnert from Warsaw, a (pardon!) hen of the "Gazeta Wyborcza" reporters'' school, will be released. After entering into journalistic retirement (may God grant us such energy after sixty!), she decided to thoroughly investigate the place on earth we know as Giszowiec and Nikiszowiec. She encountered Giszowiec 20 years ago, was familiar with my films, and collected materials over many years. When she freed herself from her job, she embarked on this work. An impressive achievement of journalistic art has emerged—delightfully rich, always concrete yet objective. It is the story of the Giesche company (which went bankrupt last year), the history of Germany, Silesia, and Poland during this two-hundred-year period; it tells about the emergence of life in Giszowiec and Nikiszowiec; and most importantly—the history of several selected families from Giszowiec that weave through and intersect across the dreadful twentieth century. The accumulation of knowledge, abundance of facts, and all the tangled fates of people at borders—and especially the author''s talent—are breathtaking. Ms. Szejnert''s book can be compared to an enormous meteorite that has fallen upon our land. This is undoubtedly her "life''s work." For me, it is a masterpiece within Silesian themes that reveals the authentic magic of Upper Silesia and the wise philosophy of its residents'' enduring existence (which Ms. Szejnert extracted in conversations with people)—“And we just keep going!” Kazimierz Kutz