Polish Culture in The Interbellum - Cultural Contributions of The Minorities

Cultural Contributions of The Minorities

The spirit of rebirth affected not only Poland's mainstream society, but also national, ethnic, and religious minorities. By the late 1930s, the Ukrainian press could boast some 68 titles published mainly in Lwów, Stanisławów and Kołomyja. The most important, was the Lwów daily Dilo (The Deed) with strong cultural and liberal background. It was published on weekly basis already since 1880, but in the interwar Poland it had expanded to 10 pages per day (16 pages on Saturday) with 10 full-time workers. Other popular dailies included Nowyi czas and the Ukrainian Visti. The Belarusian press consisted of 16 periodicals; and the Lithuanian as well as Russian press published around 10 titles each. At Warsaw University the seminars on Ukrainian history were held by renowned scholar, prof. Myron Korduba who taught Jerzy Giedroyc among others. However, the Ukrainian attempts at forming the Ukrainian-language university only, did not succeed, attesting to the lack of perspective on the part of various political entities, before the Nazi-Soviet invasion. The plentiful collection of German press included notable anti-Fasist daily Neue Lodzer Zeitung.

The Jewish cultural scene was particularly vibrant, with numerous Jewish publications and over 116 periodicals. Yiddish authors, most notably Isaac Bashevis Singer, went on to achieve international acclaim. Other renowned Jewish authors included Bruno Schulz, Julian Tuwim, Marian Hemar, Emanuel Schlechter, Jan Brzechwa and Bolesław Leśmian. Konrad Tom and Jerzy Jurandot were less well-known internationally, but made important contributions to Polish literature. Singer Jan Kiepura was one of the most popular artist of that era, and so were the Jewish composers like Henryk Wars, Jerzy Petersburski, Artur Gold, Henryk Gold, Zygmunt Białostocki and Szymon Kataszek. Among the painters known for their depictions of Jewish life in Poland, were Leopold (Leib) Pilichowski trained by Samuel Hirszenberg, Artur Markowicz, award-winning master-painter Maurycy Trębacz, Izrael Lejzerowicz (pl) – one of the most promising expressionists of the new generation – killed at Auschwitz, and numerous others. Jewish children were mainly enrolled in religious schools. During the school year of 1937–1938 there were 226 elementary schools and twelve high schools as well as fourteen vocational schools with either Yiddish or Hebrew as the instructional language. A network of 219 secular Yiddish language schools was run by TSYSHO (Central Yiddish School Organization) with 24,000 students in 1929. The Realgymnazye run in Wilno by TSBK (branch of TSYSHO) was the first modern high school in history in which Yiddish was the language of instruction.