Generation of Columbuses

The Generation of Columbuses () is a term denoting the generation of Poles who were born soon after Poland regained its independence in 1918, and whose adolescence was marked by the tragic times of World War II. The term itself was coined by Roman Bratny in his well-received 1957 novel Kolumbowie. Rocznik 20 and was itself based on the name of Christopher Columbus, as Bratny described the entire generation as the ones who discovered Poland. The term is generally applied to young intelligentsia, but it also includes all young people who, instead of living their lives the way most 20-year-old people do, had to fight against the foreign occupation and study at secret universities.

Among the notable people commonly associated with the generation are:

 Krzysztof Kamil Baczyński, a catastrophist poet who was killed in the Warsaw Uprising
 Władysław Bartoszewski,
 Miron Białoszewski, a poet and a writer
 Teresa Bogusławska, a poet, arrested by the Gestapo and imprisoned in the Pawiak, she died of meningitis in 1945
 Wacław Bojarski, a wartime poet and journalist of underground newspapers, died 1943
 Tadeusz Borowski, a poet and writer who survived Auschwitz-Birkenau and the Dachau concentration camp only to commit suicide in 1951
 Roman Bratny, writer
 Olgierd Budrewicz, journalist and Varsavianist
 Jerzy Ficowski, poet, journalist and ethnologist, pioneer of research on post-war Jewish and Gypsy life in Poland
 Tadeusz Gajcy, a poet, killed in the Warsaw Uprising
 Stanisław Grzesiuk,
 Zbigniew Herbert,
 Gustaw Herling-Grudziński
 Krystyna Krahelska, a girl-guide, poet and singer, model for the monument of the Warsaw's Siren, killed in the Warsaw Uprising
 Stanisław Lem,
  Stanislas Likiernik
 Wojciech Mencel, a poet, killed in the Warsaw Uprising
 Włodzimierz Pietrzak, an art critic and author, killed in the Warsaw Uprising
 Jan Romocki, scouting instructor and a poet, died in the Warsaw Uprising
 Tadeusz Różewicz,
 Stanisław Staszewski,
 Zdzisław Stroiński, a poet, killed in the Warsaw Uprising
 Andrzej Trzebiński, a dramatist, novelist and a poet, arrested by the Germans, shot to death in 1943
 Józef Szczepański, a poet, killed in the Warsaw Uprising
 Andrzej Szczypiorski,
 Karol Wojtyła, later known as pope John Paul II

References
 Marcel Cornis-Pope, John Neubauer, History of the Literary Cultures of East-Central Europe, John Benjamins Publishing Company, 2004, , Print, p.146
 Bolesław Klimaszewski, An Outline History of Polish Culture, Interpress, 1984, , Print, p.343
 Marek Haltof, Polish National Cinema, Berghahn Books, 2002, , Print, p.76
 Stanislas Likiernik "By devil's luck" Google
 Stanislas Likiernik interviewed by Emil Marat and Michal Wojcik "Made in Poland" wielkalitera.pl

See also
Polish culture during World War II

Category:Demographic history of Poland
Category:Polish culture
Category:Poland in World War II
Category:Polish People's Republic