Z perspektywy dziecka. Motyw ogrodu w opowieściach pisanych przez ocalonych z Shoah
From the Perspective of a Child. The Theme of a Garden in Stories Written by Shoah Survivors

Summary/Abstract: In the article, the author reflects on the theme of a garden present in books written from the perspective of a child by Shoah survivors, representatives of wealthy, Polonised Jewish families. The materials for analysis were texts written at the end of the 20th century: a novel by Roma Ligocka The Girl in a Red Coat, and memoirs by Janina Bauman (Winter in the Morning) and Yehuda Nir (The Lost Childhood). The garden present in selected books is a place that has a strong influence on the characters, a place that is real or present in stories, and a place the reader gets to know in the process of reading (e.g. The Secret Garden by Frances Hodges Burnett). The shape of this space is determined by people: founders and heirs, professional gardeners, but also casual users or even barbarians and vandals. The analysed books present the following gardens: a city park, a botanical garden, family gardens, allotment gardens, and finally a vegetable garden. Some of them exist only as names, others are described in more detail, and even seem to participate in the fate of protagonists. These spaces are important to the city’s topography, family history, or the history of an individual. They provide settings and determine – but also project – the behaviour of the characters; finally, they become a testimony to what is gone. Invoked in memoirs and stories about the times of the Holocaust, they confirm their importance in the wartime lives of children and adolescents.

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