Jerzy Andrzejewski

Who was Jerzy Andrzejewski?

Jerzy Andrzejewski was a prolific Polish author. His novels, Ashes and Diamonds, and Holy Week, have been made into film adaptations by the Oscar-winning Polish director Andrzej Wajda. Holy Week and Ashes and Diamonds have both been translated into English.

Andrzejewski studied philology at the University of Warsaw in the Second Polish Republic. In 1932 he debuted in ABC Magazine with his first short story entitled Wobec czyjegoś życia. In 1936 he published a full collection of short stories called Drogi nieuniknione, in Biblioteka "Prosto z mostu", and soon received broad recognition for his new novel Ład serca from 1938. Immediately after World War II, Andrzejewski published the volume Night and his most famous novel so far, the Ashes and Diamonds. Having joined the communist party in 1950, he left the party after the 1956 Polish October protests and riots. In 1976 he was one of the founding members of the intellectual opposition group KOR. Later, Andrzejewski was a strong supporter of Poland's anti-Communist Solidarity movement.