KSAWERY PRUSZYNSKI
333
they belonged to that distinctive and rare category - those just
released from a Soviet prison. Broniewski took a close look and rec–
ognized them; they in turn recognized him. After a while they came
to our table. They introduced themselves: Henryk Erlich, Victor
Alter.
I already knew that these two leaders of the Bund had just been
released from jail, that they had visited our embassy and talked to
the ambassador. But I had not yet had the chance to see them. I
must confess that I was not particularly eager to meet them. Of the
many Jewish political parties, I was least familiar with the Bund.
It
did not seem to me very interesting. The conservatism of the
Hassidim was very exotic; Zionism with its Palestinian yearnings
had something romantic and unreal about it. Revisionism* with its
shirts (I don't remember what color shirts these Jewish fascists wore)
was something one would not expect from Polish Jewry. The Bund,
from a distance, appeared to be one of the sects of the Marxist faith
that had fallen out with Soviet Communism but had not integrated
itself into the Polish Socialist Party. One did not associate the
concept of the Bund either with the traditional synagogue or with the
Palestinian kibbutz. It conjured up rather the image of the wretched
human dust - those little tailors and shoemakers, more destitute
than the poorest factor', workers, the tattered multitudes which on
holiday afternoons would fill the shabby markets of Sieradz,
Wolkowysk, or Lida. **
In the previous few days I had many occasions to meet people
emerging from a Soviet jail. Some were strangely excited, feverish,
agitated . Others, conversely, were apathetic; they would hold back
and avoid one's eyes. The prison pressed upon them in a variety of
ways but always visibly. As soon as I saw Alter and Erlich I knew:
they were different.
It
was not that they were more quiet or more
excited than the others; it was rather that they did not seem to be
thrown off balance by their prison experience. True, I did not know
them before; my impression could have been wrong. Undoubtedly,
they had aged; their health too must have suffered. But psychologi–
cally they seemed to be untouched by it all, as if there were no con–
nection between their bodies and their souls. In fact, it was easy to
'Reference
to
the militant, right-wing brand of Zionism, marked, i.a., by its para–
military organizations.
"Central and Eastern Polish towns with a large Jewish population. The disparag–
ing reference
to
the Bund's constituency reflects Prusznski's candidly admitted bias.
