''Medallions'' (the original
Polish
Polish may refer to:
* Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe
* Polish language
* Polish people, people from Poland or of Polish descent
* Polish chicken
* Polish brothers (Mark Polish and Michael Polish, born 1970), American twin ...
title: ''Medaliony''
) is a book consisting of eight
short stories
A short story is a piece of prose fiction. It can typically be read in a single sitting and focuses on a self-contained incident or series of linked incidents, with the intent of evoking a single effect or mood. The short story is one of the old ...
by the
Polish author Zofia Nałkowska
Zofia Nałkowska (, 10 November 1884 – 17 December 1954) was a Polish prose writer, dramatist, and prolific essayist. She served as the executive member of the prestigious Polish Academy of Literature (1933–1939) during the interwar period.
...
.
The book was originally published in 1946, soon after the end of
World War II
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
. In it, Nałkowska calmly related selected stories of
Nazi
Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During H ...
atrocities in
Poland
Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...
and the fates of their victims. Nałkowska was a member of a special committee for the investigation of
Nazi crimes
Nazi crime or Hitlerite crime ( or ) is a legal concept used in the Polish legal system, referring to an action which was carried out, inspired, or tolerated by public functionaries of Nazi Germany (1933–1945) that is also classified as a crim ...
that took place
in Poland, where she had learned facts directly from victims and witnesses.
Part of the text was published in English in the ''Introduction to Modern Polish Literature'' edited by Adam Gillon and Ludwik Krzyżanowski. A complete translation by Diana Kuprel was published by the
Northwestern University Press
Northwestern University Press is an American publishing house affiliated with Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. It publishes 70 new titles each year in the areas of continental philosophy, poetry, Slavic and German literary criticis ...
in 2000.
See also
*
Holocaust
The Holocaust (), known in Hebrew language, Hebrew as the (), was the genocide of History of the Jews in Europe, European Jews during World War II. From 1941 to 1945, Nazi Germany and Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy ...
*
Nazi crimes against ethnic Poles
Crimes against the Polish nation committed by Nazi Germany and Axis collaborationist forces during the invasion of Poland, along with auxiliary battalions during the subsequent occupation of Poland in World War II, included the genocide of ...
*
Rudolf Spanner
References
{{reflist, 31em, refs=
[{{citation , last1 = Zofia , first1 = Nałkowska , translator-last1 = Kuprel , translator-first1 = Diana , authorlink = Zofia Nałkowska , title = Medallions , page ]
49
, publisher = Northwestern University Press , year = 1999 , url = https://archive.org/details/medallions00nako/page/49 , isbn = 0-8101-1743-6 , oclc = 42475803 , accessdate = 2018-02-07
[{{citation , last = Zofia, first = Nałkowska , authorlink = Zofia Nałkowska , title = Medaliony , publisher = Spółdzielnię Wydawniczą „Czytelnik”, location = Warsaw , year = 1946 , url = http://evacska.republika.pl/materialy/lektury/zofia_nalkowska/medaliony.htm , accessdate = 2018-02-07, archiveurl= https://web.archive.org/web/20170430114054/http://evacska.republika.pl/materialy/lektury/zofia_nalkowska/medaliony.htm, archivedate= 2017-04-30 ]
[{{cite web , title = Medallions by Zofia Nalkowska, Paperback, February 25, 2000 , publisher = ]Indigo Books
InterGlobe Aviation Limited (d/b/a IndiGo), is an Indian airline headquartered in Gurgaon, Haryana, India. It is the largest airline in India by passengers carried and fleet size, with a 64.1% domestic market share as of April 2025. It is t ...
, year = 2018 , url = http://www.chapters.indigo.ca/books/Medallions-Zofia-Nalkowska/9780810117433-item.html?pticket=wj0ln545retedhu14bp32t55e5evulDtETRqtzCMNBu4NOdT384%3d , accessdate = 2018-02-07
[{{cite web , title = Medallions, Zofia Nalkowska, Considered a masterpiece of antifascist world literature , publisher = Northwestern University Press , year = 2006 , url = http://nupress.northwestern.edu/title.cfm?ISBN=0-8101-1743-6 , archiveurl = https://web.archive.org/web/20060901171332/http://nupress.northwestern.edu/title.cfm?ISBN=0-8101-1743-6 , archivedate = 2006-09-01 , url-status = dead , access-date = 2007-09-01 ]
External links
''Introduction to Modern Polish Literature''(Paperback) by Adam Gillon (Editor), including review.
Zofia Nałkowska’s ‘Medallions’ & The Bomb That Never Went Offfrom Culture.pl
1946 short story collections
Books about World War II
Polish short story collections
Northwestern University Press books