My name is Joanna Preizner, I am a doctor of humanities, graduate of the Jagiellonian University in Krakow and an academic lecturer at Andrzej Frycz Modrzewski Krakow University (AFMKU). I am also the author of many books and publications on Polish cinema, which I love and which I have been fascinated with almost ever since I was a child. With equal love and passion, I research the fate of Polish Jews, I study their religion and culture. In my books I combine these two passions. For many years I have been cooperating with the legendary Austeria publishing house, where almost all my books have been published: "Stones on the Matzevah. The Holocaust in Polish Cinema" (“Kamienie na macewie. Holokaust w polskim kinie”, 2012) – the first Polish monograph of feature films about the Holocaust, a four-volume series "Gefilte film. Jewish Themes in Cinema" (“Gefilte film. Wątki żydowskie w kinie”, 2008-2013) and the two-volume series "Contemporary Israeli Cinema" (“Współczesne kino izraelskie”, 2015, 2018).

Almost from its inception, Polish cinema has shaped historical memory, including the image and memory of Polish-Jewish relations. All too often, however, these films are far from this what actually happened here – and it is rarely the result of ill will, ignorance or incompetence of the creator. Much more often, the idealized image of mutual contacts between the two nations results from this knowledge, constantly present in the author's consciousness, about what cannot be shown for various reasons. I devoted a large part of my professional life to the study of the image of the Holocaust in Polish cinema – not only the events that took place at that time, but above all how they are remembered, seen by filmmakers, and how the narratives they create shape the collective memory of Polish society. For a large part of it, the Shoah is treated as something that, if discussed at all, is only in the context of massive Polish aid, for which Jews have never shown due gratitude; and/or Jewish passivity towards Nazi (exclusively) actions. Similar false stereotypes probably apply to all aspects of Jewish life in Poland, influencing the falsification of the history of common relations and attempts to hold Jews responsible for the harm done to them. They are so firmly rooted that often an attempt to talk, to break the usual patterns, to refer to specific facts, figures, factual arguments, is met with aggression.

Someone once asked me, with a palpable hint of resentment, why I still deal with such difficult, unpleasant, dirty and dark matters. "Someone as bright and cheerful as you should be concerned with beauty instead of getting your hands dirty in the past. You have to close it and move on," I heard. Yes, I/we have to close "it". To do so, an honest picture of the past should be shown. The past should be remembered, no matter what it is like. Pride in its beautiful moments should go hand in hand with shame over shameful behaviour and with attempts to redress the wrongs. Knowledge, respect and empathy are the vaccines against xenophobia, anti-Semitism, racism, homophobia and totalitarian ideologies. Hence, I often confront the image of historical events recorded on film tape with this what really happened. I try to explain why sometimes these two visions – the film one and the actual – are so far apart. What are the reasons for the silences and ambiguities, what the symbols, metaphors and understatements mean. And why in Poland people are so often silent about what should be shouted about. 

On one hand, my books are scientific studies – they meet all the criteria for such publications. They are based on facts and valuable sources, objective, analytical, with footnotes. But they are also "to read" books – addressed not only to researchers and experts on the subject, but also to every reader who simply wants to know more, who is not afraid of difficult questions and who has the courage to face the truth about a very difficult Polish-Jewish history. I write as if I were talking about something that is important to me – and in such a way that everyone can understand me. I also lecture in the same way. What is the use of knowledge if it cannot be shared?

In 2011, I translated, edited and added footnotes to Rabbi Ben-Zion Gold's memoir "Silence before the Storm. The Life of Polish Jews Before the Holocaust" (“Cisza przed burzą:  życie polskich Żydów przed Holokaustem”) – an unusual book because its author was an Orthodox Jew, born in Poland in the twenties, and therefore his chances of surviving the war were almost none. Jews brought up in a hermetic religious environment generally did not know the Polish language well, they did not have friends on the so-called Aryan side, they were also very different from the Poles in appearance and behaviour. They were the first victims of the Holocaust, so we almost do not have a testimony coming from this environment. Meanwhile, Ben-Zion Gold survived The Second World War and being already a very old man, recreated on paper the world of the community in which he was born and grew up, with all its customs, rituals and mentality. So, I accepted the author's request to translate this book with joy and gratitude. I think I succeeded – in the same year it was published, I received the Anita and Aleksander Leyfell Foundation award for this translation.

I am also interested in cinema as a narrative art, and I tell my students about it. With them in mind, I recently completed a bilingual textbook entitled “Zbudujmy sobie historię. Wprowadzenie do narracji filmowej/ Let’s build a story. Introduction to film narration” (2021). The book will be published in Polish and English in November 2021
(https://austeria.pl/produkt/zbudujmy-sobie-opowiesc-wprowadzenie-do-narracji-filmowej-lets-build-a-story-introduction-to-film-narration/) 

This, in turn, is an original, based on numerous examples, film narrative guide, written with verve and a sense of humour. While writing this book, I had a mental rest from a much more serious topic, which I deal with as part of my current project, devoted to film stories about March 1968 in communist Poland. Description of the book "March Disgrace. March 1968 in Polish films" and my motivations for writing it are described in the next part of my scholarship application.