Mother wanted me to emigrate. Stefan Bekier about March '68.

INTERVIEWEE: Stefan Bekier
INTERVIEWEE’S BIOGRAPHY AND DETAILED THEMES DEVELOPMENT: sztetl.org.pl/en/oral-history...
INTERVIEWER: Józef Markiewicz
OPERATOR: Piotr Boruszkowski
RECORDING DATE: 21st March 2018
RECORDING COPYRIGHT: POLIN Museum of the History of the Polish Jews
THE MOST IMPORTANT THEMES:
00:00:05 - Reference to the contemporary situation in Poland in the context of the anniversary commemorations on March ’68.
00:02:20 - Parents’ wartime and post-war fate, father’s involvement in communist activity, departure for France in 1930; birth in Paris in 1946; the family’s return to Poland in 1948.
00:05:31 - Childhood and youth, the conditions of life in Warsaw’s Mokotów, education, life in Mexico.
00:08:19 - Studying foreign trade at the Main School of Planning and Statistics (SGPiS) before 1968, atmosphere at the university, discussions and debates on the political events in Poland and around the world, film clubs, the shaping of Stefan Bekier’s views.
00:10:15 - Involvement in student protests, preparing for the rally on 8th March 1968th, distribution of leaflets.
00:15:01 - Activity around the Student Discussion Centre of the Socialist Youth Union.
00:16:11 - Warsaw University on 8th March 1968, impressions, speeches.
00:19:07 - Student protest, subsequent rallies, strike committees, general meetings.
00:23:57 - Mother’s attitude towards the March events; losing her job at the Ministry of Culture and Art, further political involvement.
00:27:40 - Further student protests.
00:29:49 - The collapse of the protests and repressions, disciplinary commissions, expulsion from studies, sanctions, penalty call-up for the army, difficulties in finding a job.
00:33:30 - Emigration to France in order to continue his studies, the interrogation, refusal of issuing a passport.
00:37:53 - Emigration to France.
00:40:46 - Sister’s attitude, sister’s involvement in the opposition.
00:43:56 - Life in France, universities in Grenoble and Paris, French intellectual life after 1968, leftist activity, publishing the Trotskyist magazine "Walka klas" (“Class Struggle”), attempts of transferring the radical left idea to Poland.
00:47:14 - How the political situation in Poland and in Czechoslovakia was received in France (by French organizations and parties, as well as by immigrant communities).
00:52:04 - Jewish identity, contact with Palestine and Jewish organizations, trip to Israel, sympathy for pacifist Israeli organizations.
00:56:41 - Interest in the history of Polish Jews, inspiration from Lanzman’s film Shoah, stories of family’s members, genealogy.
01:04:44 - Contact with Polish Jewish organizations, debates, dances, social contacts.
01:06:36 - Attidute towards the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, a lack of sense of connection with Israel, meeting Marek Edelman.
01:09:00 - Jewish identity, connection with religion, Jewish identity and antisemitism.
01:11:58 - Antisemitism, types and manifestations of antisemitism, attitude against antisemitism.
01:15:16 - Coming to Poland in 1981 under false papers, willingness to participate in grassroots political change, contacts with Solidarność, arrest and deportation to France, desire to return to Poland.
01:19:33 - The martial-law period, support from overseas, overseas reaction to the martial law.
01:20:51 - Return to Poland in April 1990, regaining Polish citizenship, previous status as a stateless individual.
01:23:50 - Antisemitism as a type of racism, contemporary racism in France.
01:27:30 - The xenophobic atmosphere in contemporary Poland.
01:29:19 - Sympathy towards POLIN Museum and organizations which fight against xenophobia and racism in Poland, unwillingness to live in contemporary Poland, comparing contemporary Poland to the period of Solidarność, life in multicultural France.
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