15 December 1965, Wednesday

Issue 25–26 (1965) of a literary journal Współczesność presents an article by Jerzy Ficowski entitled “W poszukiwaniu śladów Brunona Schulza”. This is a report of his trip to Lviv*, Drogobych* and Truskawiec*, which Ficowski made in 1965. The aim of the trip was to search for materials about the life and work of Bruno Schulz in his home region. Ficowski assessed this journey as a failure; the product of the research was “five drawings by Schulz, found in the possession of one of the inhabitants of Lviv. There is also one drawing – in the Picture Gallery – of which I have taken a photograph. There is still a photocopy of Schulz’s school grades list from 1902–1910 – from the first grade to the secondary school – found in an archive in Sambor*”¹. The narrative of this text is based on the tension between hopes for finding unknown materials and the disappointment with their absence.

In Lviv, Ficowski visits an apartment where Debora Vogel* lived with her husband before the war, and recalls a conversation with a janitor who remembered the Vogels and who admits to burning all the papers left by former tenants during some routine cleaning work. Another stop of Ficowski’s journey in the Lviv area is the former apartment of Ella Schulz-Podstolska*. Ficowski also recalls a conversation with the postwar tenant of the apartment, who also informs him about the destruction of the preserved materials. “Were there any drawings? Yes. There was one: a likeness – a strange one – of a girl – of some strange girl. But the drawing was cut with a knife and stained with blood. I thought it could be human blood! I couldn’t keep it under my roof. One Sunday, visiting a family grave in the cemetery, I took this bloody drawing and threw it through a crack into some grave”².

In connection with the visit to Drogobych and Truskawiec, there is also a disappointment with how few discoveries could be made and how little is remembered about Schulz. Ficowski’s narrative, however, focuses on the experience of genius loci and on comparing the space described by Schulz in the stories with the space experienced by Ficowski wandering in the footsteps of Schulz. The parallels Ficowski observes served as evidence that Schulz’s visions were rooted in a real urban space. 

In the final part of the article, Ficowski refers to a photograph depicting Schulz on the steps of his house in Florianska St.* Ficowski juxtaposes this photograph from the 1930s with his photograph of the same stairs – this time empty – from 1965. Ficowski sees a symbolic representation of Schulz’s fate and his artistic legacy.

Ficowski used excerpts from the article “W poszukiwaniu śladów Brunona Schulza in Regiony wielkiej herezji”*, in the chapters “Fantomy a realność” and “Dzieła ocalałe i zaginione”. (mr) (transl. mw)

See also: 1959*, 1967*.