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Women soldiers and women prisoners: Oral testimonies of Ruta Czaplińska and Elżbieta Zawacka

Abstract

In this essay I present the stories of two women soldiers, Elżbieta Zawacka and Ruta Czaplińska, involved in the Second World War struggle who stepped out of the roles traditionally attributed to Polish women. Both were soldiers, both engaged in the anti-Communist activities after the war, and both suffered imprisonment for their actions. In the essay, I try to show how differently these two women constructed their life stories. While Zawacka saw herself as a soldier who was always determined, Czaplińska’s story is full of doubts, sadness, and reflection. I hope that these oral stories reveal how within one culture and similar set of values, defined by devotion to Poland, there is space for various models of women’s engagement.

Abstract

In this essay I present the stories of two women soldiers, Elżbieta Zawacka and Ruta Czaplińska, involved in the Second World War struggle who stepped out of the roles traditionally attributed to Polish women. Both were soldiers, both engaged in the anti-Communist activities after the war, and both suffered imprisonment for their actions. In the essay, I try to show how differently these two women constructed their life stories. While Zawacka saw herself as a soldier who was always determined, Czaplińska’s story is full of doubts, sadness, and reflection. I hope that these oral stories reveal how within one culture and similar set of values, defined by devotion to Poland, there is space for various models of women’s engagement.

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. List of editors and contributors vii
  4. Foreword ix
  5. From the editors xi
  6. Section 1. Fieldwork challenges
  7. Trust in the empathic interview 3
  8. Oral historian: Neither moralizer nor informer 15
  9. Memorable belongings 27
  10. Oral history & e-research: Collecting memories of the 1960´s and 1970´s youth culture 35
  11. Oral history and political elites: Interviewing (and transcribing) lobbyists 47
  12. Section 2. Doing gender
  13. Doing gender within oral history 63
  14. The dialogues in-between: A phenomenological perspective on women's oral history interviews 77
  15. The problems of articulating beingness in women's oral histories 87
  16. Section 3. Behind and beyond the stories
  17. Conversations with survivors of the siege of Leningrad: Between myth and history 101
  18. Women soldiers and women prisoners: Oral testimonies of Ruta Czaplińska and Elżbieta Zawacka 115
  19. 'The stranger within my Gate': Irish emigrant narratives of exile, tradition and modernity in post-war Britain 129
  20. Section 4. Public space challenges
  21. Painting in sound: Aural history and audio art 147
  22. Oral history as a dialogue with the Polish-Jewish past of a local community from the perspective of social pedagogy 169
  23. Sharing oral history with the wider public: Experiences of the Refugee Communities History Project 179
  24. Section 5. Story - oral history - historiography
  25. The ethics of oral history: Expectations, responsibilities, and dissociations 195
  26. Life story interviews and the "Truth of Memory": Some aspects of oral history from a historico-philosophical perspective 205
  27. Index 217
Oral History
This chapter is in the book Oral History
https://doi.org/10.1075/sin.10.16mul

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. List of editors and contributors vii
  4. Foreword ix
  5. From the editors xi
  6. Section 1. Fieldwork challenges
  7. Trust in the empathic interview 3
  8. Oral historian: Neither moralizer nor informer 15
  9. Memorable belongings 27
  10. Oral history & e-research: Collecting memories of the 1960´s and 1970´s youth culture 35
  11. Oral history and political elites: Interviewing (and transcribing) lobbyists 47
  12. Section 2. Doing gender
  13. Doing gender within oral history 63
  14. The dialogues in-between: A phenomenological perspective on women's oral history interviews 77
  15. The problems of articulating beingness in women's oral histories 87
  16. Section 3. Behind and beyond the stories
  17. Conversations with survivors of the siege of Leningrad: Between myth and history 101
  18. Women soldiers and women prisoners: Oral testimonies of Ruta Czaplińska and Elżbieta Zawacka 115
  19. 'The stranger within my Gate': Irish emigrant narratives of exile, tradition and modernity in post-war Britain 129
  20. Section 4. Public space challenges
  21. Painting in sound: Aural history and audio art 147
  22. Oral history as a dialogue with the Polish-Jewish past of a local community from the perspective of social pedagogy 169
  23. Sharing oral history with the wider public: Experiences of the Refugee Communities History Project 179
  24. Section 5. Story - oral history - historiography
  25. The ethics of oral history: Expectations, responsibilities, and dissociations 195
  26. Life story interviews and the "Truth of Memory": Some aspects of oral history from a historico-philosophical perspective 205
  27. Index 217
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