Koło Literacko-Artystyczne „Start” (1942–1944): epizod z dziejów życia literackiego polskiego wojennego uchodźstwa na Węgrzech

Abstract

Amongst the Polish exiles who during the World War II found themselves in the Kingdom of Hungary, more than twenty had literary ambitions and regularly published their works. Eleven of them, mostly young, twenty-year-old debutants living in Budapest, set up a literary and artistic association ‘Start’, which functioned between 1942 and 1944. The association (whose main leader and the most gifted member was Leon Kaltenbergh, a poet and a critic) did not have a fixed literary programme. Instead, it was a forum, which enabled the exiled artists to share their experiences and actively participate in the organisation of the Polish artistic life in Hungary. The ‘Start’ members published 12 own books (10 collections of poetry, 2 books of short stories) and 3 volumes of Hungarian poetry in translation. They also organised 4 public poetry readings. The invasion of German troops on Hungary on 19th March 1944 put an end to ‘Start’.