{"id":1609,"date":"2019-05-09T12:11:20","date_gmt":"2019-05-09T11:11:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/oczamidziecka.al.uw.edu.pl\/?page_id=1609"},"modified":"2023-12-06T10:25:51","modified_gmt":"2023-12-06T09:25:51","slug":"rutka-2","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/oczamidziecka.al.uw.edu.pl\/index.php\/en\/rutka-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Rutka"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Author: Joanna Fabicka<\/h6>\n\n\n\n
Illustrator: Mariusz Andryszczyk<\/h6>\n\n\n\n
Year: 2016<\/h6>\n\n\n\n
Publisher: Agora<\/h6>\n\n\n\n
Place of publication: Warszawa<\/h6>\n\n\n\n
Pages: 223<\/h6>\n\n\n\n
ISBN: 9788326823305<\/h6>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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\"Rutka
Cover courtesy of the publisher. \u00a9Agora SA, 2016<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Ten-year-old Zosia Sardynka lives in Ba\u0142uty, a district of \u0141\u00f3d\u017a. The tenement house where she lives is a historical monument. Just like many other buildings in the area, it saw the Holocaust of the \u0141\u00f3d\u017a Jews because of its location in the former ghetto<\/a> (1940-1945). The protagonist learns about the past during her summer break. Due to her mom\u2019s travelling, she has to spend the summer with Aunt R\u00f3\u017ca about whom she has never heard. Once Aunt R\u00f3\u017ca appears in Zosia\u2019s life, strange things start happening. Zosia makes a new friend named Rutka who takes her on a time travel \u2013 both metaphorical and literal. A series of fantastic events \u2013 sometimes funny, sometimes scary \u2013 leads her to learning the tragic past of her \u201cneighbours\u201d who were forcibly crowded in the \u0141\u00f3d\u017a Ghetto, and then sent to the \u201cDiamond Planet\u201d on a train which left Radegast station<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Rutka <\/i>is a very complex novel. First, the author uses the trope of time travel, which is popular in children\u2019s historical novels, showing contemporary and wartime \u0141\u00f3d\u017a as spaces connected not just by the friendship of the two characters, but also by the decades-old cityscape. Reclaiming local post-memory is the main subject of Rutka<\/i>, which narrates the process and essence of transferring memories of the past across generations of women (R\u00f3\u017ca \u2013 Rutka \u2013 Zosia). Second, by alternating contemporary and historical events, Fabicka adds a layer of metaphor to the Holocaust whose echoes the reader can find in Zosia\u2019s everyday life. Through artistic means of expression, not only does Fabicka give general visions of the suffering of Jewish victims, but she also portrays particular people, such as Chaim Rumkowski<\/a>, the leader of Judenrat at the \u0141\u00f3d\u017a Ghetto shown as the \u201cWhite Gentleman\u201d who eats butterflies. Fabicka\u2019s rich tapestry of metaphors suggests that the contemporary world is founded on the wartime past whose memory needs to be cultivated.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Bibliography:<\/h6>\n