Chapter 13 - Against Heroics

Summary

Borowski is often considered one of the most tragic figures in Poland's Columbus 20 generation. In Miłosz's book-length essay The Captive Mind, Borowski is presented as one of the “captive” types. Borowski is Beta, the unhappy lover who survives Auschwitz and becomes zealously entangled in the Soviet regime, believing wholeheartedly that it is the only way to protect humanity from fascism. Disappointed and disillusioned, realizing he has become a part of the regime he sought to fight, Beta takes his own life. Like Beta, Borowski survived Auschwitz and eventually reunited with his fiancee Maria, who survived the women's camp. During their stay at Auschwitz, Maria was seriously ill and Borowski repeatedly risked his own life to smuggle medicine, food, and his letters to her. After the war, Borowski stayed at various prisoner camps, searching for Maria. He eventually found her in a Swedish hospital and they both returned to Poland. This was the time when Soviets began using the fear of fascism as their primary propaganda tactic, and Borowski, like many intellectuals who survived the war, came to sympathize with the Soviet regime. His former colleagues instantly accused him of betrayal and, once his stories were published, of distorting the reality of camp life and writing “amoral” prose.