‘Under Divine Protection’. On Danuta Irena Bieńkowska’s Memoirs from Iran

Abstract

The paper attempts to describe the memoir of Danuta Irena Bieńkowska, which she wrote as a teenager in Iran (from October 1942 to the middle of January 1944), where she stayed with her mother in camps for the deported from Russia. Her
writings, by creating a general image of conditions and atmosphere in the camps in Teheran and Ahwaz, emphasise issues important to the writer – involvement in science, scouting, “social and emotional” life. Bieńkowksa’s juvenilia, having the importance of a historical document, complement significantly the image of this lesser-known emigrant poet.