Bajla Gelblung und Johannes Bobrowskis Gedicht BERICHT

Abstract

Johannes Bobrowski’s iconic poem BERICHT (REPORT) refers to an historical photograph showing the interrogation of a young Polish Jewish woman by officers of the German Wehrmacht in Brest-Litovsk. It has long been assumed that the woman referred to as Bajla Belblung was a resistance fighter who escaped from the Warsaw ghetto in 1943. But further research has shown that the interrogation took place in September 1939 after the end of the third week of the war. This work examines the historical background of the photos of Bajla Gelblung taken at that time as well how the photograph captions have changed over time. It also raises questions about the development of a legend, to which Bobrowski’s poem has made a decisive contribution.