RUDNICKI, ADOLF

born , Feb. 19, 1912, Warsaw, Pol., Russian Empire [now in Poland] died Nov. 14, 1990, Warsaw Polish novelist and essayist noted for his depictions of Jewish life and its destruction under the Nazis during World War II. Born into a Jewish family, Rudnicki was educated in Warsaw and worked as a bank clerk. He first appeared on the literary scene with novels on social problems. In Szczury (1932; Rats) he depicted the drabness of everyday life in the sort of small provincial town where many Polish Jews lived. His novel Zolnierze (1933; Soldiers) is a sombre naturalistic picture of life in an army barracks. Niekochana (1936; Unloved) and the story Lato (1938; Summer) encouraged critics to classify him as a psychological novelist. Mobilized in the Polish army in 1939, Rudnicki fought in the September campaign and was taken prisoner by the Germans. He escaped and crossed to Lww (now Lviv), in the Soviet-occupied zone of Poland, where he contributed to Nowe widnokregi (New Horizons), a communist periodical. When the Germans occupied Lww in 1941, Rudnicki returned to Warsaw, where he lived under a false identity. He worked in the Resistance movement and took part in the Warsaw uprising of 1944. After the war he settled in Ldz, joining the Marxist literary group Kuznica (The Forge). He undertook to write a huge volume under the title Zywe i martwe morze (1952; The Dead and the Living Sea), a moving testament to the nation of Polish Jews and how they died. After 1953 Rudnicki began publishing weekly notes in literary periodicals, which were collected into several volumes entitled Niebieskie kartki (Blue Pages).