Queer Places:
Warsaw Jewish Cemetery
Warsaw, Miasto Warszawa, Mazowieckie, Poland
Stefan Napierski, actually Stefan Marek Eiger (born 15 March 1899 in Warsaw, died 2 April 1940 in Palmiry) was a Polish poet of Jewish origin, translator and essayist, in the years 1938–1939 publisher of the bimonthly "Ateneum". Stefan
Napierski (Mark Eiger) was a Jewish, homosexual aesthete and poet from a
wealthy background, who translated Stefan
George, Rainer Maria Rilke and
Georg Trakl, and moved in elegant circles that took their cue from Weimar,
Berlin or Paris. He was eventually shot by the Nazis. Mark was the homosexual
scion of a family of wealthy capitalists, owners of cement factories. He had
all the earmarks of Middle Eastern Europeans of his type: money, a knowledge
of foreign languages, a large collection of books, a neurosis, and
homosexuality.
Born to Bolesław Eiger (died 1923), a wealthy Jewish entrepreneur and Jadwiga Diana Silberstein, daughter of Markus Silberstein.[1] He had an older sister, Maria Eiger-Kamińska (1893-1983), communist activist, deputy member of central committee of Communist Party of Poland (1930-32) and two younger brothers: Kazimierz and Zdzisław. As a young man, Napierski converted to Catholicism and took a polish sounding nom-de-plume. Despite being gay (the fact was an open secret of literary circles), he was married to Irena Tuwim, a sister of the poet Julian Tuwim, in the years 1922–1935.[2]
He was mostly known as a translator and literary critic, and his self-published works were not as well regarded then.[2] He was associated with literary circles such as Skamander group, despite not strictly belonging to them.[2] In the years 1938–1939 he was a publisher and editor-in-chief of the bimonthly "Ateneum".[3] Thanks to Napierski's intercession,
Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz was given the position of the secretary of the Marshal of the Sejm.[2]
Taken from Pawiak[4], he was shot by the Germans in the Palmiry massacre, in a group of significant representatives of the Polish intelligentsia living in Warsaw.
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