Centennial celebration includes launch of Holocaust book
Professor Monique Polak at the October 23, 2009 launch of her ninth novel with colleagues past and present, from left, front row, Pam Butler, Maria Babinski, Evadne Anderson, Sabine Walser, Barbara Baily, back row, Dolores Chew, Megan Newell, Michael Climan, Tom Babinski (Professor Babinski’s husband), Michael Tritt, Elizabeth Arnot and Richard Adams. (Owen Egan)
Prolific is one word used to describe long-time Marianopolis English and Humanities Professor Monique Polak, who graduated from the College in 1979 and has been teaching since 1983. Professor Polak is a widely published journalist (look for her writing in Maclean’s Magazine and the Montreal Gazette) as well as a recognized author in the highly competitive young-adult fiction market. The Canadian Children’s Book Centre named five of her books to its Our Choice list. The American Library Association named another a Popular Paperback. And yet another book of hers was nominated for an Arthur Ellis crime-writing prize.
Persistent is another word that fits Professor Polak to a T. Just ask her mother.
“For years and years I didn’t want to talk about it,” says Celien Spier. The “it” has been called mankind’s darkest moment, the Holocaust. But intrepid writer and dedicated daughter that she is, Monique Polak didn’t shy away:
“I knew my mother, her two brothers and her parents were sent to a camp. I knew there was a story there. I just didn’t know all the details. Over time, I discovered that one of the reasons for my mother’s reluctance to share her story was that it was so complicated. She and her family survived largely because of the efforts of my grandfather, a prominent cartoonist at an Amsterdam newspaper, who was forced by the Nazis to make propaganda drawings. The Nazis sent my mum and her family to Theresienstadt, a camp in what was then Czechoslovakia, a place the Nazis set up to appear to the world as if it was a paradise. They filled it with artists like my grandfather so they could show the world that culture was thriving, instead of death.”
After years of prodding, and a trip to Thierenstadt, Professor Polak slowly eased her mother into sharing her story. The result is her ninth novel, the historical work of fiction What World Is Left, published by Orca Books. Directed at young adults, the book is expected to cross over into the adult market.
Beautifully told, this is a story about the most difficult choices, the power of art and the human need to confront and understand the past.
As part of its Centennial celebration, Marianopolis hosted the launch of What World Is Left on the night of October 23, 2009. Mother and daughter were on hand: Polak read from her book; Spier addressed the audience. Refreshments and a book signing followed. Les Livres Babar handled book sales, a portion of which will go to the Marianopolis College Library fund.
“It was an amazing night,” Professor Polak said. “I wanted to share this story, as did my mum.”
The book went on to win the 2009 Quebec Writers' Federation Prize for Children's and Young Adult Fiction.
A portrait of Celien Spier, mother of author and long-time Marianopolis Professor Monique Polak, done in Theresienstadt by noted Czech artist Petr Kien. The Nazis murdered Kien after they discovered his drawings depicting the truth about the camp, where Professor Polak's family was imprisoned.
