Klawisz / The Prison Guard (1990) dir. Jozef Gebski

The protagonist of the film “Klawisz“ is Jan Doliński, a former guard of the Lublin Castle prison, who held his post during the German occupation and remained in it almost until the prison was liquidated in 1954. He was dismissed because he did not want to join the Polish United Workers’ Party. Jan Doliński, the protagonist of the film “Klawisz“, was born in 1898 and began his professional life in the army as a Piłsudskiite. For several decades he worked as a prison guard in the Lublin Castle prison. He held that position during the German occupation, after the Soviet invasion, and during the Stalinist period. He was released just before the prison was liquidated in 1954 because he refused to accept his party card, believing that a guard should not be involved in politics. His long account is full of ambivalence and contradictions. At times, he appears to be a man who tried to carry out his function in accordance with his conscience, treating prisoners humanely. However, he also makes such statements: “What the authorities order I will do everything (...) I only watched over work and orders.“ He states with regret that each successive government has praised him for this attitude, but some people hold a grudge. The interview with Dolinski was shot in his poor apartment. The camera concentrates on his face, his worn hands. It also shows the details of the modest interior: the kitchen stove, old, broken dishes, scratched walls, damaged equipment. This sequence is juxtaposed with photographs and archival footage (including shots taken from the film “Majdanek - Cemetery of Europe“) depicting piles of corpses and emaciated bodies of Majdanek prisoners. The final parts of the film are filled with blood, pain and screams of former prisoners who were tortured in the castle during the Stalinist period.