Radosław Ptaszyński devoted over 700 pages of his book to Stanisław Stomma, a catholic intellectual who, during his life was confronted with two totalitarian systems, German Nazism and Soviet Communism. Stomma remains until today a symbol of „stommizm”. This name, created basing on a Stomma’s surname remains a symbol of political realism, and willingness of compromise (with direct limits), and accompanied by a strong moral integrity. Stomma, a devoted catholic played also an important role in the long process of Polish-German reconciliation. According to the Author “stommizm” itself can be recognised as a new kind of heroism, however remote from other well-known patterns of heroism.
The Ways of the Diaspora in the narrative of Claudio Magris – One of the themes in the works of Claudio Magris is that of the frontiers between nations which have been divided by arbitrary political decisions. This is the case with Central Europe, which forms a sort of transnational melting pot and which has hosted the Hebrew Diaspora. The theme of the Diaspora plays a key role in many of Magris books, in particular Lontano da dove. In his recent novel, Non luogo a procedere, one of the topics is the slave trade, a sort of African Diaspora.