A Novel for Politically Mature Readers – Stefan Żeromski's “Homeless People” and Censorship in the GDR

The purpose of this article is to examine how the East German authorities, through the institution of censorship under its authority, treated Stefan Zeromski's novel “Homeless People.” The analysis presented in the article refers to a search in German archives conducted by the author. The analysis of archival materials relating to the novel showed that neither the high artistic value of the works of Polish classics, which dominated translations from Polish literature in the GDR in the 1950s, nor their content, the social topics, which fell within the strict framework of socialist cultural policy, automatically guaranteed permission for printing. Moreover, it turned out that, incidentally, more importance was attached to publishing reviews than to censorship reviews.