ALA FROM THE READING PRIMER

It is commonly assumed that Alina Margolis had inspired the character of Ala from the Reading Primer, a handbook for teaching schoolchildren the skills of reading and writing authored by Marian Falski. However, the first edition of the primer was released in 1910, that is, twelve years before Alina was born, and the character of Ala was already there. This means that Ala from the primer could not have been modeled on Alina Margolis, but perhaps it was the other way round, and Alina was named after the girl from the book. The fact remains that Marian Falski was a close friend of Anna Margolis, having met her back in Warsaw, and frequently visited Ala’s parents when he was in Łódź. On the day of her seventh birthday, Ala received a gift from him: a copy of the Reading Primer, with a beautiful dedication which read, “To Ala from the Primer – from the Author”.

Alina’s brother, Olek, got his name from the primer (this is what the boy from the book is called), and Ajfelek, their hamster, was, by the same token, called As. It is not clear if little Ala had a cat (this is the first sentence from the primer), but Alina Margolis-Edelman was happy for her memoirs to be entitled Ala from the Reading Primer, and throughout the book, she repeatedly mentioned Marian Falski, who had saved her life.

During the Second World War, Marian Falski and his wife, Irena Oxner, were helping their Jewish friends, a deed for which they were posthumously awarded the Righteous Among the Nations medal, an honor conferred upon people who saved Jewish lives. When Alina Margolis and her friend landed themselves in trouble (they had been identified as Jewesses and taken to a police station), Mr. Falski paid ten thousand zlotys to secure their release from jail, thus saving their lives.

Ala from the Reading Primer was first released in 1994 by Polish UK-based publishing house Aneks and had multiple subsequent editions, including as Tego, co mówili, nie powtórzę [I’m not going to repeat their words]. It was also released in French, German, Italian, Norwegian, and Icelandic. In 2010, Edyta Wróblewska shot Alina Margolis-Edelman’s biopic, under the memoir’s original title.

“Marian Falski was a close friend of my mother’s. He was a tall, handsome gentleman with somewhat wavy grey hair and a benevolent smile. When I turned seven, he brought me a beautifully wrapped present. It was a copy of his Primer. In the top left-hand corner on the first page, it was written, ‘To Ala from the Primer – from the Author’, and slightly below that, ‘Ala has a cat’.

When my brother was born, it was my birthday. Dad came in the room and said, ‘So, you’re getting a little brother for your birthday, he’ll be there soon’. […] Then, mom came, and we were supposed to choose a name for my brother. But it turned out there was no choice, really, because the couple from Mr. Falski’s Primer were Ala and Olek, so it was clear that my brother had to be called Olek.

Another character from the Primer was Zosia, but mom said she would not have any more children, and her decision was later proven to have been so right, because surely she would not have been able to save more than two children in the Warsaw Ghetto.

One day, Mr. Falski visited us. Of course, we immediately showed him Ajfelek. Mr. Falski said what we had already known, namely, that Ajfelek was beautiful. But then, he quirked his eyebrows, and asked:

‘So what’s his name, again? Ajfelek? What do you mean, ‘Ajfelek’? Have you forgotten that it’s Ala and As in the Primer? So why Ajfelek?

We had no choice. Ajfelek got a second name, and was now called Ajfelek-As. It actually sounded nice, and Mr. Falski was happy.

Appearing at the very beginning of the Primer, on the fourth or fifth page, is Ola. ‘Ala’ and ‘Ala’s As’ were already there, then it was ‘Ala and Ola’ right on its heels. So, Mr. Falski took a thick pencil, added the word ‘Nic’ before ‘Ola’ and changed the ‘a’ into ‘e’, so that he got ‘Nicole’. If someone did not know this was a correction, they may have missed it completely. And for sure, nobody would have thought that the author himself had made this change. Unfortunately, this copy burned during the Warsaw Uprising”.

ZDJĘCIA DUŻE PODPIS:: A teenage Ala with a hula hoop, a perfect photo for the Primer.

okładka PODRĘCZNIKA albo – do wyboru - zdjęcia ze środka ELEMENTARZa. PODPIS: The Reading Primer, Marian Falski’s textbook featuring Ala, Olek, and As.

Podpiszę te, które wybierzesz, ale to stare Falski-Rembowski – jedno KONIECZNIE PODPIS: The 1910 edition of the Reading Primer.

ZDJĘCIE FALSKIEGO. PODPIS: Marian Falski, a friend of Anna Margolis, whom she met during her time in Warsaw.

Q-code Watch Ala from the Primer, a biopic directed by Edyta Wróblewska

Q-code The Ring, an audio of Alina Margolis-Edelman’s memories from the book Ala from the Reading Primer (an audiobook released by the Soundsitive Studio Society)

WHAT DO YOU THINK? Look for information about Marian Falski and his Reading Primer. What is the Righteous Among the Nations medal awarded for? What is a “primer”? The first sentence in a Polish textbook for reading practice is “Ala has a cat”, but children in other countries begin their reading practice with different sentences. In Sweden, for example, it is “Dad is rowing, mom is loved”, while in Iran, it is “Dad provided water, dad provided bread”. Find some more information about it.