The Generation of Columbuses (Polish: pokolenie Kolumbów) is a term denoting the generation of Poles who were born soon after Poland regained its independence in 1918, and whose adolescence was marked by the tragic times of World War II. The term itself was coined by Roman Bratny in his well-received 1957 novel Kolumbowie. Rocznik 20 and was itself based on the name of Christopher Columbus, as Bratny described the entire generation as the ones who discovered Poland. The term is generally applied to young intelligentsia, but it also includes all young people who, instead of living their lives the way most 20-year-old people do, had to fight against the foreign occupation and study at secret universities.
Among the notable people commonly associated with the generation are:
Krzysztof Kamil Baczyński, a catastrophist poet who was killed in the Warsaw UprisingWładysław Bartoszewski,Miron Białoszewski, a poet and a writerTeresa Bogusławska, a poet, arrested by the Gestapo and imprisoned in the Pawiak, she died of tuberculosis in 1945Wacław Bojarski, a wartime poet and journalist of underground newspapers, died 1943Tadeusz Borowski, a poet and writer who survived Auschwitz-Birkenau and the Dachau concentration camp only to commit suicide in 1951Roman Bratny, writerOlgierd Budrewicz, journalist and VarsavianistJerzy Ficowski, poet, journalist and ethnologist, pioneer of research on post-war Jewish and Gypsy life in PolandTadeusz Gajcy, a poet, killed in the Warsaw UprisingStanisław Grzesiuk,Zbigniew Herbert,Gustaw Herling-GrudzińskiKrystyna Krahelska, a girl-guide, poet and singer, model for the monument of the Warsaw's Siren, killed in the Warsaw UprisingStanisław Lem,Stanislas LikiernikWojciech Mencel, a poet, killed in the Warsaw UprisingWłodzimierz Pietrzak, an art critic and author, killed in the Warsaw UprisingJan Romocki, scouting instructor and a poet, died in the Warsaw UprisingTadeusz Różewicz,Stanisław Staszewski,Zdzisław Stroiński, a poet, killed in the Warsaw UprisingAndrzej Trzebiński, a dramatist, novelist and a poet, arrested by the Germans, shot to death in 1943Józef Szczepański, a poet, killed in the Warsaw UprisingAndrzej Szczypiorski,Karol Wojtyła.