The action of the novel “Austeria” by the Polish prose writer Julian Stryjkowski takes place at the very beginning of the First World War in a provincial Galician town. In the Jewish tavern, the austerium, there are a variety of characters seeking salvation from the advancing Russian troops: local Jewish natives, Hasidim, a Polish priest, an Austro-Hungarian officer. No one yet knows what the future war will entail, but the tragedy has already begun: a girl dies, a fire and a Cossack pogrom rages in the city. Based on this novel, the famous Polish director Jerzy Kawalerowicz made a film of the same name in 1982, which received the Golden Lion prize at the national festival in Gdansk.