After breakfast we met Monica, a 20-something graduate student who offers custom walking tours of Warsaw. We have learned through trial and error that it’s important to state our expectations (politely, of course) from the beginning of a custom tour as it increases the odds of a better experience all around. And it did.
Through her eyes we saw Warsaw pre-WWII and post. The photos show both the Jewish ghetto or what remains of it, one more monument (Poles love monuments) of Janusz Korczak (pen name to Henryk Goldszmit) who worked at the orphanage in the ghetto, protecting the children from harmful knowledge of Nazi occupation and inviting their full participation in the running of the orphanage. When the news came that the children were to be transported east, Jan went with them, suffering their fate in the gas chambers of Auschwitz. Warsaw was once the home of 3.5 million Jews, now only a few thousand remain.
Warsaw is a city under construction. Communist era buildings stand alongside sleek skyscrapers as urban planners “de-Stalinize” what remains of very far left socialism. Much is finished but much is still in process.
It was my idea to venture this far north to Warsaw because I wanted to feel for myself what kind of people the Poles are. The 2 uprisings — first the Jews on April 19, 1943, then the Poles on August 1, 1944 — reflect the human will to resist oppression at the highest cost. I have learned that the Poles do not go quietly about their business while superpowers rampage over their beloved country. They fight back.
In Monica’s opinion, her Polish countrymen and women are not a gentle people although it may appear so at first glance. They are conservative, Catholic, a little insecure, quick to laugh at themselves and not the happiest people on the planet. But they know what they want and their determination is admirable.
I’m glad we ventured this far north. And I am happy to find that there really are heroes in this land.
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