Warsaw: Museum of the History of Polish Jews

This morning we took a walk from our hotel to the Old Town of Warsaw, about a half an hour north along the somewhat winding thoroughfare called Mowy Swait. It is a lovely street, not as wide a boulevard as many of the modern streets around the central portion of the city, but wide enough for bus and car traffic as well as commodious sidewalks aside a profusion of shops, cafes, and restaurants. Many buildings have a stucco exterior which has been painted brightly. Periodically one encounters a grand church or government building of 18 or 19 century vintage. There are large statues raised to Warsaw luminaries like Copernicus. On one side a park holds an exhibit of photographs showing Warsaw before, during, and after the war. Much of the city was destroyed in the 1944 Warsaw Uprising in which partisans and citizens of all backgrounds fought the German army and lost spectacularly. It was a brave attack made by Polish people who hoped to repell the Germans by themselves, not depending upon the Soviet army that waited just across the River Vistula. When the uprising was over vast tracts of the city had been utterly destroyed. Much of the populous was herded from their homes by the Soviets and placed in refugee camps. The road back to a reconstructed city was a long and difficult one. Further from the centre where many buildings were replaced by replicas of the originals, there are innumerable “Soviet-style” enclaves, especially the 1940-50s housing units that were needed so badly after the destruction of the war. A massive Stalinist technical building stands close by the central train station, a “gift” to the Polish people. At the same time there are many creative and interesting examples of high rise architecture in that same district.

This afternoon we toured the Museum of the History of Polish Jews which will be fully open next year. The building itself is complete and there are some temporary exhibits available. We sat for some time watching home movies made of Jewish Poles between the two world wars. There were many delightful pictures of people goofing around for the camera, of young women putting on lipstick and flirting with whomever was filming them, of families self-consciously recording their relationships, and of day-to-day market scenes. The sense of the whole was rich, lively, a people happy with their lives and with themselves. The museum is set on land that was reduced to rubble with the destruction of the Warsaw Ghetto in 1943. Across from the entrance to the museum is a massive sculpture commemorating the heroes of the ghetto uprising. A film about the museum said that the sculpture honors the dead and the museum makes a bridge now to the living: to explore and celebrate and revitalize the lives of Jews in Poland from the earliest days and into the future.

Tomorrow we will take a train to Krakow (as it is spelled here.)