June 12, 2005 Mixed feelings about Poland

I am talking about others, people in general. They are amazingly reserved, sometimes even aggressive and impolite. At the information counters of bus and train stations, clerks are especially obnoxious, not just to me

but to any inquirer. They still have this petty mentality from the Socialist Days, "I am not going to be paid more by being pleasant, so why bother?". I sometimes have to become quite insistent and as rude as they are to get anywhere!

In the streets, when I ask for directions, some people stare at you as if you were going to rob or murder them and simply ignore me. It happened to me once when I wanted my picture taken. It was a youngish couple. They said "no" flatly in a panicked way and hurried on. Could it be that they thought I wanted to snap a picture of them? The result is that my level of tolerance and patience is being increasingly challenged. It is a good thing that I am living soon to go to Slovakia. Maybe I am being unfair; folks from the Polish countryside may be more welcoming. However, I will not have the chance to check.

Drinking is a visible problem in this country, as attested by the many drunks who roam the streets. Once while I was strolling through the Krakow former Jewish quarter, I heard shrill screams. Turning around I saw a whole Polish family walking behind me: a mother and three blond children. The boy, around 11 years old was the one shouting like a pig being slaughtered. He was doing it just for fun. My teacher's blood came to a boil. His screams were eliciting no reaction from the vaguely smiling mother. One of the daughters no more than 10 approached me and asked: "English?” Her breath was reeking of alcohol...I didn't react in any way. I was just stunned.

There are a lot of youngsters, skinheads, going about in groups especially in the big cities. They look brash and have a thug like appearance. They maybe harmless for all I know but I would not want to meet them in a deserted place at any time of the day or night.

So these are some impressions, rather negative I am afraid. The Uprising of the Warsaw Ghetto It seems that the history of Central Europe cannot be disassociated from the plight of the Jews during the Second World War. I am faced with constant reminders wherever I go.

In Krakow, I strolled around the former Jewish district. It has been turned into a "tourist attraction", like in Prague. Many chic restaurants and glossy hotels (run by Catholic Poles) wearing Hebrew names. I visited the 16th century Jewish cemetery. It is not crammed with tombs like the one in Prague but it exudes the same feeling of profound sadness, neglect and abandon.

In one of the museums, turned synagogue, I saw a movie called "Requiem for 500,000". Made from Nazi shot footage, it depicts everyday life in the Warsaw Ghetto. It shows how the Jews' existence went from bad to critical and then unbearable while the Germans were passing more and more decrees against them. The German movie is of course politically correct; the Nazis being careful to keep a "good" front. However, it is easy to "see between the pictures" as the Ghetto streets turn more and more into mortuaries because of famine and epidemics. You witness starved, emaciated children being arrested by German soldiers. You see them forced to shake their rags from which falls stolen food while the commentator tells you how one Nazi officer caught a Jewish child with a stolen carrot and then calmly took out his pistol and shot him in the head.

The Nazis were deceitful as well as cruel. They lured people out of the Ghetto by assuring them that if they were willing to resettle the East, they could work and earn a better living. They claimed that anyone who would volunteer freely would be given extra food. Many went, unaware of the final fate awaiting them: the gas chambers. Others decided to stay on and along with Polish Resistance put up a desperate but brave fight against the Germans. They held on several days to be eventually vanquished. You can hear their agonizing screams while they are throwing themselves out of burning buildings. In retaliation, the Germans razed the Ghetto to the ground. The Nazi machinery was getting ready to implement their "final solution".

Tomorrow Auschwitz...