And so to Warsaw. What a great city. Its big. Really big. Don’t know why they always called it ‘packed’, but there ya go. And as all Poles are quick to point out; at the end of the war, their nation was “”””Liberated””””. And the excessive use of quotation marks indicates the level of irony in that ‘liberation’. Because their liberators from Nazi occupation were the Russians. Who, after the inevitable session of murder, rape and pillage which still signifies any Russian visit, to this day, stayed in Poland for the next 40-odd yeas until perestroika in the late 80s finally un-yoked them from the communist masters in Moscow.

The Nazis marched into Warsaw in 1939 and by 1940 had built a ‘ghetto’ to house the Jewish population. Estimated at the time to be in excess of 300,000. So by the forced removal of all these people from their affluent homes, their humble apartments, their synagogues and schools and clubs, the Germans had provided themselves with some nice accommodation. And the ghetto was basically the standard Nazi tactic of rounding up ‘the enemy’ so they could be locked in, starved and ‘readied’ for ‘shipment to the East’. That fabulously mysterious phrase, so full of promise, but with a reality so horrendous none could ever guess and even if told, would never believe it.

But unlike all the other ghettos, the Warsaw ghetto had an uprising. They actually took on the Nazis in combat and did pretty well. Having realised you are pretty much dead whether you stay compliant and bullied or whether you stand and possibly inflict some form of damage on your enemy; what would you do? Who of us would ever know and if we’re lucky, will never have to know. But the Jews of the Warsaw ghetto dug into the basements and forced the Nazis into hand-to-hand combat. The ghetto was destroyed, most inhabitants remaining (the vast majority had been ‘deported’) died, but it was the resistance which was important.

Which leaves us with the Poles. Not the friendliest race in the world. Bit grim. Bit dour. Yet our guides across our visit are keen to stress that the Nazis were the baddies, which they were. And the Poles were the invaded people, which they were, and they already had the Russians who’d invaded half their country. So it’s always stressed that the Poles were victims, alongside the holocaust. Because many Poles were sent to the camps as well, like all the communists they could find. Yet, as with the French, there was undoubtedly compliance. Much of it forced; turn in Jews or you’ll die, and your family. Kind’a thing. And many Poles joined the nazis. We know this, even though it’s not mentioned by the tour guides. And I’m not making judgments, the Nazis not only made it very appealing to join the club, but also made life very uncomfortable if you didn’t comply willingly.

My grandmother left Poland, aged 1, in 1901, to move to the opulent luxury of a 3-room flat in Petticoat Lane. Because life had become too violent, too hard, too antisemitic for her parents to raise their family there. Long before either world war.

So ‘the jury’ (which sits permanently in my head) is out on Poland. Though Krakow and Warsaw are fabulous cities, rich in a long and wonderful history. Ok, some of it is wonderful.

I’m home now. And God, it is so fucking hot!!!!

Happy Thursday

A xxxx