In the last little bit of time we had this morning before heading to Warszawa Centralna, I investigated the Google Maps marking just behind our apartment complex. Noyzk Synagogue, which my American friend told me over lunch the other day was the last operating functioning synagogue in Warsaw. It was easy enough to find, but more for me, in a way, were the placards around it. One indicated a small street just a couple of blocks over: ulica Próżna. The only remaining street of the Warsaw Ghetto after the Uprising. A truly historic street.
I made it to the end of the street and turned right on Zielna street and found something completely unexpected: signs in Polish and Yiddish.
And just beside this small Jewish district — did I mention I saw a man walking down the street wearing a yarmulke and chatting on his phone in Hebrew? — a new Jewish theater is under construction.
K and I were wondering what Warsaw might have looked like had it not been leveled. There still would have been one difference if Hitler had left Warsaw standing: the Jewish culture of the city would still be only a memory.
Perhaps it won’t always be just a memory, though.
Back in the south, though, (and what a journey that was)
we’re reminded that, though it’s great to see other parts of Poland, there’s no place like Babcia’s.
Yet their little noggins are going to be chock full of memories. What children, these days, get such a tour through history.
They are “children of the future” with a lot of cultural ties and deep roots.