Sienna Street

Sunday, bloody Sunday, in the wise words of Alan Partridge. As I look at my timetable for the week ahead it's becoming clear that I will be working all day and all evening either teaching or learning Polish for the next two weeks until I fly out to Oklahoma for my brother's forthcoming wedding. In addition I need to find a new miejsce for myself beginning in April. Doing two jobs, crossing the world for a wedding and moving home all in one month: March will be busy methinks.

Entranceway, ul. Sienna 43

I normally try and post once a day in the mornings but with this schedule it will be hard to maintain that so I've reluctantly decided that for the rest of March this blog will go into hibernation with occasional posts at weekends. Full service will resume in April with a smorgasbord of PzU action. This week's highlights have included street scenes from Warsaw, a men's fashion question (still a bit unsolved) some shots of a windswept and isolated Koszalin, a request to have a chat about Poland, a post about skin complaints and snooker balls, and the beginning of the already acclaimed series of Questions to Which The Answer is... either tak or nie.

The price of Guinness has been the most hotly commented subject this week. I am considering an appeal to Diageo for something to be done.

Carrying on, my long term project whilst I am here in Poland is to produce a short walking guide/history companion to the surviving buildings of the Warsaw ghetto. This would be a guide that you could use to explore these buildings, which lie down quiet streets and in my opinion are under exploited by the city: they are all monuments in their own way.

ul. Sliska

These buildings in the former ghetto - and the other surviving houses from this period in Warsaw generally - are reminders of the city that Warsaw once was: multi-cultural, thriving and beautiful. A tangible reminder of a time and a place in a way that a plaque could never be.

For the next few months I am going to be in the research stage and structure stage. My aim is to document each of the relevant buildings before planning a route which takes into account the most noticeable buildings, is easily walkable, and which tells the story of the life that went on in this area. The primary resource I am using at the moment is the maps and reference materials of The Perished City and the Jewish Historical Institute have kindly agreed to help with research materials as well.

When completed, I intend to release this as an e-book or free download for people to use as they wish. Hopefully it will become a reliable (and useable) travel guide to this particular part of the city's history. I still maintain as a relative newcomer to the city that more should be done to get an integrated network of walking tours - a 'Walksaw' initiative - to get the most out of a visit to decentralised Warsaw. There is still time before an estimated 500,000 extra tourists come in 2012 to make that happen.

The Mayor talks here about 50 projects underway in the city to prepare it for that influx.  My gut feeling is that UEFA has seriously underestimated the numbers likely to attend this tournament, and that the 500k figure in Warsaw is therefore too low (though through what time period it's calculated I am not sure). If anyone has information regarding these projects it'd be great to know more.

Yesterday I visited the southern-most buildings that survived the extermination of the ghetto and the subsequent Warsaw Rising: Sienna street. Photographing this plaque, a priest approaches me and we talk for a few minutes. From Lublin, he is visiting his elderly and sick sister who lives at number 45 Sienna. When I tell him about my project he grips my hand fiercely and says something I can't quite follow about war, before departing. It's frustrating not to be able to properly understand him.

'Otherness'

As the priest departs a sudden burst of music makes me turn my head, a boy of about 7 comes out of number 45 and walks past, MCing to Polish hip hop from his phone in an agresywna manner. He pauses and stares at me for a few moments before departing down the street singing along to himself.

In the gap between the birth of this small boy and the elderly priest that I've just encountered so much has happened in - and to - Poland. As I stand looking at 41 - 45 Sienna I can see the old brickwork of these buildings and in the background, soaring glass towers. Poland is a land of contrasts and rapid change.



I stand by the crumbling column of the doorway of number 45 writing up my notes and wondering: who else has stood here, waiting for someone or something, some sign of good news of a loved one or a parcel from America? Or lay dying and stripped naked by other beggars, even lice-ridden rags having value then, ignored by passers-by now inured to suffering?

It was behind this house that smuggling between Sienna and Złota was rife in the period when the ghetto was at its largest extent. In October 1941 the Nazi authorities moved the perimeter of the ghetto to the middle of Sienna but the smuggling, and the misery, continued for both Jews and Poles alike.

Telling something of this story and writing something that can be used to explore Warsaw and understand this period is something that I really hope I complete in the time I am here.

Ps. for all I know such a book/guide exists already, but so far I haven't seen one. If anyone knows of anything relevant then please feel free to let me know.