Sienna From Warsaw

  • YES
  • From Warsaw
  • Sienna
  • in the ghetto
  • social/communal
  • beggars

  • A grey-haired respectably looking old man sat there and unceasingly repeated: ' I am 78, I have to eat, help me'. Then there was a woman with a crutch asking for help, helplessly bursting in tears from time to time what awoke compassion resulting in donations. Not far away an invalid with one hand with a noble face was desperately crying for help being at the verge of nervous endurance.

  • The author has collected all his notes written between 1939 and 1941 in a diary form, both in Polish and English (as 'Diary') and several short articles. This diary deals with the siege of Warsaw, the early days of the occupation (incl. forced labour) and the life in the Warsaw ghetto. The 'Diary' is a brief version of the original Polish notes. Both contains the author's reflections on: the causes of Poland's disaster - criticism of pre-war policy of the Polish state, on an eyewitness - a summary of what Heinrich Heine said on the Jews and the Poles, recounting persecution of the Jews in different historical periods, excerpts from Ludendorff's memoirs regarding Poland, reflections on dictatorship and dictators and the demographic situation of France as highlighted by Jean Giraudoux's Pleins pouvoirs. Published: Pamietniki z getta warszawskiego (Memoirs from the Warsaw Ghetto), Warsaw, 1993, pp. 35-40 (fragment).

  • 13-14