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I have always believed I had a charmed childhood. We lived on the eastern bank of the Vistula, 12 minutes walk to the Royal Palace just across the river. In my domain there were a railway of about 1850 vintage, an amusement park and the Warsaw Zoo. A huge church across the street had an assembly hall which served as a playground in bad weather. There were swimming pools at the river which were safe and healthy since pollution had not yet been invented. My primary school was three minutes away and later my high school required only a 12 minutes walk. It was a compact and self-sufficient world but, as an eight year old, I began to explore the city of Warsaw, learning to know every street, park, church, palace or monument.
On 1 September 1939 my small world suddenly changed with dive-bombers beginning their dirty trade. I felt that the next bomb would fall on me. My solution was to go outside, watch the bombs failing, and seek protection behind some walls. It was very painful to see buildings changing into mountains of rubble. I left Warsaw as a military driver in 11 September 1939. On a visit to my parents in 1947, I saw the unhealed scars from those years of warfare and uprisings and the take-over by the Russians. 280,000 dead at least. I found only one schoolmate alive. My next visit was in 1992 when Poland was free from Communism but I discovered that no-one wanted to talk about the past. People had been either beneficiaries or victims of the system and there was not much point in talking about it. My old high school had been converted into a trades school and many old traditions were regarded as worthless. Slowly it dawned on me that my beloved Warsaw and I have grown apart. Now the climate was one of pragmatism and forward-looking. Suddenly I felt cold and lost. My memories are things of a distant past and there is little room for nostalgia. I left Warsaw for good, but with best wishes, of course. Now nostalgia will be exercised in the privacy of my one and only 'Home, sweet home' at Tranmere Road in Howrah, Tasmania. |