Postcard from Warsaw

Now, sometimes you just get lost in a story.

It seemed easy enough, or so I thought.  

The German on the picture postcard would be easy to translate.

But not so.  

The translation, if I have got it correct reads “Germans innocent in World War”.  The message on the back is undecipherable but I guess will not shed much light on the words on the front.

The post card was sent in the June of 1916 from Warsaw which had been occupied by the German army since the August of the previous year.

And would remain in German hands until November 1918.

I suppose we a dealing with a piece of propaganda but whether this was the message that was intended by the person who sent it is now lost.  

It may be that they were attracted by the lilies which according to one source “portray love, ardor, and affection for your loved ones”.*  An idea reinforced by the words above the portrait of the you women which reads, “Flower language: Lilies”.

Until I can work out the message on the back I am left with  the post marks, one of which appears to be a military one, referring to "Landstr Juf Batl. Burg IV 85", and the other carries the location “Warschau” with the date June 28th, 1916.

There is one last clue and that is the name of the picture postcard company who are listed on the back as R&K, and that this one was 2654/1.  But I fear trying to find information on a German/Polish company a century and bit after the event will lead nowhere.

Location; Warsaw

Pictures; message from Warsaw 1916, from the collection of David Harrop

*Lilies, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lilium#Symbolism

The picture ….. the school …… and a forest

So, when two of your kids own and run a school in a forest outside Warsaw, there are always pictures.

“Pines is a British Forest School based on the Scandinavian all weather school model and pioneered by British OCN trained Forest School practitioners. 

Our ethos is bred from the belief that risk taking and independent led learning are necessary to successfully support the development of young people. 

Our core principle places community at the centre of everything we do. 

We focus on the relationship between our learners and the natural world whilst promoting holistic learning. 

This approach guides our learners toward becoming knowledgeable, creative, intelligent, independent, confident, resilient and compassionate individuals who care for the world around them.

Pines offers learners the opportunity to take supported risks appropriate to themselves and the environment, safely at our inclusive Forest site. 

We use a range of learner centred processes to create a base for development and learning. 

We spend 100% of our time outside, working closely with individuals across a range of abilities and age groups, creating a community that cares for environment as well as each other.”.*

Location;  Gmina Żabia Wola, Poland  

Picture; Fire, 2023, courtesy of Pines Forest School

*Pines Forest School, https://www.pinesforestschool.pl/

**Pines Forest School, https://www.facebook.com/pinesforestschool/

The Warsaw Ghetto: History as Survival ....part 1...Oyneg Shabes ... one to listen to

Yesterday, today and all week.

"The extraordinary archive that secretly recorded daily Jewish existence in the Warsaw Ghetto – brought to life 80 years on from the Warsaw Ghetto uprising.

Umschlagplatz Memorial on Stawki Street, Warsaw, 2006

Through the Warsaw Ghetto's short, terrible life, historian Emanuel Ringelblum led a group of writers to secretly chronicle life for its inhabitants. 

The project became history as survival. Anton Lesser narrates this new 10 part series. Episode 1-Oyneg Shabes. How the archive began. With Elliot Levey as Emanuel Ringeblum.

In the middle of Europe, in the middle of the 20th Century, a half million Jewish men, women & children were herded into a prison city within a city. Walled off & surrounded by the German occupiers. 

How do you tell the world about your life and fate? Historian and activist Emanuel Ringelblum devised & directed a clandestine archive- codename Oyneg Shabes (Joy of the Sabbath) chronicling every aspect of existence. 

He recruited over 60 'zamlers' or gatherers to write, collect & compile thousands of pages-diaries, essays, poems, photographs, statistical studies, art, ephemera -a historical treasure that was buried even as the Ghetto was being extinguished so that the world might read and understand. Listen to their stories

Episode 1-Oyneg Shabes. In 1943, with most of the ghetto's inhabitants already murdered historian, Emanuel Ringelblum looked back on the history of the history.

And Markers in remembrance of where the Warsaw Ghetto wall used to stand 2018

Narration by Anton Lesser with Elliot Levey. Featuring the voices of Lily Fair, Leah Marks, Alfred Molina, Andy Nyman, Carl Prekopp & Tracy-Ann Oberman Translation by Elinor Robinson. Historical adviser Samuel Kassow. Written & produced by Mark Burman.

For more information on the Oyneg Shabes/Ringeblum archive go to the website of the Jewish Historical Institute,  https://cbj.jhi.pl/ *

Pictures; Umschlagplatz Memorial on Stawki Street, Warsaw, Cezary Piwowarski, I, the copyright holder of this work, hereby publish it under the following licenses: GNU head Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts. A copy of the license is included in the section entitled GNU Free Documentation License. 

And Markers in remembrance of where the Warsaw Ghetto wall used to stand in German-occupied Poland, 2018, Samotny Wędrowiec, I, the copyright holder of this work, hereby publish it under the following license: w:en:Creative Commons attribution share alike. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.

*The Warsaw Ghetto: History as Survival ....part 1...Oyneg Shabes, BBC Radio 4  https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001l94l

Snow ….. more snow ….. and rain pretending to be snow ….four pictures …. four places

So, even the blog can be both topical and silly.

Real snow, in the forests outside Warsaw March 9th, 7.53 am 

Now, if the snow were falling out of a Manchester sky in lumps there would be plenty of pictures, but so far it isn’t.

Driving through snow, Leicester, March 9th 8.15 am

On the other hand outside Warsaw, it is coming in heaps, on the way out of Leicester it is respectable, in Knighton there's enough for snow balls,  while in Chorlton it’s just rain pretending to be snow.

Rain pretending to be snow, Beech Road, March 9th, 8.30 am

Location; Warsaw, Leicester and Chorlton

Snow balls before school, Knighton, March 9th, 7.25 am

Pictures; in the forest outside Warsaw, at 7.53 am, Leicester at 8.15 am, and Beech Road at 8.30 from the collections of the Simpson’s and Child's

One family …………. three locations

Berries in Chorlton, snow in Warsaw and sunshine in Salford.

So, Chorlton at midday, Warsaw, at 8.48 am and Salford 2 minutes later.

Location; Chorlton, Warsaw, Poland

Pictures; Berries in Chorlton, snow in Warsaw and sunshine in Salford 2022, from the collections of Andrew, Saul and Ben Simpson

When the lad from Chorlton made a Neapolitan Margaretta in a Polish pizza oven

We often joke that our Saul learned how to make pizza in one of those small Neapolitan pizzeria’s  you come across down a side street off a busy main road.

They are the places only  frequented by a loyal local clientele and a few tourists in the know.

We have eaten at more than a few over the years and have never been disappointed.

All of which takes me back to Saul’s pizzas which stand equal to many of those we have had, and despite my best efforts mine have never come close to his.

We were talking just the other day and out of that conversation came the news that he had bought a pizza oven.

Now, Saul lives in an apartment in the heart of Warsaw, and there is no way that even a small wood burning pizza oven would fit or pass a safety check from the local municipal authorities.

So, instead he bought an electric four-minute oven which judging by the results looks pretty neat.

Eric from Swansea will no doubt tut, but we can’t all have the luxury of a purpose-built pizza oven and a ready supply of wood.

Leaving me just to reflect on the internationalism of food which some Brexiteers would rather deny.

For here is our Saul who was born in Chorlton making pizza in a Polish pizza oven admired by the Italian side of the family who were from Naples.

Location; Warsaw

Pictures; the magic pizza oven and the pizzas, 2021, from the collection of Saul Simpson

Pictures from a backroom, on a moment of self-isolation ..... the view from Warsaw ...a Christmas tree, a balcony and nobody in sight

Now, our Saul lives and works in Poland, but the plans to go over and visit him have taken a bit of a back seat.

Warsaw is a very cosmopolitan city and along with the plans to visit the sites and take in some excellent vegetarian restaurants, there was the promise of going into the forest to sample the forest skills he teaches through his business.*

But like the rest of us, all is very quiet and with not a lot to do, but catch up on reading, and box sets, he took up the challenge to take a series of pictures from his balcony.

So, here is Warsaw, on a sunny Monday.

And yes they keep their Christmas tree on the balcony .......... after all, where would you decide to park it during the year?

Location; Warsaw

Pictures; view from a Warsaw balcony

*Pines Forest School, https://www.facebook.com/pinesforestschool/

In Warsaw on Saturday November 11 .....

We are on a street in Warsaw on what turned out to be a cold day on November 11 which in Poland is Independence Day.

Up there at the top of the picture is that pink smoke, and like all good pictures there is a story.

And the story I discover later is that the Far Right were on the march.  Over the years they have stolen the day and use it to highlight their nationalist views.*

Not good.

Location Warsaw




















*‘White Europe’: 60,000 nationalists march on Poland’s independence day,  Matthew Taylor, the guardian https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/nov/12/white-europe-60000-nationalists-march-on-polands-independence-day