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A huge communist monument, a present to the people of Poland from Stalin, towers over the Jerusalem Boulevard. The Poles hate the building and say that its most beautiful vantage point is atop the antenna on the roof from where you cannot see the building itself. The building was built in the center of the new city and a bustling commercial center has evolved around it.

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The Lazienki Park in the midst of Warsaw is a tranquil haven for residents.

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In an anciently designed amphitheater a Norwegian choir sings while peacocks scream in the background.

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In a beautiful rose garden, under a monument of Chopin, a young pianist plays, what else but Chopin.

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The Jewish Cemetery in Warsaw is one of the last authentic prewar Jewish sites – a mirror into the past. The cemetery survived Nazi demolition perhaps due to the fact that Jewish burial was necessary during the war, at an accelerated pace.

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Being a gravedigger was a popular profession during the Nazi occupation. Gravediggers were able to leave the ghetto, had an opportunity for smuggling commodities, they were able to hide during the day and conduct business in the city center under the safety of darkness, and the cemetery’s proximity to the city’s sewage tunnels allowed travel to more distant parts of the city. The gravediggers had extra income from belongings of the deceased.

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Burial in the Warsaw Jewish Cemetery continued for over 200 years until 1942 and there are at least 150,000 headstones scattered around the cemetery.

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Today there are some 5,000 Jews registered in Poland, 3,500 of them in Warsaw. Perhaps there are many more still afraid to “come out of the closet”. Due to Polish tolerance, mixed with a sense of responsibility and guilt, the Jews of Warsaw are able to conduct a Jewish communal lifestyle. The shared Jewish-Polish history is hundreds of years old. In modern times, with the first cracks appearing in communist rule, Poles began to search for their roots. The city of Warsaw has almost no history without it’s Jewish segment.

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At the Jewish Cemetery I was surprised to see a group of teenagers busy with renewing tombstones and cleaning around them. They belonged to the Reformed Church and were sent by their priest to this holy mission. Their explanation: “Jesus was Jewish, we are all brothers”.

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