Assimilated Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto, 1940-1943

4. Polish-Language Cultural Life in the Warsaw Ghetto

100 4 Polish-Language Cultural Life in the Warsaw Ghetto An Overview of Cultural Life in the Ghetto The enclosure of the ghetto also affected those who up until then seemed a world away from the crowds of Nalewki or Franciszkańska Streets—the heroes of popular imagination. Those who before the war could only be seen on the covers of popular magazines or in gossip columns, the most popular actors and musicians of interwar Poland, began their new life working as rickshaw drivers, street sellers, or soup kitchen employees. However, the closed quarter soon started organizing an artistic life of its own. With the curfew being a major factor influencing social and cultural life in the ghetto, the first hub of artistic activity was the house committees. Oyneg Shabes collaborator Stanisław Różycki explained: “At the latest by eight in the evening we are all back in our apartments. They close the gates at half eight and you are not allowed to leave after nine. The blackout starts already at five.”1 Strict adherence to the curfew meant that later afternoon or evening visits usually involved staying overnight. Not surprisingly, private apartments were sites of a thriving cultural life. On one evening, Stanisław Adler reported on a room full of “refined and intelligent people,” who spent their time listening to popular pianists, both of them slightly tipsy, playing four hands compositions and later a medley of the best songs of singer Sonia Białostocka.”2 Almost immediately after the enclosure of the ghetto, the back pages of Gazeta Żydowska started filling with adverts placed by famous and not-so-famous pre-war artists willing to perform at evenings Po li sh-La ng ua g e Cu l t u r a l Life | 101 organized in apartment blocks.3 Describing the situation, social activist Rachela Auerbach wrote: “Whoever had some sort of solo repertoire started performing it. Those who did not have any, immediately started to look for it. Actors began to specialize in reciting poems. The most famous of them . . . were very much sought after and could make a rather good living out of it.”4 Especially prominent were artists who until then performed mainly in Polish theater and cabarets . Their appearance in the ghetto caused an uproar. According to theater director Jonas Turkow, who himself performed in apartment blocks: “any Jew from Franciszkańska or Nalewki street could feel like a member of the aristocracy when he could have in his house the most prominent pre-war performers.” After the performance they might “recall their visit thousands of times, refer to them as close friends, who come round to his house . . . and who he is on first name basis with.”5 Just as it happened on the other side of the wall, in the first months of the ghetto’s existence every birthday, name day, or anniversary became a reason for celebration, and this usually involved listening to music.6 Young people were in particular ready to go to great lengths to obtain the necessary equipment and records. A young woman, writing to a friend on the “Aryan” side, explained: “We managed with great difficulty to get some records. We already have Beethoven’s Third, Fourth and Fifth symphonies and almost all of Chopin’s; the most amazing recordings and various other gems.”7 Another teenager from an affluent family had a gramophone especially smuggled for her from the other side of the wall. She later recalled: “I passed a message to Auntie Maria begging her to send me my gramophone. I believe she had a hard time convincing her brother-in-law that such a thing was of vital importance to someone living behind the walls, but she managed and he brought me the gramophone.”8 Aside from providing entertainment , the main aim of events organized by the house committees was fundraising. Afternoon tea dances or all-night parties, to which tenants from neighboring houses and various friends were invited, were to become a major source of revenue and provided funds for helping the impoverished inhabitants of the blocks.9 102 | Assimil a t ed Jews in t h e Wa r saw Ghet to Such performances and the rest of the unofficial cultural life were coordinated by Centralna Komisja Imprezowa (CKI, pol. Central Events Commission), an agency of the Jewish Self-Help created in September 1940. Within a...