One beautiful afternoon I took a sightseeing stroll down the major artery of the Jewish district. From Muranów down Dzika, Dzielna, Karmelicka, Leszno, Żelazna, Grzybowska, and Ciepła streets and as far as the corner of Twarda and Sienna streets—the busiest spots in the district, frequented by dozens of thousands of pedestrians. At first you feel as if you have entered a beehive or a wasp nest—the hum, commotion, bustle, and crush of the crowd. You get surrounded by swarms of clingy and pushy salesmen, traders, middlemen, beggars, spongers, onlookers, and other “unproductive” inhabitants of the ghetto.
But this impression gives way to another one. Over the two and a half years most streets have undergone a radical change. You would not recognize, for example, Leszno Street after two years’ absence. It has transformed from a Western European street into a purely oriental one. Yes, there truly is some oriental exoticism in the life of our streets. They resemble the streets of the Middle East, and that gives our enemies an occasion to hastily liken us to savage Berbers [. . .], Syrians, or Persians. The street buzzes like a beehive with all the shouting, hum, commotion, crush, and rush. Life’s centre of gravity has moved onto the street. There is this inclination to do all business on the street, this excessive and unnaturally [. . .] street trade. This shouting, quarrelling, and loud haggling out on the street. And, unfortunately, the dirty, unkempt people. The dirty merchandise and the dirty merchant. And, unfortunately, the trashiness, the willingness to swindle the consumer, and the unconscientiousness in customer service. Yes, yes, Semites—a race of the East. . . .
[23]
***
I am walking down Karmelicka Street, slowly getting used to the sounds [. . .] of the street, when I suddenly hear a shout: “Gevalt, Gevalt!! Geva. . .”60 I walk closer. [. . .] a young half-naked beggar, age twenty, runs out and crosses the street. He stops in the middle of the street and shouts, screams blue
