like somebody from, e.g., the 18th century would regard the century of the radio and the car as fantastic). My untimely awoken guest blinks his eyes because he cannot believe that there is a wall cutting the street lengthwise and crosswise into big sections. He walks from Leszno Street to Przejazd Street and sees that the street is cut in half, blocked. He wants to continue to Przejazd Street, but he finds out that he has to return along Leszno Street. [. . .] He then goes to Grzybowska Street and walks across a bridge103 suspended above the street. Fantastic! He wants to go outside the wall, but he simply cannot find [. . .] he would have to jump over the wall. He stops by the wall and sees a package with meat being thrown over the wall. On the other side 4 people are holding a bag, trying to catch the package. From the same tenement [. . .] milk is being poured through pipes [. . .] held on the other side. [20] What are these new inventions? There are cows on a wagon packed like some merchandise. And there are underground tunnel104 connecting two sides of a street. He does not understand anything, but keeps on walking. He is hungry. He goes into a cafeteria and pays 100 zlotys for dinner (the pre-war price would be 5 zlotys). He finds out that butter costs 120 zlotys (3 zlotys before the war), that bread costs 20 zlotys (50 groszes before the war), etc. He cannot believe it. He glances at people—miserable, thin, depressed, scared, with white bands on their right arm. Only Jews. No Poles. Congested, they tightly cover the whole sidewalk and a part of the street. He does not know what this means. There are no buses or taxis on the street. Instead, there are some bizarre stage coaches and three-wheeled bicycles with seats—all with the Star of David. Is this his imagination or a dream? Swarms of beggars on the sidewalks, children on [. . .]. Ulcerated and swollen bodies. Skinny legs. Sallow, half-dead faces. Ghastly skeletons, whose only connection with the material world is the physical existence of lice, rags, skin, bones, and their ability to moan. Is it an image from Dante’s Inferno? A sadistic soldier is toying with an old bearded Jew, whom he orders to jump on one foot and shout: “Ich bin Schwein.”105 He hits him with a rod across the face and all over his
