body. He then slowly takes his aim and fires into the middle of the busiest street. Another marauding soldier shoots people like ducks. A car with soldiers drives by, [. . .] armed with a three-metre cane, he hits innocent pedestrians every now and then, and they [. . .]. He has the impression that he has travelled through time and space [. . .] and has been transported to a medieval land. [. . .] he thinks, confused. He is a Jew [. . .], and a Varsovian. He knows the street and the city well. [. . .]
[21] And his line of reasoning is indeed correct. Medieval ghetto walls. The yellow armbands, indicate a state of proscription, he gathers. Slavish duties towards the lord, persecution of the Jews, treating them like dogs, disrespecting them, and undervaluing their life. Hunger, plagues, dirt, no electricity. Stage coaches, rickshaws, beggars’ bizarre clothes, street trade, and no signs of cultural life. Terror, limitation on freedom of thought, speech, and action. Yes, it is the Middle Ages. But wait—there are cars. So, he thinks, this can be neither the Middle Ages nor some fantastic world as his senses are working normally. But he must have made a journey over these three years. Where to? It is surely a Romantic land, because the surroundings and the atmosphere are gloomy, bleak, melancholic, resigned, and hopeless. So are the people. They are Byronic heroe106 consumed by a mysterious disease, by Weltschmerzen,107 and by their conflict with society. They have long been depressed. Problems and resignation. These features of Romantic Dichtung108 are further emphasized by the fact that the hero is a tormented, oppressed, and wronged nation. Like in Byron’s poetic novels, the hero is constantly persecuted, doomed to captivity and times of adversity, death, torture, and martyrdom. An oppressed nation, but at the same time one chosen by God. But where is he? For this Warsaw does not seem to be the city on the Vistula River. It is small, barnyard, dirty, ugly, overpopulated, and deprived of the achievements of 20th-century civilisation. It is plagued by famine and diseases. [. . .] its whole life has moved onto the street. Shouting, arguments, cursing, [. . .] gesticulation, well-developed street trade, and pushy haggling.
