Lwów - Wałbrzych - Tel Aviv

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Zuzanna was born in a Jewish family in Lwów, Ukraine, then moved to Wałbrzych, Poland to finally emigrate to Israel in 1964. As a 16-year old she had to learn Hebrew, a language quite alien to her. She has visited Poland a few times since 1989. She still speaks Polish fluently. Had she not told stories about Israel and shared some Jewish humour the four hours on a train to Kraków would not have passed so quickly.

Tadeusz

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I met Mr. Tadeusz on a street in Lublin. I asked if I could take a photo of him. "A photo of me? Do you know how old I am?". "68?" - I asked with a little bit of flattery. "84!" - he replied vigorously and showed me his identity card. "1927" - it read. And so he asked me to visit him at his house at the outskirts of Lublin. I had no plans for the day so I agreed to accompany him. He wanted to prepare for the visit and buy some cake so I offered to pay for it. He strongly refused explaining he had no better things to spend his money on. 20 minutes later we were in Głusk, some 10 kilometres from the city. It was a yet another post-communist village with a bus stop, cheap claret pavements and terrible 90s-style houses. Right after I had taken the first picture of Mr. Tadeusz posing in the backyard he showed me to his barn where he would spend most of his time. It was a place that he has been using to hide from his ex-wife and a place that he has filled with a multitude of objects, including an old Czechoslovakian motorcycle "Jawa".

U Warszawian

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W "Barze Familijnym" przy Nowym Świecie 39 starsza pani - włosy siwe, fryzura imponująca i z pewną fantazją, usta w intensywnym pomarańczu, czarna bluzka w kwiaty (na zdjęciu obiekt zastępczy). Poleciła naleśniki z serem, ale pozostałem przy swoich ulubionych leniwych. Gdy wychodziłem, zaczepiła: "A co pan studiuje?". Poradziła, żeby zobaczyć Barbakan, ale powiedziałem, że mamy lepszy. I jeszcze Łazienki. I jeszcze poleciła tu do baru wracać. Podała mi dłoń, życząc powodzenia. I pomyśleć, że jakiemuś idiocie "Familijny" stylistycznie do Nowego Świata nie pasował!