A few awkward questions about Warsaw

A marker in Nowe Miasto notes where the boundary of the Jewish Ghetto stood.

Exploring Warsaw with an inquisitive preschooler is a minefield of unexpected and unhappy conversations which I'd thought were still a few years away.

Here are just a few questions that popped up in our first day wandering around Stare Miasto and Nowe Miasto with my five year old daughter:

Q: "Why did they have to rebuild all these buildings after the war?"
Q: "Why were the Nazis so bad? Did they kill people? Even kids?"
Q: "Why did all the Jewish people have to go behind a wall? What was everyone else doing? Why didn't they call the police?"
Q: "What is that thing you do with your hand when we walk into a church?"
Q: "Why do we go into churches here but not back home?"
Q: "Did your grandfather live in Warsaw? Well, why didn't you ask him when he was alive? Why do you always tell stories about your granddad but not about your dad?"

Happily, introducing her to Polish food and taking her to new science museum weren't as intense.

Memorials like this, on Wierzbowa, mark the spots where Nazi reprisals took place.