Once There Was Warsaw

Book excerpt: As a young man in interwar Warsaw, newspaperman Ber Kutsher threw himself into the city’s vibrant Jewish arts and culture scene from the headquarters of the Association of Jewish Writers and Journalists at Tlomkatse 13 . In Once There Was Warsaw, Kutsher’s achingly human depictions of writers, cabbies, artists, neighbors, and more are translated from the Yiddish into English for the first time, painting a vivid portrait of a moment in Polish history too quickly buried by the horrors of World War II. Kutsher viewed his memoir, originally published in 1955 after he witnessed the devastation of his home and relocated to France, as something of a holy mission, an opportunity to present the lives of the people who brought Warsaw to life while still making room to mourn the past. Written with humor, heart, and a deeply felt grief, Once There Was Warsaw is a complex and layered portrayal of a city and its people and the pain in remembering just how much was lost in its destruction.