Words and buildings that move you

It is located in Warsaw, on ul. Anielewicza – The Museum of the History of Polish Jews, the design of which was the work of Prof. Mahlamäki. It is April 19th 2014, the 71st anniversary of the outbreak of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, and I have just been reading about an exceptional woman, Irena Gelblum, in Polish newspaper ‘Gazeta Wyborcza’. A moment later I reach for the draft of the May issue of ‘Eurobuild CEE’ to read an interview with the designer of the museum-monument. My eyes light upon the following passage: “Warsaw and ghetto are two words, both of which move me.” They move me, too. The building is surrounded by post-communist housing blocks, as grey and ugly as everyday life was during that era. The architect defends them by arguing that although they do not have much value in terms of their architecture, they are interesting due to their history. It is important to remember the past – and in the case of the older generation of Poles, it would even be difficult to forget it. But perhaps it is also worth improving the pre-fabricated residential estates built during this era? Kraków has initiated a rehabilitation scheme for such grim post-communist estates. We describe how they are going about this task in this issue in the article entitled ‘Pre-fab and groovy?’ And when it comes to history and as the holidays approach, if you decide to go to Venice you could do some sightseeing of the city’s former Jewish quarter. This was the first ever ghetto and use of the word.