My Father's House

My father spent his childhood in this apartment block on ul. Filtrowa 68. His family moved in when the building was built (late 1920s), and he lived here until the Warsaw Uprising. The building was erected for employees of PKO, my dziadek Tomasz was a bank clerk and eligible for an apartment in this presitigious development. My aunt and her family still lives in the same building, though one floor down (the top storey was destroyed by bombing during the war).

Our children have two grandparents who were born in Warsaw before the war and who took part in the Uprising. So although both children were born in London, they are 50% Varsovian by blood - and indeed 75% Mazovian, as my father-in-law comes from Kozienice, some 80km south of the capital.

Earlier this year the facade was restored to its former glory, though painted a historically-inaccurate shade of salmon pink; before the war, my father says, the apartment block was painted cafe-au-lait. Property prices in Warsaw being what they are, this centrally-located piece of real estate has become very expensive.

"My father's house shines hard and bright
It stands like a beacon calling me in the night
Calling and calling, so cold and alone
Shining 'cross this dark highway
Where our sins lie unatoned"

Bruce Springsteen, "My Father's House" (from the album Nebraska)