Cultural: Jewish memorial
The town I live in is called Józefów and the word literally means "belonging to Joseph". We are on the outskirts of Warsaw.
Years ago, before World War 2, many rich Jews had summer homes out here as there are lots of trees and a national forest region. It had, at that time, a "sanitarium" feel. It still has a wonderful "restful" nature.
This mural is painted on the side of a building across from the memorial shown below.
For obvious reasons many of these summer homes were abandoned after WW2. The houses became public houses and the synagogues were silent.
I've frequently seen this painted wall and I've often wanted to take a picture off it, but I never had the chance to get a good picture as I was often driving. As I was coming back from my recent train trip to Warsaw, I had time to stop and take some pictures.
Across the street from the painting is this display of two large rocks. Jews use rocks where others use flowers to memorialize their fallen. This is a memorial to 6500 Jews who were deported on August 20, 1942 from the Falenica Ghetto to death camps. This display was put up as part of the 50th anniversary of this event.
In various places around Poland you find such small memorials. It's a sad reminder of what happened during WW2. My grandfather on my mom's side was from Germany, but was Jewish (by blood, not religion). These are extremely sobering reminders of this tragic time in the history of the modern world.
You can see it in Hebrew and Polish. Exact translation into English: Memorial of the 6500 Jews from the ghetto in Falenica (a region of Warsaw) who were deported to death on 20 August, 1942. At the 50th anniversary of their leaving. Put up by the civic committee "Solidarity".
This memorial is in Falenica - at the very edge of Warsaw. It's about 3-4 miles from our house.