The Pre-War Post-German Refrigerator (Part II)

It was the afternoon of another hot early summer day and with six bottles of beer I arrived at the site. The work there consisted primarily of recycling brick or collecting and separating different kinds of metals.

There were no machines and the workers hammered away brick by mordant or cement-laden brick and arranged them all in large cubes. Most likely, in accordance with the slogan THE ENTIRE COUNTRY BUILDS ITS CAPITAL, all of this was being sent to Warsaw, because here they were not needed at all. Almost nothing was being built here.

I went up with this beer to the two most trustworthy-looking workers there and, saying that I had something for them, I gave each a bottle, simultaneously showing them that I had more. When with great proficiency and great pleasure they began to empty them, I got to it, sharing with them my tile problems.

Drinking their third bottles, already as my friends, they told me to take a look around and find what I needed. And even if I didn’t find anything, I shouldn’t worry because they’ll give me something from what’s already prepared for transport.

I began to wander about the work site. I didn’t know what was here before, but it wasn’t just a residential building. In the lobby there had to be some large restaurant, a bank or maybe some kind of grand elegant store.

The thick concrete slab of floor had a very large surface area, and in the middle there was a large crater of a length of some six meters, under which you could see the lower level. I went down the pile of debris.

It was very dark, an area the same size as the floor above, with several load bearing cement pillars and everywhere full of rubble, a great amount of bent metal furniture, but no trace of any tiles.

Suddenly the sun peaked into this underground space and made it brighter, so that it was possible for me to pass to the next part, separated by a wall with a large opening. There was a relatively low ceiling and a cement floor covered by a fat layer of rotting straw. I hadn’t noticed any destruction.

There could have been some hospital area here, the locals could’ve also hidden here during bombing raids and artillery fire. Slowly it began to get dark again, when in the corner I glimpsed some strange piece of furniture that looked something like a large, tall night stand.

Coming closer I realized that it was a refrigerator whose doors were calmly leaning against the wall. I immediately decided to trade for it with my workers, temporarily pushing the matter of the tiles to the back burner.