ADDRESS: 2 Karasia Street
OPENING DATE: 21 March 1940
“Bazar” was founded by the director of the Polish Theatre Arnold Szyfman in the former building of the Theatre at 2 Karasia Street. On 18th December 1939, the artists and the personnel of the Theatre, amounting to eighty people set up a private limited company under the name “Bazar w Teatrze Polskim” [Pol. “Bazaar in the Polish Theatre”]. The whole thing was made out of two parts “Kawiarnia-Bar” and “Warsztaty Artystów i Pracowników Teatru Polskiego” [Pol. “Workshop of Artists and Personnel of the Polish Theatre”]. Within the “Workshop”, ten shops were created, where both the artists and the personnel found jobs and shelter.
“Kawiarnia-Bar” was opened on 21st March 1940 in the old smoking lounge of the Polish Theatre. Decorated by famous artists, it was a representative and very original place as for those times, set up based on the ideas of Arnold Szyfman. On 1st June 1941, the German authorities took over the building and turned it into Theater der Stadt Warschau, by which they ended the life of “Bazar”. Unemployed artists had to find work in other places, such as “Pod Dyliżansem”, “U Aktorek”, “Café Wiktor” and others.
WSPOMNIENIA
History
I was first assigned to the bar in the Polish Theatre. The bar was endorsed by Igo Sym. Here, after a few drinks, people would open up and tell all kinds of stories. He played the role of a “microphone for everyone”, mainly for the actors. Somehow, nobody came up with it earlier. Many times he would say to Damian [Dobiesław Damięcki], sitting at the bar: “you drink a toast with some old corny shit, and then you regret it all your life”. He would also openly threaten Sym, carelessly attacking him and talking everyone into a boycott of the “Symean” theatres: “you'll see, you scoundrel, you'll be hanging on a lamp post”. Sym even warned me several times: “You need to calm Damian down, because it might end up badly!”
Irena Górska-Damięcka, Wygrałam życie, Prószyński i S-ka, Warszawa 1997.
Idea
In order to give jobs to the growing group of colleagues around the Theatre, Szyfman came up with the idea to set up a café and a restaurant in the smoking lounge and second-hand shops in other rooms of the theatre. It was to give the artists and the personnel some income, who, as Szyfman - still the director and boss, recalled “helplessly persisted in the theatre” .
Edward Krasiński, Teatr Polski w Warszawie 1939–2002, published by Teatr Polski, Warszawa
About the place
In the far from-banality-looking interior of the “Kawiarnia-Bar” at Karasia Street (a few steps from Krakowskie Przedmieście and Nowy Świat), hundred and fifty guests will easily find room and will have a chance to spend a few noon or afternoon hours in a very intimate atmosphere, listening to the sounds of valuable music of a personal interpretation played by the composers and great virtuosos.
Edward Krasiński, Teatr Polski w Warszawie 1939–2002, published by Teatr Polski, Warszawa
Repairs
In December the repairs ended and they began setting up the café, which existed until February 1940. During this time Szyfman, in his free time, was going through the archives of the Theatre, putting them in order, destroying everything that seemed to him suspicious or unnecessary. He worked in his winter coat and gloves, because since Christmas when the fuel finished, there was no heating in the building. Water pipes froze and broke and local floods happened here and there, in a place which had been renovated with such effort.
Edward Krasiński, Teatr Polski w Warszawie 1939–2002, published by Teatr Polski, Warszawa
Menu
Drinks and confectionery of the best quality and excellent meals of the restaurant-bar kitchen, all prepared in the “Bazar” kitchen, will be served by the actors and actresses of the Polish Theatre, which will be an additional attraction of the company of “Spółdzielnia” [Pol. ‘Collective’].
Edward Krasiński, Teatr Polski w Warszawie 1939–2002, published by Teatr Polski, Warszawa
