July 31, 1938, Sunday

(A) Zbąszyń, 4:25/4:34. Bruno Schulz crosses the border of the Republic of Poland and the Third Reich.

(B) Aachen, 3:50 pm, Bruno Schulz crosses the border of France.

(C) Paris, Gare du Nord, 9:36 pm. Bruno Schulz arrives in Paris and stops at L’Hôtel d”Orient at 43 rue l’Abbé Gregoire.

(A) According to the timetable, the train’s check-in in Zbąszyń took 45 minutes; on the German side in Neu Bentschen the train stayed usually 34 minutes, which were devoted to customs and passport control.

(B) The train route ran through the capital of the Third Reich (Berlin Schlesischer Bahnhof – 7:43, Bahnhof Berlin Friedrichstrasse – 8:00). Schulz’s transit through Nazi Germany lasted about 11 hours.

(C) Trains from Northeast were arriving at Gare du Nord. It is not known if Schulz was expected on the platform. Wiesław Budzyński suspects that it Georges Rosenberg* or Ludwik Lille*1 might have waited for him there. It is not certain, though. Schulz’s meetings with them are confirmed in many documents, but they seem to have happened later2. It is therefore possible that Schulz’s first guide in Paris was someone else. It seems that the newcomer from Drohobych, although quite familiar with Vienna and also a little bit with Berlin, would not be able to cope in the city where he came for the first time with no knowledge of the language, without the help of a local. This someone must have helped Schulz reach a hotel on the other side of the Seine about five kilometres from the station. Who knows if it was him, the unnamed helper, who booked the room in advance. Staying at L’Hôtel d’Orient, Schulz did not act on the advice that Kazimiera Rychterówna* gave him in a letter from June* to stay at the Liberia or Pasteur3 hotel, and it is difficult to claim that he accidentally arrived late in the evening at a hotel so far from the station. The choice of the place of residence was not accidental. L’Hôtel d’Orient was in the Montparnasse district, where many people whom Schulz intended to meet lived. The preserved hotel bill shows that he spent his first night in Paris in room number 3. (sr) (transl. mw)

  • 1
    Wiesław Budzyński wrote: “He certainly did not leave the train station alone, someone had to go out to collect him; Rosenberg or Lille. It is unlikely that there was still somebody else. He was supposed to stay at Lille’s, at Bd. St. Jacques 51, so probably Lille [...] was the one who first greeted Bruno at the train station in Paris” (Schulz pod kluczem, Warszawa 2013, p. 188).
  • 2
    Maria Chasin, Rosenberg’s sister, responding to Schulz’s letter from Paris dated August 18, asks if he has seen her brother, which he would most certainly tell her. Lille, on the other hand, writes in the literary story about the Paris meeting with Schulz that he suddenly stood at the door of his studio.
  • 3
    “And now the affairs of Paris: my niece [Antonina Rychterówna] advises you to book a room in the hotel 1) Liberia, rue Grande Chaumière, or the 2) Grand ‘Hotel Pasteure’ [sic!], Avenue du Maine (in the latter she lived herself). It is best to rent it for a month, because it is much cheaper, around 180–200 francs (30–40 zlotys)” (Letter from Kazimiera Rychterówna to Bruno Schulz dated June 18, 1938, [in:] Bruno Schulz, Dzieła zebrane, volume 5: Księga listów, zebrał i przygotował do druku Jerzy Ficowski, uzupełnił Stanisław Danecki, Gdańsk 2016, p. 304).