Warsaw is the distant administrative center from which the Office of Jewish Affairs contacts the narrator about five hundred Greek Jews mistakenly delivered to his region. Its brief appearance makes the machinery of wartime bureaucracy visible: a misrouted train becomes a problem to be managed, and finally an order to dispose of the people it carries.

The Call from Warsaw

The narrator learns of the office’s existence only after returning to his own office and receiving a call that night. A distinctly adolescent voice asks whether he has five hundred Greek Jews. He confirms that he does, explaining that he does not know what to do with them because nobody had told him they were coming. The exchange begins not with a plan for the people’s care but with a question about whether the number is correct.

The caller concedes that there has been a mistake. After a pause, the voice explains that the train should have unloaded in Auschwitz, or at least that this is what the caller thinks; the speaker is uncertain enough to ask the narrator to hold. The combination of an enormous human consequence and uncertain, almost routine administrative speech gives Warsaw’s intervention its disturbing force.

Administrative Responsibility

The call resumes with a practical explanation: under the circumstances, Warsaw has no transportation available to collect the Jews. The caller says they administratively belong to Upper Silesia, and reports having consulted superiors, who agree that the easiest and best course is for the narrator to dispose of them. The order thus moves responsibility away from the office making the call without resolving what will happen to the people concerned.

The narrator does not answer when asked whether he understands. His silence follows the earlier pause in the conversation and leaves the order hanging without assent or argument. The scene does not specify what action follows; its ending is the unanswered demand itself.

Narrative Significance

The mistake is presented through a chain of administrative statements: the unexpected arrival, the wrong destination, the lack of transport, the designation of Upper Silesia, and the instruction to dispose of the group. Each step narrows the discussion to jurisdiction and logistics, while the five hundred people at its center remain objects of official handling. Warsaw is therefore defined in this episode less by description of the city than by the authority exercised through its office and telephone line.

The contrast between the caller’s uncertain identification of the intended destination and the confidence of the final directive sharpens the scene’s moral tension. The office cannot retrieve the Jews, but it can delegate what it calls disposal. The narrator’s silence provides no resolution; it preserves the moment when bureaucratic language has delivered its demand and responsibility has been passed onward.