Warsaw shaped Mandelbrot as his first home, site of his early education and as a way of life that would be completely erased.  His family focused on staying alive and ahead of the Nazi advance at a time when others who were less urgent were murdered.

Best Quote(s)

“For these and other truly unavoidable reasons, Polish history from 1919 to 1939 was rough.”

Rough – just like the fractals that Mandelbrot invented.

“Since diversity cannot be avoided, one may as well like it (as I came to) or at least learn to live with it.”

This is a delightfully modern approach to diversity that is all too common in more integrated, international cultures.

“Before everything they had dreaded became horribly concrete in Poland, my parents’ bold scheme had worked.” Chapter 2, Location 659

His parents craft successful strategies again and again, allowing their family to survive and innovate on behalf of mankind.

“Of the people we knew, we alone moved to France and survived. Most procrastinated—until times turned awful. Only two Warsaw friends survived:…” Chapter 2, Location 663

The eradication of this world is frightening and it pervades Mandelbrot’s view of the world for the rest of his life.  How could it not?

“Others had been detained by their precious china, or inability to sell their Bösendorfer concert grand piano, or unwillingness to abandon the park view from their windows. Mother was horrified by their stories but listened stone-faced.” Chapter 2, Location 668

When the Mandelbrot family needed to act, they did so – unencumbered by the weight of their past.  They moved with focus to achieve their goal, survival.

Page by Page

“A tree’s roots are important, but less important than its fruit, and describing them is slippery territory. With age, even half-successful people favor family and social friends over truly formative events. I shall try to be fair to both.”

“We wore custom-made shoes—a sign of prosperity, but only relative to the cobblers’ notorious poverty.”

“Patients came only when the pain was unbearable—with one memorable exception.”

“I remember my initiation to the mystery of the value of money.”

“When we moved to Paris, I vividly recall Mother being flabbergasted by the variety of foods available even in the slum where we lived.”

“That letter was not written at home, and the error was pointed out by sweet and cultured Uncle Loterman.”

“He was a chronically unemployed intellectual who—unlike other men we knew—did not escape idleness by earning several useless doctorates. He despised rote learning, including even the alphabet and multiplication tables; both cause me mild trouble to this day. However, small countries breed broad curiosity. He made me a skilled speed-reader.”

“Fortunately, the gaps in my formal education proved less deadly than feared.”

“For these and other truly unavoidable reasons, Polish history from 1919 to 1939 was rough.”

Teachers read aloud, “Poland is a happy multinational country where all the ethnic problems of the past have been solved.”

“Since diversity cannot be avoided, one may as well like it (as I came to) or at least learn to live with it.”

“The four years I spent in the class of Mrs. Goldszlakowa were one of the “normal” periods in my schooling, which alternated with highly “abnormal” ones. They were a breeze, a pleasant experience that left few memorable impressions.”

Summer in Belarus

“Its meandering rivers and deep marshes are an obstacle to both conquest and progress.”

“There, the tiny remainder of Napoléon’s Grande Armée that had escaped from Moscow in 1812 was hit by the lowest temperatures (–30 ° C) of that thoughtless adventure—as I noted years later on Minard’s classic graph of its thinning ranks.”

Town of Mołodeczno.

“Given the nature of the roads, there was a summer verst and a winter verst.”

594

“And my feet have frozen several times, and my toes fell off.”

619

“1600.”

“On arrival at the big, noisy station in Warsaw, the young woman was in full meltdown.”

623

“A child cannot make life decisions, but I knew how to listen and watch.”

638

Mirka goes to France. “Informed, Szolem spoke to colleagues in Paris.”

How did she get in?

“Poland’s most political and powerful mathematician, Wacław Sierpiński,…”

649

“But Mirka’s experience was the last straw: Poland was not the country my parents wanted for their sons.”

659

“Before everything they had dreaded became horribly concrete in Poland, my parents’ bold scheme had worked.”

663

“Of the people we knew, we alone moved to France and survived. Most procrastinated—until times turned awful. Only two Warsaw friends survived:…”

668

“Others had been detained by their precious china, or inability to sell their Bösendorfer concert grand piano, or unwillingness to abandon the park view from their windows. Mother was horrified by their stories but listened stone-faced.”