On my first visit to Warsaw years ago I had an experience that goes to the heart of Jonathan Sklar's Dark Times. Sitting in sunshine in the midst of the Old Town (rebuilt after its almost total destruction by German bombing during World War II with the collusion of the Russians waiting to move in once the Germans retreated), I momentarily forgot all I knew about this merciless and wanton attempt at obliteration, and along with it the indescribable horror of the persecution of Warsaw's Jews. It was like sitting in a film set which could easily seduce the visitor into denial of trauma. I knew about Polish history both from reading and from working with patients with Polish roots whose families had resettled in the North East of England after the war, but here I was basking in the warmth and colour of a fictional