Warsaw (Day 2)

Dzień dobry! After a wonderful breakfast sitting with a man from Denver and an elderly woman from Peru, Illinois, I set out on a walking/bus tour of Warsaw. What a beautiful city! The buildings and vistas are some of the most amazing sights that I have ever beheld. It is amazing that 85% of the city was destroyed during WWII. Many of the old parts of the city have been reconstructed to their prewar grandeur. Here are some highlights:

The Old Town- This was the most beautiful and rich group of buildings I have ever seen. They were delicately recreated from paintings of what the Old town looked like before the war. The Old Town was rebuilt so well that it was made a UNESCO site of World Heritage in 1980. Besides being absolutely beautiful, the Old Town was one of the important sites of the Warsaw Uprising of 1944. At first the undermanned Poles are successful and take over many parts of the city. This success did not last very long. The uprising started August 1, 1944 with a particularly heated battle in the Old Town. During this battle, the majority of Old Town was destroyed.

By September of the same year, Germans occupy Old Town and murder seriously injured soldiers and civilians found in hospitals.

By November/December of 1944, the Germans number the remaining buildings in order of importance to Polish culture and blow them up in order of importance. Germans sought to destroy valuable historical monuments indicated by German art historians: the Royal Castle (that took nearly forty years to rebuild as each king in Polish history added his own addition that was usually of a different building style), as well as other palaces ad churches. Buildings that were not considered culturally important (such as housing) was simply set on fire.

The Jewish Ghetto-There is nothing left. When I say nothing, I mean nothing. A monument was built in 1948 that I will detail in my next post. A new museum is being built to commemorate the nearly 300,000 inhabitants that died there.

The Warsaw Uprising Museum- This place was four floors. It was carefully built and makes a successful effort to appeal to all of the visitor’s senses while visiting to ensure one knows what it felt like to be a Polish citizen during the Warsaw Uprising. For example, there is a mixture of a pounding heart, dropping bombs, and bullets whizzing by as background noise while individual’s view the galleries. The composition of the floor changes to dirt/pinecones to demonstrate how some individuals in Warsaw were taken and killed in the forests. There are also parts in which one has to run through a maze of sewers. The footage of the Polish efforts during the Uprising and other exhibits such as the printing presses (that were used to spread information to help prepare for the Uprising ) were extremely thought-provoking. What I came away with from my experience at the museum was that a good number of citizens in Warsaw thought that by 1944 that they were going to die. They did not want to die being slaughtered; they wanted to die fighting back. The Warsaw Uprising was the product of their efforts.

Warsaw the Beautiful on PhotoPeach



Tomorrow is going to be a big day. I will be leaving Warsaw en route to Krakow. Given that Poland is building expressways; please say a little prayer that I am not stuck on a bus for fourteen hours like I was going from Berlin to Warsaw. Before I arrive in Krakow, I will spend several hours in Auschwitz. I am sure it is going to be a very taxing day.