An Amazing Trip Through "God's Playground"

For those of you who have been following my posts, my apologies for not updating this sooner, but to be honest, it has been really hard how to put the last couple of days into words. The first day in Gdansk we went through the old town (which by the way is worth a visit in itself) to the Cloth Hall where Adolph Hitler gave his speech at the end of the Polish invasion. I had the text of the speech with me, photographs an Schirer's Account of that speech. The hall looks exactly the same inside in 1939 and to sit there and read Hitler's speech and the accounts was spooky to say the lest.
From there, Steph and I trudged over to the old post office building. Insie was a nice little museum that described the first days of the invasion when the postal workers held the building against the Nazis. An amazing and moving story. From there, it was on to Westerplatte, which is where the first shots of the war were fired and the place where a tiny group of Poles stopped the Germans for days. The site was fantastic. Much remains to be seen of the original fortifications, earthworks, etc. The sad part was seeing that the bronze plaques on some of the memeorials had been pried loose. I'd read about this all before, but to be standing where the war all started was really something.
The next morning it was off to Warsaw. Along the way we stopped at Grunewald, which some of you may be more familiar with as Tannenberg. The site is focused primarily on the Medieval Battle that was fought there and there was no mention made of the German victory in World War I or the fact that it became something of a Nazi shrine during the war, but we did find what remained of some of the old German monuments. As some of you know, I have a real soft spot for the Poles, so I was really looking forward to this part of the visit-and I was not disappointed. Steph and I got there late in the afternoon and did a little walking around. Then it was up and off to the airport to pick up Don. The amount of construction in Warsaw is incredible and a big difference from some of the remote villages I had seen up to that point. Once we'd rescued Don from the airport, we went to the Polish Army museum. If you like uniforms, weapons and the like, WOW. They have evrything there from weapons and armor used at Grunewald through World War II. Highlites for me were the belongings of Thadeus Kosciusko of American Revolution fame and the uniform of General Sosabowski of the first Polish paras. Many of the signs were in Polish and English, which was helpful, but ther was almost no interpretation and, worse of all for me, no bookstore. Still, all in all, a great museum.
I had to leave my two compatriots after that to hook up with an old friend who used to work at the Polish embassy but now is Poland's assistant secretary of defense. It was a little odd to be picked up by two uniformed soldiers in a car, driven to the Ministry of Defense building-again more uniforms-and up to an office which is bigger than my house. Always nice to see when an old friend makes good. After catching up, Bogeslaw had "his private" drive me around Warsaw. The greatest stop for me was at the PASTA building, which during the Polish uprising was one of the most heavily fought over sites in the city. There, Don (who I had met along the way), Bolo-the Polish Driver and I had the high honor of visiting with two veterans of the AK (Home Army) who not only had fought during the uprising, but in that very same building, which they now use as an office for the veterans. Best of all, they promised to join our group on the tour in October to give the personal view of the battle that I love. THe other thing he mentioned, which I never realized, were the terrible reprisals that the AK veterans suffered when the communists took over. The veteran told me of hte thousands of AK men who fought the Soviet regime until 47, and how he was lucky, he only had to spend 17 years in Siberia. He knew others who "had it much worse." He conluded the visit by saying that Poland was at war from 1939 until the wall came down-gave me a whole new perspective on what happened. We then stopped at the Citadel, which was another heavily fought over spot before getting back to the hotel. I had originally planned to go to the Wolfe's Lair the next day, but after a full day I had not even scratched the surface of Warsaw so I made the difficult decision to let Steph and Don drive up to Hitler's headquarters while I explored the city some more.
If you visit the city, you will find the war everywhere. All over the place you find plaques describing various incidents of the uprising or the stories of the attrocities committed during the German occupation. My first full stop was at the brand new Warsaw Uprising Museum. It is no stretch of the imagination to say that it is, far and away, the finest military museum I have ever been in. Great text panels in polish and English, incredible artifacts, graphics, films, etc. All laid out in a world class way. You left knowing what happened as well as the stories of who was involved. I can't say enough about the place except, best of all for me, fantastic bookstore! Then it was on to the former Gestapo Headquarters, where there is a small museum in the basement. I was the only visitor at the time. Very creepy walking through the corridors with the cells and seeing the torture devices, pictures, etc. THe most troubling part for me was the special radio in one of the offices. It was built without a volume control. The volume was just automatically set to the highest pitch to drown out the screams of the inmates. Terrible. Next was the site of the Old State Bank building which has been left in its wartime state-covered with bullet holes and evidence of the fighting. The memorial walk through the old Jewish Ghetto and Pawiak Prison, where the Germans and then the Russians, tortured and tormented thousands of Varsovians.
All of my exploring was done on foot, and I saw the war everywhere, but I won;t go into all the details. As I headed back to the hotel tired and sore and a by now very heavy bag of books, I stopped at the new monument to the uprising, which the Poles clearly take great pride in. It was amazing to hear that the monument is almost brand new. Under the communist regime it was forbidden to make any mention of the heroes of the rising at all, except to say that they were criminals and allied with the Gestapo. Hard to believe. I finished my wanderings at St. John's Cathederal. This is where Pope John Paul gave one of his most important speeches in the 1980s and is the historic mother church of the Polish Armed forces. As it was Easter weekend, the cathederal was packed with soldiers and well-wishers for service, which was very moving given what I had seen.
This morning started at Poland's tomb of the unknown. Similar to our tomb guards, this memorial is under 24 hour watch by two Guards, who stand rigidly at attention. Steph, DOn and I went to place flowers on the tomb in honor of Easy Company's Joe Lesniewski, who had originally trained to jump into Poland. What was unusual was that as soon as we placed our flowers, both guards came to present arms, and held the position until we paid our respects. Next it was on to the infamous Concentration camp at Auschwitz.
Even though I have studied the Holocause for years and been to other camps, I was really unsure how the visit would go. First, the town around the camp is grey an dreary, which I guess is appropriate. We started at Auschwitz-Birkinau II, where the two gas chambers were an then went on to Auschwitz 1. Rather than follow the road, we instead travelled across the railroad tracks. Even though it was warm and sunny, I was cold and had the chills the entire time. Auscwitz was an absolutely enormous complex, and while much was preserved, a good deal is just left crumbling-silent and desolate. As soon as I walked into the camps I felt the death and misery. I can't really describe it, but Don, Steph and I just couldn't talk, just walked around. I only made it through a small number of buildings before I had to stop. After a while I just went off by myself and sat down but try as I might, I just could not comprehend what had happened there.
Once the three of us had all gotten back together we walked back over the abandoned tracks and saw one of the cars used to transport the people about to be murdered. There was a sign that explained that this was the spot where the Nazi's made their selections about who would live and who would die. As I said, I had read about this all before, even been to other camps, but to stand there and think about what had happened on that spot was really just to much; trying to imagine myself there, or worse, arriving there with Anna and Madeleine. Terrible.
It was a really gut wrenching day, and as we drove to Cracow, none of us could manage to really talk and even when we tried to chat about something light hearted it just sort of fell flat. I think we were all trying to sort out what we had seen and how to understande and digest it.
Fortunately for me, anyway, after checking in to the hotel, we walked to the market square for dinner. After dinner we walked around the square and found that the town was preparing to celebrate Easter with a performance of the passion play. I'm not trying to get all mystical, but standing in the square there, with thousands of people standing in the cold while a choir, actors and readers recounted the last hours of christ was so very moving after what I had seen earlier in the day. Speaking for myself, I felt sure that somebody was touching me on the shoulder and reminding me of all that is good in the world as well as evil.
Anyway, I don't want to get too philosophical so I'll close for now by saying that you absolutely must go to Poland. I promise you that you will leave with memories of some terrific historic sites, and, more important, a much deeper appreciation for what the Polish people have endured in the name of freedom and liberty and the power of the human spirit. For me anyway, it was all profoundly moving.
Chris