August 20 an historical walking tour of Warsaw

 An interesting day! I thought we were doing a tour in an air conditioned mini van - wrong. Well, it did start with us sitting in the van but then the guide said “do you want to see where Marie Curie was born” What a question to ask me!  “It’s only a few steps from here” and it was. But then we went on and on around part of what is called the New Town which was established in the C15 after it split from the Old Town which dates back to 1300 I think and which is just a few 100m from where we’re staying. We crept quietly into many old churches, some right next to each other - it was Sunday and services were in progress. Their history quite fascinating if not harrowing in some cases.

Madam Curie

St Hyacinth's Church 

St Hyacinth's Church opposite where we were staying, is an austere Dominican church built in 1602 and has a recent horrific history. During the Warsaw Uprising in 1944 the crypt of the church became a field hospital. In August that year, the church and priory were bombed by the Germans and a 1000 people died under the rubble. The hospital continued to function in the ruins of the church until it was taken by the Germans on September 2. German soldiers first executed the entire medical staff, then demolished the crypt and its hospital; about 500 people were buried under the rubble. The dead remain entombed under the floor of the church.

Armenians have been residents of Warsaw since the 15th century. As had been the case for many diaspora peoples in Europe, they occupied high positions, were educators, politicians, writers, priests and soldiers. In this church, St. Hvacinth's, there are epitaphs written in old Armenian indicating that Armenians sought spiritual care here in the C17.

The ghettos

We passed where the walls of the Jewish ghetto once stood. Hearing about and thinking back to the horror of that time felt like a ghostly whisper of a nightmare. Later we saw the bridge where so many were transported to the death camps (bridge now rebuilt). Difficult to describe, absolutely impossible to comprehend. 

The ghetto occupied almost 800 acres imprisoning over 400,000 Jews from Warsaw and some from other towns. Nearly 100,000 died of hunger - their food allocation was under 300 calories per day. 

This was the eastern edge of the northern part of the ghetto. In November 1940, the ghetto was surrounded by a wall, cut off from the rest of Warsaw.  The walled ghetto area was initially 307 hectares (759 acres); with time, it was reduced. 

Approximately 360,000 Warsaw Jews and 90,000 from other towns were herded into this ghetto. Nearly 100,000 died of hunger. During the summer of 1942, the Germans deported and murdered close to 300,000 people in the gas chambers of Treblinka.

On April 19, 1943, an uprising broke out in the ghetto. Until mid-May, fighters and civilians perished in combat or in the systematically burned ghetto buildings. The remaining population was murdered by Germans in November 1943 in the Majdanek, Poniatowa and Travniki concentration camps. Only a few survived.

We learnt quite a bit of history of Warsaw and Poland as we tackled the city in chunks on foot. Ghettos, palaces, Russians, Lithuanians, Teutonic knights, elected monarchs, revolutionaries - I soaked it all in but sadly most fell straight out. It was riveting stuff. 

There is a myth surrounding the mermaid.  It is said that the joyous mermaid, thankful for being free again (after being captured!), pledged to the fishermen that she would always guard them and their village. Over time, the small fishing village became a large and beautiful city. Today, the image of the mermaid armed with a sword and shield appears in the coat of arms of Warsaw. There are a few statues of the mermaid in Warsaw.

The Supreme Court building

L: Acknowledgement of the Resistance fighters. R: one of the escape hatches 

We wandered around the rather beautiful Supreme Court building. It is a quite stunning structure fronted with a lifelike memorial to the soldiers who fought in WWII. Interesting juxtaposition - was there ever any justice?! War has ravaged Warsaw for a very long time and the people have valiantly resisted the invasion of their city. The Resistance movement was strong and the fighters extremely brave. Not far from this memorial in the middle of the road is a cap to the sewer through which people escaped, hopefully, to freedom. 

The Katyn Chapel

Close to the Supreme Court is the Military Cathedral of the Polish Army within the cathedral is the Katyn Chapel created in 2002 to protection of memory of combats and martyrdom. The central element of the Katyn Chapel is the altar, made of Carrara marble, where the icon of Madonna was put, surrounded by an aureole of buttons removed from the uniforms of soldiers and policemen found in the mass graves in Katyn, Miednoje and Charkow. The names of about 15,000 Polish Army officers and policemen, murdered by Russian secret police and buried in the Polish war cemeteries in Katyn, Miednoje and Charkow are engraved on the two walls of the Katyn Chapel. It's a chilling restless place.

Wiltod Pilecki

Wiltod Pilecki was an unbelievably brave and heroic man. Prior to WWII he was involved in a number of war and resistance movements in Poland. After the failed Warsaw Uprising, he joined the Polish Resistance and later set up the Secret Polish Army resistance movement. In 1940, he volunteered to allow himself to be captured by the occupying Germans in order to infiltrate the Auschwitz concentration camp where he organized a resistance movement and secretly drew up reports detailing German atrocities at the camp; these were smuggled out.  After 2 years he escaped only to be later interned in a German prisoner-of-war camp. Ultimately, and after the war, he became an ‘embarrassment’ to Poland's new communist authorities and in 1947, he was arrested by the secret police and, after being subjected to torture and a sham trial, he was executed in 1948. 
After confronting this tiny slice of Warsaw at war, we escaped to wander through the meandering Lazienki Park which in the C18 was a hunting ground for the King. It is truly spectacular with pretty gardens, ornamental lakes, woods and glorious buildings to entertain and house the nobility.  Near the entrance, people were gathering on the lawns for a recital of Chopin music - a piano stood poised in the shadow of the Chopin monument. Every Sunday during summer, 2 free open–air piano concerts are performed. What a delight. 

Chopin monument and people gathering for a concert - Chopin of course!

Play area for the nobility

This charming amphitheatre was built near the Palace on the Island to stage theatrical performances. It was truly an idyllic setting.

Palace on the Isle originally a bathhouse 

Polish–Lithuanian Coat of Arms C18 

The centre piece of the Polish–Lithuanian Coat of Arms shown here represents the King of the day - in this case Polish. From the mid-16th to the late-18th century Poland and Lithuania merged to form the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, a state that was dissolved following their partition by Austria, Prussia and Russia. We have been learning that the borders of Europe tend to fluidity!

We were a group of three which was perfect. Our companion a young woman from Texas, a keen traveler adrift in the world to learn more. Much of what we saw was pretty confronting stuff for we new-world dwellers. We were very fortunate to have a terrific guide - he was extremely knowledgeable with a great sense of humour. 

Dragged away from that serene place, we walked and drove passed prisons and complexes, buildings new and old, areas rebuilt after the war a few metres above ground level because the rubble from the earlier buildings destroyed during WWII was just too voluminous to remove. Much of Warsaw had to be rebuilt after WWII, the destruction is hard to comprehend. Warsaw! War was certainly visited upon them in many destructive waves.

We were pretty tired after the km we had covered on foot and longed to sit down and refuel. We had a very late lunch - Lindsay ordered lard and pickles and I had delicious Ukrainian borscht followed by dumplings. With local red wine of course! we slept well that night.