Packing was easy because temperatures were expected to be in upper 50s or mid and lower 60s (my kind of weather) in the northern regions. As it turned out the weather was 20 degrees cooler than normal in Eastern Europe. Still, my light GCT jacket and GCT windbreaker were all that was needed for the continuous rain and at times brisk wind. I packed my collapsible walking cane for the longer strolls, but as it turned out I never used it. Annette drove me to the Minneapolis International Airport. We left New Ulm at 2 pm, and ate at Denny’s around 4 pm, arriving at the airport 5 pm. I departed Minneapolis on Northwest (Airbus 330-300) at 7:30 pm for an 8 hour 20 minute flight.
Day 2, Wednesday, October 7:
My flight arrived in Amsterdam 10:50 am for a stopover. After a long walk through the airport to my designated gate, I took a KLM flight to Berlin. We arrived 2 pm early afternoon at Tegel Airport, Berlin. Tegel is the main international airport in Berlin, Germany, 5.0 mi north of the city of Berlin. During the Berlin Airlift in 1948 what was then the longest runway in Europe (2,428 m) was built at Tegel.
Our Grand Circle guide, Agnes, met us Grand Circlers at the airport just outside of customs and arranged a van for the transfer to the hotel. Agnes was a Pole from Warsaw and had served Grand Circle for 11 years. She proved to be a really great guide. I thought her familiarity of Eastern Europe history and site
backgrounds to be remarkable. She always had the answers. I thought the exterior of the airport had a rather traditional old look. The air traffic control tower appeared to me as resembling a prison guard tower.
Our driver took us down Kurfurstendamm Boulevard and past the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church. The church was largely destroyed in WW II, but part of the spire and much of the entrance hall survived.
The initial design included the demolition of the spire of the old church but following pressure from the public, it was decided to incorporate it into the new design. The walls of the church are made of a concrete honeycomb containing 21,292 stained glass inlays. Because of the distinctive appearance of the new buildings, it is sometimes nicknamed "Lippenstift und Puderdose” (the lipstick and the powder box) by Berliners. Annette and I stayed in this area when we visited Berlin in July of 1998. See map at the beginning of blog.
Our van pulled up at nearby Ramada Plaza. The Ramada Plaza is a modern 4-star hotel (Superior) in Berlin's Wilmersdorf district just a 15-minute walk from the famous Kurfürstendamm Boulevard and
Kaiser Wilhelm Church. A standard double room for this date would ordinarily cost $270 US per night
(single, around $180 US). The view from the balcony was marvelous – below was a large circular formal garden with beautiful flowers (Verkehrsberuhigter Prager Platz). We gathered this evening as a group to meet the Program Director and companions (37 in all) for a 6:30 pm complimentary drink and the Welcome Dinner. In Round Robin fashion we each introduced ourselves and mentioned something notable about our lives. I was impressed with this nice group of people who would become friends along the way. Sleep came easily affording rest from the long air flight.
Day 3, Thursday, October 8:
Since we were only here one night, we put our luggage out in the hallway at 9 pm. After an included buffet breakfast, we set out to discover the city that once represented the Cold War and now is the face of the rebirth of Eastern Europe on an included city tour. The rain did not deter us from our mission. Our step-on city guide was quite capable and offered good background information. The first major stop and get off spot was the 1936 Berlin Olympic Stadium. The rain was pouring down, but we managed to leave the bus for picture taking.
The current Olympiastadion was originally built for the 1936 Summer Olympics (today Olympiapark Berlin). In 1931, the International Olympic Committee made Berlin the host city of the 11th Olympics. When the Nazis came to power in Germany (1933), they decided to use the Olympic games for propaganda purposes. With these plans in mind, Hitler ordered the construction of a great sports complex in Grunewald named the "Reichssportfeld" with a totally new Olympiastadion. After the war, the British
military occupation used the northern part of the Reichssportfeld as its headquarters until 1994.
Our next objective was the Jewish Holocaust Memorial where we were to begin our walking tour of this region.
The Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe also known as the Holocaust Memorial, is dedicated to the Jewish victims of the Holocaust.
It consists of a 4.7-acre site covered with 2,711 concrete slabs, arranged in a grid pattern on a sloping field. The slabs are 7.8' long and 3' 1.5" wide and vary in height from 8" to 15'9". According to Eisenman's project text, the stelae are designed to produce an uneasy, confusing atmosphere, and the whole sculpture aims to represent a supposedly ordered system that has lost touch with human reason. . It is located one block south of the Brandenburg Gate. The cost of construction was approximately €25 million.
The rain was letting up a little as we strolled between the slabs of stone to the other end the monument. Umbrellas were still needed, however.
We walked past the U.S. Embassy en route to the Brandenburg Gate. A well-armed guard (above) was posted near the entrance.
Naturally our next site of concern was the Brandenburg Gate and here we were given considerable time to walk around the area before meeting at a predetermined area. The Brandenburg Gate was commissioned by Friedrich Wilhelm II to represent peace. Ironically the gate was incorporated into the Berlin wall during the years of Communist government.
This free time allowed me to walk from this side (old Communist side) and under the gate to the Western Section of Berlin. To my right and off in the distance was the German Parliament Building. The Reichstag building in Berlin was constructed to house the parliament of the German Empire. It was
opened in 1894 and housed the Reichstag until 1933, when it was severely damaged in a fire supposedly set by a Dutch communist, who was later beheaded for the crime. No attempt at full restoration was made until after the reunification of Germany in 1990. After its completion in 1999, it became the
meeting place of the modern German parliament, the Bundestag.
We returned to the bus and headed to our next destination – Check Point Charlie.(above). Berlin became the main route by which East Germans left for the West. Thus, the Berlin sector border was essentially a "loophole" through which Eastern Bloc citizens could still escape. The 3.5 million East
Germans that had left by 1961 totaled approximately 20% of the entire East German population. The Communists attempted brute force here to stem the tide.
Our walking tour took us to Bebelplatz (formerly Opernplatz), a public square in Berlin. The square is on the south side of the Unter den Linden, a major east-west thoroughfare in the centre of the city. It is bounded to the east by the State Opera building (hence its prewar name), to the west by buildings of
Humboldt University, and to the south by St. Hedwig's Cathedral, Berlin's oldest Roman Catholic church.
The Bebelplatz is best known as the site of the book burning ceremony held on May 10, 1933 by members of the S.A. ("brownshirts") and Nazi youth groups, on the instigation of the Propaganda Minister, Joseph Goebbels. The Nazis burned around 20,000 books, including works by Thomas Mann, Erich Maria Remarque, Heinrich Heine, Karl Marx and many other authors. Today a glass plate set into the Bebelplatz, giving a view of empty bookcases, commemorates the book burning. While we were there a number of people sought to see this historic site.
We continued down Unter den Linden to view the Berlin Lutheran Cathedral that was beautifully situated on an island, accented by the fall colors of the trees.
Wilhelm II built this neo-Renaissance Cathedral of Berlin between 1895 and 1904 in a most ostentatious style, befitting the Imperial capital. It remains the most impressive building in the city. It really is not Lutheran, but rather United Protestant. It had originally been Roman Catholic until the Reformation. From 1539 on it was Lutheran, but Calvinist from 1613 to 1817, and since then Evangelical Protestant with the comprehensive theology of the Prussian Union.
Back on the bus, we took a short drive to a segment of the Berlin Wall.
The Berlin Wall (German: Berliner Mauer) was a physical barrier completely encircling West Berlin,
separating it from the German Democratic Republic (GDR) (East Germany), including East Berlin.
Our driver dropped us off at the Station Hauptbahnhof in Berlin. We entered the cavernous building and took an escalator to the upper level. Agnes told us to wander around the station to find lunch possibilities. She stood watch over our luggage so we would not be encumbered with them as we ate. The Berlin Central Train Station, considered the biggest train station in Europe, opened March 28, 2006. Soon after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, city planners began work on a transport plan for reunified
Berlin.
After lunch we gathered at the loading platform to await our train scheduled for 4:30 pm. We were assigned to two cars (268 and 269). Each car was subdivided into enclosed cubicles that seated three passengers on each side facing each other. A porter loaded our entire big luggage into the train at the rear of our passenger area.
During the afternoon we traveled to Poland. Lonely Planet map. Poland, a country the size of New
Mexico, is in north-central Europe. Most of the country is a plain with no natural boundaries except the Carpathian Mountains in the south and the Oder and Neisse rivers in the west. Capital and largest city (2003 est.): Warsaw, 2,201,900 (metro. area), 1,607,600 (city proper). Government: Democratic Republic. Monetary unit: Zloty Language: Polish 98% (2002); Ethnicity race: Polish 96.7%, German 0.4%, Belorussian 0.1% Ukrainian 0.1%, other 2.7% (2002) Religions: Roman Catholic 90% (about 75% practicing), Eastern Orthodox 1%, Protestant and other 9% (2002); and Literacy rate: 100% (2003 est).
We arrived in Warsaw late in the evening, 10:30 pm. A waiting bus took us to our hotel that was to be our home for a three-night stay. The modern, 309 room Radisson SAS was perfectly situated for our explorations of Warsaw. Located in the city center, the Radisson SAS was close to the Palace of Science and Culture, and within walking distance of the Old Town and other popular Warsaw sites. See map below.
Day 4, Friday, October 9:
Agnes said we would experience our best breakfasts of the trip here at this hotel. It was great. After a
hearty breakfast I weighed myself on the bathroom scale. The scale read 110. I thought that couldn’t be
pounds so I figured it must be in metric tons. Our group met at 9 am for the morning tour. Once a
vibrant and glorious capital, Warsaw suffered heavy damage during World War II, and the Nazis virtually destroyed it after the Warsaw Uprising in 1944. Its rebirth and rebuilding since the end of the war is inspirational, as we'll see on our visit to the historic reconstructed Old Town, surrounded by 14th- and 15th-century walls.
We started out at beautiful Lazienki Park. The park originally was a Royal Palace park, and the palace,
which used to be a summer retreat, is still there.
At one of the entrances of the park, where we entered, was a monument to Marshall Pilsudski. A school
teacher and her students were huddled around the base of the monument so I thought he must be an im-
portant figure in Polish history Marshal Josef Pilsudski, 1867-1935, is seen my many Poles (including
Agnes) as the greatest Polish statesman. After his return from exile in Siberia, where he had been sent
for his involvement in a plot to kill the Russian Czar, Joseph Pilsudski became part of the struggle for
Polish independence. This involvement involved organizing various anti-Russian militant groups, an 1917 under Austrian sponsorship. He is considered largely responsible for Poland regaining independence in 1918, after a hundred twenty-three years of partitions. At the end of the First World War Pilsudski continued as chief of state. After a brief period of retirement he returned to overthrow the elected government by a coup in 1926, and as war minister exercised a virtual dictatorship until his death.
Our guide was more interested in the monument to the Polish composer Chopin a little further down
the pathway. In 1899, the 50th anniversary of Chopin’s death, a decision to build a monument for Poland’s greatest composer was made. Photo of Chopin below.
This was a very difficult endeavor because Poland was still ruled by the Russian Tsar. Adelaida Bolska whose singing for the Tsar brought tears to his eyes bravely asked him to erect a monument of Frederic Chopin. To everybody’s astonishment, the Tsar gave permission. Gathering funds and organizing a competition for the best design of the monument took place. Appropriately the monument is displayed in the city where Chopin spent his youth and schooldays. Unfortunately, in September 1939, as a consequence of Nazi Plans to destroy Polish culture, the sculpture was disassembled and the high quality metal was sent to Germany for use by the Third Reich.
After the war, the construction of the monument had to start all over again. A plaster cast of the original
model allowed the statue to be rebuilt. On May 11, 1958, after 18 years of absence, the monument was completed. From then on, pianists have been coming and performing concerts on a piano next to the monument. While we were there preparations were being made to stage a concert by the monument and a grand piano was positioned on a platform.
A photographer had made arrangements with our city guide for a group picture of our Grand Circle
gang. We lined up for the photo shoot with the Chopin Statue in the background.
We traveled down the Royal Road to the Old City. The oldest part of Warsaw is Stare Miasto, or Old City, located on the west bank of the Vistula River. This wall, much of which still stands, surrounded
Warsaw’s Old City.
The first structure we encountered was the magnificent Royal Palace off to our right :The Royal Castle in Warsaw (Polish: Zamek Królewski w Warszawie) is a royal palace and official residence of the Polish monarchs, located in the Plac Zamkowy in Warsaw, at the entrance to the Old Town. Royal Castle was built in the years 1589-1619 for the King Sigmund III Vasa, from the Swedish dynasty of Vasa, ruling Poland at the time. Italian architects incorporated the old gothic castle of the Mazovian Princes into a new early baroque structure, imposing itself upon the bank of the river Vistula. The King - August III Strong from the Saxon dynasty further rebuilt Royal Castle in the 18th century. Despite the fact that there were no military installation at the castle or in its neighborhood, and the building had not been defended in any way, German planes repeatedly bombed the Royal Castle and the castle sustained severe damage.
During the German occupation, reconstruction was forbidden. The Castle was rebuilt in the years 1971-1988 as a national monument of Polish history.
The entrance to Old Town is marked by a 72-foot high Corinthian column on top of which is a bronze statue of King Zygmunt Waza, the monarch who was responsible for moving the capital of Poland from
Krakow to Warsaw in 1596, after Poland and Lithuania united into one country. We continued on down the main street with beautifully reconstructed buildings that made it feel like we were stepping back in time.
To our right was St. John’s Cathedral immediately adjacent to Warsaw's Jesuit Church. St. John's Cathedral Polish capital and is one of the oldest churches in the city. Originally built in the 14th century as a Gothic church, the church was rebuilt several times, most notably in the 9th century. Leveled by the Germans during the Warsaw Uprising (August–October 1944), it was rebuilt after the war. The exterior reconstruction is based on the 14th-century church's presumed appearance (according to an early-17th-century illustration and a 1627 Abraham Boot drawing), not on its prewar appearance.
The street we were on led us right into Square. The center of the Old City is a square dating from the late 13th and early 14th centuries surrounded by World War II to their original 15th-century appearance. The beautiful buildings that surround the square of Old Town Warsaw were once the mansions of rich merchants. The middle of the square is now filled with restaurant tables topped by colorful umbrellas with advertising written on them. Several horse drawn carriages were lined up like taxicabs waiting for
tourists.
Men dressed in period costumes walked around posing for photographers.
Of particular interest to me was an old bearded vendor (above) who sold babbles to school children who
gathered around him.
I zoomed in on the statue of Syrena, the Mermaid. Sculptress Louise Nitschowa created the five times greater than life size “Syrena” statue (above) , on the bank of the river Vistula, in 1939. Her model was a
well-known young poet who gave her life fighting in the 1944 Uprising. The Germans destroyed many of Warsaw's monuments, including those of Chopin and Copernicus. But they were unaware of the symbolism of the mermaid figure, and it was one of the few that were not destroyed.
Our group reconnected with the city guide in front of the Warsaw Historical Museum at the far side of the Square. Arrangements had been made for an English version of a film that shows depictions of Warsaw as it was before World War Two, during the damaging war era and then the rapid and enthusiastic reconstruction after the war ended.
When the film was over, we continued on by walking northward through the Barbican. The Barbican (Barbakan) was built in 1548 and is part of the 1200 m long city walls. It serves as a kind of gate be- tween the Old and New Town of Warsaw.
Artists and painters displayed their work along the walkway.
We now gazed outward to what is called New Town.
Warsaw's New Town has in fact existed for some six hundred years. It was initially established to curb the unchecked growth that had snowballed beyond the city walls. Hence the new town, founded in 1402, was given its own charter and corporation along the lines of its elder brother. A market square and town hall were built and a number of churches and monasteries sprung up.
The New Town was almost obliterated during the war, but it was rebuilt to emulate its heyday at the beginning of the nineteenth century. One can still take a horse-driven carriage here along the cobblestone streets.
We boarded the bus again, took our assigned seats and set out for the Monument of the Warsaw Uprising.
The monument was located at Krasinski Square, itself the place of fierce fighting during the uprising. It consists of two groups of sculptures, one called "insurgents", depicting soldiers ready to fight, and the other is called "exodus", depicting soldiers and a priest overseeing one soldier disappearing into the entrance of a sewer. The date that the Nazis chose to destroy the Warsaw Ghetto was on Passover, April 19, 1943. The leader of the Jewish resistance movement, Mordechai Anielewicz, was determined not to give up without a fight. By this time, the Jews in the Ghetto knew that the daily trains to Treblinka were not transporting the Jews to resettlement camps in the East, but were taking them to a death camp to be killed in gas chambers. It was because the ghetto residents began refusing to get on the trains that the Nazis decided to liquidate the ghetto. SS soldiers marched into the ghetto on April 19, 1943. It was not until May 16 that the SS was able to defeat the handful of resistors, who lasted longer than the whole Polish army when the Germans and the Russians jointly invaded Poland in September 1939. The front of the monument depicts several of the resistance fighters with Anielewicz in the front holding a hand grenade in his hand. At the start of the fight, a few hand grenades were virtually the only weapons that the Jews had. After they killed a few SS soldiers and the others retreated, the resistance fighters took the weapons from the hands of the dead and continued the fight the next day when the Nazis returned. Of the 56,000 Jews who fought in the Uprising, over 15,000 were killed and the rest were deported to concentration camps. The number of German casualties is unknown but some estimates put the numbers at 300 killed and 1,000 wounded.
Not too far from this site we saw the Heroes of the Ghetto Memorial, (above) a large but simple slab of dark granite in the heart of the World War II Jewish ghetto. Nathan Rappaport designed The Monument to the Ghetto Heroes. The stone used in this memorial was originally quarried for a Nazi victory monument. Piles of flowers that ha been placed along the monument were still there from the funeral of Marek Edelman that had just taken place there. Marek Edelman, a cardiologist who was the last surviving commander of the 1943 Warsaw ghetto uprising against the Germans, died in October, 2009 in Warsaw. He was 90. Agnes said that at the close of the resistance, the leaders committed suicide, but that Edelman alone survived.
'We were welcomed to a local home hosted meal in Warsaw for an unforgettable evening.
Our visit gave invaluable insight into the daily lives of this region. During this exclusive cultural exchange, we had close conversations with members of the family. I was especially impressed with the friendliness of the host. His son seemed to really have a good grasp of history, not only of Europe, but of the United States as well. A highlight of our visit was the delicious, traditional home-cooked meal, enhanced with some of that famed Polish vodka. It was served in small shot-like glasses and consumed with a toast.
Comments by Kevin Hulsey: The making of traditional home-brewed vodka known as siwucha, or "moonshine," has been a cottage industry in Poland for over a thousand years. Today, distilleries produce the lion's share of the vodka consumed in Poland, but there is still a thriving market for boutique vodkas from home-distillers. Traditionally, the Poles like to flavor their vodka with wild grasses, flowers, or various root vegetables that are similar to horseradish. These flavored vodkas represent the taste and smell of the region from which they originate.
Our fare started off with a bowl of soup (zupy) and a salad (with deviled eggs). We were also served Polish pierogi (ravioli-like dumplings) and very flavorful chicken. Dessert was super special – a multi-layered cake decorated with candles and two flags. There stood the flag of the United States along side the flag of Poland.
Day 5, Saturday, October 10:
Morning breakfast was available at the Radisson Ogrodowa restaurant starting at 6:30 am. I exchanged $40 at the hotel desk for zloty.
Today was a day on our own and I used it to follow my own lesson plans. This included walking over to
The Palace of Culture and Science located on Defilad Square. The “Palace” is the tallest building in the
city, 768 feet high and visible from all over town. Each of the four sides of Warsaw’s tower has a clock
face six meters (nearly 20 feet) in diameter. The building was a gift from the Soviet Union (Stalin) and
houses scientific and cultural institutions as well as theaters and sports facilities. The structure actually
took its inspiration from the capitalistic world, namely the Empire State Building. Stalin had sent a
secret delegation to New York to learn both about the building and American construction methods.
Stalin’s building became known as an example of Social Realism architecture.
Agnes said you get the best views from the top of this building because the view does not include the building itself. Our city tour guide said the same thing. Many Poles initially hated the building. Some have also argued that, regardless of its political connotations, the building destroyed the aesthetic
balance of the old city and imposed dissonance with other buildings.
I was not very impressed with the building. As I walked all the way around it, I did take pictures. I wanted to take the elevator up to the 30th floor so this meant buying a ticket for 15 zl or $5Us. The interior of the building struck me as rather blah. The lookout from the 30th floor observatory was interesting. About 1,500 people visit this overlook daily.
By the time I finished with this activity it was nearing lunchtime. I found a fast food station that sold kebabs. People walking around the streets all seemed to be eating one. Open kebabs were 8 zl and closed ones a little more at 9 zl (around $3US), so I splurged and bought the more expensive one. In Poland the kebab bars are spread mostly in majors cities, but still considered one of the most, if not the most popular fast foods for the young people. A very Polish specialty is a fresh cabbage salad with
cucumbers, tomatoes and other vegetables added to the meat in a sandwich. The meat, in my case, chicken, was sliced off a large gyro grill spit. A basic version includes pita or thick bread, meat with onion, mentioned salad and choice of sauces.
I crossed the street and found a bench seat in Saxon Park This was a beautiful park and nice for my
picnic snack. The kebab was delicious.
One was the Water Fountain (above) with an elaborately carved plaque resting on a shell form basin supported by a scrolled bracket. It was established in 1855.
Here official delegations place wreaths and pay homage to the killed soldiers.
The tomb always has guards in attendance.
On the way to my next church site I came across a small city park.
Earlier Agnes had said that the debris from the WW II bombed buildings was often dumped into the parks so that today there are “hills” in the parks. I assumed such was the case in this park because of the irregular landscape.
Another extra I came across was an equestrian statue in an enclosed yard. I later learned it was Thorvaldsen's equestrian statue of Prince Józef Poniatowski, and that the beautiful building here was a presidential palace. Since July 1994, the palace has been the official seat of the government.
At last I came upon the Church of the Holy Cross on Krakowskie Street (#24 on the Lonely Planet
map): I tried to enter the church but it was closed. To take a picture of the whole church, I had to
cross the street. This imposing twin towered Baroque church was severely damaged during the Warsaw
Uprising when two weeks of fighting took place in the church itself. The church was seriously damaged but some Baroque altarpieces still remain. It is particularly close to Polish hearts, as there is an epitaph on the left-hand side of the nave dedicated to Frederick Chopin and marking the spot where, according to his wishes, his heart was buried. Added to the church in 1882 his heart was sealed in an urn and then
placed behind a tablet bearing his likeness specially carved by Leonardo Marconi.
In the early evening, some partook in an optional Chopin piano recital $90 with dinner, enjoying the
music of Poland's best-known and most beloved musician. I passed on this one because I had been
to a number of Chopin recitals before. Besides, saved money. The artist Chopin is belo
Day 6, Sunday, October 11:
After an early included ample breakfast, we loaded up on bus for Krakow. Though the 200-mile transfer took a full day (including stops), we traveled on one of Poland's prettiest scenic routes. During the transfer, we stopped for a visit at the Shrine at Czestochowa. Religion and spirituality are an integral part of Polish society—deeply felt and solemnly celebrated. And there's no more holy site to the Polish people than the 14th-century Jasna Gora Monastery in Czestochowa.
according to the legend, where it remained for the next 500 years. In 803, the painting was given as a wedding gift from the Byzantine emperor to a Greek princess, who married a Ruthenian nobleman. The image was then placed in the royal palace at Belz, where it remained for nearly 600 years.
Our bus driver parked the bus conveniently just outside the entrance gate of the monastery. Agnes led us into the complex where she located our monkish guide.
She introduced us to this rather short man dressed in the white gown and hood of his religious order. Actually, he seemed to be more like a souvenir shop salesman than a guide. He did efficiently lead us through the chapel that harbored the Black Madonna. A service was taking place so I missed an opportunity to take a picture of the icon, but a repeat trip brought forth a successful result. The place was really crowded so we had to keep moving. The monk then led us to the gift shop and pointed out
products for sale.
Agnes had earlier told us that there are different days for special pilgrimage groups (like cyclists, veterans, actors, miners….) and I noticed a group of prison guards who congregated here for a pilgrimage and special blessing. Mission accomplished, we walked back to our waiting bus.
We headed west 37 miles from Krakow to visit Oswiecim, better known to Americans by its German name of Auschwitz. This is the location of the State Museum of Auschwitz-Birkenau, set on the site of the largest of the World War II concentration camps and memorializing the millions of Jews, Gypsies, and "enemies" of the Nazi regime who died here. Auschwitz-Birkenau became the killing centre where the largest numbers of European Jews were killed during the Holocaust. After an experimental gassing there in September 1941 of 850 malnourished and ill prisoners, mass murder became a daily routine. By mid 1942, mass gassing of Jews using Zyklon-B began at Auschwitz, where extermination was conducted on an industrial scale with some estimates running as high as three million persons eventually killed through gassing, starvation, disease, shooting, and burning. They conducted pseudoscientific research on infants, twins, and dwarfs, and performed forced sterilizations, castrations, and hypothermia experiments on adults. The best known of these physicians was SS Captain Dr. Josef Mengele.
The camp commandant, Rudolf Höss (not to be confused with Rudolph Hess), testified at the Nuremberg Trials that up to 3 million people had died at Auschwitz. The Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum has revised this figure to 1.1 million... 9 out of 10 were Jews. In addition, Gypsies, Soviet POWs, and prisoners of all nationalities died in the gas chambers. Between May 14 and July 8,1944, 437,402 Hungarian Jews were deported to Auschwitz in 148 trains. This was probably the largest single mass deportation during the Holocaust.
In June 1941, according to Höss's trial testimony, he was summoned to Berlin for a meeting with Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler "to receive personal orders." Himmler told Höss that Hitler had given the order for the physical extermination of Europe's Jews. Private diaries of Goebbels and Himmler unearthed from the secret Soviet archives show that Adolf Hitler personally ordered the mass extermination of the Jews during a meeting of Nazi German regional governors in the chancellery. As Goebbels wrote, "With regards to the Jewish question, the Fuhrer decided to make a clean sweep...” Himmler had selected Auschwitz for this purpose, he said, "on account of its easy access by rail and also because the extensive site offered space for measures ensuring isolation." Himmler told Höss that he would be receiving all operational orders from Adolf Eichmann. Himmler described the project as a "secret Reich matter", meaning that "no one was allowed to speak about these matters with any person and that everyone promised upon his life to keep the utmost secrecy." Höss said he kept that secret until the end of 1942, when he told one person about the camp's purpose: his wife.
After visiting Treblinka extermination camp to study its methods of human, Höss tested and perfected the techniques of mass killing, which would make Auschwitz the most efficiently murderous instrument of the Nazi Final Solution and the most potent symbol of the Holocaust. According to Höss, during standard camp operations, two to three trains carrying 2,000 prisoners each would arrive daily for periods of four to six weeks. The prisoners were unloaded in the Birkenau camp; those fit for labor were marched to barracks in either Birkenau or to one of the Auschwitz camps; those unsuitable for work were driven into the gas chambers. At first, small gassing bunkers were located "deep in the woods", to avoid detection. Later, four large gas chambers and crematoria were constructed in Birkenau to make the killing more efficient and to handle the increasing rate of exterminations. Höss "improved" on the methods at Treblinka by building his gas chambers ten times larger, so that they could kill 2,000 people at once rather than 200.
We first visited the camp known as Auschwitz I. The compound was surrounded with secure fences.
A photo exhibit show camp musicians playing music as new arrivals entered Auschwitz.
Our guide took us into several of the buildings housing exhibits. One was a reconstructed model of inmates lined up to take showers with a cutaway section showing inmates being gassed in the showers. The next exhibit case showed stacked corpses in a basement with an upper level crematorium disposing the remains.
Our tour continued on through other buildings with rooms filled with human hair, shoes, kitchen ware, suitcases and so on that had been collected from prisoners for recycling or to be sent to Germany to ally shortages there. I thought the most touching was the room filled with shoes from little children and wondering what kind of people could wrought havoc on innocent little ones. I did not take photos of these exhibits because of restrictions on photography, but I did manage one – the exhibit of empty poison case canisters.
Block 11 of Auschwitz was the "prison within the prison", where violators of the numerous rules were punished. We toured this building. Some prisoners were made to spend the nights in "standing-cells". These cells were about 16 sq ft, and four men would be placed in them; they could do nothing but stand, and were forced during the day to work with the other prisoners. In the basement were located the "starvation cells"; prisoners incarcerated here were given neither food nor water until they were dead.
We made our way down toward the hospital room barrack. In a courtyard between blocks 10 and 11 was the Death Wall against which prisoners were shot.
A portion of the original wall was posted there and flowers had been placed in front of it.
Our guide pointed out a roll call station (below). From here a guard forced inmates to stand humiliated for hours.
Ironically, Rudolph Hoss (the exterminator) was himself hung here by liberators in 1947. He had been captured in 1946 while posing as a farm hand.
We walked inside to see how victims were systematically loaded into the two furnaces, capable of burning 350 corpses per day. Just before leaving the complex I stopped in the bookstore to pick up a recommended book I was Doctor Mengele's Assistant by Miklos Nyiszli (Published by Auschwitz- Birkenau State Museum). It is the true account of how Jewish prisoner A-8450, Dr. Nyiszli, performed autopsies on twins, dwarfs, Jews and others for Dr. Mengele in order to survive Auschwitz.
After visiting the infamous concentration camp at Auschwitz I, we transferred to Birkenau (“birch tree”), often referred to as Auschwitz II (one of about 40 satellite camps). The sheer size of this complex was staggering. Added in 1942, Birkenau contained 300 barracks and buildings. It grew to become the biggest and most savage of all the Nazi death factories, with up to 100,000 prisoners held here in 1944.
It was here that Jew faced a grim selection process. Around 70% of those deported were immediately
chosen to die and herded into gas chambers. Those selected as fit for labor lived in squalid unheated
buildings.
Today only a few buildings remain standing because the Nazi destroyed much of the camp before the
Soviets arrived
We walked though buildings which housed inmates crammed into wooden slots. These barracks had no windows. Instead, there were rows of skylights on either side at the top. The buildings were built from plans used for horse barns. 400 slept in each barrack. There were four toilet barracks containing sewers with concrete lids that had 58 toilet openings in each row. We visited one such toilet building. We left Auschwitz in a somber mood, but we gained much needed information.
After a long day’s bus ride we looked forward to checking in at the Radisson SAS Krakow
Situated in the city centre, opposite Krakow’s Philharmonic Hall; this hotel is 200 metres from Market Square and Wawel Castle See map. I checked with Expedia on the computer before the trip and found that a regular room was ordinarily $264 (on sale $211) per night.
This evening we were to be pampered with an included dinner and lively entertainment. The costumed musicians and dancers put on an energetic performance. The evening concluded with audience participation.
Day 7, Monday, October 12:
Another marvelous buffet breakfast and we were off on our city tour of Krakow. The agenda started with a visit to Kazimierz, the old Jewish Ghetto. As recently as the year 2000 much of Kazimierz was still in ruins, a crumbling shell of its former self. Numerous houses were unfit even for mice, since whole floors had collapsed, rendering many areas highly dangerous.
Today Kazimierz is undergoing a major renaissance. Both its Jewish and Christian heritage is being restored, and color has returned to its alleys and squares. Our bus dropped us off at Szeroka, which is
really more a square than it is a street and represents the heart of the old Jewish district.
It was around here, back in the fourteenth century, that settlers first laid down their roots in the area, and the sense of a medieval market place is still palpable. Two of the most important synagogues are to be found here. We started with oldest one, the Renaissance Old Synagogue of 1570 (housing the Museum of Judaism). A number of cafes and restaurants have sprung up in recent years, and these have an emphasis on Jewish traditions.
The Jewish Cemetery was off to our left.
Our group walked down to the end of the square where a house )below) was located that had been used in the filming of Schindler’s List. In 1993, when Stephen Spielberg made a movie out of a novel called Schindler's Ark, written by Australian author Thomas
Keneally, he needed an authentic Jewish quarter for the scenes depicting the Jewish ghetto of Podgorze in Krakow. He chose the Kazimierz district of Krakow because this area had not changed since the 1940s, while Podgorze had been partially rebuilt with modern buildings.
The next stop was Schindler's Enameled Pots & Pans Factory, on the south side of the river Vistula, at #4 Lipowa Street. Lipowa Street goes through Podgorze, and the factory is just east of the former ghetto and across the railroad tracks. Enamelware was apparently widely used in Poland instead of pottery or china, judging by the large amounts of enameled dishes that were brought to the concentration camps by the prisoners, which are on display in the museums at Auschwitz that we saw earlier.
Schindler obtained a contract with the Germans to supply mess kits and field kitchen pots to the German army. Schindler's Krakow factory produced armaments as well as enamelware. The Enamelware part of the factory remained open until 1945 with 300 Polish non-Jewish workers.
When the Plaszow camp closed, Schindler moved the munitions part of his factory to Brünnlitz in what is now the Czech Republic. The factory produced 45 mm anti-tank shells, but none of his shells were ever used because Schindler deliberately set his machines so that the calibration was incorrect, according to the movie Schindler's List.
Schindler's factory building is an ordinary gray stucco three-story building with lots of windows, built right next to the sidewalk. There is an iron gate at the entrance to the factory courtyard where Schindler built barracks for his workers. See photo above. The factory was named Deutsche Emailwaren Fabrick (German Enamelware Factory) and was called DEF for short. Oscar Schindler's factory has recently been taken over by the Jewish Council in Krakow and is being renovated. Because of this activity, our viewing was limited to the gate area. I did peek around the construction cover and managed a photo of the workers barracks (yellow) inside. See photobelow.
By the time Germany falls to the allies, Schindler has lost his entire fortune -- and saved 1,100 people from likely death. Schindler's List was nominated for 12 Academy Awards and won seven, including Best Picture and a long-coveted Best Director for Spielberg, and it quickly gained praise as one of the finest American movies about the Holocaust. Mark Deming, All Movie Guide.
The next portion of our tour would cover the beautiful Gothic-Romanesque Wawel Castle and the Wawel Cathedral standing atop Wawel Hill on a bend in the Vistula River.
From below I took numerous pictures of the walls and Castle complex. It was here in that the young
Karol Wojtyla (later Pope John Paul II) labored as a priest during the Nazis’ occupation. When he
donned the red hat of the cardinal, he administered his sermon from the hilltop complex of Wawel Castle. Following his election as the first non-Italian Pope in four centuries, an estimated one-third of still-Communist Poland congregated for his sermon from the ramparts of Wawel Castle.
I took a video of the rampart to the Castle and the statue of Tadeusz Kosciuszko. Tadeusz Kościuszko
Monument is one of the best-known bronze monuments in Poland. The equestrian bronze statue of Kościuszko—Polish and American hero of independence—is located along the west side entrance to the Wawel Castle in the Old Town. The statue was cast in 1900 thanks to the efforts of newly formed Tadeusz Kościuszko Society, soon after Marconi's death. The Austrian government during the time of imperial partitions of Poland refused to issue the permit for its placement. It was erected no less than twenty years later in 1920-24 once the Polish state reestablished its independence following WW I.
I walked across the street from the castle to visit an interesting looking church, St. Bernard’s (below). It was a church associated with the teachings of St. Francis of Assisi. The Poles burned the church down in
1655 because they feared the Swedish troops would use it as a base. Later it was rebuilt in its current
Baroque style.
Although it was now raining quite heavily, our brave guide led us on a walking tour toward Old Town. She made a stop at the Sts. Peter and St. Paul Church along the way. This is a Baroque Jesuit church known best for the statues of the 12 disciples lining the fence at the front. Commissioned for the Jesuit order, Sts. Peter and Paul was the first baroque church in Krakow. It is one of the most faithful examples of transplanting the architecture of the famous Gesu Church in Rome to foreign soil, with a fine Baroque facade and great dome. It is said that the Jesuits spent so much money on the ornate white facade and the sculptures that they ran out of money to finish the rest of the building. Indeed, behind the impressive Baroque facade is a church made from ordinary brick. Right next-door is an older and more austere church, the Romanesque Church of St. Andrew.
At last we reached the Main Market (Old Town) Square Main Market Square in Krakow, map #35, (Polish: Rynek Krakowski — KrakÛw Market Square) is the main square of the Old Town, KrakÛw, Poland. It dates back to the 13th century and – it is the largest (200 by 200 meter square) medieval town square in Europe. Rynek GłÛwny was designed in 1257, during the location of the city of KrakÛw by prince of KrakÛw, Bolesław V the Chaste. It was purposefully designed to be large, to attract passing merchants so they would offer their goods in KrakÛw, which at that time was the capital of the Kingdom of Poland. The square is located on the coronation route, between the Barbican of KrakÛw and the Wawel Castle. Ever since its creation it has been considered the center of the city. The square is surrounded by old brick buildings (kamienica) and palaces, almost all of them several centuries old. They house many tourism-oriented establishments as well as the Historical Museum of KrakÛw and the International Center of Culture.
Among the square's landmarks is the Sukiennice (Cloth Hall) map #36 - a Renaissance trading hall and one of city's most recognizable icons - now host to many merchant stalls. The statue in front of the hall is Adam Mickiewicz Monument in KrakÛw is one of the best-known bronze monuments in Poland, and a favorite meeting place at the Main Market Square. Adam Mickiewicz, the greatest Polish Romantic poet of the 19th century, was unveiled on June 16, 1898, on the 100th anniversary of his birth. It was designed by Teodor Rygier, a little known sculptor at the time, who won the third and final competition for this project by popular demand ahead of over 60 artists in total.
I thought I’d walk up to the entrance of the city and then come back to the Market Square. The rain had not let up, but I wanted to make sure I see the Barbican and Florian’s Gate. The Barbican of Kraków is a fortified outpost or gateway to the Old Town – one of the few remaining relics of the complex network of fortifications and defensive barriers encircling the city of Kraków. Based on Arabic rather than European defensive architecture, this masterpiece of medieval military engineering, with its circular fortress was added to the city's fortifications in the late 15th century along the coronation route. The Gothic-style Barbakan, built around 1498, is one of only three such fortified outposts still surviving in Europe, and the best preserved. It is a moated cylindrical brick structure with an inner courtyard (24.4 m in diameter) and seven turrets. Its 3-metre thick walls have 130 embrasures. Barbakan was originally linked to the city walls by a covered passageway leading through the Florian Gate (1303), and served as a checkpoint for all those entering the city. At St. Florian's Gate begins Kraków's Royal Road. T
Moving outside the Barbican and Florian Gate, I ventured to see the Grunwald Monument .
The Battle of Grunwald is Poland's finest military hour, and saw the joint Polish and Lithuanian armies defeat the mighty Teutonic Knights in 1410. All this was very exciting, and still an achievement honored by Poles today. The monument itself is a faithful reproduction of the original (destroyed by the Germans during the war). It's a huge slab of granite bedecked with statues of mighty medieval warriors in militaristic poses. Across the front is draped the slain Teutonic leader, Ulrich von Jungingen. Towering above him is the victorious Lithuanian prince Vitold. Atop the whole edifice sits Polish king, Wladyslaw Jagiello, astride his steed.
Now I could return to the Market Square via St. Florian’s Street. En route I encountered a Kebab fast food place so thought I’d take in lunch. I stepped inside an archway to shield myself from the rain and ate my kebab.
Continuing on I reached St. Mary's Basilica, a brick Gothic church built in the 14th century adjacent to the main market square. This church had been traditionally the temple of choice of the city’s burghers. It also seems to be the most famous of all Poland's churches. Earlier I had ventured inside to view the incredible altarpiece and stained glass windows. I was going to take pictures inside, but there was an additional charge for that. Their church has an interesting tradition whereby a trumpet plays a tune every
hour but stops mid-melody. The reason: In 1241 a watchman attempted to alert the townsmen of an invasion with his trumpet but he was shot with an arrow in his neck and was interrupted (but not before he had roused the town).
Another landmark church on the Square was the Church of St. Adalbert (below), one of the oldest stone churches in Poland.
Its almost one thousand year old history goes back to the beginning of the Polish Romanesque architecture of the early Middle Ages. The church was built in the 11th century, but was partially reconstructed in the Baroque style between 1611-1618.
I now turned my attention to the Town Hall Tower. This is a leaning tower. In fact, the 70-m-tall Town Hall Tower at the city’s central Grand Square leans just 55 cm. A strong wind in 1703 was responsible for the shift. The massive Gothic tower had been built of stone and brick by the end of the 13th century. Several fires weakened the Town Hall Tower during the ensuing 150 years, so its west wall has been supported since 1680 by a mammoth buttress reaching up to the third floor. In 1685 the Town Hall Tower was heightened and its present baroque roof dates back to 1686. The tower once adjoined Krakow's splendid 13th-century Gothic Town Hall that was pulled down in the 1820s. Vast cellars under the Town Hall Tower used to contain the city dungeon with a torture chamber as well as a popular beer house, and now they have been turned into a cafe and a theater.
In spite of the rain, I had seen all the sites in my planned schedule. I walked back to the hotel on Zwierzyniecka Street and ate dinner in my room – a peach held over from breakfast and a granola bar.
Day 8, Tuesday, October 13:
This morning I ordered a 6 am wake-up call because I had signed up for an optional full-day $95 tour to Zakopane. After a hefty breakfast at 6:30 am, I was ready for the 8:00 am departure. The drive would be a long one (see map), as we would almost reach Slovakia. We were to visit the Tatra Mountains in the "winter capital of Poland."
Agnes alerted us beforehand to observe the unique wooden architecture of Zakopane where the women whitewash the houses with brushes every year. This activity accounts for the light coloration of the wood siding. She also said the “Highlander” inhabitants are unique (but not hillbillies). In the 19th century many people were poor and left the area, a number moved to Chicago. The touch times account for the many sad song themes, but in the later 19th century the region became a health resort and attracted many artists. Zakopane played an important role in development of Polish culture - here is the place where most prominent Polish writers, artists, musicians and journalists came for rest and for work. Tourism boomed. The area is also known for hiking and skiing. People here became prosperous and built nice homes. Population is now about 28,000.
Our bus made a pit stop at a fast food restaurant. Agnes pointed out a little blue Fiat (above) in the parking lot that she said had been really popular in the Communist era. Snow continued to fall and created beautiful patterns as it accumulated on the pine trees.
A little further on our bus pulled over for a visiting stop at the Chapel of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
Built between 1904 and 1907 by the Uznański family from Poronin village and according to Stanisław Witkiewicz's design the chapel is one of the best examples of the local Zakopane style in arts and architecture. Witkiewicz designed interior of the chapel as well, together with stained glass windows representing Polish and Lithuanian national emblems. The figure of sorrowful Jesus right above the entry to the chapel and two side altars within were made in 1954 by Józef Janos, well know folk sculptor from the village of Dębno Podhalańskie. The wooden construction of the chapel was built with no nails at all.
Reaching the chapel required careful footwork because of the incline and slippery surface. The work was worth the effort because the building and intricate artwork was beautiful. The main altar merited a camera shot. We visited another church, one that was really quite different and with a unique history – Sanctuary of Our Lady of Fatima.
This church is closely related to John Paul II. Sanctuary was created in gratitude for saving Karol Wojtyla's life in the unsuccessful assassination attempt on 13th of May 1981. The oldest part of the complex is the chapel of the Immaculate Heart of Virgin Mary, built in 1951, with the statue of Our Lady of Fatima located inside. It was given to cardinal Stefan Wyszynski by the bishop of Fatima and, later, placed in the chapel. On 15th of October 1961, Karol Wojtyla, bishop of Krakow at that time, consecrated the chapel and the statue. On 21st of October 1987, pope John Paul II crowned the statue of Our Lady of Fatima. The church of Our Lady of Fatima is situated next to the chapel. The building was erected between the year 1987 and 1992. John Paul II consecrated the temple on 7th of June 1997 during his 6th pilgrimage to Poland.
I took pictures of the altar area, the stained glass windows that featured the assault on John Paul II and the monument to John Paul II outside the church. From here we were taken to the original old part of town. A number of us gathered together at the historic restaurant on Krupowki Street.
Even though I knew we were to have an early dinner, I ordered a Polish Kielbasa for 10zl and a beer, which came out to a total of around $6US. Before boarding the bus I went over to investigate the nearby wooden church – St. Clement’s, the oldest church (1847) in Zakopane.
Our bus picked us up at the designated place, just across the street from the old wooden church. We drove through beautiful snow covered country to our included meal and folk style entertainment by costumed performers.
Here at Liebowka we were served vodka, wine, sauerkraut soup, oscypek (smoked cheese made from sheep milk) covered with cranberries, a salad (cole slaw, shredded carrots and red cabbage) and veal. This was topped off with apple strudel for dessert.
Just outside a string of horse pulled carriages awaited us. We piled in three or four to a buggy.
Some pulled the canvas-like covering back to view the countryside while others kept covered to be protected from the chilly wintry wind. It was cold and we all appreciated the roaring bon fire at the end of the ride. The restaurant provided pieces of kielbasa that could be roasted over the open fire.
Everyone was in a good mood and attempted to sing songs in unison. Our last stop was at a woodcraft shop. Then back to the Radisson Krakow.
GO ON TO EASTERN EUROPE PART II HUNGARY
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