Poland: Warsaw (Ghetto, Uprising Museum)

Train(3h) from Krakow Glowny to Warsaw Zachodnia train station



Facts abt Warsaw:
-Warsaw suffered terribly during WW2. 2/3 of her population was killed & 83% of the city was destroyed. The communist rule dealt her a further blow. After entry into EU, Warsaw is a city on the rise
-Had 2 major uprising: The Ghetto Uprising in 1943 and the Warsaw Uprising in 1944
-I have been yearning to go to Warsaw after watching Roman Polanski's "The Pianist" which depicted how Wladyslaw Szpilman lived



To me Poland has always abt this: Chopin, John Paul II and the movie "The Pianist". Other famous people include Marie-Curie and Copernicus.



Tomb of the unknown soldier





Nearby was the Saxon Gardens



Monument to the fallen & murdered in the East

Next I went to the area which was previously the Warsaw Ghetto. It was the largest Jewish ghetto during WW2 and contained Jews(1/3 of Warsaw's prewar population). But the Nazis razed the entire area in 1943 after the Ghetto Uprising(Recall the movie "The Pianist"). Soviet-era concerte block houses now fills much of the former Ghetto



This used to be a railway platform where many Jews were sent from the Ghetto to the the gas chambers. It now bears the inscription of "Oh Earth, cover not thou my blood, and let my cry never be laid to rest"



Every now and then, there are plaques commemorate the fallen heroes of the Warsaw Uprising at places such as this building where intense fighting occur



Command bunker of uprising leaders



Monument to heroes of the ghetto uprising
Note the Star of David



The back of the monument
Ironically this piece of stone was originally ordered by the Nazis for a 3rd Reich victory monument

Nearby was a small plaque on the floor to commemorate the efforts of the Poles who worked to rescue Polish Jews from the Holocaust



This is how most cars park in Warsaw. They drive up to the pedestrain walkway like this....



... or this



I stumbled upon the Warsaw Uprising Museum by accident. It wasn't exactly on the map. I was greeted by a very friendly old Polish lady who despite not knowing English, attempted to explain proudly what happened during the Uprising by pointing to the impt photos. Sometimes she used sign languagues to show what happened. She even gave me free postcards of various sites in Poland.



The Warsaw Uprising of 1944(note different from Ghetto uprsing in 1943) was abt the uprising agst Germans by Poles. Only abt 10% of the insurgents were properly armed and the insurgents were completely crushed by the Nazis. Though the Russian Red Army were v near Warsaw, they refrained from helping the Poles & disallowed the West to use their airfields to aid the Poles. As a result, 20k Polish forces were killed, 25k wounded & 16k captured. Moreover, 180k civilians killed . Abt 26k German soldiers were killed.



The anchor-looking sign is the sign of the Uprising and can be found on many memorials



Despite located along an expensive shopping district in the above pic...



...Bar Mleczny offers ridiculously cheap food.

I tried a few Polish cusines:



Nalesniki(pancakes) & pomldorowa(tomato soup)

U get to observe all types of locals who come to enjoy cheap food. From businessmen carrying suitcases to groups of youths to old poor people. Usu it's crowded, so U share tables w other locals and U get to chat w them if they know English. Hence I strongly recommend coming to Bar Mleczny. After all, isn't part of travelling about mingling w heartlanders?



Bigos(cabbage)

It was extremely heart-wrenching to see an old lady walking into the room trembling from the cold winter outside. She counted the coins in her cigarette box gingerly and stared at the menu on the wall for a v long time, hands still trembling. After a long while, she went to the counter to order a piece of bread & a cup of coffee w at least 7 cubes of sugar. It saddened me to think that she managed to survive WW2 but she have problems surviving modern times



Krokrety(spring roll), Barszcz(beetroot soup)

It's hard to order food in this place if U dun know exactly what Polish food U want. So I approached a young female Pole to ask her the name of the springroll she was eating, explaing that I was keen to try Polish Cusine. She kindly wrote them down on a piece of paper for me. Later her boyfriend even surprised me w a bowl of beetroot for me, explaining that they bought it specially for me since beetroot soup usu go together w what I was eating then. Poles' hospitality is just amazing!