Warsawa!

It has been over a week since I have posted anything, and what a whirlwind week! I am currently sitting on an old train putt-putting out of Budapest through the fields of Hungary toward Bratislava. In the past week Tara and I have walked all over Berlin and Budapest (the next two stops on my post-AJC journey after Poland). Although I could spend hours describing weinerschnitzel and Third Reich history in the former or Hungarian goulash and Budapest’s ruin bars in the latter, I will refrain and return to the blog’s central purpose—to document my incredibly enriching time in Poland. Thus, we are brought back to Wednesday, July 11, when our group left Kraków for an early morning train ride to Poland’s capital, Warszawa. The train was set up by compartments for 6 people, and my heart went out to the Polish woman enjoying her quiet compartment as five loud Americans barged in, laden with luggage. But alas, we all made it to Warsaw, the most destroyed city in Europe after World War II (84%), and after an enjoyable lunch at Tel Aviv (one of Warsaw’s kosher restaurants), we were on our way to the controversial Muzeum Powstania Warsawkiego (the Warsaw Uprising Museum) where the huge PW symbol standing for Polska Woczońska (Poland Fights) was visible from the complex’s height well before we reached the museum. 

The wall around the museum complex. Suzanne in foreground, tower with PW symbol in background.

Our long-waited arrival of 'Warsaw in Ruins' in 3-D at the Warsaw Uprising Museum.

While commemorating the Uprising is supposed to be patriotic (because for so many years under communism, Poles could not commemorate those who lost their lives), the museum is also viewed as a shrine to the biggest failure and lives lost (over 200,000 Poles, and Jews who were still in Warsaw, died!) in modern Polish history.  Many Poles think the Uprising was not worth the lives lost yet the museum preaches a very enthusiastic message of fighting, resistance, and Polish martyrdom. The first quotation which greet visitors as they enter, for instance, is by Jan Stanisław Jankowski which states, Chcieliśmy być wolni i wolność sobie zawdzięczać (“We wanted to be free and owe this freedom to nobody”). Also because the Uprising failed, many (most) members of the Polish Home Army who did not perish in the fighting were arrested after the war by the Communists because of their devotion to their nation. Controversy surrounding the Warsaw Uprising (August 1944) continued when compared to the ways in which the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising (April-May 1943) was remembered. The new Communist regime constructed a Ghetto Uprising memorial in Warsaw in 1949.  Yet because the Warsaw Uprising not seen in a good light under Communism, the Warsaw Uprising Memorial could not be built until 1989. The Polish-Jewish journalist Konstanty Gebert clearly affirms this conclusion: “These Jewish memorials [i.e. the Ghetto Uprising memorial] reminded many Poles of the monument that that had not been built to the Warsaw Uprising…The 1944 struggle, led by the non-Communist underground army (the Armia Krajowa), had become almost a non-event in Polish Communist historiography. The speedy commemoration of the Jewish Uprising, coupled with the non-recognition of the Polish one, provided the grounds for years of bitter feelings” and furthered the unfortunate stereotype of associating Jews with Communism (Living in the Land of Ashes, p. 91).

The Warsaw Uprising Memorial

In the afternoon, Tomek led us on a tour of the Stare Miasto (old town) making sure to point out his favorite (sarcasm included) examples of social realism architecture. Although most of the buildings in the Stare Miasto were facades, I was still reminded of how beautiful Warsaw was despite the Communist-block structures that dominate the old town’s environs.

Tomek;s favorite piece of social realism (kidding): Stalin's gift to Warsaw, The Palace of Culture and Science

I was able to experience a small sense of normalcy that evening as I went to out hotel’s gym on the 31^st floor. The expanse of Warsaw was breathtaking at night, including the city’s new, colossal stadium built for the recent Euro Cup lighting up the sky in the distance. When I return to Results Gym in D.C., I am going to have to do some major reimagining to have the same inspiration I had that night in Warsaw…

Although the night-time view of the stadium was better, I did not have my camera. Here it is by day.

To be continued…