Prague Revisited

We loved Prague when we visited 18 months ago just before Christmas so we thought while we were ‘in the area’ we would visit the city again.  As so often happens, on our return visit we were not quite as smitten with the city.  Prague is still a great town but Prague in summer wasn’t quite as magical as at Christmastime.

Looking towards the Charles Bridge

The town square - this time without the Christmas tree and lights

We also stayed in a different part of town (Prague 7, north of the river) which wasn’t quite a charming as closer to the centre.  We had planned to stay in the hotel we stayed previously but when we tried to book, discovered the tariff had tripled in price.  Just down the road from our hotel was The National Technical Museum.  We thought it would be a pleasant way to spend an hour or so and ended up staying for 5 hours and could have stayed longer if our backs and energy levels were better.  Housed in a fairly non-descript building, the museum has some of the best displays we have come across.  Bob was in heaven in the transport hall with its old cars and airplanes.  I was fascinated by the chemistry around us display.  There were also great displays of time pieces, metallurgy and mining, printing and technology in the home.

Cars, planes and trains in the transport hall

As always we walked all around the town and the beautiful architecture is still stunning.

 

Just a doorway one stumbles across - gob-smacking

Gargoyles on St Vitus Cathedral

 

We came across the same skiffle band that played our request 18 months ago and made me teary and sentimental.

 

We also went to the Palace and took a tour of the 10^th Century buildings.  They had an extensive armour display but we realised that they were all replicas – a bit disappointing but some nice metal work anyway.

Frescos from the 10th Century

Fantastic Gothic architecture

Amour on display

It was good to see Prague again, to revisit some favourite places and discover new ones.

Auschwitz

I approached our visit to Auschwitz with much trepidation as I knew it would be an emotionally draining experience.  Our guide through this sad and terrible place was fantastic.  I don’t know how she was able to talk of such horrors day in and day out with such empathy and compassion and still stay sane.  We all know of the horrors of Auschwitz – Birkenau, but to see the camps and the exhibits was heartrending and words inadequate.

Entrance to Birkenau

The gate at Auschwitz

  

Shoes of the prisoners

Barracks and fences

Guard post

We were very privileged to have an Auschwitz survivor in our group.  Itsak, as a 14 year old Hungarian Jew, was transported to the camp with his parents.  Now an old man in his 80’s he had come back with his two sons to revisit this horror scene of his youth.  In 1944,the family had spent 4 days closed up in a cattle car travelling from Budapest to Auschwitz.  When he arrived at the camp one of the others at the camp told him to say he 16 years old, not 14.  This advice saved him as all children under 16 were sent straight to the gas chambers.

 

His mother was not so fortunate.  She had picked up a small child that had been abandoned and because of this she was not sent to the women’s camp to work but sent straight to the gas chambers.  Any woman with children were killed upon arrival.  They did not want to separate the children from the women during the sorting, even though the women could be used as slave labour, because separation of mothers and children might cause panic.  Instead the Nazis killed them all.

When the guide asked Itsak to describe his time at the camp, he replied “It is impossible to put into words.  It was Hell, just Hell, Hell, Hell.  Death was everywhere.  Your whole existence was shrunk down to finding a scrap to eat, to stay alive any way you could”.  It was a great privilege to meet this remarkable gentleman.  I will never forget him or his remembrances.

Itzak talking to our guide

Outside one of the train carriages used to transport the prisoners

I would like to say ‘never again, surely humanity has learned its lesson’; but I cannot, for humanity has not.

The Phoenix of Warsaw

We are back in Greece aboard Songster enjoying the warmth and sunshine of summer.  I now have some time to catch up on the last of our travels in Northern Europe.  From Vilnius we went to Warsaw, Poland.  

One of the beautiful parks in Warsaw

In this part of the world, World War II is always close to consciousness.  The area was devastated and restoration work is still going on 70 years later.  Next to Belarus, Poland was the country that lost proportionally the most people during the war – 17% of their population or about 6 million people.  But of course the USSR lost the most absolute number of people – about 2 million.  (Just for some perspective the US lost 419,000 military personnel and civilians, 0.3% of the US population; Australia lost 40,000 people, 0.6% of the population and Britain which suffered direct bombings lost 450,000, or 0.9% of its population.  So of the main allies, the USSR lost 30 times more people than the US and UK combined.  A fact not given in my high school history.)  

But the city of Warsaw was particularly hard hit.  It lost over 60% of its population and 85% of its buildings.  The city was flattened.  It is hard to conceive.  Imagine if 2 of every 3 people in your city were killed and 8 out of every 10 buildings were in rubble.  The Poles did fight back during the German occupation in two major uprisings; the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising and the Warsaw Uprising.  Sadly both resulted in mass slaughter, in large part due to the very specifically planned lack of assistance from the Russians and Allies.  At the Yalta Conference, the US, Britain and the USSR had already decided that Poland would not have independence  after the war and destroying Warsaw would get rid of any resistance and thus make occupation easier.  The hubris and evil of this arrogant and inhuman decision is sickening.

From Wikipedia - total destruction of Warsaw during WWII

The Warsaw Ghetto was established shortly after the German occupation.  An area west of the Vistula River was walled off and the city’s 400,000 Jews were crammed into it with an average density of 7 people per room.  Nearly a quarter of the inhabitants died of hunger-related disease and starvation in the first 2 years.  Then the deportations to the death camps started.  In early 1943 there had been a lull in deportations and when the Germans tried to start the rounding up again, the remaining inhabitants of the ghetto and the Ghetto underground fought back.  The Nazis retaliated in force and totally flattened the entire area, killing or deporting every one.

The outline of the Warsaw Ghetto

A bit of the wall kept as a memorial

Another section of the Ghetto wall

Where the wall is no more, the spot is marked

In August 1944 as the Germans were retreating and Russian forces were closing in, the Polish Resistance fighters tried to liberate Warsaw, assuming the allies, in particular the nearby Russian forces would come to their aid.  This Warsaw Uprising lasted for 63 day of terrible fighting without any outside assistance, resulting in the death of 200,000 civilians and the final destruction of the city.

We went to a museum devoted to the Uprising.  Sadly we found the museum very poorly laid out, the lighting too dim and the signage text too small to read.  The items on exhibit were very good but not displayed so as we could appreciate them.  It was frustrating that such an important subject matter didn’t have a better venue.

Memorial to the Resistance fighters

After the War, Warsaw decided to rebuild the historical part of town just as it had been.  They did such a good job of making the new look old that UNESCO declared it a World Heritage site.  I found it a bit disconcerting to see these beautiful old buildings and then realise they are only 40 to 50 years old.   

The new old - beautifully reconstructed town square

  

The veterans hospital

The new new

The old town was wonderful to explore.  We wandered around the cobble stone streets and stopped at the many outdoor cafes.  We found a fantastic place for the most delicious pierogis at Zapiecek Restaurant. 

Salmon filled pierogis - delicious

Another day we went to the Royal Castle.  This beautiful building originally dating from the 14^th Century was specifically targeted by the Nazis in WWII for complete destruction.  Immediately after the war, remaining remnants of the castle were salvaged and by 1975 enough money (500 million zloty or about $A30 million) was raised to restore the Castle to its former glory.  They managed to get back a lot of the stolen artworks and restore the Castle beautifully.

The outside of the castle

Chariot clock

Atlas clock

Doorway of the grand hall

Ceiling frescoes

The heads on the fireplace were salvaged from the original castle

Now an independent nation since the breakup of the USSR, the optimism of the Poland shines through.  I found the people and the country quite dynamic and buoyant.