The day started off early as we had a jam packed plan of tours in Warsaw. By public bus (a harrowing way to make it into town) the trip into Warsaw takes about an hour, so we always have to factor that into our schedule.
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| Outside the prison |
The day was to start with a tour of a former KGB prison. Here is the catch... It's still the working prison in Warsaw. This happens to be one of the most notorious prison for prisoners of war and as such was a must for our study of WW2 history. While there we were supposed to only get a history lesson and see the historical portions of the prison. While we did get to view the cells of the former KGB prisoners and the old torture cells, we were also given tours of the ACTUAL prison.
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| Prison basement (torture area) |
Stepping inside those former (we hope) torture rooms was already an our of body experience. The mood in the room dropped by more than half and everyone became quiet. There is no describing the feeling you get when stepping between those walls. It's as if you can feel the horror that fills them.
To find ourselves next surrounded by inmates just caused everyone's hearts to fall into their stomachs. Poland is one of the societies that believes in rehabilitation. This is in part due to their tragic past in which people were persecuted for no proven reason. As such the prisoners are basically allowed free reign and are not hand cuffed! They go through therapy lessons, are able to go out to take classes in the University, and even obtain jobs on the outside. The guards joked that some of the prisoners actually made more money than them... Just crazy. However, since the inmates are roaming the grounds that means we were given extremely close contact with them. I think I stopped breathing at points!
I know I should not overly judge these individuals and that I'm surrounded daily by dangerous individuals, but sorry I couldn't help that paranoid panicky feeling.
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| metro |
After the prison tour we had an hour to grab some lunch and take our mug shots for our bus passes. Basically to get a monthly bus/train/metro card in Poland you have to provide a passport photo. But the thing is none if ours were acceptable because for these the focus of your picture has to be the left side of your face. We all found out that this is not our good side haha.
The afternoon was filled with the Warsaw Uprising Museum.
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| Ticket to museum |
Many people combine or confuse the two uprisings that occurred within Warsaw. There was the Ghetto uprising that was done by the Jews and then there was the city wide uprising undertaken by those outside the ghetto walls.
I became aware of the strength of those people who lived in Warsaw during this trip to the Warsaw Uprising Museum. During our lectures and readings there were mentions of the trials the people had to endure and the ways they were able to survive. The imagination is only so strong when there are no sensory elements to use, and when you've never experienced some of these things it is hard to even comprehend such torture. It was when I was crawling through those reconstructed sewers within the museum that I came to realize the extremes a person will go to; to survive. In those small dark tunnels with the noises of the sewers playing I started to panic and my breathing became erratic even though I was in no real danger. At those moments, I began to imagine what it must have been like to have been starving, tired, scared and then forced to crawl through tunnels full of filth and bodies. I know there is no way I could ever truly understand, but in those moments my pride in being Polish was not just in their abilities to rebuild themselves but in their abilities to conquer their surroundings.
There are many debates now-a-days as to whether the people in Warsaw should have fought back. If maybe they didn't fight they could have survived longer. I completely disagree with that viewpoint. As part of the museum we got to see the death certificates written of people found in a mass grave in one part of the city. Hitler had given the order that 100% of the city and people within be destroyed. Within a day 60,000 men, women, and children had been murdered. The people of Warsaw chose to fight back and survive. It is the same decision I would have made in those circumstances. I don't know anyone who would just lie down and be exterminated.
Another part of the tour showed an birds eye view of what the city looked like after the Soviets forced the Germans to leave. It's hard to imagine a city that used to be considered on par with Paris and St.Petersburg reduced to rubble - 85% destroyed. In parts of the city today the remains were just pushed into hills and built over. Before the war 1.3 million people lived in Warsaw by the end only 1,000 people remained. The city is a living graveyard, and it very inspiring to me that the people of Poland decided to rebuild in it.
Needless to say this day was nonstop emotions and extremely hard for me to come to terms with, nevertheless fully express to others.
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