Sunday, October 19, 2008

Warsaw Rising Museum

During the postwar Poland was a battleground. 90% of Warsaw was completely destroyed. Many insurgents were persecuted and imprisoned. It was not uncommon for them to be killed in a martial law sanction. During the 40ś and 50s communism army waited until the Polish and Nazis battled it out. The communist came in from the back and accused the Polish (who had a small army called the Home Army) of committing treason and cooperating with the Nazis. The army consisted of young men and women with homemade weapons. The communist accused them of this in order to justify their later attack on the Polish without coming across as playing cheap.

During the occupation the Germans imprisoned 100,000 Polish and 37,000 died. This information was from the Warsaw Rising museum. It was very informative with colorful interactive displays.

Nowadays, Warsaw is a industrialized capital city. There are many museums and public gardens. I only had a day to sightsee, but I liked what it had to offer.

I just made it to Berlin. Today I am going on an all day walking tour. More to come on my weekend in Lodz.