Warsaw: A City of Authors, Poets, Artists, and Fighters!

I have to be honest here and tell you that I have fallen a little bit in love with the people of Warsaw. They are so proud of their history and so willing to share their stories with us. When we study the Holocaust during our reading of Night in 8th grade English, I am often struck with the question, "Why didn't they just fight back?" This is never an easy for me to explain-it was nearly impossible to fight back, "they" didn't know how bad it was going to get, propaganda was powerful, and Hitler was a force that just kept coming. But here in Warsaw, I have come to see first hand what made fighting back so difficult.




Mrs. Wilson and I spent two days in Warsaw and we got to know the city as well as we could. We traveled on bus, train, and we walked so much! The places we liked the best were the two free museums that simply desired to tell the story of those who
fought bravely against the Nazi invasion of their homeland. Pawiak: a prison for Polish prisoners of war. We saw artifacts from the prisoners, witnessed what their surroundings would have looked like, and saw the pictures of who these courageous men and women really were. What struck me most at this museum-were the writings and drawings of the inmates. Many of them used their talents to escape the suffering, but also to leave behind a message of hope. One such story is of a young Girl-Scout who created the symbol used by the uprising to build morale and push the message that Poland was going to fight and stand strong against Hitler. Her symbol, the letter P above an anchor. We saw this symbol in many museums we visited, but also throughout the city. It is amazing to see that while Hitler certainly had power, the Polish people had hope and in the end that is what is remembered most in this city.




We also visited the Gestapo Headquarters . This is a museum built at the original spot of the headquarters, and can only be described as haunting. There are actual rooms where the insurgents were taken and tortured for information. One room still has the scars of bullet holes, while many others contain etchings on the wall of the prisoners' messages to each other. This is a place that touched my heart and left a deep impression.

The last place we visited in Warsaw was the Warsaw Uprising Museum. Here we summed up all the information we had been learning. It had so much information, but my favorite part was the wall of photos in an outside garden. On one side of the wall are the names of those who lost their lives in the Warsaw Uprising, but the opposite side shows color enhanced photos of who these fighters were. The color was a purposeful choice by the museum to make these men and women seem less like a piece of history and more like a reality that we should not soon forget.




Warsaw is a special place and its people should be proud.