Our Last Full Day in Warszawa

We had a busy day! We went to the Warszawa Uprising Museum this morning. This museum is only a few years old. It is very interactive which was great for the kids. The amount of information is immense. I have no recollection of ever learning about the Warsaw Uprising in school. If it was mentioned at all, it was only on the surface. I have learned much here in Warszawa. I thought this quote that was displayed at the museum was very powerful.

When the resistance fighters in Warszawa organized and decided to fight, they knew that the Russian soldiers were on the east side of the Vistula River. We can see this river from the apartment that we are staying in. This apartment is part of a larger house where resistance fighters hid and planned during the uprising. The thought was that when the Warszawa fighters began to take on the Germans, the Russians would cross the river and help them. They never did. They camped on the east side of the river and watched the whole thing.

The museum has parts where it looks like you are walking in an underground sewer as the fighters did. They even have manholes up above to make it look like it would have looked to the fighters. There is a statue there called "The Little Insurgent." The statue is a little guy with an adult sized helmet on and he is carrying a gun. Children were part of the Warszawa Uprising. Hard to imagine little kids in this kind of role!

Young children delivered messages. Older children distributed news and even fought. I cannot imagine how desperate the Polish people felt to go to the extremes that they did to gain freedom. During WWII, 85% of Warszawa was destroyed. Most of this city is new, though has been rebuilt to look like it did before the war. At one point the Germans drove a tank into a church where people were hiding. Today the church has been rebuilt and part of the track of the tank is incorporated in the bricks.

We went to the Chocolate Factory this afternoon and enjoyed some fun time with some other Fulbrighters. We have done a lot of serious stuff so it was time for some fun and really good chocolate!

Then the Gartlands called it an evening. We did venture back out to the square for some kebabs for dinner. Tomorrow we head home to Gdansk.