Tuesday, October 6,

Quick bus trip into central Warsaw, where we did a bit of a wander and purchased a long sleeved shirt for me. Yes it was time to get out of shorts and tee shirts. The  temperature has dropped very quickly to around fifteen degrees, but it is the lazy wind which is a killer. 

Caught metro to old town as we were going on another walking tour. This time it was the Jewish tour. Due to the scale of destruction during the war, what the Germans did not bomb, they blew up, especially if it was Jewish.

We had the same tour guide as yesterday. She certainly knows her stuff. We found out that she specialized in Polish and Jewish history at university. Holds a masters in Sociology and Anthropology. 

 
Headed off on tour. We walked to what was the centre of the Jewish quarter prior to the war. All that is left now are these tram tracks that stop abruptly, going nowhere.

We learnt about Irena Sendler, who rescued 2,500 Jewish children from displaced families.

Another palace which is now a library set in landscaped gardens

Jan Karski, who duscovered what was happening in the extermination camps and sent to great ldngths to let everyone know. he went bdhind the Gean lines, dressed as a German doldier and went into the ghettos, to bring food znd rescue people. he is condidered by the people of Warsaw to be their equivelant of James Bond.

    
Jewish Memorial Museum.    
 

Statue outside museum dedicated to the heroes of the war.

The following four photos depict one of the cruelest tradgedies which occurred in Warsaw during the German occupation. The mound covers the former bases meant of a building. The mound is actually a grave under which lays the bodies of 125 Polish resistance fighters who, rather than be incinerated by the Germans elected to simultaneously take their own lives. It sits in a housing estate surrounded by tall buildings. This was quite moving and very sole searching.
   
    
  If that did not move you this will. The following photos show the monument which marks the location of the former train station where Polish Jews were loaded and sent to the death camps.   
    
    
    
The next five photos show another statue a block down the line which also remembers this Jews who lost their lives.

A trio of structures, all with a different meaning. the obelisk in the foreground represents the suffering by the Poles at the hands of the Germans. the building to the righ is a present to the city if Warsaw from the then leader of the USSR, Stalin. it is the tallest structure in the city and many say it represented the power of the Soviets during their time of Communism. many would like it to fall down. the building on the left is known as the Freedom Tower. it is actually a bank but the people if Warsaw see it as being shsped like a torch showing the way to the future.

Glass and steel cover over the forecourt of Central Station and a shopping centre.

 
By this time we were exhausted after the tour and a traditional Polish dinner, so headed back toMyrtle.