Driving while sightseeing, absolutely a task that the team did not want to take up on, so the first assignment for the day was to book a city tour in a vintage yellow Fiat 125. Konrad, their guide for the day met them at the hotel promptly at 10 am. In 4 hours they saw all the major sights of Warsaw, which they could not have done, had they not had an experienced guide who was well- acquainted with the city. As they drove around in the beaten retro Fiat with the windows rolled down , Konrad regaled them with stories of wars, ghettos and the Soviet era. Also, he had come armed with a bottle of Polish fig vodka!
The first stop was the very famous Palace of Culture & Science. This building was gifted by Stalin to the people of Poland. The architecture of the building is closely related to several similar skyscrapers built in the Soviet Union of the same era, most notably the main building of Moscow State University.
While the President resides at the 'Presidential Palace' in the city center, Belweder is used by the President and the government for ceremonial purposes. The famous vodka has the facade of this very building, and that was something that left the team astonished.
Next stop, was the Åazienki Palace, which in English simply means the Bath Palace; also called the Palace on the Water and the Palace on the Isle. It is a classicist palace in Warsaw's Royal Bath Park, the city's largest park, occupying over 76 hectares of the city center. The Chopin monument was impressive too. Blown up during the second world war, a second one was replicated as the original mould had survived the war. The old town of Warsaw, was almost completely destroyed during the second world war. It was later rebuilt. This historic centre is the oldest part of the cityand is also a living, breathing, cultural salon. Several churches and cathedrals dot this town and it is a great place to just walk around and explore.
Finally, it was time to see the ghettos of Warsaw. It had the largest of all the Jewish ghettos in the Nazi-occupied Europe during the world war II. There were over 400,000 Jews imprisoned here in an area of 3.4 km2 sq., with an average of 7.2 persons per room; barely subsisting on meager food rations. From the Ghetto at Warsaw, Jews were deported to Nazi camps and mass-killing centers. Konrad talked about how during the first year and a half, thousands of Polish Jews as well as some Romani people from smaller towns and the countryside were brought into the Ghetto. Nevertheless, the typhus epidemics and starvation kept the inhabitants at about the same number. An average daily food ration in 1941 for Jews in Warsaw was limited to 184 calories, compared to 699 calories allowed for the gentile Poles and 2,613 calories for the Germans.In August, the rations fell to 177 calories per person. The ghetto was almost entirely levelled during the uprising, however, a number of buildings and streets survived, mostly in the "small ghetto" area.
A sense of dread envelopes you as you stand on the very streets where on January 18th several years back, the Germans suddenly entered the Ghetto and within hours, 600 Jews were shot and 5,000 others removed from their residences. Unfortunately, they only had a day at Warsaw.
This city had risen after being reduced to ashes.The Second World War and the Holocaust had changed the city forever. The wounds and scars will never heal.
It was time for the team to head back to the hotel after which they had to proceed to the Indian Embassy. Their meeting with His Excellency Mr Ajay Bisaria was extremely pleasant and as usual they had an opportunity to talk about our Rotary India Literacy Mission. The Embassy building was newly built and had just been inaugurated in April.
Soon they left to the old town area, where they spent the evening walking around the main square.
Warsaw has seen unimaginable suffering, and being able to experience these wounds of the city had left the team humbled and grateful.