Europe Trip 2025 - Warsaw - Polish History Museum

This museum is new. It's not even finished yet, but it's open, hosts temporary exhibitions, has a cafeteria, cloakroom and restrooms. It is located next to the new home of the Polish Army Museum, in the historic Warsaw Citadel in the Żoliborz district. 

Army on the left, history on the right.

When I visited, it had two exhibitions. A small one in the entrance hall juxta-positioning the Netflix 1670 crude TV comedy series with historical commentary, and a big one about the Kościuszko Uprising. Both were well prepared - I learned a lot and I hope they will come back when the museum is fully open.

The entrance hall

The Kościuszko Uprising (or insurrection) exhibition was very detailed: the background, politics, campaign, forces, weapons, etc. Kościuszko himself apart from leading the 1794 uprising, took part in the earlier defensive war with Russia in 1792, and in the American Revolutionary War 1776-1783. He is a national hero of Poland, Belarus, Lithuania, and the US, and a honorary citizen of France. He was against slavery and discrimination.

One interesting thing that occurred to me was that Kościuszko was probably gay. While studying in Paris, he painted nude males from all angles and they look sexy, while the only nude female painting shown in the museum...well, see for yourself below. He never married. He travelled from America to Europe with his aide-de-camp and friend, Jean Lappiere (who was quite a looker), who accompanied him during the uprising and two years of imprisonment in Russia.

Portrait by Jan Józef Sikorski - not sure how accurate it is as it was painted in 1840.

The males he painted:

...versus a female:

He also painted an "Ideal Plan of Park and Garden Layout" for Czartorysk. The "Bel-Air" settlement caught my attention:

 

Portraits of Kościuszko himself, from little boy to an old man:

The physiognotrace of the 47 year old Kościuszko:

A portrait by Ramsay Richard Reinagle, at the age of 71, painted in 1817 - the year Kosciuszko died. His health deteriorated after a fall from a horse into a cold stream and subsequent pneumonia.

Drawn by Xavier Zeltner two months before Kościuszko's death in Switzerland.

 Another interesting/unexpected thing was the use of barrier troops:

Salute cannon

While we are talking about cannons, I learned the difference between a shell, round shot, and grapeshot:

For military enthusiasts, more cannons, (and tanks, and troops carriers...), can be seen outdoors:

The Kościuszko uprising was something new. It was influenced by the ideals of the French Revolution, but it did not resort to terror. Only 50 death sentences were carried out, while in France it was about 17,000. It was the first time that different classes of Polish society volunteered to help with the war effort: peasants, city dwellers, women, Jews. Earlier, the wars were a concern of the nobility. It was the first time when the soldiers shouted "Hail the nation! Hail liberty!", instead of "Long live the King!". 

Tatars took part too:

The fight for freedom started by Tadeusz Kościuszko on 24 March 1794 ended on 11 November 1918 when Józef Piłsudski proclaimed an independent Polish state.

33 year old Piłsudski

And the last interesting bit, at least from the point of view where I write this, is that the highest peak in Australia is named after him.

Europe Trip 2025 - Warsaw - The Pretty Parts

I have so many photos from Warsaw. I will need to organise them. Let this one be "the pretty parts" - photos that show the diversity of architecture, greenery, parks, playgrounds, trains and trams, water and sand, the colours of the city on a sunny day or at night.

The eastern bank of the Vistula river is a wild park with beaches and a bike path.

A new residential development in the Praga district with beautiful flower gardens.

Fountains between the Old Town and the Vistula.

Old Town Square at night...

...and day.

One of the New Centre of Warsaw projects - Central Square.

Another project: more places for people and birds, fewer cars.

Park Szczęśliwicki in the Ochota district.

Playground in Park Szęśliwicki.

Tree lined side street in Ochota.

Warszawa Zachodnia train station at dusk.

Kissing trains.

A preschool in the city centre.

Statues of muses in the Saxon Garden.

Saxon Garden near the the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

A tram in the yellow-red Warsaw flag colours.

The most beautiful part here is the bike path.

Szembek Square at night.

Before the Chopin concert in the Łazienki Park.

Europe Trip 2025 - Konzentrationslager Lublin (Majdanek)

Until 2025 I think I have visited three Nazi Germany concentration camps, on school trips: Auschwitz near Kraków (1.1 million killed), Stutthof near Gdańsk (65 thousand killed), and Sachsenhausen near Berlin (30-50 thousand killed by SS, 12 thousand by the NKVD). During the war, they all were located in Germany proper, in case of Auschwitz in an area annexed by Germany in 1939. I've been a teenager (or a young adult) when I visited those.

This year, I visited a concentration/extermination camp that during the war was located in General Government, still part of Greater Germany, with German as the official language, etc., but populated (temporarily according to Nazi plans) mostly by Poles. 

Why am I bringing this up? Because, I've seen way too many times Holocaust distortion from those who should know best how dangerous the lies can be. Be it on Quora, Mastodon (some really vile people, and most recently a young Israeli convinced that there was Nazi Poland during the war, just like there was Nazi Germany), Times of Israel, Twitter/X or even The Australian. That last one was a full page article by a Yad Vashem published author Jan Grabowski (with some edits done by The Australian - without any indication what was added/deleted/changed) in The Weekend Australian published August 17-18, 2024: "Poland's Shoah distortion is an insidious threat to collective memory", "Poland has nothing to do with the camps, we are being told.". This is the continuation of the lies that show up as "Poles were worse than Germans", "Death camps were built in Poland because Poles wanted them", "We all know which side of the border Auschwitz was", "Polish death camps", etc. to assign part of the blame for the Holocaust to Poland. And it works. According to recent surveys, done in Israel and in Germany, Poles (Israel) or Polish "collaborators" (Germany) are seen as equally responsible for the Holocaust as Germans by about half of the people. This is the true distortion of the Holocaust memory.

Already the first paragraph shows how to lie big. Out of the 3.3-3.5 million Polish Jews, about 350 thousand survived the war, mainly those who happened to live in the eastern part of Poland, which was annexed by the Soviet Union, but also about 50 thousand in camps, and 30-60 thousand hiding among non-Jewish Poles. There were many places in Europe where the Holocaust was more "complete" - Judenfrei. In pre-war Germany, most of those who survived did so, because they were allowed to by the government. The same government did not give Polish Jews that option. Only 666 Germans are recognized as "Righteous Among the Nations", even though they did not face a death penalty for helping Jews vs. 7,318 Poles. The truth is that anywhere the SS had control (or Ustase, or UPA), and was told to kill Jews (or Roma, or Serbs, or Poles), they did so, on their own, or with the help of others, either coerced, bribed, or voluntarily. 

The level of anti-Polonism is off the charts here. There is no taboo in Poland about collaboration - Grabowski's books are published in Polish.

Accuse others of what you are guilty of.

The distortion is institutional and intentional. This Yad Vashem post is from 2025, btw "Jude" is "Jew" in German, not Polish:

...

Enough.

The camp I visited was officially called Konzentrationslager (KL) Lublin, but it is also known as Majdanek. You can get there easily by public transport. The number of people killed in this camp is estimated at 78 thousand, mostly Polish Jews. This is the camp that was visited by the tour group in the Jesse Eisenberg's movie A Real Pain - Kieran Culkin got an Oscar for the performance, worth watching.

The first impression is that it was huge. Most wooden barracks are gone. Some have been preserved or reconstructed. The camp, like Auschwitz and Sachsenhausen, was used by the NKVD after the war, before becoming a museum.

Left: 1944 during operation. Right: 2025.

Mass execution ditches and the building of crematorium.

Bunk beds for the lucky ones - those who were not killed on arrival.

A gas chamber. The blue tint is the mark of Zyklon B.

People from as far as France were transported to KL Lublin, although the victims were primarily Polish Jews.

Then and now photos of Lublin: 

Litewski Square during occupation.

Same place now.

Lublin Ghetto

Same place now.

Then...

...now.

The castle and Podzamcze then...

...and now.

Then...

...and now. I think this place is also featured in A Real Pain.

...and finally, in reference to the first part of this blog:

"Taboo" my a*s.

The list of people executed by the Polish Underground, "In the name of the Polish Republic". Crimes: informing Gestapo, spying for Germans, cooperating with Germans, torturing prisoners and demanding bribes, blackmailing and denouncing Jews, selling weapons provided by the Underground.

The Kreishauptmann (District Chief) of Przemyśl, Dr. Friedrich Anton Heinisch to Ukrainians and Poles (printed in German, Ukrainian and Polish): I. On Monday, 27.7.1942 begins the removal of Jews from Przemyśl and surrounds. II. Any Ukrainian or Pole trying to prevent the removal of Jews, will be shot. III. Any Ukrainian or Pole caught stealing from Jewish apartments, will be shot. IV. Any Ukrainian or Pole trying to hide a Jew, or help him to hide, will be shot. V. Acquisition of Jewish property for money, or for free, is forbidden.

Some Jewish newspapers were printed in Poland in Yiddish. This one is from 1 September 1939. Jews constituted about 10% of  Polish citizens, and the Polish Army in 1939.

The Wawel Castle during German occupation.

Execution of Poles in Konin, 22 September 1939.

Nazis tried to deceive Germans, Jews, Poles, Ukrainians, and whoever would try to get to the truth in the future...