Can anyone suggest somewhere that maybe of interest to me ??
If you're interested in old industrial towns, the best preserved 19th century industrial town in Poland is Żyrardów, about 90 km east of £ódź on the main £ódź-Warsaw train line. It was a progressive planned industrial city built as a linen production center. The center of the town is a historical monument, and is quite interesting. It would be a shame to miss it if you were in the area. It's a must-see.
Another must-see is Opatówek right outside Kalisz, which was a textile center. There is a very interesting History of Industry Museum in a former textile factory in the town.
But perhaps the most impressive industrial must-see in all of Poland is the salt mine in Wieliczka, right outside Kraków. It's simply amazing. It's worth paying for a longer personal full tour, rather than the group tour. If you get a great guide, they will show you lots of stuff that the regular tourists never see, and will have time to explain it in detail and answer your questions. In Kraków, also visit the Ethnological Museum in the Old Town Hall in the Main Square of the Kazimierz quarter. There were some good pre-industrial-revolution industrial exhibits, like oil-pressing and the like. I really enjoyed it. Then it's just a short walk to the old Jewish quarter, which is also worth seeing. Then go out to nearby Nowa Huta, a planned industrial city built by the communists. There is a small, but interesting, museum, and it's pleasant to walk around the center of the town, especially in the spring time.
Unfortunately, there isn't much emphasis on industry at Auschwitz, which was actually a complex of about industrial slave-labor camps throughout south-central Poland and the Czech Republic. As far as I know, all traces of the subcamps have been obliterated, except for the extermination camp at Birkenau, and they are barely mentioned at the museum st the main camp. It's a shame because I find this one of the most interesting aspects of the camp system.
However, you might find Osówka interesting, near the Czech border just north of Kudowa Zdrój. It is an underground city/industrial.command complex that the Germans were building toward the end off the war (look up "Project Riese" on Wikipedia). You can take a tour of the tunnels, which are amazing, though there are only a few traces of the industrial plants that were built inside. Nearby is the center of the second-biggest coal-mining region in Poland, Wałbrzych, which is just what you're looking for if what your looking for is grimy industrial towns. You could stop off in Wrocław on the way (shameless plug). Not industrial, but it has the most beautiful town square in Poland, and it's not cram-packed with tourists like the one in Kraków.
