The BEST Guide to POLAND
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Posts by pawian  

Joined: 30 May 2008 / Male ♂
Warnings: 1 - O		 Last Post: 40 mins ago
Threads: Total: 221 / Live: 149 / Archived: 72
Posts: Total: 25303 / Live: 19220 / Archived: 6083 		From: Poe land
Speaks Polish?: Yes, but I prefer English
Interests: Everything funny

Displayed posts: 19369 / page 645 of 646
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pawian   
7 Jun 2009
History / Communism fell 20 years ago, Poland led the fight since WW2 [339]

Thanks pawian, you really dedicated some time to post all of it.

There will be more. :):):)

For the time being:

On 4 June, two days ago, Poles celebrated the 20th anniversary of the collapse of communism in their country. There were concerts, events, festivals. Also, a special golden plane flew to Brussels with an unusual crew. Golden aliens invasion officially started the festival which is called: It all began in Poland.

Poland man

See them in Brussels, at 1.40 min: tvn24.pl/6622,1,szklo_kontaktowe.html
pawian   
7 Jun 2009
History / Communism fell 20 years ago, Poland led the fight since WW2 [339]

At last workers and the intelligentsia started cooperating after the events of 1976.. They realised that only united they were able to defeat communism. A few anti-communist organizations appeared. They defended human rights, organized patriotic marches, hunger strikes, demonstrations and illegal lectures on Polish history, published books beyond censorship etc.

Patriotic demonstration in 1979.

Hunger strike members

In 1978 Karol Wojtyła was chosen the Pope. He adopted the name of John Paul II. From then on, the Polish fight for freedom gained a powerful supporter. Though communism was still inhumanely strong, it was doomed to collapse......

The Pope came to Poland in 1979. It was an incredible event, Poland witnessed things which couldn`t be seen in other countries of the communist block. Millions of people gathered in cities visited by the Pope. I also saw him, during his visit to Krakow. I was just a boy, but already aware of the importance of the events.

John Paul II spoke about the people's right to "have God in their lives," and the "right to freedom." People realized that strength lay in numbers and this broke the barrier of fear. Thus, the Pope's visit in June 1979 was an important prelude to the birth of Solidarity in August 1980.
pawian   
28 May 2009
Food / Name of this particular Polish sausage [19]

I know that the term kielbasa is a really vague term meaning really just any kind of Polish sausage, so I want the specific name of this particular type of sausage. Anyone know?

I am afraid you won`t get a good explanation. There are various kinds of sausage made from different recipes. Each producer names its kind like they want. It is impossible to guess the name just looking at the sausage.

It is the same with beer. Show someone a glass of beer and ask them to guess its name.

I am sorry, I can`t help you.

But I can show you the sausage called wiejska -( country), or swojska- home made.
pawian   
27 May 2009
History / Communism fell 20 years ago, Poland led the fight since WW2 [339]

After WW2 Poland, contrary to its peoples` will and expectations, fell into Stalin`s hands and became one of satellites in the communist block.
But Poles never gave up hope and many times they tried to throw off the communist yoke.

Some fought against communism when it was being introduced into the country.
These partisans stayed in the forest and continued the fight, attacking communist prisons and freeing fellow underground soldiers, Polish patriots imprisoned by secret police.

Soon stalinist terror suppressed all freedom and the nation seemed subdued. But in 1956 the workers` revolt in Poznań proved that Poles didn`t give up.

We demand bread!

The revolt in Poznań was supressed by tanks but Poles didn`t forget

and the fight went on.

Later in 1956, when the Hungarian Revolution against communists broke out, Poles wholeheartedly supported Hungarians.

Hands off Hungary!

After a few years of silence, the ferment rose again. In March 1968, two months before similar protests in Western countries, Polish university students and intellectuals decided to openly critisize the communist government. They were tear-gassed, beaten and imprisoned.

tarnow.pl/historia/taka/dane/68_2d.jpg

Even when the Polish army, on Soviet orders, together with other communist countries, invaded Czechoslovakia in August 1968, there were Poles who couldn`t accept it.

Ryszard Siwiec, burnt himself (suicide by self-immolation) to protest against the invasion.

Workers lost in 1970. But they didn`t forget

and in 1976 they protested again in a few cities in central Poland. Again party headquarters were in flames. This time communists didn`t shoot, but clubbed and imprisoned people.

d

New inventions appeared in 1976

In 1978 Karol Wojtyła was chosen the Pope. He adopted the name of John Paul II. From then on, the Polish fight for freedom gained a powerful supporter. Though communism was still inhumanely strong, it was doomed to collapse......

to be continued...
pawian   
3 May 2009
Genealogy / Do Polish people have big noses? [450]

I have a question... I always see a lot of Poles with tiny noses. Does it depend on the area one's family comes from?

No. Rather on genes.
pawian   
10 Apr 2009
Life / The Polish Wedding - What is it Like in Poland? [338]

I would also like to know if we can have the marriage ceremony in the grounds of the palace we have booked? Has anyone shipped their own priest over or got a local one to perform the service in the grounds rather than in a church - as one person commented earlier - God is everywhere and we would really like to do it this way - out in the open air..

I am afraid it won`t come through. The church wedding is not just a wedding ceremony, it is always connected with the mass service. Too many complications for the priest to bring the altar with himself etc etc. Or he might accept your proposal on condition you renovate his church or build a new one.... :):)
pawian   
10 Mar 2009
History / The restoration of Polish cities from WW2 destruction [123]

Hmm..... bricks saved from pulled down houses isn`t the same as rubble created by shelling or bombardment.

A German general who was based in Krakow did not agree to the sensless distruction of the city and ignored hitlers order.

I heard this one but treated it as just one more legend. :):):)
pawian   
10 Mar 2009
History / The restoration of Polish cities from WW2 destruction [123]

Why wasn't Krakow destroyed - did the Russians arrive too quickly or did the German commander disobey orders???

There are various stories about it. The most popular one attributes the saving of the city to fast Soviet offensive. Allegedly, the Pope had sent a letter to Roosevelt asking him to press Stalin to take special care of two holy cities: Kraków and Częstochowa. :)
pawian   
4 Mar 2009
History / Polish-German alliance. [489]

Not at all, i'd be either impassive or i'd work to save them, it mainly depends on the danger i'd put my family to, i would be willing to risk my life for Jews,

How is it that I don`t believe you? Especially with this saving???? :):):)

I got a lot of unulfilled dreams and i'm pretty sure Jews arent in them so you can rest in peace Pawian i hold no grudge against your people:)

This is even more incredible. You think anybody will fall for that? :)

all you can do is hurl insults and call us anti-semites.

It is not an insult, but truth, Mr Sonderaktion. :):)
pawian   
4 Mar 2009
History / Polish-German alliance. [489]

Yes Jews would have to die,

And? Polish national interest preceds all others, Jews accuse us of being accomplices when we saved them, the other way around they'd at least have some basis, also if Poland allied itself with Germany and Germany would win we would be in the victors camp and guess who's writing history after wars are done?:)

I see. If you had lived in those times, you would have happily participated in the extermination of Jews.
Admit you were thinking about it when you started this thread. This is your unfulfilled dream.....
You shouldn`t have adopted the nickname of Sokrates, but Sonderaktion Endlosung.
pawian   
4 Mar 2009
History / Polish-German alliance. [489]

One should read Mein Kampf to see that the idea of Poland - Germany joint venture would have been impossible. Hitler's whole idea of the Thousand Year Reich depended on stealing land from the Slavs.

Yes, that`s correct. To gain Lebensraum in the East was Hitler`s obsession.

And let us not forget: any alliance with Germans would have made Poles active and conscious acomplices in Nazi crimes, especially the Holocaust, but also massacres in the Soviet Union.
pawian   
21 Feb 2009
History / The restoration of Polish cities from WW2 destruction [123]

Hmmmm.
Probably you mistake UNESCO with UNRRA.

If you read somewhere about UNESCO, it was probably in the context of rebuilding cultural ties between former enemies in post war times.

United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations established on 16 November 1945. Its stated purpose is to contribute to peace and security by promoting international collaboration through education, science, and culture in order to further universal respect for justice, the rule of law, and the human rights and fundamental freedoms proclaimed in the UN Charter.[1] It is the heir of the League of Nations' International Commission on Intellectual Cooperation.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UNESCO

The United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA) was proposed to the United States Congress by president Franklin Delano Roosevelt on June 9, 1943 to provide relief to areas liberated from Axis powers after World War II. Roosevelt had already obtained the approval of the governments of the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union, and China, and sought to obtain the endorsement of 40 other governments to form the first "United Nations" organization.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UNRRA

Gdańsk before the war

Poland Gdansk

The city was seiged by Soviet Russian army and Germans put up fanatic resistance, as usual. When taken, the city was plundered and burnt by victors for many days.

Poles, under communist party orders, rebuilt the parts of the city which were of biggest historical value or sustained lesser damage.

Today`s Gdańsk, though beautiful, is the shadow of what Gdańsk used to be before the war.

1945

Unique films depicting pre and post war Gdańsk.

More pics, from 1946:
pawian   
19 Feb 2009
History / The restoration of Polish cities from WW2 destruction [123]

Looking forward to your other pictures though. Good thread. :)

Restoration is so fascinating because it reminds me of resurrection. In a sense, Poland resurrected after WW2, though had been doomed for destruction by Nazis and Soviets.

OK, one more post about Warsaw today. I think I already posted parts of it here and there, but this thread is Total.

Paintings by Belotto/Canaletto from 18 century were used in rebuilding the city.

1945

Today

Ulica Świętokrzyska

Before the war

1945

Today

fotoforum.gazeta.pl/photo/3/la/zd/mg4y/AkEse1tNHWFWkHqLpX.jpg

After the war the passage still stands

Nothing in 1980.

Today, the new Court building
pawian   
19 Feb 2009
History / The restoration of Polish cities from WW2 destruction [123]

Do you know why they left that one church when they flattened the everything else?

Yes.

During the Ghetto Rising 43, Germans used the church as a storage house for looted goods. During Warsaw Rising 44 they used the tower as machine gun and observation post. They planned to blow it up too but somehow didn`t.

pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ko%C5%9Bci%C3%B3%C5%82_%C5%9Bw._Augustyna_w_Warszawie
The view is really appalling.
pawian   
19 Feb 2009
History / The restoration of Polish cities from WW2 destruction [123]

I am going to show Gdańsk too. Actually, I already presented it in another thread. But now this thread is Total! It includes all.

Not only that, they also pulled down undamaged houses! A fair number were pulled down for the MDM development, others for the Palace of Culture

Yes, correct. Poor Warsaw!

It's more social-realist than socialist. I really like the place (which is one reason I live there).

I am really sorry. :):):):)
pawian   
18 Feb 2009
History / The restoration of Polish cities from WW2 destruction [123]

Wow!

Lock on Doors of Blenheim's Great Hall
Original caption: 3/24/50-Woodstock, England: This ingenious lock on the main doors of Blenheim's Great Hall was copied from one on the gates of Warsaw. Winston Churchill was born at Blenheim Palace 75 years ago.

Pulling down damaged houses in Warsaw, Poland:

Not all quarters were reconstructed. Unfortunately, socialist planners decided not to rebuild most of bourgeoisie houses.

Muranów before the war

Turned into ghetto by Nazis was later razed to the ground except for one church.

Poland Ghetto

They rebuilt it as a socialist estate of blocks

Other were rebuilt but with modifications, e.g., tenement houses were deprived of their bourgeoisie decorations.

Warsaw rebuilt

Or the church of St. Alexander

1939

1944

40-50s

2007

in this way the church regained its original form from 1860

Look at the map of pre-war Warsaw (second map on the site). Red colour means totally destroyed buildings which weren`t rebuilt, green means reconstructed or preserved ones.

E.g., one square

It`s true that communists allowed to rebuild the Old Town and many things but they did a lousy job to most of pre-war architecture.

Check this site- moving on an old photo you get a contemporary view.
The second photo shows a synagogue today replaced by a skyscraper:

The second photo shows that even the Old Town wasn`t reconstructed completely....

The first photo shows that only one building was restored in the long street.

The once posh elegant Marshall Street turned into a socialist architectonic nightmare

Oh, my, Warsaw was once called the Paris of the East!

Links from this site: warszawa.przedwojenna.prv.pl
pawian   
18 Feb 2009
History / Can anyone from Poland tell me about Auschwitz and The Ghetto? [582]

From a polish perspective what did you what did you learn about in school about The ghetto's and The Jewish camps in Poland since 1938.

Books about Holocaust are done at school, especially high school level. Recently we went to the theatre to see a play based on Marek Edelman`s story :Zdążyć przed Panem Bogiem. It was really thought-inspiring.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marek_Edelman

There are a few other books about Holocaust on the list which students are supposed to read for Polish classes. Later high school exams include these books.
pawian   
18 Feb 2009
History / The restoration of Polish cities from WW2 destruction [123]

I have always been fascinated with the process of rebuilding of Polish major cities after the WW2. For me it is an amazing phenomenon. There had been a city, next there were ruins, which eventually turned into a city again. Pure magic!

Let`s see how much effort Poles had to put into the work.

Warsaw should go first as Poland`s capital and most heroic city ever.

The losses of Warsaw during WW2:
1. 800.000 people dead (that is twice as much as American army casualties which amounted to 400.000).

80 percent of the left riverside Warsaw ceased to exist, with such major districts as the Old Town, the New Town and Downtown.

10% in September 1939, 10% during Warsaw Ghetto Uprising (Germans levelled the Jewish district to the ground), 30% during Warsaw Uprising 1944. The remaining 30% are houses intentionally destroyed by German demolition units which carried Hitler`s mad order to eradicate Warsaw from the surface of the earth.

Warsavians who had survived the war and started coming back to their city after being forcefully expelled by Germans, saw the ocean of ruins in the place where once beautiful city was located.

Some examples

The church of St. Alexander

King Zygmunt III column lies on the ground, broken

The Royal Castle
1945 - the total destruction

Krasiński Palace - only the front wall was left. I cant` show you the photo now.
strony.aster.pl/stolice/pliki/wa_krasinskich01.jpg

Prudential - the pre-war skyscraper

It had a very strong construction of welded steel beams. The famous picture shows the building hit by a 2-ton shell from the heaviest mortar ever used by Germans during the Warsaw Uprising.

The ruin of the Polish Bank was only partly rebuilt after the war, like that famous building in Hiroshima, as a war memento.

Hiroshima - the Bomb Dome

The Old Town

Warszawa_Rynek--

warsaw-wiosna--

stare-miasto--
pawian   
13 Feb 2009
Travel / Castles and Palaces in Poland (with pictures) [155]

Palace in Smilowice
smilowice

The palace was rebuilt from the scratch. It is near Krakow, for many years the ruins had haunted me and one day, out of the blue, the palace was reborn. Incredible.

Ruins

nowe-brzesko.iap.pl/img.html?oid=6757288

See more on this site palacsmilowice.com

Krakow used to be a fortress under the Austrian partition in 19 century. Those smart Austrians even adapted Wawel Castle for barracks and stables. Total lack of respect towards the Polish cultural and historical heritage! :):):)

Today the forts are car parks and wine storage houses.
pawian   
28 Jan 2009
Life / If I could introduce something from my country into Poland, I would.... [175]

Maybe it's different in other cities, mafketis, but the Poles get my respect for being relatively clean on the streets.

I agree. Tonns of rubbish in streets like in Naples, Italy last year are unthinkable in Poland.

thefirstpost.co.uk/features/2005/07/images/070530newspic.jpg

Cheese. Blue cheese. Soft, creamy blue cheese with a delicate flavour, possibly made with goat's or ewe's milk.

You are a lousy shopper if you can`t find blue cheese in Poland.

[quote=pawian]I agree. Tonns of rubbish in streets like in Naples, Italy last year are unthinkable in Poland./quote]
Sth strange is happening to images. They don`t show. What`s wrong?
pawian   
25 Jan 2009
News / Original cars manufactured in Poland [64]

But with less room inside than the Trabant and with a smaller trunk. I know because my family had one in 70s.
pawian   
11 Jan 2009
News / Original cars manufactured in Poland [64]

My wife`s father had a Mikrus for 10 years. He sold it in late 70s because spare parts were getting unavailable and bought a Syrena.

Mikrus is one of the exhibits in the Urban Engineering Museum in Krakow:
pawian   
2 Jan 2009
Travel / Poland wildlife and similar wild life where you live. [243]

He is not kidding..

Of course I am not.

there are some huge critters buzzing about....

Yes. Run for your lives!!!!

i was tootling along on the Harley one evening , and had my visor up enjoying the breeze....I swear the beetle that smacked into my eye nearly blinding me was the size of a B29 bomber...Sometimes on a summer evening they drone past me in the garden , they seem so much bigger here than back in the UK , Polish food must be better than whatever the beetles eat in the UK.....

Exactly.