7kh 7ul flw\ v prvw dxwkhqwlf 7h[ 0h[ uhvwdxudqw ... - In Your Pocket

76
WORLD WAR II
What to See
Bunkers. Several Nazi era bunkers, shelters and fortifications
can still be found, and while the forests of Gdynia
are particularly abundant with such concrete carbuncles
one doesn’t haven’t to stray anywhere near that far. In
central Gdańsk, for instance, head to C-3, Olejarna 2 to
find a hulking big air raid shelter dating from 1943. Used
as a climbing wall in recent years, its entrance is currently
bolted closed.
In close proximity why not visit the U7 bowling alley (C-3 Plac
Dominikański 7) . There’s a particularly sordid story behind
this one; after the war German prisoners seconded into
rubble clearance noticed a horrific stench emanating from the
ground. When they broke through the entrances, which had
collapsed under bombardment, they found it literally flooded
with gunk. The air raid shelter, built below the water table,
had flooded during shelling, and those trapped inside had
been slowly drowned in the most agonizing way imaginable.
The putrid soup in front of them was decomposing remains
mixed with stagnant flood water.
Elsewhere, check out the Napoleonic hilltop forts on Gdańsk’s
Grodzisko Hill (A-1/2, ul. Gradowa). Built 46 metres above
sea level the views across the Gdańsk are awesome, and
their strategic importance wasn’t lost on the Germans. Close
up investigation is obstructed by fences and warning signs,
though you can just about make up a concrete observation
post installed at some stage during the war.
Dr. Spanner. Operating from a small outhouse in the
courtyard of the (H-3) Gdańsk Medical Academy (ul. Marii
Skłodowskiej - Curie 3a) Dr Rudolf Spanner perpetrated
what is commonly regarded as one of the most heinous
crimes of WWII. It was here that he produced soap using
the fat of prisoners from the nearby Stutthof death camp.
When Gdańsk was liberated in 1945 over 400 bodies were
discovered in the buildings’ basement, their use only too
apparent. Spanner was not prosecuted, and though details
of his life are foggy, he was apparently allowed to continue
with a career in medicine in the following years. Today the
set of buildings where he conducted his grisly research have
been renovated, with a plaque outside reading:
‘In this building, during World War II, the Nazis used the
bodies of victims of genocide. People executed in the
prisons of Konigsberg and Gdansk, the patients of the
regional home for the mentally impaired in Kocborowo,
and the inmates of the concentration camp in Stutthof
as material to produce soap. People brought this fate
upon people.’
Forsterówka ul. Lazurowa 4 (Sobieszewo), www.
wyspa.pl. If you’ve got your own transport take a trip out to
the Sobieszewo Island, and the out-of-town residence used
by Albert Forster - the Nazi governor of Gdańsk from 1939 till
1945. His lodge has remained fenced off from the public for
years although we now understand it is the property of the
Franciscan Brothers who plan to create a religious complex
here in the next couple of years with a small display dedicated
to Forster. The forests surrounding the complex were
frequently used as a hunting ground for Forster, apparently
a man of extravagant tastes. It was in this private domain
where he entertained the captain of the Schleswig-Holstein
in 1939. If you get close enough to his villa you’ll find traces
of intricate Nazi-era workmanship on the timber roof. Forster
had an underground bunker added for his benefit, complete
with air-conditioning and electricity, and it was here that
conquering Red Army troops found a hoard of stolen Nazi
loot. The surrounding buildings were used as an SS barracks,
and a military hospital was also added in 1941.
Polish Internal Security formerly home to Danzig Gestapo
Gestapo HQ B-5, ul. Okopowa 9. What’s that sinister
looking building on Okopowa 9? It’s currently occupied by
the Internal Security Services, though it’s history is far more
creepy. It’s here the Gestapo had their Danzig HQ, and above
the main entrance it’s still possible to make out lettering
feebly disguised with paint: ‘Polizei Prasidium’.
Military Cemetery I-3, ul. Dąbrowskiego 2, tel. (+48)
609 69 07 39. WWII saw heavy casualties on all sides, none
heavier than in the last year of the war when the city faced the
wrath of Allied bombing and the advancing Red Army. Such
was the destruction and the size of the area covered by the
conflict, that bodies of soldiers and civilians continue to be
found right up until today. Those identified as German combatants
are repatriated or re-buried in the Military Cemetery
which can be found at the rear of the civilian cemetery on ul.
3-Maja. While the Red Army cemetery is clearly marked and
separated by a fence the Germany Military Cemetery can
be reached by walking through and up the civilian graveyard
to where you will find a series of monuments and the odd
German flag. Not just containing the remains of casualties
of WWII, you’ll also see stones marking the German dead of
WWI and the Franco-German war of 1870. There is a stone
letter box of sorts for people to leave prayers or mass cards.
Q Open from dawn till dusk.
Nowy Port Lighthouse ul. Przemysłowa 6a (Nowy
Port), tel. (+48) 601 15 02 51, www.latarnia.gda.pl.
A fascinating delve into Gdańsk‘s maritime history, the
city‘s Nowy Port Lighthouse was inspired by a long-lost
lighthouse built in 1871 in Cleveland, Ohio, in the USA.
This one in front of you was built in 1893, the 28-metre
tower functioned as a lighthouse, harbour pilot’s tower
and time-ball station until it was finally decommissioned
in 1984. Its principal claim to fame is its use by German
soldiers in September 1939, and it was from the upper
floors that a machine gun emplacement fired the very
first shots of WWII. The machine gun nest was destroyed
in the exchange that followed, quite possibly making the
Germans manning it the first casualties of a war which
would claim over seventy million lives. Painstakingly
restored by an amiable Polish-Canuck the centrepiece of
the lighthouse is a time ball, unveiled on May 21, 2008.
During its former life it was synchronised to the Royal
Astronomical Observatory in Berlin but today it takes its
signal from Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB)
in Braunschweig which is broadcast as a DCF77 long-wave
radio signal by the European Time Centre in Mainflingen,
Germany. Time-balls were originally designed to allow
ships’ captains out at sea to sychronise their on-board
clocks exactly before they headed back out, the dropping
of the ball being the signal to mark the hour - this would
allow them to calculate longitude resulting in more accurate
navigation. Weirdly, scandalously even, ferries have
stopped hooking up by here, meaning you’ll have to either
Gdańsk In Your Pocket gdansk.inyourpocket.com
locate it on the map or jump on the number 10 tram from
Dworzec Główny and get off at Nowy Port (note that there
is a temporary bus service running for the last part of the
journey). Q Open May 1-6 every day 10:00 - 18:00. May
7-31 Sat-Sun only 10:00-18:00. From June open every day
10:00 - 18:00. Admission 8/5zł, family ticket 16zł. Y
Post Office Monument (Pomnik Poczty Polskiej)
D-2, ul. Obrońców Poczty Polskiej. Commissioned in 1979
by the Polish Communications Ministry and the Council for
the Protection of Monuments of Battle and Martyrdom, and
unveiled on September 1 of the same year, the stainless
steel Defenders of the Polish Post Monument was designed
by the Kraków-based sculptor Wincenty Kućma. A wonderful
example of Communist-era public art and a fitting tribute to
the heroes who put up such a brave struggle across the road,
the monument represents a dying Polish post employee who
is being handed a rifle, unfortunately a little too late, by Nike.
gdansk.inyourpocket.com
The Soviet Cemetery on 3-go Maja
WORLD WAR II
Soviet Cemetary I-3, ul. 3 Maja. Some 3,089 Soviet
soldiers who fell during the siege of Danzig are buried in
the cemetery on A-1, ul. 3-go Maja. The Soviets aren’t remembered
fondly by either Poles or Germans, so to find the
graveyard in disarray comes as little surprise.
SS street I-4, ul. Ojcowska. Search out ul. Ojcowska to
find a street custom built for the SS. Amazingly, as a look on
GoogleMaps reveals, seen from the air the two rows of terraced
housing which flank the street gently curve in the style
of the SS moniker. Ojcowska survived the war, with the communist
state opting to house shipyard workers in the buildings.
The Tank (Czołg) H-3, Al. Zwycięstwa. As you head
up Victory Avenue (Al. Zwycięstwa) towards Wrzeszcz from
Gdańsk old town, you may notice a small green tank sitting
on a plinthe to your right. This Russian made T-34 celebrates
the ‘liberation’ of Gdańsk in May 1945. According to local
information, this is tank #121 which was under the command
of Lieutenant Julian Miazga and was the first to enter
Gdynia on March 27th 1945 as part of the Soviet/Polish
offensive on the city.
However alternative reports claim that Miazga’s tank was
destroyed in Redłowo just outside of Gdynia and the tank
you see before you was in fact one of the other tanks which
survived the battle and not the symbolic 121 belonging to
Miazga. In a further twist, a local group protested in 2000,
on the 55th anniversary of the liberation, that the tank was
inappropriate and tabled a petition questioning the legitimacy
of honouring an event which to them represented the passing
of the city from one occupier to another. The petition appears
to have fallen on deaf ears, particularly from the local government,
and the tank still stands today. Regular paint jobs
are required to cover up the frequent graffiti that it attracts.
May - July 2012
77