There has been a city of Warsaw for approximately 800 years, but the current Warsaw is by every definition a new city. Perhaps no country suffered as badly as Poland did during World War II, as it was abused by both the Nazis and the Soviets, and Warsaw is a perfect microcosm of this destruction. Warsaw was destroyed by the Germans four separate times: once at the outset of the war during the infamous invasion in 1939, once during the Jewish Ghetto Uprising in 1943, once during the Warsaw Uprising in 1944, and was leveled purely out of spite as the Red Army drew closer and closer to the city. Following the war Poland was firmly behind the Iron Curtain, its citizens subjected to 45 years of communist rule. After the fall of the Soviet Union, Poland was finally free, and Warsaw was able to be rebuilt the way her citizens wanted. The entrance of Poland to the European Union in 2004 has only accelerated the growth of this new, young city as money comes pouring into the nation. The EU has established two schools, two colleges of leadership to educate future leaders of the continent. One is in Brussels, just around the corner from the EU headquarters, and the other is in Warsaw. This gives a sense of where this city is heading.
Walking through Warsaw one gets the feeling of place that is slowly but steadily peeling off layers of communist grime. There are many of the same housing blocks that are found in Saint Petersburg and Moscow, but the ones in Poland look better maintained, cleaner, and in many cases, renovated. The streets don't have potholes, and gourmet coffee shops can be found on every corner. New, sleek skyscrapers are rising with remarkable rapidity, and the city has a new metro system that is being rapidly expanded. Comfortable buses and trams are everywhere, making transportation quick and easy, and the city has a general feeling of friendliness. The biggest reminder of communist rule is the city's tallest building, the massive Palace of Culture and Science. The building houses museums of natural history (the science) and movie theaters (the culture) as well as an observation deck. Built in the Stalinist-Gothic style, it was Stalin's "gift" to the residents of Warsaw, and in gratitude, the people now refer to it as "Stalin's penis." Apparently the Soviet secret police is no longer as fearsome as it used to be.
There are two distinct halves to Warsaw. There is the ultramodern business district, described above, and the painstakingly reconstructed Old Town. In the 1930s, the Old Town was one of the most happening places in Europe, but, as with the rest of the city, the Nazis reduced it to rubble. It has now been meticulously reconstructed, brick by brick, and is now a charming place, filled with people, its winding cobblestone streets lined with stores and restaurants. Everywhere are signs commemorating Frederic Chopin, the great Polish composer, who seems to be regarded as nothing less than a saint in his native country. Tourists amble about, but the area is mostly occupied by Poles, simply enjoying their lives for the first time in what must seem an eternity.
A visit to Warsaw is not complete without paying one's respects to the millions who died there at the hands of the Nazis (Jewish and others alike). The remarkable story of the tragic Warsaw Uprising is documented extensively at a brand new museum on the west side of the city, and is doubtlessly worth the price of admission. Nearby is the enormous Jewish Cemetery, which contains countless graves as well as some touching reminders of the Holocaust. To the northeast of the cemetery is what is left of the old Jewish Ghetto. Nothing, really is left, but a massive memorial next to the construction site of a new Jewish Museum which promises to be open in 2011. Leaving the monument, one can follow the half-meter high black stones, each inscribed in Hebrew, several blocks north and a block over to the simple monument at the Umschlagplatz, where the Nazis used to load the Jews onto cattle cars for the one way trip to Auschwitz. It's a staggering and humbling site, one that nearly reduced me to tears upon reading the inscriptions. Perhaps not the best material for a vacation, but sites that everybody, everybody in the world, needs to see regardless.
In my mind, Warsaw invites inevitable comparisons to Saint Petersburg. Although Warsaw suffered worse, both cities suffered a devastation during the war that is difficult for Americans to imagine. Yet today, they are cities headed in seemingly opposite directions. Warsaw is a vibrant city of the future, a capital of the new Europe and a focal point of the European Union. Saint Petersburg has also progressed beyond the war and its communist days, but that progress seems far more deliberate, as the city (and indeed, all of Russia) seems somewhat trapped in its own past. Warsaw celebrates its past and honors its tragedy, but it nevertheless continues to stride forwards, embracing the future.
