You haven't been standing here!

"You haven't been standing here, sir!!!" were the most popular words in Poland during the communism time. In Polish they sound "Pan tu nie stał!!!" and they were used to express the frustration connected with somebody else taking a place in a looong queue to the shop. Sounds strange? It was a pretty normal situation in every place in Poland 40-50 years ago. Under the communist rule, shops were constantly running out of products. Shop supplies weren't sufficient for peoples' needs and people were living in constant lack of something, for example toilet paper, soap, ham, chocolate etc. Even basic products like those were almost impossible to get. That's why gigantic queues were formed in front of the shops. When the goods were delivered, everybody wanted to get some. But unfortunately it was always not enough to please everybody... That's why words "Pan tu nie stał!" became so legendary, everyone was fighting for a place in the queue.

There is a shop called "Pan tu nie stał" (shop online or in Łódź on Kilińskiego street) selling clothes and home accessories bringing back "sweet memories" from that period in Polish history. The graphics used on the t-shirts are old fashioned and most of them is originally from the PRL time (that's how we call the communist period in Poland). Have a look:

"Cześć" is a word for "Hi" in Polish.

T-shirt with a graphic of a traditional Polish dinner served in milk bars

A mug from a Polish milk bar. It was popular also in Polish homes.

A queue to the butcher's in 70's in Poland

  

66th Warsaw Uprising's anniversary

For the 66th anniversary the Warsaw's Uprising Museum has created a digital film about the post-war images of our capital shot from an allied plane.
The full movie can be viewed in the museum itself, but there is a trailer available on youTube:

The Jewish Paths of Warsaw

Using wonderful GOOGLE MAPS we have prepared another map than might be useful for sighseeing in Warsaw. We are pround to present "The Jewish Paths of Warsaw".

Click to open in new window


Pokaż The Jewish Paths of Warsaw na większej mapie

The Warsaw Ghetto

It was the largest in Europe occupied by the Nazis. Its population was estimated to be 400,000 people, about 30% of the population of Warsaw at that time.

To imagine the Warsaw Ghetto see (the fragments) of "The Pianist", a film by Roman Polanski

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ivYHhW-v3x8

WARSAW WILL STOP!

August the 1st
5 PM
WARSAW WILL STOP

for a moment to commemorate 65th anniversary of The Warsaw Uprising.

Facts
The Warsaw Uprising beggined August the 1st 1944 and was quashed after 63
days of heroic fight to liberate Warsaw from Nazi/German occupation. It was the
biggest and most heroic uprising during the Second World War.
Warsaw could have been the first European capital liberated; however, various
military and political miscalculations, as well as global politics — played among
Joseph Stalin, Winston Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt - turned the dice against
it.
During the 63 days of the uprising, an estimated 200,000 of Warsaw's
inhabitants lost their lives (so every day were dying as many people as in WTC).
Eighty percent of the buildings on the city's left bank were destroyed. After the
suppression of the Uprising, all of the city's inhabitants, both insurgents and civilians
were expelled from Warsaw and sent to POW, death, labor, or concentration camps.
After their departure, German forces razed the building that were still standing.
During communist rule in Poland (1945–1989), any commemoration of the uprising
was banned.

Monuments and museums

The Warsaw Uprising Museum
The monument of small insurgent (Old Town, Podwale St.) – A
small boy in too big helmet and with the big rifle in his small hands..... not only
adults have fighted against the occupant.
Warsaw Uprising Monument at Krasinskich Square (shown two top phtos below) (close to Old Town,)

Links
www.warsawuprising.com
www.polandinexile.com/rising.htm

Books
Norman Davies, Rising 44







Photos: 1,2 - Warsaw Uprising Monument 3,4 - One of the aniversary events (2006)

20 years of freedom

4th of June is important date in our history. On July the 4th 1989 we had first free elections - finalization our long way to independence. So each city organized some events - exhibitions, concerts, shows... Below - some photos taken in Warsaw. Pay attention to the first poster - it was painted by my classmate - 10 years old Mikolaj - currently known painter. I was really happy to see this poster again.

The Bridge of Sighs

Imagine there was a bridge upon this street. Those who were beneath it - had the right to live. Those who crossed it - did not. They were Jews walking between large and small ghettos in Warsaw during the II World War.The Chłodna Street (Cold St) was essential for a traffic in the city so the German occupation authorities decided to exclude it from the Ghetto and therefore they built the bridge that joined both parts of it. The Jewish called it: "Bridge of Sighs". The sighs for a normal life that went on under the bridge.
See more: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warsaw_ghetto
Today the Cold Street is one of my favourite samples of Warsaw. It is all this city is about: tragic history, skyscrapers of glass, suspicious business and underground culture. It is peaceful and nostalgic. All cobbled with forgotten tram-tracks in it. Go there to see what a strange feeling it is when you cross a symbolic line of the Ghetto Wall in a pavement so easily while for the Thousands it was a dream that never came true.
In the corner of the Chłodna St and Żelazna St (exactly were the Bridge of Sighs used to be) there is the Chłodna 25 Cafe - a very important place in a cultural map of Warsaw with loads of good off -artists' concerts in the evening and aromatic latte in the morning (open daily from 8am till the last customer). You will find a mural of the Ghetto Bridge just opposite the cafe.
When you walk the Chłodna St towards the West you will have a chance to meet suspicious guys standing in front of dark "houses of games", lawyers and sellers of brushes (all these guys work in the same ruined pavilion).
If you go the eastern direction instead you will get to the bustling Jana Pawła St (the street of the Pope John Paul II) and to the old Market Halls of Mirów. There is a fantastic flower market in the front of it. It is open every day all year round.
Before you take a tram to the city centre have a good look. Would you believe all this area was completely flattened of bombs?