Category: Poland

There were a fair number of closed places in Tczew, so I thought it’d just be easier to get an evening meal at the hotel that I was staying at. I would say that there were views over the river, which there technically are, but it was dark and so I couldn’t see them.

There was a reasonably good choice of beers, about six different ones, which is a decent effort that I was pleased to see. This is the Komtur from the Browar Gościszewo brewery, a perfectly acceptable, if not exceptional, black lager. But it’s something different, and that’s always good to see. The venue isn’t hugely featured on Untappd, I was only the third person to tag a beer in at the restaurant, and the last time was over two years ago. I have noted it’s being used more even in remote Polish towns, hopefully that trend will continue.

The service was polite and attentive, although the staff weren’t overly strained by the number of customers in the restaurant, which made that easier.

I wondered in advance why a restaurant which has signs for pizza up everywhere, including a large banner outside, had no photos of pizzas on their on-line reviews. It transpires they’re not doing pizzas at the moment, which seems an odd arrangement given they seemed to have them as something of a priority in their marketing. But, perhaps their wood fired pizza oven they refer to is broken, or too expensive to operate in the winter.

Back to the food, the photo here is a bit distorted, the elements on the side look large and so this chicken kiev looks smaller than the tomato ketchup container. It was much large than this photo suggests, the chicken was tender and the chips were very moreish. That heap of pickled (or fermented, I get them muddled up) vegetables added some nice sourness to the arrangement, and the chips were suitably moreish.

The prices were all reasonable here, although the atmosphere was a bit muted since for the most part I was the only customer. I accept that my asking at check-in if I needed to reserve a table was a bit aspirational, but it had been quite busy earlier on in the day so I thought best to check. I probably would have had a pizza if they were available, but the chicken kiev turned out to be a good choice, so I left happy. I’d say this is probably quite a safe bet for a meal, especially during the summer months when it’s possible to see the river and bridge and there’s some external seating as well for when it’s not snowing.

Some photos from my visit to Tczew a couple of days ago. Unlike the other towns I visited this week, namely Elbląg and Malbork, this town was part of Poland after the First World War, not part of East Prussia. On a cold Sunday in January, there are a lot of locations that can feel a little drab, but there seemed to be a lot of buildings that needed restoration and repair in Tczew, some quite urgently. Not least the Post Office, which had to be cordoned off on the Monday morning as some of the roof tiles had fallen off and smashed onto the pavement.

There are a few cafes and restaurants in the town, but they were generally closed and there didn’t seem to be many people about. I’m not sure that the town is ever that touristy, most visitors are perhaps like me, particularly interested in the bridge, but more of that in another post. There are some areas which are looking like they’re receiving investment, but the old town is in need of a lot of funding. Although that partly means that the old town area has retained some of its charm, there’s an authenticity about it which isn’t evident in those towns which have been over-developed commercially.

It was also evident just how many monuments to war and death there are in Tczew, but this area has been fought over for centuries and it received a particularly bad time during the Second World War. In the communist influenced post-war period, the town wasn’t given the investment that it needed and it is fortunate that it is something of a rail hub to ensure that some money comes in. A small new shopping centre has been built, but the commercial development that is present in many Polish towns hasn’t reached Tczew yet. That importance of the rail network is evident in the modern railway station that they have, but there were hordes of Polish teenagers meandering around Tczew who were perfectly well behaved, but they looked bored. I get the impression that there isn’t much for them to do here, and if there is, they don’t want to do whatever it is that is in offer.

There’s something about this town that makes me think that its best years are ahead of it, as I can imagine economic growth and increased prosperity will come. The town council has launched a regeneration campaign to improve housing, transport and facilities, and they’re keen to increase the population size and enhance the charm and resources of Tczew. As for tourists, unless they want to walk along the river bank or go cycling, there’s not a vast amount here to see, although there is a branch of the Maritime Museum. But if facilities do improve, I can see more people happily spending a night here as part of a wider trip to Gdansk, as the town has a quirky and interesting feel to it.

For reasons that aren’t entirely surprising, there’s not a great deal mentioned about this side of Tczew’s history, but I went to look for this after reading about the atrocity that happened here on 24 January 1940. As an example, there’s a very brief mention on the UK Wikipedia site about the mass murder, but only on the Polish Wikipedia site is there a page with details of the event.

On the night of 23 January into 24 January 1940 there was a fire in a metal products factory in the town, likely caused by incompetent German troops who put an open fire too near cars to keep them warm in the cold conditions. That fire destroyed eleven cars and the German officials decided that they’d blame Polish dissidents who didn’t like the new German regime that had been imposed on them a few months before. The local Nazi officials wanted individuals to pay for this, some said that one person must die for every car destroyed.

A number of local Polish men were rounded up, partly by chance, but mostly as they were on lists of people that the Nazis didn’t entirely trust. They were arrested and their families told that they would be released after questioning. That was untrue, the thirteen men were taken to the pig market in the town and were executed. This was botched by the Nazis, it was said that some of their men were drunk and incapable of firing accurately, so the local Gestapo leader had to kill some at short range. This was Adolf Leister, who I understand was executed in 1944 by Soviet troops.

The memorial has the names of the thirteen men who died, a range of ages, with the victims being born between 1869 and 1914, with their bodies being dumped in the Szpęgawski Forest. This forest was used frequently to get rid of the dead, with 39 mass graves having been found here. No-one was ever caught for their involvement in this massacre in the town, despite attempts to hold Walter Becker, one of the commanders of the unit, responsible.

A plaque was placed by the site in 1945, although it has since been replaced with the current one and moved a few times because of nearby developments, not least the construction of the fire station that is now on the site. There seems to be a lot of confusion as well about the exact names of the dead and a lack of clarity about exactly what happened that night. What is certain though is that it was a war crime that took place so early on during the war, marked by one of many memorials around the town.