Category: Poland

This article is from June 1933 and it’s a warning from history about how dictators begin their work. Putting to one side the suppression of the boy scouts into what became the Hitler Youth, there’s a story here about Hermann Lüdemann (1880-1959).

He was arrested in June 1933 and sent to Breslau (now Wrocław in Poland) concentration camp, but the process was designed to be humiliating because he was a socialist and so somehow an enemy of the people in Hitler’s eyes. Lüdemann was ‘greeted’ at the concentration camp by the new Nazi chief of police for Breslau, Edmund Heines, who had formerly spent time in prison for murder. Heines was a thug by any measure and his political career was brought to an end by Hitler, who had him arrested and assassinated in 1934.

Lüdemann was ultimately treated very badly during the war, although perhaps on balance he was fortunate to survive it at all. His bravery and strength was rewarded after the end of the Second World War by political promotion and in 1947 he became the Minister-President of Schleswig-Holstein.

But, it’s evidence that the actions of dictators shouldn’t be ignored early on. The marching through the city of men such as Lüdemann was part of a general policy of intimidation, attempting to intimidate the population and limit the opposition to the Government. He remained a stoic hero, many others sadly lost their lives. Perhaps the world should have done much more in 1933….

There’s something wonderfully noir about this mural in Wrocław, which celebrates the crime novelist Marek Krajewski (1966-). It’s painted on the side of an otherwise unassuming yellow building, yet it completely transforms the place into something atmospheric, cinematic and indeed distinctly Wrocławian.

Krajewski’s novels are largely set in Breslau, the old German incarnation of Wrocław. His detective, Eberhard Mock, apparently prowls through a 1930s world of corruption, decadence and decaying grandeur, although it’s not a series of books that I’ve yet read. The city is though evidently very proud of their crime novelist who was born in the city as he was given the title of an honorary citizen of Wrocław in 2023. I will try and get hold of one of his books now…..

This Indian restaurant on Wyspa Piasek in central Wrocław was very well reviewed online and it seemed a suitable lunch stop whilst it poured down with rain.

It would be wrong of me to suggest that the restaurant was packed, but there were a couple more customers who came in and a couple of delivery orders went out as well. It’s a functional and clean interior, I thought it was rather understated and pleasant. I do know from the reviews that advance reservations are recommended here in the evening and it’s quite a small set-up, so I imagine it can fill quickly.

The chicken dishes and these all came with free rice.

It’s not a very good photo, but there were seven different beers available including some craft beer selections. Indian restaurants in Poland offer this with much more regularity than Indian restaurants in the UK, as well as actually opening at lunchtime which isn’t very common here.

Firstly, the beer is the Okocim Porter from Browar Okocim, this was a really quite decent beer which was smooth with a bit of liquorice, bit of tree (or whatever that flavour was) and some maltiness. At 8.3% it was a robust beer to go with the curry.

I went for the Nepali chicken curry and this transpired to be a delight, with tender pieces of chicken in a creamy sauce which had some spice to it. The days when Indian restaurants in Poland catered for a less spice craving palate seem to have gone, with the result here having a depth of taste and flavour. There was some what I think was lemongrass added which possibly overpowered things slightly, but I like strong flavours.

The naan was sizeable, as is evident from the photo, with a crispiness and decadence that went really well with the curry. The rice was also cooked well, with the whole arrangement being a sufficiently large portion and everything was at the appropriate hot temperature.

The service was timely and friendly, I never felt rushed and the environment was relaxed. Customers seemed to just go to the counter when they wanted to pay, so I did that and found the whole set-up really quite agreeable. This was a really positive experience, with the bill coming to around £15 which for a top-rated restaurant in the city centre with such a decent beer seemed very reasonable to me.

There’s a certain charm to Wrocław Świebodzki, a railway station built between 1842 and 1843 when the line from Wrocław to Świebodzice was opened when both cities were part of Prussia. That changed after World War Two, when both locations became part of Poland. Long since the second railway station of Wrocław, it closed in 1991 although there are active plans to bring the line back into use. It’s not clear to me whether they’re taking the station buildings back as well, slightly awkward as they’ve been repurposed.

Here’s the rear of the railway station which is now being used as a food court, but more on that in a moment.

Quite a lot of clutter has been added to the rear of the building, but the railway station arches are still visible.

The station canopies are still in situ.

Under the canopies, looking away from the railway station.

And looking towards the railway station.

Known as Hala Świebodzki, there are now two food halls and this is the main one which was once the main railway ticket hall. Some of the original fittings are still here, rather hidden away behind the modern structures, but they could be restored if the station does come back into use.

The second food hall which is located in the wing of the former station which is next to the tracks.

I visited at lunchtime and only a few of the outlets were open, although there were a few diners dotted around the place. It apparently gets rather busier in the evening and seemingly plays some loud music judging from the reviews. There are QR codes on the tables where customers can order, although I decided against purchasing anything until there were a few more food outlets open. They’re trying to push some lunchtime offers, but it will perhaps be hard to get more customers into the building if most of the venues aren’t routinely opening.

Anyway, architecturally it’s a fascinating site and I very much like food courts like this, so I will be back…..

This rather ornate shield is the sign of the locksmiths’ guild in Wrocław, dating back to something around 1750. It’s a hefty wooden piece which is divided neatly into compartments, each one proudly displaying the tools of the trade, namely keys, locks, hinges and other hardware that you’d hope a locksmith of the eighteenth century would know what to do with.

Guilds were serious business in Wrocław (or Breslau as it was then) and they weren’t just trade associations, but social and political powerhouses. Signs like this were part branding, part authority, telling the world that this was a guild with standards and that they weren’t going to tolerate any sub-optimal locksmithing in their city. It’s functional and decorative, a former marker of belonging,

Wrocław, or Breslau as it then was, has the dubious distinction of being declared a Festung (fortress city) by the Nazis in 1944, meaning that it was to be defended at any cost. “Any cost” in this context turned out to mean the near destruction of the city and the needless deaths of tens of thousands, but those were details that didn’t particularly bother the Reich as long as orders were followed.

The concept of Fortress Breslau was meant to hold back the Red Army and protect the eastern flank of Germany, though in reality it was mostly about Hitler’s refusal to admit the war was already lost. The city was ringed with defences, civilians were pressed into service and resistance was supposed to be fanatical. The siege lasted from February until May 1945, outlasting even the Battle of Berlin. By the time the Soviets finally took it, Breslau was a ruin, its medieval heart and baroque splendours reduced to rubble.

The human toll was staggering with around 170,000 civilians trapped, food shortages, forced evacuations in the depths of winter and an estimated 40,000 dead during the siege. The city held out because orders said it had to, not because there was any realistic hope of changing the war’s outcome. It’s one of those decadent exercises in futility that twentieth-century Europe specialised in.

The capitulation itself came on 6 May 1945 when General Hermann Niehoff, the German commander, finally accepted the inevitable and surrendered the city to the Soviets. Accounts describe Niehoff as weary rather than defiant, the fight having gone on long past the point of sanity. It was also the end of the city’s German identity, it became part of Poland just months later. Niehoff himself lived until 1980, it must have been a strange career to look back on.

This is the same location now where the surrender took place. Everything has changed, I can’t imagine anyone in 1939 could have predicted what would happen to this city.