TRAVEL DIARY

A weblog regularly updated by Jodi Rose.

Monday, November 28, 2005

8:36 PM
Posted by jodi rose

warsaw palace of culture. yours decimated... here have some of ours. the generosity of soviet realist architecture.

saturday decide culture is required and visit the warsaw rising museum. extraordinary. really powerful and very disturbing - in part due to the constant heartbeat and ocassional air raid sounds played in the space.
growing up in australia, studying 'modern history' the second world war seemed so far away and long ago. while here, realise how incredibly present the effects and memory of this war still are.
warsaw feels haunted, a very sad city.
the museum brings to life the daily struggle of living in an occupied country, from many different perspectives - the children who carried messages and ammunition through the networks of sewers (and later many also fight); the clandestine study groups keeping literature and culture alive; the underground press printing thousands of leaflets, newspapers, posters and books; of course the horrors of the ghetto and forced deportation to concentration camps; trying to get food; over 45,000 home army & partisans are killed and 180,000 civilians with the town itself almost completely destroyed by the end of the war.
walk around the old town briefly - lovely, but a slight theme park feeling as entirely rebuilt in 1950's after being razed by the germans on their retreat.
stumble across a memorial monument to the warsaw uprising in august 1944, where thousands of people fought and died.
retreat home to flake out and filter all this horror with bath and dvd. extreme juxtaposition, new hbo series entourage, very engaging about a young movie star and his posse in la. loosely based on exp of mark wahlberg.