The 1933 - 1945 Tour

Silesia

I have always wanted to go to Silesia. It’s the part of Germany that got given to the Poles after 1945. This was partly to compensate them for the chunk of eastern Poland which Stalin sliced off and awarded to himself. (More about this in a future post!) Suffice to say that the Poles were not best pleased since the bits they lost were historically and culturally Polish and not Russian. Imagine England south of the Thames and east of the Tamar being handed over to France and you’ll get some idea!

If you have ever wondered why the Poles hate and fear the Russians, this is one of the reasons. Here’s another …
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This monument can be found in Wroclaw. (Pronounce it “Rrrrots-waff” with a rolling R and you’ll be close!) Maybe not the most subtle of memorials, it commemorates the thousands of Polish officers who were murdered by the NKVD and GRU (Stalin’s secret police and Red Army intelligence units) after the conquest of Eastern Poland by Stalin in 1940.

Before and during WW2 however, Wroclaw was the capital of western Silesia and had the German name of Breslau. Even today, it is strikingly German in appearance with medieval buildings which could be in Bremen or Hamburg or Danzig.
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So if Breslau was German, what happened to all the German inhabitants? One part of the answer is that they were cleared out after 1945 by the Poles, bag and baggage, and replaced by Poles from the east who had no intention of being part of the USSR. Even before then however, most had been forced out by the Nazis. Hitler decided to make Breslau a “Festung Stadt” (fortress city) to try to hold up the advance of the Red Army. The local Nazis forced 60 000 inhabitants to move west. On foot. In winter. In temperatures which were consistently below zero in that part of Eastern Europe.

The Red Army of course, simply laid siege to the city with some of their ample forces and the rest moved around it. So much for Hitler’s strategic genius. The local Nazis then escaped at the last minute by dint of being flown out by aircraft which landed on one of the cities wider boulevards. The remaining defenders were left to their fate. Later in the trip, I chatted to a German guy who told me his grandmother had been a refugee from Silesia. All I could do was sympathise.

Some 1945 and "NOW" pics ...
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Another attraction I visited in Wroclaw was the Raclavice Panorama. It’s a 19th century painting of a famous Polish victory over, you’ve guessed it, the Russians. It was formerly based in Lviv in eastern Poland but it too was moved west after 1945. It is based in a circular building and the canvas shows the battle as a panorama of the landscape. A few regular Polish troops plus several thousand peasants armed with scythes surprised and cut to pieces a Russian army! There’s an audio guide in English. It contains some unintentionally humorous moments … “The Russian commander looks rather concerned as the Polish peasants overcome his troops and move towards him.” Concerned! Several hundred Russian hating Poles, with razor sharp scythe blades!

The Panorama is heavily promoted and very popular. Visitors have to book slots in groups throughout the day. I had to wait an hour or so. No hardship as the national museum was only a couple of hundred yards away. It contains a collection of mediaeval church carvings. That may sound a bit boring but believe me, the workmanship is amazing.
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[/URL][/IMG]It’s also a reminder of what churches across Europe looked like before the reformation and us Proddies started smashing up all this idolatrous stuff!.
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When I left the museum, I picked up my bag and asked the English speaking attendant where I could get a coffee:



“Government building. Left across road.”

“Pardon?”

“Government building. Left across road.”

“Really? I can get a coffee there?”

“Yes. Third floor. Restaurant.”



And so it turned out. I simply walked in to the regional government HQ and took a lift to the top floor. I not only enjoyed a coffee but went back later for a bowl of soup and a plate of cheese and spinach pirogi. Delicious and only a couple of quid!
 
Thourghly enjoying your RR Pete
Having been to some of these places:thumb2
 
The Sudetenland

After Wroclaw, the plan was to head south. The mountainous area between Poland and Czechoslovakia (as was), the Sudetenland. I had hoped to visit the remains of the Benes Line. These defences were built by the Czechs in the 1930s and were modelled on the Maginot line. Now you would think that it would be fairly easy to find massive fortifications made from thousands of tons of reinforced concrete? Not a chance! Some of the Maginot line forts have been partly restored and can be visited as tourist attractions but the Czechs don’t seem to be interested, at least not in that part of Czechia. Instead, here’s an image, I got off t’internet …

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At least the roads south of Wroclaw and into the Czech republic were decent. Again. I was reminded of Germany and Bavaria in particular: rolling hills, forests and prosperous looking agriculture with the mountains in the distance.
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The former Sudeten areas which I passed through in Czechia were a bit different. Old paper mills and other industry which had been subsidised during the Communist era seem to have been abandoned and little put in their place other than national parks and outdoor activities such as skiing in the more mountainous areas. There's also no sign at all of the ethnic Germans who used to live there. They suffered the same fate as the Silesian Germans living in and around Wroclaw. German place names have been purged also and replaced with Czech equivalents.

The route I took over the mountains took me through a ski resort and past the snowline ...
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After descending back into Poland again from the highest point, I ended up at Szklarska Poreba, a popular outdoor pursuits centre and went to the Tourist info office. “We cannot help you with accommodation, you must go across the road.” The people across the road told me that it was a holiday weekend and accommodation was scarce. Eventually however, the found me a place for £30 a night and no mention of breakfast. Hmmm … £30 is a big deal in Poland. I followed their directions and ended up half way back up the mountain. Too far to walk into town. Sod that for a game of soldiers! I decided to re-trace my tracks to Cieplice, a small spa town, I had passed through a few miles back. Setting the satnav to find the nearest hotel, I rolled up to a hotel very near to the middle of the town and opposite the park and spa where people still take the waters! The hotel itself was a concrete lego cube with extensions. Classic Communist era! However, it had been nicely modernised and even better, I could get a very comfortable single / double room with en suite for £27, with (as it turned out) a monster buffet breakfast. Result!

It was a beautiful sunny evening, so once changed and showered, I took a short walk through the park into the actual centre of town, had a beer and watched the locals strolling by. The waiter seized the opportunity to practice his English by asking where I was from and, getting the answer, whether there would be another independence referendum. Feck me! It was like being back on the forum here! However, the forum here does not dish out beer and a delicious stuffed pork dish with dumplings, potatoes and sauerkraut! And all for around £12.:thumb

I went back to the via the park and followed the sound of music to the spa's “pump room” I had spotted earlier. The Polish equivalent of a tea dance seemed to be in progress. Too much excitement for me. I headed back to the hotel and a good night’s sleep.

And a clue to the next port of call ...
 
Zagan and Stalag Luft III

A good night’s sleep and a first class breakfast restored me. I got my gear together , went down to the bike and discovered it was trapped! The street outside the hotel had been turned into a start / finish line for a cycle race.

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Not a problem. The guys in charge lifted the plastic tapes and let me through with a “Have a nice day!” There was also the compensation of following a couple of lycra clad women on their bicycles through the streets of the town. The perfect start to the day!

Cieplice to Zagan is a pretty short distance at around 40 miles. My advice to others who do this trip is to stay in C|ieplice and do Zagan on a day trip. Why? Well, unless you are lucky and arrive on May Day (see below), Zagan has nothing to offer other than its “Great Escape” connection and the town itself is a wee bit reminiscent of a more depressing version of … (insert any post industrial / high unemployment town of your choice). A Lidl and another more down market supermarket and that’s your lot!

I had programmed the sat nav to tale to the site of the prison camp. The local community has made efforts to promote this with a reconstructed guard tower, various information boards and a line of inscribed stones marking the line of one of the tunnels dug for the mass break out.

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Some Brits had obviously visited previously as a couple of poppies had been placed at the “exit” end. A poignant reminder of what happened to xxx of those who escaped and were re-captured. And not all of them were Brits, as you can see. There was even a Lithuanian.
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The water tank. The POWs organised model boat races here ...
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Reconstructed watchtower ...
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And the cooler. "Hiltz ... cooler!" A wee bit of confusion between reality and fiction is understandable if it helps to promote tourism I suppose
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A mile or so down the road from the prison camp site in the forest, there is a museum. There is a re-constructed camp hut with notices to match. Also this …
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More confusion between fiction and reality. I could not resist of course!
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The museum attendant spoke decent English and explained a bit more about the site chosen by the German air force for Stalag Luft III adding that a Napoleonic era mass grave of French, Polish and other soldiers had been discovered by POWs in the camp. These people had survived Napoleon’s retreat from Moscow in 1812, only to die of typhus and other diseases in Zagan.

After viewing the museum, I headed for a hotel using the sat nav. It looked pretty institutional. See for yourself ..
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[/URL][/IMG]I later found out that it had been used as a hospital and a school. It was the only place where I had to haggle for a room …

“We have a room for £150 (in zlotys)” , said the attractive receptionist.
“How much?!”
“Ah but you have free access to the spa!”
“For my wife maybe. Do you see my wife with me?”
“No.”
“So do you have a cheaper room?”
“How much would you like to pay?”

I eventually ended up paying the same price as I paid in Cieplice but the room was a broom cupboard with a telly squeezed in at the bottom of the bed. Here's the hotel. The breakfast was OK but overall, not as good a deal as staying in Cieplice.


A little later in the evening, I wandered into Zagan. Lively it is not. However, it was May Day (Mayuvka in Polish) and I followed the sound of loud music to a public park where a stage had been erected. There was also beer stands. (£1 a pint) and various food stands. Perfect! Mayday to the rescue! A couple of pints and a snack while I watched a local choir, a rock band and an MC dragging folk up from the crowd and getting them to tell him (and the rest of us) what Mayuvka in Zagan meant to them. Or so I guessed. A better end to the day than I had expected!
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From Zagan to Cottbuss

The plan for this trip had been to bimble around Poland and Germany before I met up with the wife and some friends in Berlin. I still had a couple of days to go, so instead of heading for Berlin, I went to Cottbus. This was largely because of a Youth Hostel there which I could book online but there was also an aviation museum at a former East German air base in the town. On the way out of Zagan however, I got another reminder of Poland’s zig zag history. Zagan is the HQ of Poland’s armoured division and has been for decades. The army base is fronted by a display of their armour. Not many armies can boast of such a mixture of East and West in their equipment …
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The bust on the right is that of General Stanislaw Maczek. He fought in WW1 for the Austrians then in the German / Polish campaign in 1939, then against the Germans in France in 1940 and finally led Polish armour into Normady in 1944 where his tanks were instrumental in closing the Falaise pocket and destroying 14 German divisions. Not a bad record! There's a plan to set up a memorial to him in Edinburgh (He and his men trained in Scotland and established strong links here. Many of them migrated here after 1945.) Maczek lived in Edinburgh until his death at 102 in 1994. I am rather ashamed that I did not know that until know and even more so that I did not have the opportunity to meet such an impressive man.

I arrived at the town centre of Cottbus, having spotted several old DKWs and other old bikes on the way. Arriving at the Youth Hostel which forms two sides of the cloister buildings around the church, the hostels manager’s (another comely blond of a certain age) squeeze turned up driving a 1970s “Ami” muscle car: a Pontiac or Chevvy or some such. He told me that there was to be an Ossi (East German) Zweirad und Auto treff some twenty miles east of the town that evening! Hence the MZs and DKWs. There would also de a whole bunch of Trabants, Wartburgs and other two stroke and four stroke exotica.



Normally I would have jumped at the chance but after nearly 2 500 miles around central Europe, I was getting a little saddle weary. I checked into the hotel and opted for a visit to the aircraft museum, a meal and a couple of beers.

On the way to the town centre though, I spotted a guy riding an MZ BK350, a two stroke flat twin. He was clearly slowing down and I caught up with him parking his bike. Yes, he was going to the rally. Yes, it was about 40 ks away. He was going with his pal who had an MZ TS250. “Kommst du mit!” he said, waving me into the back yard of the house he had parked outside and introduced me to his pal who was just about to kick start an MZ TS250 (known as the Supa 5 over here) which had clearly been on the receiving end of a lot of love and care. I’m a DKW / MZ fan, so I arrived at the museum a happy man.





The airfield at Cottbuss had been used as such from the very early years of powered flight. There is an interesting indoor display of memorabilia from this period, through the Nazi period and beyond into the Cold War when the base was used by DDR fighters of the Soviet MiG design bureau. There’s an impressive display of these outside plus a few types operated by the West German Luftwaffe. As I’m a wannabe jet pilot (like most bikers, I suspect), I hope you’ll forgive this detour into the Cold War!

Mig 15

A wee reminder of the manufacturer!

Sukhoi Su17

A wee reminder of the operator

West German F84

West German Sabre

West German Fiat G91

MiL "Hind" gunship Note the West German Luftwaffe markings!

When I got back to the hostel, I met Gunther, a Bavarian cyclist. He was certainly an advert for cycling, looking ten years younger than his actual 75! Gunther told me that Cottbuss had been plastered by the “Amis” in early 1945. Looking up into a clear blue sky, it did not take a lot of imagination to see waves of Fortresses and Liberators shedding their bombs. Presumably this was to assist the advance of the Red Army. That would certainly explain the 1960s architecture which in some parts resembled the old centres of Brum, Coventry etc. And for the same reason albeit different bomb makers.



More recently, it’s clear that lots of Euros have been invested in property. I would assume by Wessies, taking advantage of the lower prices in the East. This modernist home was pretty stunning but the renovated Kaiser period homes were pretty impressive too.


Next stop … Potsdam.
 
Looks like Stalag Luft 3 has been 'tourismised' a bit since we visited on the Tossers Eastern Bloc Raid in 2004 ..... Nice ride report, really enjoying it. :beer:
 
Potsdam and Wannsee

Phew ... nearly finished!

I still had a couple of days spare before meeting up with the wife, so I decided to head for Potsdam. I had a large double room with shower all to myself in the Youth Hostel there. The hostel is not actually in Potsdam itself but in Babelsberg, about a mile to the south east. After settling in, I had a wander about and discovered that this is the bike shop centre fro Berlin. A Harley dealer, a Moto Guzzi dealer and a Hein Gericke type place were all within walking distance. More interestingly maybe, on the opposite side of the same block, there was an OST Zweirad shop specialising in MZs, Simson, DKW etc. I walked around taking pics on my phone until I realised that the proprietrix was eying me suspiciously! I had to explain in my pidjin German tha I was not casing the joint but simply recording what I saw for other MZ fans back in the UK. I am not sure she was totally convinced.


The Nikolaikirche in Potsdam. Lots of cash now being spent on restoration!

Having checked out the immediate area, I took an amble into Potsdam itself to spy out the land for a proper trip in the morning. I ended up at the Hauptbahnhof, tucking into a Currywurst mit pomfrites and a beer at a Doner stand! However, a local Turkish family seemed to have ordered a family feast of delicious looking mezes and other dishes. I looked down at my currywurst and regretted my lack of good German!



DDR era murals. I rather like these. I hope some of them are preserved in all the re-development!

The next day (I stayed for two), I had to move rooms and was told I would be sharing. The room was in fact a dormitory of maybe a dozen or so bunks and my room mate was a mature student of modern Languages. Although the son of a Bonn university prof he had gone through the classic teenage rebel phase and had become a cabinet maker. He was surprised at my admiration for the trade he had taken up: his family had been less than impressed! Now he was returning to the fold and studying English at one of the Berlin universities.

Potsdam itself tends to be associated with the Prussian royal family and especially Frederick the Great who built the palace of Sans Souci as his personal retreat. I walked around the palace grounds. They are free to enter, only the palace itself charges an admission fee.









The gardens are lovely impressive, as they were meant to be and the palace itself, at the top of a huge, south facing terrace, likewise. Of Frederick the Great, there was only one trace: a life size statue near one of the park entrances. Someone had removed the cane!



Potsdam was heavily bombed during the war. Like Cottbuss, it shows in the density of 1960s / modernist buildings. The town was in the DDR and yet again, little money had been spent on making the town beautiful rather than simply functional. I was surprised to learn that one of the churches had a Jewish kapelle meister until as late as 1938. The church he had worked in had been flattened, perhaps by bombs dropped by my own uncle Jim, who knows? However, a carillon of bells had been built on a steel scaffold, as a memorial to him and the church.

There are also plans to rebuild the Synagogue on its original site. I would suspect it was burn down on or shortly after Krystallnacht.

Enough of culture! Back to the hostel and then into Babelsberg. Not far from the hostel I discovered a kebab restaurant. An Adana kebab looked tempting and I asked for it. The Turkish / German guy looked at me blankly. I tried again, pointing at the graphic above his head. “Ach. Adana!” he said, pronouncing it like a Geordie saying “ I dunno”. However, it was pronounced, it was bloody lovely!

Next day, up and away to the YH at Wannsee. Mainly to check it out for possible future use. Don’t bother. It’s a 1970s / 80s pile. All raw brick and brown and red plastic features. Also possibly the worst designed building I have ever been in. For example, the rooms have no toilet, you have to go down the corridor. They do however have a shower. But this is shared with the adjacent room. You prevent access by lowering a seat in the shower room and this blocks the two doors, which open inwards. Then you think: “What if I slip on the soap and bang my head, or have a heart attack?” Very bad design. The YH was built as a sailing centre and does have nice views over the Wannsee. Its only redeeming feature.

Yachts on the Wannsee. Pity the YH is so rubbish!


If Wannsee rings a bell, it’s because the name is associated with the Wannsee Conference. I spotted the sign for the Wannsee Konference Haus on my way to the Youth Hostel. This is the place where Rheinhard Heydrich and others planned and put into motion the technicalities of the “Final Solution”. It's a modest lakeside villa and that makes what happened there all the more chilling ...


It has now been set up as a conference centre and a permanent exhibition on anti Semitism and the fate of Europe’s Jews under the third reich. It’s not a comfortable place to visit but, for me, the most uncomfortable fact is that the German Jew and holocaust survivor who inspired the place had tried for thirty years and met only with obstruction. He eventually committed suicide in despair in the 1970s. Whatever criticisms are made of modern Germany, it is not in denial about its Nazi past.

After sorting out my room I headed for the Cecilien Hof. Almost the end of my WW2 tour. This is where the Potsdam Conference was held in 1945. The place was built as a home for the Kaiser’s son. Started in 1913, the building was eventually completed in 1917. The Kaiser’s son was allowed to live there in the 1920s and 1930s, provided he did not meddle in politics. The building, modelled on an English manor house but built of steel and concrete with a brick facing, was undamaged during the war and made an ideal venue for the last great summit meeting of the Allied Powers. They have tried to reconstruct rooms and the furniture as it was when Churchill, Stalin and Truman met there. It makes for an interesting visit, especially when you consider the decisions about Europe and the world which were made there. Interesting also because of the insights you gain from small details. Each leader entered via separate door for example. The Soviets (who controlled the venue as it was in their zone of Germany) re-modelled Stalin’s entrance. It was good enough for a Crown Prince but apparently not good enough for a Communist Generalissimo! The British meanwhile, had to make ink blotters from re-cyclled Craven A fag packets ...
Seriously!

The Conference Room at the Cecilienhof


It was at Potsdam that the final decisions about the future rule of Eastern Europe were made thus leading to the forced migration or exclusion of hundreds of thousands whose families had lived in Silesia or the Sudetenland or Eastern Poland for hundreds of years. One of the British translators at the conference was quoted about how well prepared Stalin appeared. That’s easy to achieve when your brief is simple: what we hold, we keep!

I've never been an undiluted fan of Churchill but Low's cartoon hits the nail on the head, I think? Published at the time of his election defeat in 1945.


Churchill in particular was bitter about Stalin’s victory given that Britain had entered the war to defend Poland, but he was already on his way out having been defeated by Attlee in the General Election. The reality of the day was also that no one was going to be able to force the Red Army off the land they occupied. The exhibition did make the point however that 30 000 Poles were killed by the Red Army in anti partisan operations between 1945 and 1947. As I said earlier, no wonder the Poles hate the Russians.

The Glienicke Bridge



I had one final visit to make before I went into central Berlin to meet the wife. We had both been to a special showing of the movie “Bridge of Spies” earlier this year. Special because the showing was attended by the author of a book about “Rudolf Abel”, the Soviet spy who was exchanged for U2 pilot Gary Powers. I was surprised and a bit pleased to discover that “Rudolf Abel” was not his real name. That was Willie Fisher and he was born in Benwell, Newcastle and brought up there and around Whitley Bay near where I was born and partly grew up! You can read aout it here http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-tyne-34870934 and here’s the book, https://www.amazon.co.uk/Kremlins-Geordie-Spy-swapped-Powers/dp/1906447144which I bought and read and took to Berlin with me!
 
And finally ...

That's pretty much it folks. After the Glienicke Bridge, I headed into central Berlin to meet up with the wife. She did it the easy way via Easyjet. On the way in however, I passed a motor racing landmark in the form of the remnants of the Avus raceway. (Some of the older Beemer fans may recall that Avus Black used to be an old BMW paint label.)


The spectator stands are still there with commuter traffic zipping past rather than racing Mercedes, Auto Unions or Kompressor bikes! The place still has an atmosphere though, greatly helped by the Art Deco buildings.



Back on the bike again and within a few kilometers, I had another treat in store. There's a biker meeting point at Grunewald and since it was a holiday Friday, the place was chokka. Well, it would have been rude not to stop nicht war?:D











There was a group ride out to the Harz that day, hence the good turn out. I expect the sunny weather helped also.

This is the final pic of the trip with any WW2 relevance. I actually took it in the eartly morning 3 days later, on my way home. The first time, I visited Berlin was in the early 80s and the wall was still there. Where the bike is parked in the pic was a wasteland, sealed off by barbed wire and the Brandenburger Tor (which was in the Eastern / Soviet sector) not much different from the scarred mess it had been in 1945. I remember thinking at the time how great it would be to stroll through and down the Unter den Linden but of course, it would never happen.

Just goes to show ... never say never!

 
Most enjoyable thanks...
 
I've just read the whole lot in one go, thanks so much for a great report.
 
Excellent trip report - really enjoyed it. Thanks for sharing....
 


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