Gdansk Poland-Day 8

Gdansk, Poland, Day 8

The ship left the Warnemunde harbor last night and we had smooth sailing all night. Lee is coming down with a cold so it was an early night.

The plan is to arrive in Gdansk at 1:00 PM and head for Stutthof Concentration Camp for a tour. Rather morbid but should be interesting.

Again not to bitch but the guide was terrible. His Polish accent was hard to understand and Viking needs to hear of the problems.

Anyhow, the concentration camp was started in 1939 as a place for interment of ‘undesirables’ in the German Third Reich and not meant originally as an extermination camp. Between 1939 and the liberation in mid 1945, more that 110,000 people passed through the ‘Death Gate’ entrance.

 Death Gate straight ahead, administration building to the right.

Crematory ovens. Original but moved into the old medical building.

Barracks and shops are gone but foundations remain.

The camp was abandoned for many years after the war and mostly demolished in 1961. In the late 1980’s, the Polish government recognized the potential of the location as a tourist point and rehabilitated what remained.

The administration building, the guard’s main building a few barracks, the gas chamber and two of the cremation ovens remained. They were rehabbed and made viewable for tourists. 90% of all the signage at the site is in Polish and proved to be of no value.

The photos spread around the remaining buildings painted a very vivid picture of the true horror of the time.

When it became clear the Nazis were going to be beaten, there was an attempt to relocate all the prisoners to other locations deeper in Germany and away from Poland. Most of the prisoners who were force relocated died enroute.

 Back to the ship, dinner with new friends (and the Germroths), went to a presentation of "Rat Pack", had wayyy too much to drink, then off to bed.

Tomorrow is a full day at sea heading toward Tallinn, Poland.