Lingering Effects of World War II

A picture of Gdansk in 1945 that was hanging in the Golden Gate in Gdansk.

Appropriately enough the first shots of World War II were fired in Poland. While not alone in its devastation by the Second World War, Poland, unfortunately, got some of the worst. Its precarious position between Germany and the Soviet Union proved extremely detrimental. Warsaw was destroyed by Germans coming from the west and Gdansk was destroyed by Soviet soldiers from the east.

Probably the most surprising thing, however, is how that legacy of destruction is still evident in Poland today. There are still many buildings that haven’t been rebuilt and on the ones that have, the new brick is evident next to the old.

A grain building that was destroyed in the war and never rebuilt.

A Russian sign letting people know the area was clear of any mines that retreating German forces may have planted.

Destroyed buildings in front of the rebuilt city of Gdansk.

A crucifix from the chapel in Malbork Castle that was damaged during World War II.

Renovation efforts in the chapel of the Malbork Castle, most of the other parts of the castle have been rebuilt since being destroyed in the war but the chapel reconstruction is still ongoing.

The Mountains

One of my favorite experiences from the trip was our stay just outside a tiny town in southern Poland, Krościenko nad Dunajcem. Our accommodations for the week were much different than the hotels we had stayed in previously in Sopot and Kraków. We were staying in a large house (pictured) in the country with two other Polish families. Not as many people spoke English, none of the people we lived with did, and we had to walk 15 minutes to a restaurant for any sort of internet access.

There were tons of sheep, which meant plenty of fresh, delicious cheese made only from sheep's milk. Our first day there we all hiked up the mountain road, Biały Potok,that ran by the house we were staying in. The view as amazing and there was something very refreshing about not being as surrounded by people as we had been in the cities.

During our days there we would explore and take photos. We were able to cross the boarder into Slovakia one day where we visited a monastery in Czerwony Klasztor. We also visited a national park museum and some castle ruins. At night we would critique photos and watch various Polish language films, Blanc, Dzien Świra, and Katyn.

The home-cooked meals were a nice change from usually eating in restaurants and the fresh eggs from the chickens the family kept were delicious. Without all of the modern attractions of the cities it felt as if we had almost stepped back in time and were really able to experience Poland in an entirely different way.

Streets of Kraków

After a 8-hour train ride, we arrived in Kraków while the rain was pouring hard. We set out the next day to enjoy the scenes in Kraków and take pictures. Tourists crowded the streets in Kraków. The Square was full with people - tourists buying souvenirs or little trinkets from stalls; people basking in the sun while having a cup of coffee; street performers having their pictures taken by tourists and so on.

Photomonth in Kraków

May 2010 brought in the 8^th annual Photomonth in Kraków, this one was dedicated to British photography with eight monographic and three joint exhibits around the city. Two of the exhibits were The Sound of Two Songs, Photographs by Mark Power and Facts of Life, an exhibit encompassing work by ten different photographers.

The Mark Power exhibit was located in the International Cultural Centre. It contained his photographs of the different aspects of Poland since 2004. He used his photographs to make something of a photographic portrait of how he, as an outsider, saw Poland.The Facts of Life exhibit was located in the Main Building of the National Museum and consisted of British documentary photography from three different decades. The photographers whose work was included were: Chris Killip, Chris Steele-Perkins, Jem Southam, John Davis, Paul Graham, Tom Wood, Martin Parr, Anna Fox, Richard Billingham and Tom Hunter. Many of them are well-known Magnum photographers. The focus of this exhibit was a variety of portrayals of the various aspects of British life and society.

This picture is from the Paul Graham portion of the Facts of Life exhibit.


This photograph is from the Tom Hunter portion of the Facts of Life exhibit.

PBS DGA

PBS DGA is a marketing research agency based in Sopot, Poland. PBS stands for Pracownia Badan Społeczny or Social Research Laboratory in English, they do market research for both private and public companies in a variety of different fields. One of their newer research directions involves tracking trends on the internet. Agnieszka Burska (pictured) has been using innovative methods to track consumer habits and opinions for a while now. A few years ago she did a project where she gave consumers cameras to take pictures of their things and then analyzed the results. Currently her interest has been tracking the demographics of the two most popular social networking sites in Poland, Nasza Klasa, or Our Class in English, and Facebook.

Burska explained that Nasza Klasa is used more by older generations who are more concerned with showing their former friends and classmates their current lives, it tends to be more about local social networking. She said common pictures for this site are ones showing children, cars, houses, and vacations. In contrast, Facebook tends to be more popular with younger generations who are more focused on being trendy and using more of a global approach to social networking. Their profile pictures tend to be more artistic and stylized.

Nasza Klasa has been more popular with people in Poland with over 14 million users while Facebook only has 2 million. Recently however, Facebook has been gaining in popularity since becoming available in the Polish language. Nasza Klasa has been trying to implement new features, many of them similar to Facebook. However, many of the newer features of Nasza Klasa have been unpopular and seem to be driving members away, so the title of most popular social networking site may be up in the air.

The Journey

My flight left Chicago O'Hare in the late afternoon on Wednesday for London. This is a shot from my window of Greenland. The plane changed course slightly to fly over it so we could avoid some of the ash from the Eyjafjallajokull volcano in Iceland. In a perfect example of just how small the world is, the man began a conversation with me and I found out he was from my hometown, Sioux City, and he was currently living with his family in Iowa City.