Gdansk
7/29/2025 - 8/19/2025
We left Spain on a 6:45 am flight (ugh!)… other than it being really early and us being very tired, it was a pretty decent travel day. We were pretty tired when we arrived in the Gdansk airport, but I must say, they make it easy there to find your public transportation. They literally had lines on the floor that you followed – one color led you to the buses, another to trains and trams, and a third to the taxi stand. Completely idiot proof! Just the way we like things!
Gdansk is on the Baltic coast of northern Poland, with a population of about 500,000, it is Poland's sixth-largest city and its major seaport. It is a REALLY cool city and will be our base for 3 full weeks!
For those of you that are tired of “just seeing a bunch of old buildings” on our blog (you know who you are!), you will be happy to know that there is pretty much nothing left in Gdansk that is old! But it still looks old 😊. About 90% the old beautiful Hanseatic city was destroyed in WWII, but was rebuilt to look as it did prior to the war. Tourist call the beautiful area along the water “old town” (because we are too dumb to know the difference or bother to look it up). Locals refer it as “main city” … we switched up our vocabulary after a couple days.
The WWII museum in Gdansk was pretty enlightening. Like most people, we totally understand the impact of WWII on the Jews, but hadn’t realized the extent of the impact on Poland. After WWI, Germany lost territory that Hitler wanted restored. He had managed to move into and take over other ports and cities/territories in Austria, Czechoslovakia, Slovakia, and Lithuania by threatening and bullying. After a few other successes, he demanded control of Gdansk which was then called Danzig and technically not part of any country at that time, but rather independent and administered jointly by Poland and the League of Nations. Control of Gdansk meant control of the most prosperous port on the Baltic.
When Danzig (Gdansk) wasn’t just handed over to Hitler, he launched an attack against the Poland. France and Britain finally stood up to him and declared war on 9/3/39 and that was the official start of WWII. The Nazis justified the invasion by suggesting that Poland had been planning to invade Germany. Although Britain and France both declared war on Germany because of the attack against Poland, they never sent any meaningful assistance to Poland to aid them in their defense. Then on September 17th, the Soviet Union joined forces with Germany and also invaded Poland. To be clear, Germany and the Soviet Union hated each other… they just decided to join forces long enough to gang up on Poland! Poor Poland didn’t stand a chance!
Polish civilians faced widespread violence, forced displacement, and brutal occupation. The Nazi’s aimed to eliminate Polish culture entirely and to exploit Polish labor. Poles were killed in mass, forced into labor programs, and hundreds of thousands were deported and lost their homes and lands.
The Solidarity Museum was even more enlightening than the WWII museum (in my opinion). It was about Poland’s fight for a free and democratic society. At the end of WWII, rather than Poland being restored to an independent country, they were screwed over yet again and handed over to Soviet Russia. Poland was called Polish Peoples Republic and was ruled by the communists from 1945 through 1989.
Life sucked for the Poles during this era! The communist government exerted tight control over the economy and everyday life. There was a shortage of food and store shelves were often empty, media was strictly censored, and freedom of speech was severely curtailed. They were paid very low wages and had substandard housing. Through the years, the government would increase prices for food and necessities that were already unaffordable. The people’s only real recourse was to strike which often led to violent retaliation by the government. Workers were often beaten, incarcerated or killed. Sometimes the strikes were successful in preventing the price increases, but not always.
The largest strike came in 1980 and was the beginning of the “Solidarity Movement”. It started in the Lenin Shipyards of Gdansk, but the movement and organization spread throughout the country. Pretty much everyone stopped working unless they were deemed necessary for the health and well being of the Polish people – such as doctors and hospitals. But even they took a stand by flying the Polish flag outside all their windows (which was strictly prohibited).
They managed to negotiate and gained some freedoms and rights, but that was short lived! About a year later the communist government imposed Marshal Law to regain control. The Polish people couldn’t gather in groups (they would patrol the streets and hose them down with fire hoses if there appeared to be gatherings!), they had strictly enforced curfews, and could be stopped at any time and made to show their “papers” or risk punishment. In spite of the governments attempts to exert increased control, the Solidarity Movement had already taken hold and the people weren’t giving up. It took another 8 years, but Poland eventually gained its freedom in 1989. They were the first country in the Eastern Bloc to gain freedom from Soviet-backed communism.
The Gdańsk Shipyards are historically significant for shipbuilding, but are even more renowned for being the birthplace of the Solidarity movement, a pivotal force in the fall of communism in Poland and Eastern Europe. While the shipyards produced over 1,000 seagoing vessels, their role in the 1980 strikes and the formation of the Solidarity trade union is what cemented their place in history. The shipyard was slated to close in 1988 by the Communist government. The workers viewed the closure as politically motivated and an attack on Solidarity.
Despite plans to close the shipyard in 1988, it did not close entirely at that time, but downsized significantly. To this day, a small number of specialized vessels are still built and some buildings are used for yacht building and maintenance. But much of the shipyard looks like a giant graveyard for old cranes and warehouses.
On a brighter note, some of it is finally being renovated, updated, and repurposed! First, of course, is the Solidarity museum which is housed in a building that was part of the original shipyard. In another area, several huge old shipping containers and a warehouse have been converted into bars, restaurants and a music venue with lots of outdoor seating … it is super cool!!!
Below you can add a comment: type your text in the white box and then Post Comment. If you get a second panel, you just need to enter your name and then hit ‘comment as guest’.
Be nice with your comments, we can always delete them 😊
