A deeper dive into Warsaw

We started our day at the award-winning museum POLIN which explores the history of the Jewish diaspora in Poland. 

We learned how travelling traders eventually established communities at centres of commerce, and how the Polish king Kazimierz III, also known as Casimir the Great, welcomed Jews into his kingdom and offered them greater rights. This may have been due to his love for his mistress, a Jewish woman named Esther. 

 

The section of the museum that captured my imagination was a reconstruction of a medieval wooden synagogue. The paintings on every surface were breathtaking.



The museum gives a comprehensive view of the development and shifts in Jewish culture, and the impacts of anti-Semitism. The vast majority of the exhibits deal with the hundreds of years before Hitler's invasion.

The Warsaw ghetto and deportations to Treblinka are shared along with moving quotations.

The museum also touches on the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. Having realized that death awaited them in any case, they decided to fight back. The names of those who fought are listed in the museum, and monument to these brave individuals draws the eye in the adjacent plaza.



Following our visit we hopped a tram to Hala Koszyki which had been hyped as an excellent food market. On entering we were confused to find a series of shops selling everything but food. 

Eventually, while wandering some flower stalls, we noted what appeared to be a farmer's market outside at the opposite end of the building and we were able to pick up some items for a very late lunch.





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