There are places that you visit when travelling that inspire you to silence, the Museum of the Second World War in Gdansk is one such site.

The main post office in Gdansk is considered to be the site where the first shots of the European combatants  in WW2 were fired when German forces attacked the building defended by 52 Polish posties. The museum is about 400 metres from that site, and its 18 rooms cover the period from the rise of Totalitarianism in the 30’s until the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. Without doubt it is one of the best and most moving exhibitions we’ve had the privilege of seeing.

Poland in the 30’s was caught between two states that had secretly signed a pact dividing the nation between them – Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union. Germany invaded from the West on the 1st of September, the Soviet invaded Poland from the East on the 17th. In the next six years approximately six million Poles would be killed – almost 20% of Poland’s pre-war population. In this war, no other country would suffer such a percentage of casualties – especially terrible because the vast majority of those killed were not combatants but civilians.

Tomorrow is a public holiday in Poland; All Saint’s day. It is a day when candles are lit and flowers are laid on the graves of family and friends. On many streets there are flower sellers, there are candles for sale in shop after shop throughout the city centre. It is a day of commemoration and reflection throughout Poland.

Yes, sometimes travel demands silence, reflection and a deep appreciation of a country’s history. We are, after all, just visitors. Lest we forget.