Day 111 June 5th 2017
Unmissable! A magnificent memorial to SOLIDARNOŚĆ – Solidarity – the Solidarity Museum.
We were both excited and fascinated. Having heard about Lech Walesa and the Solidarity movement in Poland for many of our early adult years here we were. The museum has been built right alongside the Gdansk Shipyards where much of the resistance and change took place . And what a museum – an incredible passage through a time that changed Poland.
For us it began with the Monument to Fallen Shipyard Workers of 1970 that looms skywards as you approach the Museum. So powerful you can fail to see the famous Gate 2 – shipyard gates and entrance beside it for a time.
Once inside the impressive building – the interior more than lives up to the expectation of the exterior. An awe-inspiring structure with a well structured museum path and audio presentation. Several hours later we emerged brain challenged, feet aching, hunger gnawing but excited at what we had witnessed and learned.
In addition to the excellent audio guide available it also contained interviews with witnesses at each section and additional film footage to the already extensive audio-visual available throughout the museum. As little or as much information as you wish – and then there is a complete wing devoted to a library that we could only see from a distance. What a resource.
As if this wasn’t enough for one museum -then there were the exhibits – as Chris was astounded by a police vehicle used to round up people – it was not a photo but a complete vehicle in the museum that one could sit in to listen to the history.
In the first section “THE BIRTH OF SOLIDARNOŚĆ” covering the shipyards, the workers and the strike, the ceiling was covered with hardhats from the workers – each colour coded and numbered to identify the worker and their job.
In a later section the posters and path to democracy was presented with posters – one standout poster is well known and has travelled the world. Showing a cowboy like person with no candidates name on the poster simple the word “Solidarność”.
Again we both saw and remembered differently – I had not realised the strong focus on non-violent means used throughout the decades. In one presentation Lech Walesa reminds the interviewer that throughout the many years of struggle there was no person or property damaged “not one window broken”.
A small emblem I was taken by – The Resistors – simple badges that acknowledged you supported solidarity – a very simple model of an electricity resistor. Worn openly this also had potential to get you into a lot of trouble. A simply structured sign – a tube of tin with copper or other wire out each end. This wall above in the museum represented the resistor.
We stumbled from the museum towards the old town looking for lunch – eventually having a simple but lovely fish and salad at the Hala Targowa – the covered market. Followed by an ambling, winding walk back to our apartment bumping into the ever present lines of school children of all ages and stages out on excursions. Could you ever get tired of wandering Gdansk?
