Ranking right up there in powerful experiences, was a recent visit to the former Gestapo headquarters.  Currently a remaining portion is preserved as a museum to honor the memory of those who resisted and suffered, as well as a painful reminder of the human capacity for evil and ignorance.

I had meant to write about this earlier, but I haven’t been good about keeping up with my writing.  I’m resolving to fix that.

The building is now occupied by the Ministry of Education, with the museum below in the underground section.

From 1939 to 1945, this building functioned as the headquarters for the Nazi secret police: The Gestapo.  Prisoners from Pawaik Prison were driven here twice per day to be brutally interrogated. 

The museum walks you through the rooms where prisoners were held in solitairy confinement, queued for questioning, and subsequently tortured.

The first rooms we saw, after an introductory, informational video, were the solitairy confinement cells.  These small, nearly empty cells held a single prisoner, who was bound by a chain, bolted to the center of the floor.  Aside from a small window, there was a single cot.  The rooms look to be between 6 and 10 feet square.  In some rooms, there were bullet holes along the back wall from when the Nazis would fire at them through the peephole.

Some of the prisoners had etched letters to family, poems, prayers, and vengeful promises into the walls of the cells.  Many of these have been subsequently painted over during reconstruction, but were preserved in photographs and rewritten in an easier to read format.

Beyond that is the main office, where the prisoners were tortured.  There was not much there, except for a plain desk, and a display case containing the various implements used to torture the prisoners.  The music from a radio in the hall could be heard.  This music was played loudly in order to drown out the screams of the prisoners.

Next to that was a row of holding rooms, each containing rows of small wooden chairs.  Prisoners had to wait here for their turn to be tortured.  They were not allowed to move, even a little bit.  If they did, they were beaten.

Food was also, not surpisingly, insufficient.  At the end of the hall is a repeating projection of a prisoner struggling to stand.

Around the bend are a series of monitors, each displaying a lot of different information.  Some had information about the prisoners that were held and tortured there, others showed the progression of executions throughout the course of the war.  All of the information was gut-wrenching and painful, but important nonetheless.  There were stories of hope and strength.

The prisoners were all so dedicated and determined that few, if any, ever revealed any information.  Though it was very saddening, almost to the point of physical illness, it was also inspiring knowing that despite that terrible torment, the Polish people still refused to surrender.

Find more information at the Holocaust Education & Archive Research Team

Despite all of the things I did growing up that could have injured me, I’ve never broken a bone or received stitches.  I’ve also never ridden in an ambulance, or had to visit a hospital for anything more than some tests.  That all changed (except for the broken bones) on Wednesday night of last week.

The day started out great.  Lately I had been very tired because, I guessed because I’d had a stomach bug since the previous Tuesday.  I hadn’t been feeling well, and I imagined I wasn’t getting the most out of my meals, either.  Not that I was helping the situation by eating anything and everything I came upon.  But that morning, I felt great.  So great that I finally went out and got the hair cut I’d been meaning to get.  I had also mowed the lawn, another chore I had been putting off until I felt better.

But this was also the day that our dog, Greta, was getting spayed, or steralized as they say here.  So I dropped her off around 4 in the afternoon.  They gave her a shot to knock her out, and I stayed with her until she practically melted into my lap and was out cold.  It was after this that I went to get my hair cut.

I should also mention that Jess was out of town on a school trip, as was another friend of ours whose dog I was watching.  So after my haircut I came back to walk and feed Natty, and get some more work done.  Around 6:30 or so I got the call from the vet that Greta was all ready and I could come pick her up. 

When I got there, they brought her out in her green doggy hospital gown, all laced up the back.  She was still very groggy from the anesthetic, but her tail was wagging when she saw me.  The vet handed her to me and asked me to wait.  They were tending to a cat at the moment, and I still had to pay and take care of a few things. 

So I sat with her for about 20 minutes or so.  While I had her I noticed her foot was still bleeding (we had a dew claw with no bone in it removed to avoid possible problems with it in the future).  It wasn’t much, but the combination of the blood, unrine soaked smock, and drugged puppy were a bit sad.

Once they were able to see me, I went in and showed them the foot.  They then wrapped it with gauze, as well as her front foot where the IV was.  They said we had to leave it in until we came back in 2 days when they would remove it and give her a check-up and a few shots (pain medication and another shot to help her immune system).  After the bandaging was done, I reminded them I still needed to pay for some other medication they gave me previously, but they waived it. 

It was around that point, almost an hour after I arrived, that I started to feel a bit dizzy.  This has happened to me in sterile environments like doctor’s offices and hospitals.  I’m not sure, but I think it’s usually a combination of the smells and the overabundance of flourescent lights and white furniture/walls.  While they ran the card, I took a seat and waited for the dizziness to pass.  It was actually getting worse than a normal head rush or fleeting dizzy spell.  When they brought my card back, I stood to put it in my wallet.  I was a bit too shy to just admit I wasn’t feeling well and sit and wait for it to pass, and thought I could just power through.

The next thing I remember was waking up from a dream to look up from the floor at the 2 doctors.  I had apparently passed out, and hit my head on the table on the way down.  Strangely my neck and back of my head didn’t hurt at all, but my temple was throbbing and I was still very disoriented. 

They cleaned me up, and after a few minutes had me move to the couch.  They also called for an ambulance for me.  It took probably 20 minutes or so, maybe more, for them to arrive.  They looked me over, took my information and walked me to the ambulance. They didn’t seem concerned, and I’m guessing that their initial tests told them there was nothing serious wrong, and that I’d just need a few stitches.

Wait?  Stitches!?  Never had those before!  Those were my thoughts as I staggered to the ambulance.  The night air helped clear my head, though the ambulance ride had started to make me nauseous.  Once we got to the hospital it was very simple.  The doctor stitched me up, and I did my best to answer his questions with my limited Polish.  Then they took a head x-ray and sent me on my way! 

My friend, Dale, came and picked me up, and on our way home we swung by to get the dog.  Later, when I was telling Jess about it, I commented on how it was funny the way things always seem to work out for me, and reaffirmed that I must have a friend upstairs looking out for me.  Of course she looked at me cross-eyed, so I had to explain. 

Since I had just gotten my hair cut, it was easy to see that there were no cuts hiding under my hair.  The lawn was mowed, so I didn’t have to worry about that.  Getting a ride with Dale meant that I didn’t have to carry the dog home.  When I hit my head, I only got a small gash in my eyebrow.  So I was lucky enough not to hit my eye, or my temple (at least, not directly…  that part of my head was pretty sore).  Plus the cut is hardly visible, since it blends with my eyebrow.  I had no concussion or anything like that.  It happened in a medical facility, so they were able to clean the cut with antiseptic and gauze, plus take care of me.  Also, their English is pretty good, which was helpful.

I also got a lot of medical firsts out of the way all in one, relatively painless, shot; stitches, ambulance, hospital, foreign hospital.  Plus I got to practice my Polish a bit.

I don’t know… call me optimistic, but the whole thing was actually a pretty positive experience overall.  You know, aside from the pain and all.