Last day in Warsaw. Let the kids sleep in before we went and rented good city bikes so we could cover some ground today. Once we grabbed the bikes our first stop, not surprising, was at a Polish donut shop. Kendall’s last thing she was really craving. Despite the grumpiest donut lady dishing donuts, they were exceptional. Kendall was known for being the master of scoping out good food spots in whatever city she went. As a matter of fact she even had a reputation for it and when we were in Wroclaw when we asked the Sister Missionaries where they wanted to eat, they both said we heard Kendall knows where all the best spots are ;) She seemed to have them nailed and still remembered how to navigate the city to get to them all….so funny!
We carved out a big part of our day to go to the Uprising Museum. This museum is dedicated to Warsaw’s last stand and battle for freedom from German occupation, and their last battle for their independence from what would soon be Russian occupation immediately following the war. The insurgents led by and collectively made up of Polish army and mostly civilians including women and children gathered all that they had, all the weapons they could find and fought for their freedom. After 2 months plus, Germany had completely destroyed Warsaw, literally turning the city into rubble. A city that had over 1,500,000 at the start of the war was reduced to around 1000 people after the Uprising. Almost 140,000 people were killed in Warsaw during the 2 month battle. Nazis under direct orders of Hitler systematically killed all the Poles starting with one town which every man, woman and child they came across they shot, killing around 50,000 people in one district called Wala in Warsaw. They had children running mail between groups of insurgents and they used the sewer system as a way to travel. The way many left the city was through the sewers, since above ground was too dangerous to travel. The only ones left in the city after were pretty much Jews that had hid among the Aryans who had fought with the insurgents, some had fought in the Ghetto Uprising too. They lived among the rubble in Warsaw until after the war, since it was too unsafe to leave the city for fear they would be caught and transported to the death camps.
One of the most upsetting parts of the Uprising was that there were Russian troops literally on the other side of the river. They did not offer help, they literally watched the city and it’s people burn. As told by the Poles, the Russians lay waiting for the Nazis to destroy the city offering only token help at the very end. It is interpreted that the Russians wanted to squelch any possibility for the Poles independence since the Russians had every idea that they would control Poland after the war and wanted to rid them of their fierce sense of independence. This is exactly what happened. When the war was over Poland became the People’s Republic of Poland, under the control essentially of Russia’s Communist Party for 40+years. Russia came into Poland right after the war and had those leaders of the Uprising that had survived imprisoned and some sentenced to death for treason against their country. Through Russia’s propaganda they negated the efforts of the many heroins and all those that had sacrificed their lives for Polish freedom and said they were rebels who had been actually working with the Germans and were against the Political rulers of Poland. They completely retold the story and without freedom of press or speech the brave insurgents and the story of the Uprising was squelched. It wasn’t until 1989 when Poland was free from Communist rule that the story was properly told by the Polish and the accounts recorded and the truth revealed. The symbol of the Uprising can be seen all over Warsaw, looks a bit like an anchor with a P on top, and is an event that they celebrate and recognize with great National and City pride each year in August. Kendall was in Warsaw last summer when the Uprising Celebration occurred and said the whole city was filled with enthusiastic remembrances. The museum was very thorough and although very confusing to navigate, maybe that is the intention since that is what it must have been like going through the sewer systems of Warsaw, it was excellent. It confirmed what I have already come to know that the Poles who lost 6,000,000 people in the WWII, 3,000,000 of those were Jews, suffered the greatest of all the nations in the war.
For lunch we went searching for a Milk Bar, almost a Polish institution for food. Most of all the items on the menu are milk based products and we found a couple places. I was looking for Perogi, a typical Polish food almost like a ravioli with onions and potatoe inside. Sam had pasta with strawberry sauce (normally served with cream) and Kendall had these fried potato pancakes with cream and sugar. Having met the last of my things we wanted to see, since we were able to see part of the brick wall that was built around the Jewish Ghetto. we decided to ride our bikes to the LDS Chapel that was a few miles west of the main city. The weather had turned nice and it was fun to ride on the many nice paths they had through the city, with hardly anyone on them. Along our ride Sam was making a pass and his bike switched gears unexpectedly on him and it made his swerve and then wipe out, hitting his chin on a rail on the way down. It scared me since he was entangled on the bike with a bloody knee. We untangled him and after catching his breath he was ok. His chin started swelling up right away along with his forearm shortly thereafter. We washed his bloody knee and he hopped back on and we rode the rest of the way to the church. The Mormon church was located right next to a huge green forested park, it was one of the most beautiful settings for one of our churches I had seen with a large grassy lawn surrounding the church and set back from the road.
At the church we found a dozen women and a few men helping prepare food and cleaning the chapel for the 25 year reunion of the church in Poland. Barbara was one woman who Kendall had taught and who was baptized when she was in Warsaw. When Kendall walked in she grabbed her and kissed her and then grabbed Sam and myself and kissed us. She was hilarious and just exuberant and full of energy and you could tell just loved Kendall. Kendall showed us around the church which was very nice and you can tell they had gone to great lengths for everything to look perfect. We went outside and found 5 other woman cutting vegetables on a table in the grass. It just looked like an image from one of the Russian Impressionist paintings. One hilarious woman with slices of cucumber on her face and what looked like her 95 year old mother was slicing cucumbers with bits of cucumbers under her eyes and on her nose. She gave us a big hug and her mother got up and gave us big hugs. We offered to help and right away we had knives in our hands and were cutting cukes. Sam was in charge of grating carrots and things picked up when they brought a cuisinart like machine and then he was grating like a mad man. It was really fun to help and visit with the women. We helped cut, slice and grate for a couple hours until we noticed it was after 6 and it looked like it was going to rain. We had a 30 min bike ride back and we gave our hugs and donned our rain coats and hopped on our bikes, despite the fact that it was pouring outside and the women didn’t want us to go out in the rain. . Kendall said, "That is the thing about the Polish, they take such good care of you. They are always looking after you." It was so true, we had felt that all week, such generous people, especially the elderly women.
It was actually pretty fun, it was pouring down rain for most of our ride. We had hoods up and heads down and had fun splashing through puddles built up on the sides of the road. When we arrived at the hotel my pants were totally sopped and Sam’s shorts were soaked. After changing and showering Sam opted to lay low and rest. His arm was starting to swell and he was just tired. We let him hang back at the hotel and Kendall and I headed out to her favorite restaurant in Warsaw again for dinner. We had eaten there the day before with the Edgrens, but she wanted one last meal there.
It was so nice to visit together as mother and daughter and recap our week in her second home of Poland.As a mother, I couldn’t have been more proud of her. She spoke the language so fluently which allowed her to develop really close relationships with those she met and served in Poland. She had a strong testimony of the gospel of Jesus Christ before but serving a mission but I could see how much she grew by living it, by sharing it and how much it has blessed the lives of those she taught and shared the gospel with. I could tell she was greatly loved by all those she served and that she had many other mothers in Poland. I was so grateful for the love and care they offered her while she lived here. I am so grateful for an inspired mission presidents that loved Kendall and prayerfully advised her and situated her with different companions and areas so that she could grow. I really felt like I got to see Kendall as a missionary and see her at her very best. The Lord has the ability to shape us into the best possible versions of ourselves if we but let Him. It made me so grateful for missionaries, the enormous sacrifices of time and pride and self to go serve. They gain as much as they give, which is always the case isn’t it? We had a great night talking and when we retuned to the hotel we found Sam tucked into bed working on his blog.
We are ready to meet up with the rest of our family in Croatia for a week long bike trip. Kendall will spend the day at the LDS/Mormon reunion tomorrow in Warsaw and then meet up with us in Croatia tomorrow afternoon. I have a much greater understanding of Poland and as a result a greater respect for the Polish. I don’t know if I would have visited Poland otherwise and I am so glad I did. Wroclaw and Krakow were my favorite cities and I think Wroclaw above them all really because of the winding rivers and so many bridges and paths. I have loved this country, and it’s people.
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