In Gdansk Poland Stutthof Travel

Pomerania Pt. 1: That Eerie Feeling

My first ride with Pendolino is going to Gdańsk,
kota pelabuhan di Polandia,
tempat menyeberang ke Swedia,
salah satu kota bagian Pomerania
which is in Slavic means by the sea.
(Hey it rhymes XD )
Tujuan utama sebenarnya adalah kota kecil sekitar 50km dari Gdańsk, Sztutowo. There it is... the Stutthof Camp.
Awalnya tertarik dengan tujuan seperti ini, more and less disebabkan kunjungan ke sini.

It takes about 3 hours from Warszawa Centralna to the Gdańsk Główny.

I don't have much time for this short weekend visit, so right after I arrive at Gdańsk at 10.57, next thing is find the bus.
Fortunately, the bus terminal is right behind the station, just 5 minutes walking.



The schedules are normal for summer, probably there'll be less buses in other season. Back on February, the bus was every 2 hours.
Ticket fares
It's a long trip.... To get to the concentration camp you need 13 złoty and make sure to stop at Sztutowo Museum.
Stutthof Museum: The Death Gate, The Command Building,
inside the SS-Guardhouse displaying inmates' shoes that was taken at the moment the came to the camp.
This is one of German Concentration Camp that exist in Poland since September 1939. Most of the inmates were Poles, Russians and Jews.
The camp is huge and I only have about 1 hour to look around. It feels like visiting a regular museum, but after passing the gate that lead to the crematory and gas chamber, somehow, I loose the enthusiasm to take more pictures and to explore the camp, just need to finish this visit a.s.a.p.
Maybe because there were less people who visited the museum that time (it seemed there were less than 15 people and we were scatters in that vast place) or maybe because it's just me seeing how was the infirmary looked like, the bunk bed, how was the building was build not used as it plans to... (too much watch movie about it before get in here).

The Command Building seen from inside the camp, the crematory and gas chamber at the end of the path, on the way to the Stutthof Camp, the debris of the jewish camp, the Monument of Fight and Martyrdom Symbol.
I don't know how many blocks and barracks are there in this camp, but we can see the signs of the block VIII, block VIIIA, block II, block III, block VI, block VII, new camp and jewish camp.
Most of them are now just marked with stack of bricks whether because it was burnt down or purposely were teared down.

There is holocaust stake outside the barbed wire where corpses were burned during midnight at the end 1944 and beginning 1945, of course I just read this from the guidebook.
There are some places that are not part of the museum or not for sightseeing like the new kitchen, the factory, the stake, etc. So when you get in here, imho, my decision for the 5 złoty guidebook is worth to have. 

The entrance to this museum is free, at the administration building, they have a lot of books and dvd's about the camp.
There are films are shown in the ex-headquarter building/the command building, but it was renovated last February so there were no film screening, only cost 3 złoty.
It is possible to request guided tour in English, German and Russian, cost 140 złoty, just visit their website as it has virtual tour too.

KL Stutthof, from the Guidebook

The museum was closed at 3 PM while the next bus would be 16.27 PM.
So the next 1.5 hrs, luckily I met a couple and a mother with her 2 children who has just also visited the museum, we spent the time in a restaurant that we met after 15 minutes walking in that quiet city.
I just need to get back to the city since I still felt that eerie feeling.
Note to myself, won't go to any camp by myself anymore XD


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2 comments:

  1. Kayanya bakalan memantapkan hati untuk cuti dan... ke Poland. :D

    ReplyDelete