Day 4: The Wolf's Lair and the Masurian Lakes

[Tuesday, June 11]

[Click on any photo for a bigger view]

Today we rented a car for an excursion to the northeast to see Hitler's Wolfsschanze (Wolf's Lair) and to drive around a bit in the Masurian Lakes region. We didn't want to plan too much for this portion of the trip, before we meet up with our whirlwind guided tour. If we'd wanted to vacation in the Masurian Lakes, we'd have started our trip a bit earlier to enable us to spend several days there. There's lots to do in the lake region, but more on that below. 

We decided to rent a car rather than take a bus or train. As it turns out, train service to the environs of the Wolf's Lair has been spotty since Hitler left the area 80 years ago, and taking a bus would have hampered our ability to explore. Renting a car was a bit of an ordeal, however. Besides an airport rental (a bit of a trek), the closest was out of an office in an industrial park about 5 miles from our hotel. We took a cab to get there. Cabs are pretty cheap in Olsztyn. It cost $5, and the driver was extremely happy with the $2.50 tip we gave him. Strangely, cab drivers in the 'provinces' don't have much English. Neither of the drivers we had that day knew much. The car rental place was really a single office run by a kid of about 23. The address, 4 Ulicy Metalowe, is a long, interconnected series of buildings. Our cab driver let us off at one end of it and we had a bit of fun trying to find the office. Then, more fun trying to find the kid who ran the store. As we confirmed much later in the day, he doesn't have much to do and he's never at his desk.

After filling out the paperwork, soon enough we were on our way. The Wolf's Lair is about 60 miles from Olsztyn near the small town of Kętszyn. The drive was pleasant, through increasingly rolling farmland. The last bit of the trip, a 5 mile drive from Kętszyn, was forested.

The Wolfsschanze was built after Germany's invasion of Poland to be a forward command base for the anticipated invasion of Russia. Hitler expected a swift victory and thought he would only be at the base for a few weeks, or maybe a month or two. As it happened, Hitler spent nearly two-thirds of the time, over 800 days, between the start of the invasion of Russia in June of 1941 to the abandonment of the fortress in late November of 1944, at the Wolf's Lair.

The Wolf's Lair was an impressive fortress. A dedicated rail spur led in from the main rail line to Berlin. There was also access by an airfield. There were fortified quarters for 2000 troops to protect Hitler and frequent visiting Nazi officials, aides, generals, and foreign dignitaries; housing for a large retinue of communications officers, engineers, stenographers; housing for Hitler and other high ranking Nazi officials; buildings with offices for meetings; a hotel; and several massive bunkers to protect the highest ranking people in case of an attack. The fortress was hidden from aerial surveillance by a seasonally changing canopy of camouflage. It was protected by batteries of anti-aircraft guns. Sophisticated systems provided fresh water, back-up electricity, and clean filtered air to the bunkers. 

The bunkers themselves were designed to be impregnable by aerial bombs of the day. In fact, when Nazi sappers were charged with demolishing them as the fortress was abandoned, they were not destroyed despite the use of thousands of pounds of high explosives. In some areas there are remnants of massive pieces of the outer shells of bunkers blown apart from the main structures, which still remained largely intact. After the war, there were numerous casualties among Polish sappers charged with clearing away remaining explosives and booby traps.

Hotel for Hitler's guests at the Wolf's Lair

Entrance to the walkway through the grounds

Wood carving of a wolf

A huge piece of a bunker that was thrown many yards by the explosions when the Germans attempted to destroy the compound.

Black cat's lair

Memorial to Polish sappers killed and injured defusing bombs after the war.

Personal items from the Wolf's Lair

More personal items, including a Hohner harmonica

There were examples of weaponry from all armies, including a US M1 Garand, though Americans were never part of the fighting in eastern Poland.

Say what you want about the Nazis, but they were snappy dressers

Walkways lead through about a one mile tour through the complex

Vicky next to an enormous bunker

This building had offices for an army of stenographers, a very important communications function at the time.

Fortified barracks

Part of the wall of a bunker toppled by the charges meant to destroy it

Exposed bunker passage 

Partially destroyed bunker wall

Partially collapsed bunker   

Danger signs were posted all around. You couldn't just climb all over things.

You could enter some bunkers. Each was a doubly encased design with a layer of gravel between each wall of re-enforced concrete. Filtered air and electricity was provided to each bunker.

Communications bunker

Though the Wolf's Lair was well-defended, the biggest threat, it turned out, came from within. The Wolf's Lair was the site of a failed attempt to assassinate Hitler, one that came close to succeeding. If the attempt had succeeded, there was a plan in place to topple other elements of the regime. A bomb in an attache case was brought in to a meeting room by the conspiracy leader, Claus von Stauffenberg, who was trusted by Hitler's staff. It was placed under a table beside Hitler. Stauffenburg left the room, claiming an urgent need to communicate with Berlin. The briefcase was moved by someone to the other side of a table support of the oak table where Hitler stood. When the bomb went off, 4 people were killed and 20 injured, but Hitler was only slightly injured due to the bomb being moved. Another bomb was to have been armed upon detonation of the first, but this didn't occur. The failed assassination prompted a purge of the Wehrmacht in which thousands were killed.

This is the place where they almost killed Hitler

Model of the meeting room where an attempt to assassinate Hitler occurred. Note placement of attache case with bomb on the outside of a support of the oak table where Hitler is standing.

After decades of switching between private and state ownership, the Wolf's Lair is now a national park and a well kept museum of the fortress itself and of other aspects of the Nazi occupation of Poland. Among many exhibits are a history of World War II in Europe and memorials to the Jews of Poland, the Warsaw Uprising, and the costs of the war to Poland and other countries.

The symbol of the Warsaw Uprising resistance, next to a museum of that uprising

Museum of the Warsaw Uprising of 1944

Information on the Warsaw Uprising

Captured German self-propelled gun used briefly by the Uprising resistance

Drainage sewers were often used to hide and move resistance fighters within the city

Clothing and armbands of a 14 year-old fighter killed in the Warsaw Uprising

There was a lot of information about the horrific costs of the war

We spent about two hours walking through the site. Our instruction was a very nice audio tour that keyed off our location on the grounds. The weather became threatening near the end of our walk, and we had to run to our car in a downpour at the end of the tour.

After visiting the Wolf's Lair, the weather cleared and we drove about 20 miles to Giżycko, a resort town between two large lakes. The Masurian Lakes comprise thousands of lakes, similar to the lakes in northern Minnesota, varying in size from small ponds to much larger bodies. The lakes support a huge tourist and recreational industry. Many towns on these lakes have hotels, rental cabins and marinas, and support recreational activities such as kayaking, wind surfing, boating, and fishing. Many of the lakes are connected by canals, so boaters and kayakers can go on long excursions among the lakes. 

Canal at Giżycko connecting two Masurian lakes

Tour boat. It's not quite the tourist season, so the boat was fairly empty

Map at a marina showing how long you should rent a boat for a particular excursion

Lake Niegocin

"Giżycko, the Seafaring Capital of Poland, Don't lose out, come back again!"

Most of the restaurants and pubs in the area serve fish from the lakes. One of the favorites is sandacz, which is European pike-perch (walleye). It's always fish fry Friday on the Masurian lakes! We had a light lunch, including some fish, and walked around town.

When we got back to the car, we found that I hadn't put enough time on the meter and we'd gotten a parking ticket. It ended up being a pain in the ass to take care of. No internet link to pay the ticket. We ended up figuring out how to do it the next day.

A 100 złoty mistake

Our adventure hadn't ended. After an hour and a half drive back to Olsztyn, we went to return the car. Of course, the kid wasn't at the office. Nor was he answering the phone. We ended up calling the general number for the rental agency. We got a result. I guess the kid's boss yelled at him and he called us back. He was a 20 minute walk away (a rental car employee without use of a car?), so we waited. He arrived, checked out the car and called us a cab back to the hotel. The zero-English driver again was grateful for the 50% tip on a cheap ride.

The kid's dereliction of duty made it so that we were too late for some home cooking at the hole-in-the-wall (they closed at 7). So we headed to the stream side brewery across the street from our hotel for dinner. The next day we'd spend a more relaxing day in Olsztyn before heading to Warsaw the following day.

Back to the Beginning

Day 3

Day 5