Graffiti and the Toruń Skyline

Here is an interesting view of the Toruń skyline from the top of an old Prussian war bunker. There are many bunkers circling the city and many more smaller ones within the old town. Some of them were even used by the Nazis during WWII as POW camps.

Theme Day: Photo of the Year

Happy New Year to you all from TORUŃ DAILY PHOTO. It's that time of the month when we delve back into the archives to show you all the photo of the year. Admitedly, there aren't many to choose from as we haven't been so active over the last 12 months as before. Glad to say this will change for 2012!

So what was the best photo of 2011?

It has to be this stark hand-drawn message from the past. A British POW told the Nazis exactly how he felt all those years ago (70 to be precise!). The graffiti is one of many which can still be seen in the former Stalag-XXA camp here in Toruń.

Click here to view thumbnails for all participants

Following the Footsteps of Toruń's POWs: Disembarkation

The military ramp

Toruń's main railway station

Today TORUŃ DAILY PHOTO begins a new series of photographs called "Following the Footsteps of Toruń's POWs". Over the next week we will follow the exact same route that the Prisoners of War took when they arrived in Toruń during WWII. Many thanks to Piotr Olecki from Toruń's Historical War Museum (www.muzeumhw.pl), who acted as our guide.

Disembarkation:

Just a few hundred metres further up the track from Toruń's main railway station you can find this long cobbled ramp. This was used by the Nazis to unload their trains and was the arrival point for all the POWs. There were French, British, Polish and many other allied prisoners of war. The first to arrive were from the Allied Campaign in Norway but later over 4,500 prisoners arrived from Dunkirk. At its peak there were as many as 20,000 prisioners held in the stalag camps around Toruń.

Today you can still find bullets and ammunition along this ramp.

The Barbarka War Memorial

This striking statue of a fallen figure now stands in the Barbarka forest, close to the cemetry of Poles shot by the Nazis. Over a period of several months in 1939 the Nazis shot over 600 citizens from Toruń and the surrounding area. Their bodies were buried in mass graves deep within the forest.

To the Manor Born

Manor houses were where the Polish elite once lived. You can still find them dotted around the Polish landscape in various degrees of state. Either they have been converted into offices or bought by foreigners (usually by the property-ladder hungry Brits!).

This one is situated 9km north of Toruń and is set in a landscaped park (open to the public). It was built in 1848 and restored in 1971. During WWII the owner (along with most of Toruń's educated elite) was executed by the Nazis. The palace is now the HQ of the Agricultural Property Agency.

TORUŃ BY DUSK: Town Hall

Here is our most famous building in the wonderful colours of the blue period!

This building has stood here for hundreds of years. There is now a new temporary exhibition in town of old photographs of Toruń. The most chilling are those that depict Toruń under Nazi occupation. Just to see a black and white shot of this very same Town Hall with Nazi swastikas hanging off it...really did send a shiver down my spine.