A visit to Rundāle Palace

After concluding our visit to Estonia we headed south to the capital of Latvia, Riga. Riga was established in 1201.  The city has a long history over the years, it has played host to a number of different groups from Vikings to German merchants. Riga's one unique claim to fame, is that the Christmas tree tradition was started there by the city's German residence.

After exploring the city's old town and river front we decided to head to Latvia's country side. Our destination was about 1 hour from Riga. Just outside the village of Bauska there is a large palace called Rundāle Palace. Rundāle Palace was build for the Duke and Duchess of Courland in 1730. After Courland was annexed by the Russian empire the palace was given as a gift by Catherine the Great to Count Valerian Zubov, the youngest brother of one of her lover, Prince Platon Zubov. I imagine it must have been nice to know people is really high places. Although I was interested in exploring this beautiful bulding I had another reason for visiting this place.

Rundāle Palace served as a German hospital in WWI. In the West when you ask most people about WWI. If they even know anything at all, it is likely to be something about the Western Front. The Eastern front of the Great War has almost been forgotten about. The truth is the fighting on the Eastern front in the Great War was every bit as terrible and viscous as what was experienced in the West. The Russian invaded East Prussian in 1914. They did make some gains but the German Imperial forces struck back. In 1915 the Germans along side their Austro-Hungarian allies pushed the forces of the Russian empire back from Lithuania all the way to into Latvia they were finally stopped at what became known as the Riga-Jakobstadt-Dünaburg line. This line held until the Russian collapse in 1917. In 1915 Rundāle Palace was occupied and set up as German headquarters for the region, and hospital for casualties coming in from the Eastern front.

The room above was filled with hospital beds for German, and even Russian soldiers who had been wounded. It must have been quite a difference for wounded soldiers coming from the muddy Latvian trenches to this beautiful hall. These halls are quite today but back in between 1915 and 1918 it would have been a busy place with nurses, medics, orderlies and doctors caring for the wounded that were brought in.

  

As I wondered around the hall one of the interesting things I encountered was a few small reminders of the palace's past as a Great War hospital. In one of the rooms if you know where to look there are the names of both Russian and German soldier's carved into the wall's plaster

These names were carved in all likelihood by boarded soldiers trying to pass the time while recovering from their wound's

The below carving is particularly impressive. The soldier who did this must have had some time on his hands. There are a lot of details in this carving, from the lugs on his M16 helmet, his puttees down to the buttons on the 1910 tunic.

I asked one of the workers if they could tell me where the operating theater has been located but they were unsure. I was able to learn that the palace gardens did have a German Great War cemetery. This would have been where soldier who had died while being treated for their wounds at the palace were laid to rest. Sadly I learned that during the Latvian war for independence in 1919 the Palace was sacked and the cemetery was destroyed. Some fragments of the grave stones were located during the renovation of the palace gardens, and were saved. They are now on dispaly in the Palace basement.

I went out to the gardens to see if I could locate the spot where the cemetery had once stood. After a little searching I located the spot. It now has a small monument built where the remains of a number of German and a few Russian soldiers are buried.

On each side of the monument are the names of the German soldiers and units which they fought in. There are also the dates of both birth and death.

 

Although Rundāle Palace  is not a battlefield it does serves as a reminder of the many men who fought and died on the Eastern Front during the Grear War. 

Walking the battlefields of Narva

Wednesday we left Kaunas and drove to see Klaipeda Lithuania. Klaipeda was once known as Memel and was the northern most city of East Prussia. After WWI the city was taken from the Germans and given to Lithuania. In 1939 German troops were sent into Memel to reoccupy it and return it to Germany.

German Kreigsmarines returning to Memel in 1939

 Today there is sadly very little left to remind one of the city's East Prussian past. Most of the city was destroyed in WWII. There is a very small old town with cobble stone streets and building dating to the 1700s. As I walked these streets I remember reading Guy Sajer's book The forgotten Soldier. For those who don't know the book is a memoir of a German soldier's experience on the Eastern Front. Sajer fought in the battle of Memel in 1945. He commented about the streets of Memel and how empty they were prior to the battle, as the residents were evacuated. It was hard not to wonder if I was walking the same places as Guy Sajer.

We left Klaipeda and headed north all the way to Tallinn, Estonia. The drive took us though Latvia and up a long the Baltic coast. After seven hours we reached our destination of Tallinn. Tallinn in my opinion one of the most beautiful cities I have had the opportunity to visit. There is a fairly large medieval city called Old Town that has been lovely restored.

 

Russian Orthodox church dating to Russian Imperial era

 

 

As I walked the streets I saw buildings that had been commissioned by Catherine the Great, other that has once belonged to wealthy German merchant that has been built in the 1600 and 1700s. Buildings that dating back as far as the 1300s. Everywhere you look in this city there are reminders of its ancient past.

 

The next day we left our hotel to journeyed two hours east to the city of Narva. Narva sits on the Russian boarder and is the Eastern most city in the EU. I knew we were close to Russian when I started to see signs for St. Petersburg being only 200 km away. Narva is about 90% Russian speaking a legacy of its Soviet Past. The city was in fact divided after the fall of the Soviet union and the boarder check point is situated in the city's center





Estonia-Russia boarder check point

 

We were in Narva to see its WWII heritage. Narva was the site of a large and bloody battle. The battle took place in two parts. The first part was fought in January and February of 1944. The Red army attempted to create a bridgehead across the Narva river, but were stopped and pushed back by the German. The Germans created a strong point known as the Panther line.This line held until it was finally breached by the Red army in the summer of 1944. The Germans fell back to the Blues hill outside of Narva and created a new strong point called the Tannenberg line. Everywhere you look in Narva there are reminders of the titanic battle if you know where to look. I didn't so I hired a guide by the name of Pavel who was from the area, and is a local history teacher. The first place Pavel took us was to the Narva fortress.

 

Narva fortress dates back to the medieval era, but during WWII it was used to inter Soviet P.O.W.s. The tower was used by the Germans as an observation point. We climbed up to the top and it was easy to see why. You get a very good view into Russia, and you can see for miles

In the front of the fortress there was some construction going on. Our guide pointed out to look in one of the excavated holes. Sticking out of the dirt was a German mess kit. Our guide spoke to the workers and they said the day before they dug up a few German and Soviet helmets. Reminders of the war are found pretty frequently here.

The mess kit is in the left in this photo.

 

After we spent some time seeing the fortress we left Narva city and drove along the Narva river. Our next stop was the so called Tank Monument

 This tank was supposedly fished out of the Narva river in the 1970s. My guide says the story is made up, but still its neat monument. It now sits on the exact spot where the Soviets finally breached the Panther line and were able to push into Narva and establish a bridgehead. After a few photos we continued down the highway and stopped at the Narva German cemetery

 

 

The cemetery sits on the site some where some fierce fighting took place. It is now the resting place for the remains of 30,000 German soldiers as well as Finnish, Dutch, Norwegian, Danish, Estonia and even a few Russian that volunteered to fight along side the Germans. They are in fact still finding bodies in the forest, when they are discovered they are removed and interred here. 

 

 

These names are the name of men who are buried in a mass grave under this marble slab

 

These were were Scandinavian volunteers in the SS

 

 

In February of 1944 the Soviets attempted to cross the river here, which was frozen over at the time. The Germans commenced with a bombardment of the ice which broke up and stopped the Soviet advance, at least for a time. As I stood on this peaceful grassy hill I tried to envision what it must have looked like in February of 1944. I could picture Germans soldiers in their white parkas and white washed helmet. Men running back and forth lugging MGs,ammo crates and mortar rounds. Men yelling and calling to each other in a mix of languages, Estonian, German, Dutch, French, and Finnish. Snow covering the ground. I could picture their desperation knowing what failure would mean. I next thought about the men of the Red army, what have been going though their minds as they tried time and again to rush across the ice, only to be cut down by heavy fire from MG42 and mortar rounds. I could just see the ice turning red as wave after wave of Red army soldiers were cut down. The next wave slipping on the blood of their comrades. There is just something about standing right where it happened that helps you picture it so much more clearly then just reading about it.

 

After visiting this moving site we headed down the highway to what was Germans next stong point. The Tannenberg line.

 

The Tannenberg line is located just West of Narva in a very small village called Sinimae, or the Blue Hills. Our guide took us into the woods to show us exactly where the trench lines had been.

 

The trenches are still there, and it is possible to walk the line of defence and strong points.

 

 

Our guide Pavel's knowledge of the area was much deeper then I realized. Pavel spent five years employed by the German government locating the unmarked graves of German soldiers, identifying them and arranging to have their remains interred in the Narva cemetery. When we were in the Narva cemetery he excitedly showed me the names men he has found on the memorial slabs. While we walks the trench line he would point out areas where he and his team had located the remains of different men. Because of this Pavel was able to map out exactly where certain units held points of the line. It was pretty interesting to hear that in a particular section of the trench it had been held by men from the Dutch SS or Danish SS, or German army. As we walked down the line he was constantly pointing out where remains had been located. In one area he said he located five men all from Dutch SS. In another a single Finn from SS Norland had been located. I asked him what happened when they located the body of a Russian instead of a Germans. He said that was where it got a little hard. Soviet soldiers believed it to be bad luck to wear a dog tag and therefore didn't use them. He said it most cases Soviet remains can't be identified so they are removed and interned in a mass grave. A little later in the day he took us to where Soviet soldiers are buried.

   

 

 This is the latest mass grave in Sinimae, it is located just outside the battlefield. The remains were interred in this last spring. These are all Russian soldiers who are unknown. Pavel them told me about one case which he was particularly proud. During an excavation he found the remains of a Russian soldier. He was still gripping a grenade in his hand, he had been killed as he tried to rush the German position. The man was wearing a Bakelite dog tag, and Pavel was able to contact the Russian government to identify his remains. The man's remains were put into the Russian Sinimae cemetery

 

 

 

The man's family was notified and they were able to put in this headstone. Note the age of the soldier. He was born in 1897. He was not a young men when he served. 

 

As we continued our tour of the battlefield we met a local digging team. They has just uncovered a Condor legion metal.

Relic of this terrible battlefield are everywhere. We visited the house of a local and he showed us a pile of items he found in the forest.

 

 

The owner of this pile of war junk let pick though it and take anything we wished. I took a wooden canteen dated 1942.

 

After chatting with this local we headed over to the Sinimae museum. The museum was very small, but has a very friendly curator who spent lots of time telling us all about the battle and especially the SS-Norland division and Estonian SS. She was quick to tell us that as Americans were tend to think that the SS were all evil men that worked in concentration camps. I of course knew this but I could tell she was pretty passionate about the subject so it was interesting to listen to what she had to say. She explained to us all about how the Estonians had been treated by the Soviets and how they greeted the Germans as liberators. She also talked about how young men from Scandinavia and Holland has been enticed to join the SS with promises of adventure and free education in the post-war era. Her main point was not to judge these men too harshly for their service in the SS. It is not all black and white in the history of WWII.

 

This is an original snow camoed helmet found in the woods

 

After leaving the museum we headed out to make one final stop. This was to Grenadier hill.

 



 





Grenadier hill was the final strong point in the Tannenberg line. This position was held by SS-Norland in July of 1944. This was the site of some of the bloodiest fighting of the battle for Narva. Today it is now the site of a memorial to the men who lost their lives defending this position. Around the cross are memorials to the Dutch, Estonian, Danish, and Wallonian men who fought and died here. The original trench line actually runs through the center of the memorial.

 

After contemplating the great battle that took place here. Trying to picture these men from varies nations who fought here we returned to our can for the long drive back to Tallinn. As we were preparing to get into our car, we ran into the diggers we met in the forest. They had been trying to track us down. They wanted to show us a MG42 they just dug up and a MP40. I have to say they were pretty proud to show us what they had found.

 

 

 It had been a long day, but worth the trip. Seeing where these event took place really made WWII come to life.

 

 

 

 





The Ghosts of East Prussia

It is day two of the Baltic trip. Today we drove south away from the Baltic and into Poland. Our trip across the boarder was uneventful and almost boring. The border check point is no longer manned due to the Schengen Agreement.

Polish border check point, not much happening here

 

The first town we came to in Poland was Suwałki. Suwałki once had a large Jewish community. It was virtually wiped out by the Nazis in WWII. Today if you visit the Suwałki cemetery you can see the pieces of Jewish gravestones set into a cement wall. These were taken from Jewish graves that were broken up by the Nazis. Another interesting fact I learned about Suwałki was at least six of the Polish Officers murdered by the Soviets at Katyn were from Suwałki. There is a small monument to them, unfortunately I was unable to locate it. It seems everywhere you turn in Poland there is some memory of WWII.
After leaving Suwałki we continued south into what was once East Prussia. This particular part of Poland was part of German East Prussia prior to 1945. What I found interesting was as we traveled into this part of Poland you could clearly see the German influence. Many of the houses, barns, and churches all date to the East Prussian era. It is clearly evident in the architecture. My Sister even commented that she thought it looked like we had entered Germany not Poland.
We stopped briefly at an antique shop in the town of Gizyko. The shop was filled with 1920s, 30s, and 1940 art deco furniture. I wondered what these things would say if they could talk. I imagine much of it had been left by their German owners as they fled the Soviet advance in 1945. Silence witnesses to devastation of East Prussia.

We didn’t linger too long in Gizyko our destination was a town called. Kętrzyn. During WWII Kętrzyn was known as Rastenburg. This was where Adolph Hitler had his Eastern Headquarters, known as the Wolf's Lair. Hitler's code name was Wolf, some of his inner circle even called him Mr. Wolf. It was here that decisions were made about the use of prisoners in the German armaments industry and about the construction of new death camps. Adolf Hitler, Hermann Goring, Heinrich Himmler, Martin Bormann, Wilhelm Keitel, Joseph Goebbels, Dr. Fritz Todt, Albert Speer and a number of other all lived and worked here at different times.

To get to the Wolf lair is a bit of a challenge. You must travel deep into the woods, following a winding pot hole filled road. This was the original road and was used by anyone traveling to the Wolf's layer including Hitler and Colonel Claus Von Stauffenberg

Road to the Wolf's lair.

Traveling down this road we came across an old decaying guard towers, some cement bunkers once used by the Luftwaffe and a number of other structures of which were to badly destroyed to tell what they were. We pulled over to explore of one the bunkers that once served the Luftwaffe.

The destruction of the bunkers and other buildings gives you the impression that the place may have been bombed by the allies. In fact nothing could be further from the truth. As the Red army closed in on East Prussia Hitler gave orders for the Wolf's Lair to be destroyed to keep it from being used by the enemy.

After this short stop we continued on to explore a little more. We soon came to a small parking lot where we could leave the car and explore further. When we got out of our car an older Polish gentlemen came up to us with a folder full of photos of the area in WWII. He proceeded to tell us in Polish, what I can only guess was a spiel about the area. All I understood was the words Interesting, Hitler, and Mussolini.I stopped him and said the angielsku, which means English in Polish. He stopped and made a gesture to wait. He left and a few moment later returned with a women who spoke English and asked if we would like a guide. We agreed and worked out a price. Our guide grew up in the area and as a little girl in used to pick wild strawberries with her father in and around the former Wolf's Lair. She told us she had been guiding people at the Wolf's lair for over 20 year. One of the first things she told us was that she had the distinction of giving the tour to Hitler's person body guard, Rochus Misch  when he returned to visit in 2007. She showed us his photo from WWII and then a photo of her and him during his visit. She said he told her that he had personally heard the shot when Hitler killed himself, while he was standing outside the door during the last days in Berlin in WWII. He also said that being in the Wolf's Lair was the best assignment he had during the war. The only issue was the mosquitoes. I have to say I agree. I have lived in Hawaii and Brazil. I have visited Central America and Mexico. I have never in my life seen mosquitos the size of the ones that are everywhere in and around the Wolf's lair. So if you ever visit make sure you take you bug repellent.

 Rochus Misch at the Wolf Lair

 The first place our guide took us was to the exact spot where Colonel Claus Von Stauffenberg left his briefcase containing the bomb which he hoped would have killed Hitler. She asked if we saw the movie Valkyrie, we said that we had. She then responded, "I have seen it 40 times. Its about 60% true, the rest is, as you say in America is Hollywood".

She the proceded to tell us the story of Operation Valkyrie, and what went wrong with the plan. She also showed us where Von Stauffenberg  prepared to bomb and then where he went after leaving the briefcase.

This is the all the remains of the road Von Stauffenberg hurried down after leaving the bomb

After seeing all of this it was impossible for me not to imagine what it must have looked like. I pictured Von Stauffenberg quickly walking down this road. What must have been going though his mind? Did he have any idea of how it would end? 

After leaving this area of the Lair our guide took us to a number of other buildings that served different functions at the Lair. 

This was once Goring bunker

Gas proof door, now embedded in the wall from the explosion



 We spent the rest of the afternoon exploring the many ruined bunkers and building of the Lair. As our guide prepared to leave she told us that not long ago she guided a production team from the American TV show Ghost Hunters International. They wanted to see if the place was haunted. Apparently after spending the night they do not believe it is. Well I don't know anything about real ghosts, but the Wolf's Lair is haunted. Perhaps not by shape shifting apparitions but by its own history. As I walked around these ruined buildings it was impossible for me not to see and feel the people that spend time here. It really did not take too much imagination, when standing in the exact spot where these historical events played out. There may not be any "real" ghosts at this place, but it is haunted, by the ghost of the past  





Lithuania day 1

Welcome to the Baltic

After a long flight that took us from Southern California, to Toronto to Vienna and finally to Vilnius we have arrived in the Baltic. I have to admit being in Lithuania is somewhat of an emotional experience for me. My Great Grandfather was an ethnic German, born and raised in a small village called Nowinikin just south of Kaunas, Lithuania. He left Lithuania for the United States in 1912. As far as I know no one in his direct line has ever returned. I am the first one in 100 year to come back.

After procuring a rental car and getting lost a few time trying to find the highway we left the Capital of Lithuania, Vilnius and drove to our Hotel in Kaunas. Kaunas was founded in 1030. It has been fought over for centuries. First by the Teutonic Knights and later by the Russian and Germans. Napoleon even passed though Kaunas with his Grand Armée in 1812. Truly there is a lot of history here in Kaunas.

After checking into the hotel our first visit was to IX Fort  I had never heard of IX Fort before planning my trip to the Baltic. Construction on IX Fort was began in 1902 and was completed just in time to see service in the Great War. It is what the Fort was used for later that gives it a truly dark history. In 1940 Lithuania was forcible annexed by the Soviet Union. This was part of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact. This agreement between the Soviet Union and Nazi German among other things gave the Soviet Union control of the Baltic states, which Lithuania was a part of.

Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact being sighed, sealing the fate of the Baltic States

After the Soviet annexation, IX fort was seized from the Lithuanians and handed over to the NKVD, Stalin's dreaded Police force. The NKVD turned the fort into a prison for Lithuanian dissidents.

The prisoners who were not out right shot or tortured to death were held at IX until they could be deported to Siberia.

The main gate of IX Fort

However the story doesn't end there. After Hitler declared war on the Soviet Union, Lithuania was invaded and occupied by the forces of Nazi German. IX Fort opened again under new management.

This time the internees included not only Lithuanian dissidents but most of the Lithuanian Jews. Jews were also sent to IX from Germany and France. There were other nationalities held there as well including Poles and Soviet POWs. Over 10,000 Lithuanian Jews died at IX fort

It is very hard to describe the feeling of being of the grounds of IX Fort. As you walk from the parking lot to the gates of the camp you see two imposing structures.

These were built as a monument to those who suffered in the camp. Although you can come to your own conclusion as to what these monuments mean. I got the impression of defiance. Certainly those who lived though that horrible chapter in history, did defy their tormentors by surviving.

After you pass the gates it seems everywhere you look these is a reminder of the terrible things that happened there. In one section there is a long pathway, now called the pathway of death. This is where the prisoners were matched to their death. At IX Fort the prisoners were shot then burned. There were no gas chambers like at other concentration camps.

The pathway of death

 Another section just outside the camp's walls is a large grassy field. There is a small marble slab marking the spot where the remains of thousands of Jews and other were buried.

IX Fort Watch Tower

This was part of the prison fencing now falling into disrepair

There were a few bright spots in the dark history of IX Fort. One of the positive stories is that in 1943 66 men escaped and witnessed to the world about what the Nazis were doing.

This is my Sister standing at the tunnel where these men escaped.

While we wandered around the site we ran into a large group of Orthodox Jews from the U.K. I spoke to their tour guide for a moment, he told me that many members of the group were there because this was the site where members of their family had been murdered by the Nazis. They were there to pay their respects. Somehow seeing this group really brought out the reality of what happened at IX. I have heard others say when you visit a concentration camp you can feel the sadness, but also the evil of what happened there. I have to say I felt both of that. When I saw where all the dead were buried I felt a real heaviness about the area. I am glad I was able to experience this place. I think everyone needs to see a place like this. It helps us remember, an aspect of WWII that is quickly fading as the generation that experienced these horrors passes away.     

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