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Northern Poland: Former Germany’s East

Before World War 2 most of today's northern Poland was ethnically and politically German. Much of the Lithuanian heritage here is, therefore, heavily intertwined with both Poland and Germany.

Sites of wars against Teutonic Knights

During the 13th-15th centuries, pagan Lithuania fought a seemingly eternal war against the German Teutonic Knights who sought to spread Christianity (according to critics, more likely to loot and destroy). Their headquarters was Malbork (Marienburg) castle, today rebuilt for better imagination of knights' lifestyle.

Malbork Castle

The largest of the battles against the crusading knights took place in Grunewald (known as Tannenberg in Germany, Žalgiris in Lithuania). ~70 000 soldiers participated in this one of the largest medieval battles where a united Lithuanian and Polish force vanquished the Teutonic Knights. The battlefield is now a popular tourist place with medieval souvenirs and a huge obelisk that also includes Lithuanian symbols.

Main monument at the Grunewald battlefield with Lithuanian symbols

There are additional monuments on the battlefield, one of them built by Lithuanians in particular. Covered by the Lithuanian Vytis symbol, this commemorative stone is inscribed, in Lithuanian and Polish, "Nuo lietuvių tautos už bendrą pergalę" - "From the Lithuanian nation for a common victory".

Lithuanian monument at the Grunewald battlefield

The battle has great importance in Lithuania as many streets and sports franchises are named after it, including the most powerful basketball (Žalgiris Kaunas) and football (Žalgiris Vilnius) teams. Due to a large number of Lithuanian tourists, the Grunewald battleground museum has its plaques in three languages - Polish, English, and Lithuanian.

Darius and Girėnas crash site memorials

In Soldin forest near Myślibórz, a plane "Lituanica" crashed in 1933. Piloted by Steponas Darius and Stasys Girėnas, this plane flew successfully over the Atlantic with the destination in Kaunas only several hundred kilometers away. It was the second longest flight time at the time, as well as the first Lithuanian plane to cross the Atlantic and the world's first transatlantic airmail service (the mail did not burn and was symbolically flown from the crash site to Lithuania the next day).

The pilots became martyrs and even Nazi Germany permitted the construction of the Lithuanian pilots monument (two interlinked crosses) at the crash site in 1936 despite the German claim over Klaipėda region which shattered Lithuanian hopes to participate in Berlin Olympic games the same year. The monument was built by a famous sculptor Vytautas Landsbergis-Žemkalnis. The chapel-post was since replaced; the original is now in the Lithuanian House of Punsk.

Darius and Girėnas crash site memorial looking from above

After World War 2, this area was incorporated into Poland. Curiously the monument survived even the iconoclastic communist regime and remained a place of respect.

Crash site memorial

Additional monuments for Darius and Girėnas have been built since then, including wooden shades with Lithuanian symbols and stones with Darius's and Girėnas's stories. Traditional Lithuanian chapel-posts (augmented by propellers) mark the places where pilots' bodies were discovered. Next to the site where Darius's body was discovered, a memorial hut was relocated from Samogitia in the 1980s to serve as a small museum. On or near it one can find commemorative plaques built by the aeroclub of Jonava and the Lithuanians of Sejny area (1983), Darius and Girėnas death site being a popular place for pilgrimage for Lithuanian diaspora and pilots alike.

A typical dedication is for "Atlanto nugalėtojai", meaning "The vanquishers of the Atlantic", as Darius and Girėnas died after completing their goal of becoming the first Lithuanians to cross the Atlantic Ocean, albeit not reaching Kaunas.

Darius and Girėnas commemorative hut. The chapel-post built at the place where Darius's body was discovered in

Plaque by Sejny Lithuanians at the commemorative hut

In Myślibórz, which is the Polish town closest to the crash site, Steponas Darius and Stasys Girėnas became somewhat of the local heroes. A traffic circle and a park have been named after them. The park also has a smaller memorial for the doomed flight. This memorial symbolises Earth cut in half; in the middle of that sphere there are placename Kaunas and New York (the planned end and the beginning of their flight). That monument was unveiled in 2008.

Myślibórz park

Monument as Myślibórz

Gdansk area museums related to Lithuanian history

The Gdansk-Sopot-Gdynia tri-city is now famous for its three supermuseums, very large and modern. Each of them is at least somewhat related to Lithuania. European Solidarity Center tells the story of the Solidarity movement that eventually deposed Polish communism. However, it also covers the entire life under the communist system, as well as the collapse of communism. Each ex-communist-ruled nation, including Lithuania, is dedicated a stand.

Second World War museum (Gdansk) also covers the events that influenced Lithuania. The museum is controversial, though: its original creators were from outside Central/Eastern Europe and their knowledge of local history proved to be superficial. Some exhibits were partly based on Soviet propaganda. Seeing this, the Polish government initially refused to open the museum but later opened it after rectifying the anti-Polish exhibits. Sadly, although anti-Polish claims were removed, anti-Lithuanian claims, as well as Soviet-propaganda based claims or spins about many other nations of the region, have remained. So, for instance, the very first quote about Lithuanian freedom fighters is that "Some of them were Nazi collaborators", etc.

The third supermuseum is Museum of Emigration in Gdynia. While it specifically deals with Poland's emigration, since ~1860 Poles and Lithuanians basically emigrated to the same destinations (even to the same cities and towns of the USA), so much of what is presented is also applicable to Lithuanians. Furthermore, some of the 19th-century Polish diaspora figures are considered to have been Lithuanian diaspora figures by Lithuanians: that is because Poland-Lithuania was a united country until 19th century and there were many people of Lithuanian origins who spoke Polish due to linguistic shift; these are now often considered to have been Poles by Poland and Lithuanians by Lithuania.

Post-WW2 Lithuanian heritage

The city of Gdansk was destroyed in World War 2 but many of its buildings were rebuilt. Among the key architects in the rebuilding was Jan Borowski from Vilnius. He is commemorated by a plaque near the main square of Gdansk, rebuilt to its former glory. In fact, many Poles from Lithuania were relocated to western Poland after World War 2, in order to populate these areas from where ethnic Germans were deported.

Borowski plaque which describes him as an architect from Vilnius

Gdynia city also has a new streen named after Antanas Baranauskas, a Lithuanian bishop of Sejny. Unlike many streets named after Lithuanians in Poland, this one uses the Lithuanian version of his name.

Antanas Baranauskas Street

Stutthof Concentration Camp

East of Gdansk one may visit Stutthof Nazi concentration camp, now a museum. It is rare among the concentration camps in that Jews did not make the majority of prisoners here. Instead, the camp was used to imprison many ethnic Lithuanians, Latvians, and Estonians who were seen as anti-Nazi, including leftist writer Balys Sruoga and politician Jonas Noreika. Balys Sruoga wrote a black-humour-filled book "Dievų miškas" (Forest of Gods) about the camp, which is seen as a Lithuanian literary classic due to its uniqueness in still being able to look at the world in a somewhat non-serious way despite the great suffering. Inside the concentration camp one may still feel the horrible atmosphere they suffered. A plaque for Lithuanians has been unveiled in Stuthoff.