Our interesting stop today was the Wolf’s Lair, Hitler’s bunker deep in, what was then, the East Prussian forests.
The countryside on our journey today changed yet again. There were gently undulating hills and a mixture of dense forest and extensive large scale agriculture. As we progressed eastwards suddenly every small pocket in the landscape was filled with lakes or varying sizes. We were in the area of the Masurian Lakes. Keen students of 20th century history will remember this as the site of two important battles in World War I when the Germans tried and eventually succeeded in driving the Russian Army out of what was then German East Prussia. But I digress.
Another notable feature of our drive was the continued presence of storks and their chicks. We are now at a latitude equivalent to the north of England. I wonder why these beautiful birds never nest in the UK?
We arrived at the site of the Wolf’s Lair, deep in remote forest, and were immediately disappointed to find the men collecting money for the car park were dressed in matching para-military uniforms! I had read in my research that the Polish government, who owns the site, can’t decide what to do with it, so at the moment, although the monument is technically free to enter being in a public forest, the car parking and attendant snack stalls are a free for all of private enterprise. The result is that the commercial area, adjacent to the site, is a tasteless to say the least, with rides being offered in military vehicles amongst other things. Whose idea was it to allow para-military uniforms at an ex-Nazi site?
Hitler’s Bunker
Briefly the history of the Wolf’s Lair is that it was established as Hitler’s military headquarters in June 1941 just before the German’s operation Barbarossa, the invasion of the Soviet Union. Hitler spent over 800 days here between 1941 and his last visit in late 1944. It was also the scene of the bomb placed in a conference room by Claus von Stauffenberg (as played by Tom Cruise in Valkerie recently) which came close to killing Hitler.
All that is left of the conference room where von Stauffenbert attempted to kill Hitler.
Hitler became obsessed that his headquarters would be subject to a mass bombing raid and so many of the buildings were massively fortified with over 2 metres of re-enforced concrete. Two days before the Red Army overran it, the Germans tried to blow it up, but as you will see from my photographs the enormous quantities of concrete meant that they were not very successful.
Sarah, Mabel and Melek give scale to Goring’s bunker.
Detail from Goring’s Bunker showing thickness of the re-enforced concrete
The walk round the site itself was very interesting for me. I have, predictably, read fairly extensively about the Second World War and to be in a place of such historical importance was fascinating. One of the things which was apparent from the assembly of destroyed and part destroyed buildings, which I have never read about, was the disparity in protection afforded to senior Nazis, contrasted with senior army personnel. The bunkers of Hitler, Goring and even Martin Borman were gigantic affairs with impregnable re-enforced concrete walls and roofs. Whereas the two most senior military officers, Jodl and Keitel, were given very modestly protected accomodation. Goring managed to even have a house and a bunker!
Goring’s House
Sarah found the whole site and experience disquieting and wondered whether my interest and those of other visitors was in some way inappropriate given some of the decisions that must have been made here. It probably wasn’t helped that the site is still the home of many evil monsters, mosquitoes, which are Sarah’s nemesis.
We had considered camping overnight at the aire adjacent to the Wolf’s Lair, but it was run by the same men in uniform who had so unimpressed me and so we were both in agreement to move on.
We eventually settled for Camping Borowo (54.021626, 21.806054) a very pleasant leafy site on the shores of one of the larger Marusian Lakes. It is 70 zloty (€16.50) a night, with wifi at the bar. The one sour note is that you have to pay extra for the showers.
Basil at Camping Borowo. Note the late in the background.
Lake Niegocin, on which the campsite is based is enormous. Over 26 square kilometers. We can see, in the distance dozens of sailing boats plying the waters. As we drove through the lakes we noticed that some of the biggest are linked together by canals and so there are many yachts with living quarters exploring an enormous area of inland waters. A kind of huge, and may I say more beautiful, Norfolk Broads!
Lake Niegocin