Check out the view from the Palace of Culture and Science

The Palace of Culture and Science is easy to see, recognised locally, with a good dose of irony, as Stalin’s Gift.

Designed in the triangular “birthday cake” style so favoured by the Soviet dictator, this 1950s skyscraper was introduced by the man himself to the City of Warsaw, allegedly as a gift, but in fact as an unwelcome reminder of who ruled the world during the Communist period.

You don’t reject presents from Stalin, but the city’s inhabitants took it into their own hands and determined they would make it bigger
and larger if they had to make it, and today’s house standing on this site is double the height of the initial proposal.

The skyscraper, containing theatres, cinemas and many other jewels for the pleasure of the people of Warsaw, is a fine example of communism.

Ride the elevator to the observation room to see for yourself the interior of the Palace; there are impressive views in the distance from the roof to the Old Town and Water, as well as the mini-Manhattan of Warsaw’s new business district as it expands every day. Add this to your Warsaw Itinerary and you won’t regret it.

Sixty years on, the Culture and Technology Palace remains the city’s tallest structure – but not for long.

Learn the tragic history of the Warsaw Ghetto

It’s hard to come to Warsaw to disregard the tragedy of the Second World War. More than 400,000 Jews lived in the city at the time of war and the Nazi settlers were able to take them under their immediate control, establishing the Warsaw Ghetto in late 1940.

The Ghetto, in the city’s Muranów neighbourhood, occupied a wide area but not large enough for the number of residents, who were housed in a space with an average of over nine people.

About 92,000 Jewish inhabitants died of malnutrition and illness in the Ghetto, while more than 300,000 were killed in the death camps by gas or firing squad. Mostly the Treblinka camp, to which about 250,000 inhabitants of the Ghetto were dramatically sent in the summer of 1942.

The remainder of the inhabitants started fighting back in 1943, resulting in the late April Warsaw  Ghetto Revolt, in which the surviving Jewish inhabitants were either killed or sent to concentration camps.

The Polish Jewish History Museum (POLIN) is situated within the  former, unreconstructed ghetto area and today contain more new buildings.
Well worth a visit to the museum; prepare for at least 2 hours.  A memorial to the Polish Jews and the Warsaw Ghetto Rebellion stands outside the museum.