Sleeping at the Wolf’s Lair, Kętrzyn, Poland

Zagan the motorhome is in the forest, parked up for the night in the official camping area at the Wolf’s Lair, one of Adolf Hitler’s military headquarters during World War 2, near Kętrzyn (N54.07974, E21.49440). It cost us roughly £10 for two adult tickets to the complex and a night’s stay, including electricity, pretty good value! The birds are singing, although a burst of automatic gunfire just went off behind us, scaring the bejesus out of Charlie.

Zagan in the official motorhome parking area at the Wolf’s Lair

The journey up here was a tad bumpy. Suspension testing bumpy. 30mph on a 60mph road bumpy. With sections of smooth tarmac seemingly laid down just to keep your spirits up, we bounced our way across what used to be Germany, Prussia to be precise. That mighty old German state ceased to exist with the end of WW2, but some of the roads up here feel like they’ve not been replaced since. OK, OK, I exaggerate, they’re not that bad, but all the milk we have on board has turned into cheese.

Rumbling along he patched B roads of old Prussia

This area of Poland has a reputation for being impoverished, and we didn’t see a great deal to argue otherwise, since there isn’t a great deal up here. Lakes, fields, forests and the odd collection of buildings passing for a town. Ju spotted a few instances of people making up some kind of shrine as we passed, and looked up the date just as we were halted by a gathering of folks walking along the road ahead, carrying a cross. It’s Corpus Christi, a Catholic religious holiday, and flower petals were being flung under our wheels ahead of us.

Corpus Christi here in Poland

After a mile or so the crowd reached their destination and stepped off the road. Children dressed in white had led the parade, and were stood around waiting for the next stage in proceedings. Not feeling a part of this alien event, we carried on driving, along with a tour bus and several Polish and German cars. Signs sprouted alongside the road, which had finally smoothed out, thankfully, as were starting to hear odd noises from the suspension.

Wolf’s Lair, thisaway folks

Pulling in and paying up, all the world is here. If all the world consisted of Polish and German tourists that is, with the occasional English (us), French and Dutch visitors thrown in. Ju pointed out there are no non-Europeans here. I looked around and realised there are only Caucasians too. The atmosphere was immediately one more of fun than any kind of silently-sincere museum piece, as armoured cars touted for business – anyone fancy a wee drive about?

Bit of a weird sight seeing armoured vehicles rolling around the forest roads

Folks having fun at the Wolf’s Lair

The site’s run under contract from the Polish government, becoming an attraction only after the Soviets left in the 90’s. What’s here is a collection of partly demolished huge concrete bunkers and brick buildings throughout the forest. The Nazi’s shipped in a train load of dynamite to try and blow it up just a couple of days before the Red Army arrived on their march west. They largely succeeded in making the buildings useless, but they’re clearly still a big draw for us folks attracted by the history of the place.

Part of a demolished bunker at the Wolf’s Lair – Ju hopes there is more than those sticks holding it up

This site was chosen by Hitler for being close to Russia, which he was drawing up plans to invade in the early 40’s (it’s still close to Russia – Kaliningrad’s just to the north of us). It was also felt to be safe, as it was in Prussia, which was inside Germany at the time. There was a railway here already to move materials and people, and it was in dense woodland, good for camouflage against overhead bomb attacks. Whether the Allies ever discovered its existence isn’t clear. The leaflet we bought here says the western allies knew of its exact location, but it was out of bombing range. Wikipedia says no-one’s sure if any of the allies knew where it was.

Huge amounts of concrete and steel went into the bunkers

Hitler spent over 800 days here, walking his dog in the mornings before dealing with military and other matters during the day. As the war went badly, he stayed out of the public eye, being sat here in a distant forest instead. It seems likely decisions over genocide and other atrocities were taken here, but the atmosphere at the site stayed light-hearted as we walked the 2km trail on our map. Tour leaders had their groups in fits of laughter, and everyone ignored the ‘DO NOT< NEVER, EVER> GO INTO THE BUNKER’ signs painted everywhere, not that there’s much to see, but there is much to trip over or poke your eye out with.

No going into the bunkers!

“Oi, I said no going into the bunkers”! “But I was just following my tour guide?”

If you’ve ever seen Tom Cruise in the film Valkyrie, then you’ve seen what this place would have roughly looked like when 2000 folks worked here planning war (and sitting in the sauna, cinema or playing roulette in the on-site casinos). In the film Cruise portrays Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg, as he attempts to assassinate Hitler with a suitcase bomb in a building (now ruined) off to my left. For various reasons the bomb fails to kill Hitler, but Hitler doesn’t fail to kill Stauffenberg, who’d wanted rid of the dictator and the Nazis, so Germany could plead for peace on more favourable terms than they ended up with. This was just one of numerous attempts made on Hitler’s life over the years, mainly by Germans.

A plaque showing the location of Stauffenberg’s attempt to kill Hitler

We talked about what we made of the place. It’s certainly an odd one, a kind of mixed-bag of museum and tourist attraction. It feels more fun than it should. There’s even a shooting range in one of the less-damaged buildings where you can pepper cans and bottles with ball bearings or some such for a few quid.

Shooting range at the Wolf’s Lair

In the end, neither of us could work the place out. It’s certainly not revered, which has to be the right attitude to take to the place?

What remains of Hitler’s bunker

I’ll leave you with a few more photos from today folks. Our Baltic States map is out now, and we’re planning our shift east into Lithuania, the first of a string of countries we’ve never visited. We can’t wait.

Flats on the way here

Stauffenberg before he lost an eye (and most of his fingers – which made it very hard for him to arm the bomb). A brave man, I’m sure, he knew the price of failure

Ladder on the fallen roof of a bunker

Map of the Wolf’s Lair

Key to the map. No information is given by the way – we bought a map for £1, or you could get a guide for £10, which was probably a good idea

Another burst of gunfire just went off – seems they’re not keeping the firing to the range!

You have a choice of military vehicle to be driven about in, including an old BMW motorbike

Nah, sorry, we don’t know what this means

Barbed wire where they REALLY don’t want you going in

There are collosal bunkers everywhere. This one in the car park, there are two smaller ones in the camping area

The place is gradually falling apart

The new inhabitants of some of the bunkers

What did we say about those bunkers?

Concrete and moss everywhere at the Wolf’s Lair

The best (only) information board on the site except the map

Jay