Rick Steves' Travel Blog

June 4, 2020

Rewatching The Story of Fascism in Europe

One summer evening, the American president ordered a park next to the White House to be cleared of peaceful protesters. He had just declared himself “the law and order president” and announced his intent to mobilize the US military to subdue dissent across the country. And he was about to show off with his own display of force.

The militarized police’s rubber bullets and choking gas drove back throngs of people who were in Lafayette Park lawfully, to protest police brutality. Once the smoke cleared, that president marched through the park, with an entourage of sycophants, and stood before one of the most historic churches in America. There he held up a Bible for a cynical photo op. He brandished the book (upside-down) as if he had never read it. “Is that your Bible?” a reporter asked. “It’s a Bible,” he replied with a smirk.

If I described this scene even a few years ago, you would never have believed that it was real. And yet here we are. As a Christian and a humanitarian, this scene offends me deeply. And as a privileged white man in America, the events of the last week have been a painful but important reminder that so many Americans are denied the basic rights that people like me take for granted every day. To me, “law and order” should mean that Black Lives Matter and all Americans deserve equal protection under the law.

Challenging times — like right now — call for strong leadership: a voice of unity, compassion, and mutual understanding. True leadership is nonpartisan, and in my lifetime, I’ve seen both Democrats and Republicans succeed in bringing together a fractured nation. But that’s not what we have today.

Two years ago, I produced a public television special called The Story of Fascism in Europe. I was driven by what I saw as uneasy parallels between our current political reality and the climate in 1930s Europe that gave rise to Hitler and Mussolini, and by my belief that we need to learn from that history. Today, those parallels have become impossible to deny.

The first 15 or 20 minutes of the special, as the seeds of fascism are planted in Germany and Italy, feel especially relevant in today’s America. Notice how the militarization of police and the scapegoating of “others” are textbook stepping stones in tipping a nation toward authoritarianism. Pay attention to Hitler’s “Brownshirts” and Mussolini’s “Blackshirts” — goon squads who hijacked otherwise peaceful gatherings to stoke dissent. Tune into how they called into question the legitimacy of a democratic system; how they, too, held up an unread Bible; and how they reassured supporters by offering simple solutions to complex challenges. Pay attention to how a fascist takes advantage of a crisis — or several — to consolidate power and to sow fear and chaos. And remember how Hitler and Mussolini both insisted that they, alone, had the answers for all of these problems. As they say, history may not repeat itself. But sometimes it rhymes.

One thing I learned as I researched and produced this special is that there are pivotal moments in a nation’s history when good and caring people can stand up against the rising tide of anger and fear that can lead to fascism. Or they can be complacent and wake up having lost their freedom. Our country is not too far gone…yet. But these coming weeks and months would be a good time for anyone who remembers the fate of Europe in the 1940s to organize, speak out, and vote in a way that helps keep us off that course.

For starters, be sure you and your loved ones, friends, and neighbors are registered to vote. (And during a pandemic, consider requesting an absentee ballot.) https://vote.gov/

Many ask, “What can I do?” Here’s one answer: In response to the systemic racism woven into our democracy, and to let the murder of George Floyd inspire us to bring something positive to our troubled society, this month my company is donating $50,000 to Lawyers and Collars, an initiative spearheaded by Sojourners that is working to defend voter rights in states where people of color are targeted. The goal: to support 1,000 black pastors and their allies who are ready in key states to protect the vote. In Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Michigan, North Carolina, Ohio, and Pennsylvania, they will mobilize their congregations and communities. If you’d like to join us, with even just a small donation, you can do it here: sojo.net/LCRS

Those of us who have the privilege of traveling to Europe have been blessed with an opportunity to get to know other societies — including ones that have lived through fascism — and to learn from them. Let’s bring those lessons home, and let’s do our best to provide grassroots leadership, as we find a way to heal our fractured country — with compassion, empathy, and real progress.

Watch the one-hour special: The Story of Fascism in Europe.

April 27, 2020

Daily Dose of Europe: Poland’s Historic, Captivating Kraków 

We had big plans for Poland in 2020: Filming two TV shows there this summer, and launching our inaugural Poland tour this fall. While both projects may have to wait (we’re still deciding), I’ve got Poland on the brain.

Even if we’ve had to postpone trips to Europe, I believe a daily dose of travel dreaming can actually be good medicine. Here’s another one of my favorite travel memories — a reminder of what’s waiting for you in Europe at the other end of this crisis.

My first impression of Kraków is that it feels like it must have been really important a long time ago. In fact, it was Poland’s capital from the 11th through the 16th century. Within its medieval walls, I wander the Old Town, which converges on the Main Market Square, lined with cafés and gorgeous architecture.

Vast as it is, the square has a folksy intimacy. It bustles with street musicians, cotton-candy vendors, and the lusty coos of pigeons. A folk band, swaggering in colorful peasant costumes, gives me a private concert. Feeling flush — not unusual with the low prices in Poland — I tip them royally. Perhaps too royally. That big tip gets me “The Star-Spangled Banner.”

Moments after the band moves on, I hear a bugle call. Glancing around, I pan up to see a trumpet poking out of the tallest tower of the hulking, red-brick St. Mary’s Church. Just as I spot the sun glinting off the trumpet’s bell, the song stops abruptly and the crowd below applauds appreciatively. I learn that this tune, which is performed every hour on the hour, comes with a legend. During the 1241 Tatar invasion, a watchman saw the enemy approaching and sounded the alarm. Before he could finish, an arrow pierced his throat — which is why even today, the music stops, a bloody subito, partway through.

This is just one example of Kraków’s long history. With the city’s power waning, the capital was moved to more centrally located Warsaw in the late 1500s. In the 1800s, Poland was partitioned by neighboring powers. Warsaw ended up as a satellite of oppressive Moscow, the capital of imperial Russia, while Kraków became a poor provincial backwater of Vienna. Austria’s comparatively liberal climate helped Kraków become a haven for intellectuals and progressives — including a young Russian revolutionary named Vladimir Lenin.

Kraków emerged from World War II virtually unscathed. But when the communists took over, they decided to give intellectual — and therefore potentially dissident — Kraków an injection of good Soviet values in the form of heavy industry. They built Nowa Huta, an enormous steelworks on the city’s outskirts, dooming it to decades of smog.

I’m thankful that Kraków is now much cleaner — and freer — than it was a generation ago. But I’m also thankful that one charming souvenir of communist times does survive: the milk bar (bar mleczny). And that’s my next stop. The communist government subsidized the food at these cafeterias to provide working-class Poles with an affordable meal out. The tradition continues today, as capitalist Poland still subsidizes milk-bar meals. I head to the counter, point to what I want, and get a quick, hearty, and very cheap meal. The soup is just a dollar. I’m happy to discover that while communist-era fare was gristle and gruel, today’s milk-bar cuisine — while still extremely cheap — is much tastier.

Needing something with a little more kick, I wander into Staropolskie Trunki (“Old Polish Drinks”), a friendly little place with a long bar and countless local vodkas and liquors — each one open and ready to be sampled. For $5, I get a complete vodka education from a cheery bartender who talks me through five different tastes.

After my private vodka tour, which makes me uncharacteristically giddy so early in the day, I continue walking and end up on Wawel Hill, considered sacred ground as a symbol of Polish royalty and independence. I step into Wawel Cathedral, a stony jungle of memorials that houses the tombs of the country’s greatest rulers and historic figures. (While I keep thinking “this is like the Westminster Abbey of Poland,” I’m also struck by the ethnocentricity of my Western orientation. I recognize lots of names on the tombs in England and almost none here in Poland.)

Beyond Wawel Hill, I eventually wander into Kazimierz, the city’s historic Jewish Quarter. At one time, most of Europe’s Jews lived in Poland. Kraków was their social and political base. This is where the big events of World War II intersected with ordinary, everyday lives. Businessman Oskar Schindler ran his factory here, saving the lives of more than a thousand of his Jewish workers. Now his building houses an excellent museum that tells the story of Schindler’s list and the painful era of Nazi occupation.

While most travelers come to see Kazimierz’s historic museums and synagogues during the day, I stay long enough to see how the neighborhood changes after the sun sets. Throngs of young clubgoers and an ever-changing array of bohemian-chic food trucks and restaurants bring the streets to life after dark.

Reflecting on my day, I think of the ten million Americans who trace their roots to Poland. Those who visit their ancestral homeland must feel at home right away. But today, I realized that you don’t have to be Polish to fall in love with Kraków.

(This story is excerpted from my upcoming book, For the Love of Europe — collecting 100 of my favorite memories from a lifetime of European travel. It’s coming out in July, and available for pre-order. And you can also watch a video clip related to this story: Just visit  Rick Steves Classroom Europe  and search for “historic Poland”.)

January 27, 2020

A look at Auschwitz on International Holocaust Remembrance Day

As a child traveling in Europe, I met a piano player who was a concentration camp survivor. I remember watching the serial number tattooed on his wrist sliding in and out of his sleeve as he played. He told me stories of his experience…stories that I would never forget.

The evils of fascism were incremental. As its small evils became big evils, German society managed to be oblivious to its own atrocities. At first, concentration camps contained people who didn’t conform. Then, they became forced labor camps. Eventually, the Nazis built death camps — which were located outside of Germany and therefore farther from public view. With what the Nazis called the “Final Solution,” the entire Jewish population was targeted for extermination. In total, approximately 6 million Jews died from Nazi persecution. 2.7 million of those died in death camps.

Today, I believe history is speaking to us. As a historian and tour guide, I hear it, and I embrace the challenge of sharing its lessons.

Let us learn from the Holocaust and never let it be repeated.

We remember.

September 10, 2018

The Story of Fascism: The Holocaust

The evils of fascism were incremental. Small evils became big evils. At first, concentration camps contained people who didn’t conform. Then, they became forced labor camps. Eventually, the Nazis built death camps — and the entire Jewish population was targeted for extermination.

https://www.facebook.com/ricksteves/videos/280704329428357/

This clip is excerpted from my new one-hour special “Rick Steves’ The Story of Fascism in Europe.” Check your local listings for air times — and if you don’t see it, please ask your public television station to add it to their schedule.

September 21, 2014September 20, 2014

Solidarity – How Gdańsk Changed the World

After a lifetime exploring Europe — four months a year since the 1970s — I love to go to new places and affirm my deep-seated belief that you can never exhaust Europe of what it has to offer travelers. And visiting Gdańsk, on the Baltic Coast of Poland, did just that. You may associate Gdańsk with dreary images of striking shipyard workers from the nightly news in the 1980s — but there’s so much more to this city than shipyards, Solidarity, and smog. It’s one of northern Europe’s most historic and picturesque cities. This was the perfect finale — the last stop on my two-month summer trip.

Gdańsk is second only to Kraków as Poland’s most appealing destination. Its historic center boasts block after block of red-brick churches and narrow, colorful, ornately decorated Hanseatic burghers’ mansions. The riverfront embankment, with its trademark medieval crane, oozes salty maritime charm. Gdańsk’s history is also fascinating — from its medieval Golden Age to the headlines of our own generation, big things have happened here. You might even see Solidarity’s portly old Lech Wałęsa still wandering the streets.

As a fan of freedom, hiking to the Gdańsk Shipyard, where the Polish shipbuilders’ union Solidarity was born (kicking off the beginning of the end of the USSR and the communist rule of half of Europe), was like a pilgrimage. My guide, Agnus, told the story vividly as we stood at the gate under a “Solidarity” banner hanging where a big “LENIN” once hung. The crude yellow board listed the workers’ demands. After my time here, and in Poland in general, I’m eager to make two new shows on Poland and you can bet guides like Agnus will be at my side.

I’m inspired when regular people stand bravely in the face of tyranny anywhere in the world. And photos of Polish workers standing up to a repressive and seemingly invincible Soviet empire is a perfect example. Imagine the bravery of these Poles. In 1980, a wave of strikes and sit-ins spread along the heavily industrialized north coast of Poland, most notably in Gdańsk.

The world is full of uniformed and well-armed pawns who crush peoples’ movements in return for steady employment. These troops found themselves facing down legions of courageous Polish workers risking their lives for freedom. And the workers ultimately prevailed.

When Solidarity negotiated its way to victory in 1980, one of their conditions was that the Soviets let Poland erect a monument to workers killed a decade earlier while demonstrating for the same workers’ rights. The government agreed, marking the first time a communist regime ever allowed a monument to be built to honor victims of communist oppression. Lech Wałęsa likened it to a harpoon in the heart of the communists. The towering monument, with three crucified anchors on top, was designed, engineered, and built by shipyard workers. In just four months after the historic agreement was signed, the monument was finished. Today on Gdańsk’s Solidarity Square, this monument, with a trio of 140-foot-tall crosses, honors those martyred comrades and is a highlight of any visit to this city.