One of the things that we did not adequately plan for during this trip was transportation. Polish transport is very affordable and generally seems to run on time. However, it is very difficult to acquire a reliable timetable. We ended up spending a lot of time we could have spent sightseeing on figuring out travel. It would be very helpful to get a timetable from an information desk at one of the more tourist-oriented destinations. 

Due to all these travel mishaps, we couldn’t spend too much time in either of the cities where we stayed, namely, Suwalki or Olsztyn. Instead of spending time in either of these places, we decided to visit Wolf’s lair as a counterpoint to our visit to Stutthof. Wolf’s lair was one of Hitler’s military headquarters, and it was called Wilczy Szaniec in Polish. The Wolf’s lair was the location of one of the most famous assassination attempts against Hitler, led by Colonel Stauffenberg. This assassination attempt, Operation Valkyrie, is also the subject of the film Valkyrie.  

Getting to the Wolf’s lair is a trek. We had to take a bus from Olsztyn to Ketrzyn in the morning. Ketrzyn is the city closest to Wolf’s lair. However, there was no public transport to get there. We ended up walking for 8 km to reach the Wolf’s lair. This is an interesting walk, where you can see a little cemetery, a local church and several small Polish villages. There are also very few food options, so we recommend packing a Subway from Olsztyn. The juxtaposition between how the Polish government has maintained Stutthof, abandoned around the same time, contrasts heavily with the ruins of Wolf’s lair, parts of which were propped up with rotting sticks. I am not sure how far this policy is intentional, but it appears to me that the Polish government approaches both these places in entirely different ways to symbolise the vastly different events that occurred here.