Mausoleum of Struggle and Martyrdom ( pl, Mauzoleum Walki i Męczeństwa) is a museum in

Warsaw Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officia ...

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...

. It is a branch of the

Museum of Independence The Museum of Independence ( pl, Muzeum Niepodległości) is a museum in Warsaw, Poland. It was established on 30 January 1990 as the Museum of the History of Polish Independence and Social Movements and is located in the former Przebendowski Pala ...

. The museum presents the conditions in which Polish patriots and resistance fighters were jailed by Nazi Germany during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. The museum is located on Szucha Avenue, in the building of the prewar Ministry of Religious Beliefs and Public Education (now the Ministry of National Education). After the outbreak of

, the Nazis took over the building and turned it into the headquarters of the

Sicherheitspolizei The ''Sicherheitspolizei'' ( en, Security Police), often abbreviated as SiPo, was a term used in Germany for security police. In the Nazi era, it referred to the state political and criminal investigation security agencies. It was made up by the ...

and

Sicherheitsdienst ' (, ''Security Service''), full title ' (Security Service of the ''Reichsführer-SS''), or SD, was the intelligence agency of the SS and the Nazi Party in Nazi Germany. Established in 1931, the SD was the first Nazi intelligence organization ...

police forces. The whole street was closed to Poles.Aleja Jana Chrystiana Szucha
at the official website of Śródmieście district In the basement of the building, the Nazis set up rough jails. Prisoners who were located there were usually freshly caught or transferred from

Pawiak prison Pawiak () was a prison built in 1835 in Warsaw, Congress Poland. During the January 1863 Uprising, it served as a transfer camp for Poles sentenced by Imperial Russia to deportation to Siberia. During the World War II German occupation of ...

. Prisoners were subject to brutal interrogations, during which they were tortured and severely beaten. Torture was no exception for any prisoner, and even pregnant women were beaten and tortured.Mauzoleum Walki i Męczeństwa
- official website Polish prisoners often scratched out some sentences about beatings into the prison walls. Many of these inscriptions were also personal, patriotic or religious. In the 1960s research was conducted, and over 1,000 texts were conserved. The most famous of them is the following: It is easy to speak about Poland. It is harder to work for her. Even harder to die for her. And the hardest to suffer for her. Many of the prisoners were killed during interrogations or died as a result of their injuries. During the

Warsaw Uprising The Warsaw Uprising ( pl, powstanie warszawskie; german: Warschauer Aufstand) was a major World War II operation by the Polish resistance movement in World War II, Polish underground resistance to liberate Warsaw from German occupation. It occ ...

, the Germans mass executed thousands of Poles in the surrounding areas. Their corpses were later burned in neighbouring buildings. The extent of these killings were tremendous, human ashes found in the basement after the war weighed . After the war the people of Warsaw treated the place as a cemetery, often bringing flowers and lighting candles. In July 1946 the Polish government decided to designate the site as a place of martyrdom, a testament to the suffering and heroism of the Poles.Aleja Jana Chrystiana Szucha
at the official website of the Capital City of Warsaw It was decided that the jails would remain untouched and turned into a museum. It was opened on 18 April 1952. Hallways, four group cells and ten

solitary cell Single-celling is the practice of assigning only one inmate to each cell in a prison. John Howard has been credited as establishing the practice of single-celling in the United Kingdom and, by extension, in the United States The United Sta ...

s were preserved in their original condition. In accordance with the testimonies of prisoners, a room of a

Gestapo The (), abbreviated Gestapo (; ), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe. The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of Prussia into one organi ...

officer was recreated. Several tons of human ashes were relocated to the

Warsaw Insurgents Cemetery The Warsaw Insurgents Cemetery ( pl, Cmentarz Powstańców Warszawy) is located at 174/176 Wolska Street in the Wola district of Warsaw. It was established in 1945 and occupies . It is the largest burial site of victims of the Warsaw Uprisi ...

. Museum visitors must be at least 14 years old.Mauzoleum Walki i Męczeństwa
at NaszeMiasto.pl

References

External links

Official website

Testimonies of former prisoners in 'Chronicles of Terror' collection
{{Authority control Struggle and Martyrdom 1952 establishments in Poland Defunct prisons in Poland World War II museums in Poland Prison museums in Poland Museums established in 1952