The Warsaw Rising Museum ( pl, Muzeum Powstania Warszawskiego),
in the
Wola
Wola (, ) is a district in western Warsaw, Poland, formerly the village of Wielka Wola, incorporated into Warsaw in 1916. An industrial area with traditions reaching back to the early 19th century, it underwent a transformation into an office (co ...
district of
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 ...
, is dedicated to 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 ...
of 1944. The institution of the museum was established in 1983, but no construction work took place for many years. It opened on July 31, 2004, marking the 60th anniversary of the uprising.
The museum sponsors research into the history of the uprising, and the history and possessions of the
Polish Underground State
The Polish Underground State ( pl, Polskie Państwo Podziemne, also known as the Polish Secret State) was a single political and military entity formed by the union of resistance organizations in occupied Poland that were loyal to the Gover ...
. It collects and maintains hundreds of
artifacts – ranging from weapons used by the insurgents to love letters – to present a full picture of the people involved. The museum's stated goals include the creation of an archive of historical information on the uprising and the recording of the stories and memories of living participants. Its director is
Jan Ołdakowski
Jan Łukasz Ołdakowski (born 11 May 1972 in Warsaw) is a Polish politician. He was elected to Sejm on 25 September 2005, getting 3939 votes in Warsaw I, standing for Law and Justice. He joined Poland Comes First when that party split from Law an ...
, with historian
Dariusz Gawin
Dariusz Gawin (born February 2, 1964) is a Polish historian and sociologist, deputy director of the Warsaw Uprising Museum (''Muzeum Powstania Warszawskiego'') dedicated to the memory of the Warsaw Uprising of 1944, and located in the Wola distr ...
from the
Polish Academy of Sciences
The Polish Academy of Sciences ( pl, Polska Akademia Nauk, PAN) is a Polish state-sponsored institution of higher learning. Headquartered in Warsaw, it is responsible for spearheading the development of science across the country by a society of ...
as his deputy.
["Rozmowa dnia. Z Dariuszem Gawinem rozmawia Paweł Luty"](_blank)
. =Stowarzyszenie Dziennikarzy Polskich.
The museum is a member organisation of the
Platform of European Memory and Conscience
Platform may refer to:
Technology
* Computing platform, a framework on which applications may be run
* Platform game, a genre of video games
* Car platform, a set of components shared by several vehicle models
* Weapons platform, a system or ...
.
Exhibitions
The museum covers all aspects of the Warsaw Uprising.
There are exhibits over several floors, containing photographs, audio and video, interactive displays, artifacts, written accounts, and other testimonies of how life was during the German occupation of Warsaw, the uprising, and its aftermath. There are displays dedicated to each district of Warsaw. There are many free informative leaflets and flyers (in Polish and English), including 63 calendar pages covering the dates from 1 August 1944 to 2 October 1944 – each containing a summary of the most important events that took place on that particular day of the uprising.
Some of the many sections and exhibits include:
* The "little insurgent" room: dedicated to the youngest insurgents and children's experience of the uprising. The room includes a replica of the
"little insurgent" monument and a colourised photograph of
Róża Maria Goździewska, a girl who was known as "the little nurse".
* Kino palladium: a small cinema showing a continuous stream of original footage taken by insurgent filmographers in 1944, which was used to produce newsreels that were shown in Warsaw's Palladium cinema during the uprising.
* Sewer replicas: one on the mezzanine floor and another in the basement – a chance to experience the practice of using the sewers to move through German-held territory (without the sewage).
* Insurgent hospital: help for the wounded during the uprising.
* Hangar: a hall containing a full-size
B-24 Liberator
The Consolidated B-24 Liberator is an American heavy bomber, designed by Consolidated Aircraft of San Diego, California. It was known within the company as the Model 32, and some initial production aircraft were laid down as export models des ...
.
* Large cinema: on the ground floor, it presents a film reconstructed of newsreels. It concludes with Chopin's Prelude in D Minor, Op. 28 no. 24.
* Observation tower: panoramic views of Warsaw from the top of the building.
* Print shop: a room containing original typewriters and printing equipment used for producing underground newspapers during the German occupation.
* ''City of Ruins'': a short 3D movie of the ruins of Warsaw taken from the air in 1945.
*
Nazi
Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...
section: the horrors of the German occupation and the atrocities committed by the Germans and their collaborators during the uprising.
*
Communist
Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...
section: the Soviet takeover of Poland, Stalin's puppet government, lack of help for the uprising, and the fate of the Polish resistance in post-war communist Poland.
Other highlights
* A 1940s style
cafe
A coffeehouse, coffee shop, or café is an establishment that primarily serves coffee of various types, notably espresso, latte, and cappuccino. Some coffeehouses may serve cold drinks, such as iced coffee and iced tea, as well as other non-caf ...
* Freedom park: over 30 posters featuring colourised photographs taken during the uprising
* Freedom park: a replica of the
Kubuś
Kubuś (Polish for "Little Jacob") is a Polish improvised fighting vehicle used by the Home Army in the Warsaw Uprising during World War II. The single vehicle was built in secret to function as an armoured car and armoured personnel carrier f ...
armoured car, manufactured by the insurgents of the Powiśle district of Warsaw during the uprising
* Freedom park: remnants of a
statue of Józef Poniatowski that was blown up by the Germans after the uprising
* Freedom park: street art inspired by the Warsaw Uprising
* A
memorial
A memorial is an object or place which serves as a focus for the memory or the commemoration of something, usually an influential, deceased person or a historical, tragic event. Popular forms of memorials include landmark objects or works of a ...
wall with thousands of names of the fallen and the "Monter bell"
* A wall, known as the heart of the museum, with sounds of battle and heartbeats emanating from it
* Souvenir shops (one inside the museum and one in the ticket office)
* The
Warsaw Fotoplastikon
The Warsaw Fotoplastikon is a stereoscopic theatre based on the Kaiserpanorama system of rotating stereoscopic images located in Warsaw, Poland. Operating at the same location since 1905, it is the oldest stereoscopic theatre in Europe still in ...
, a 1905 stereoscopic theatre used by the Polish underground, now preserved and operated by the Warsaw Uprising Museum as an off-site branch at 51
Jerusalem Avenue
Jerusalem Avenue ( pl, Aleje Jerozolimskie) is one of the principal streets of the capital city of Warsaw in Poland. It runs through the City Centre along the East-West axis, linking the western borough of Wola with the bridge on the Vistula Riv ...
Gallery
File:Budynek Muzeum Powstania Warszawskiego 2017.jpg, Warsaw Rising Museum
File:Warszawa-MPW.jpg, Warsaw Rising Museum
File:The Observation Tower of the Warsaw Uprising Museum.JPG, Observation tower
File:Warszawa 9089.jpg, Memorial wall
File:BELLINTHEWALL.JPG, Monter bell
File:Telefony Muzem Powstania Warszawskiego.JPG, Listen to "phone calls" from insurgents
File:Błyskawica and other insurgent weapons.jpg, Sten
The STEN (or Sten gun) is a family of British submachine guns chambered in 9×19mm which were used extensively by British and Commonwealth forces throughout World War II and the Korean War. They had a simple design and very low production cost ...
and Błyskawica submachine guns
File:Krystyna Krahelska (ekspozycja Muzeum Powstania Warszawskiego) 1.JPG, Krystyna Krahelska
Krystyna Krahelska "Danuta" (24 March 1914 – 2 August 1944) was a Polish poet, ethnographer, member of the Home Army, and a participant in the Warsaw Uprising.
Life
She was born in a family estate in Mazurki near Baranovichi in the Russian ...
exhibit
File:Replika liberatora.jpg, Replica of a B-24 Liberator
File:Kino palladium MPW beax.jpg, Palladium cinema
File:Kawiarnia Pół Czarnej Muzeum Powstania Warszawskiego.JPG, 1940s style cafe
File:Sala Małego Powstańca MPW 04.JPG, Little insurgent room
File:Muzeum Powstania Warszawskiego03.JPG, Print shop
File:Jan Bugaj - Rising '44.jpg, Krzysztof Kamil Baczyński
Krzysztof Kamil Baczyński, (; nom de guerre: Jan Bugaj; 22 January 1921 – 4 August 1944) was a Polish poet and Home Army soldier, one of the most well known of the Generation of Columbuses, the young generation of Polish poets, of whom several ...
exhibit
File:Muzeum Powstania Warszawskiego szpital powstańczy.JPG, Insurgent hospital
File:Wladyslaw Szpilman Warsaw Uprising Museum.JPG, Władysław Szpilman
Władysław Szpilman (; 5 December 1911 – 6 July 2000) was a Polish pianist and classical composer of Jewish descent. Szpilman is widely known as the central figure in the 2002 Roman Polanski film '' The Pianist'', which was based on Szpilman ...
exhibit
File:Wystawa Niemcy w okupowanej Warszawie Muzeum Powstania Warszawskiego 05.JPG, Germans in occupied Warsaw
File:Wystawa Polska Lubelska Muzeum Powstania Warszawskiego.JPG, Soviet section
File:Muzeum Powstania Warszawskiego 3.jpg, Replica of Warsaw sewer
File:Kubus MPW beax.jpg, Kubuś armoured car
File:Fragment pomnika Józefa Poniatowskiego MPW.JPG, Remnants of a statue of Józef Poniatowski blown up by the Germans
See also
*
Home Army
The Home Army ( pl, Armia Krajowa, abbreviated AK; ) was the dominant resistance movement in German-occupied Poland during World War II. The Home Army was formed in February 1942 from the earlier Związek Walki Zbrojnej (Armed Resistance) esta ...
*
Operation Tempest
file:Akcja_burza_1944.png, 210px, right
Operation Tempest ( pl, akcja „Burza”, sometimes referred to in English as "Operation Storm") was a series of uprisings conducted during World War II against occupying German forces by the Polish Home ...
*
Warsaw Uprising Monument
Warsaw Uprising Monument ( pl, pomnik Powstania Warszawskiego) is a monument in Warsaw, Poland, dedicated to the Warsaw Uprising of 1944. Unveiled in 1989, it was sculpted by Wincenty Kućma and the architect was Jacek Budyn. It is located on t ...
*
Cultural representations of the Warsaw Uprising
*
Museum of the Second World War
The Museum of the Second World War () is a state cultural institution and museum established in 2008 in Gdańsk, Poland which is devoted to the Second World War. Its exhibits opened in 2017.
The ''Kwadrat'' architectural team won an architect ...
References
External links
Warsaw Rising Museum(official website)
Warsaw Rising Museum at Google Cultural Institute
{{coord, 52, 13, 56, N, 20, 58, 51, E, source:plwiki_region:PL_scale:1000_type:landmark, display=title
Museums in Warsaw
Warsaw Uprising
Platform of European Memory and Conscience
Wola
World War II museums in Poland
Registered museums in Poland
Museums established in 2004
1983 establishments in Poland
Recipients of the Silver Medal for Merit to Culture – Gloria Artis
Recipients of the Bronze Medal for Merit to Culture – Gloria Artis