The entrance to the Mausoleum of Battle and Martyrdom

The building of the Ministry of the National Education, al. Szucha 25, during the occupation seat of security Police and Security Service.

    In 1939-1944 the building of the Religion Ministry (before the War) was the seat of Commander o the Security Police and the Security Service o Warsaw District. (Der Kommandeur Sicherheitspolizei und des SD fűr den District Warschau), which was found in November 1939 during transformation of the 4th Operation Group (Einsatzgruppe IV). .

One of four group cells in the Gestapo building in al. Szucha, called a tram. In these cells prisoners were waiting for hearings.

    The building, were Germans set arrest, was found 1925-1930 according to the project by professor Zdzisław Mączeński. After takeover of the building new owners started to rebuild the archive and warehouse room of the old ministry located in the basement. In the underground there were four group cells without windows, called "trams". The cells were named after the setting of the chairs, two rows along the wall - like in a tram. These room were occupied by prisoners being arrested or being a few months in Pawiak. Prisoners sometimes after spending few months in Pawiak were taken away to concentration camps or were executed without hearing. Prisoners had to go there o so called examinations which turned out to be tortures. During investigation prisoners also were beaten up, Germans set dogs on them, they were stifled with gas masks, burned with cigarettes, Gestapo broke their bones, pulled out nails. All this happened on upper floors of the building or in a Gestapo officer's office in the basement. A radio playing very loud and drowned the scream. Dangerous prisoners were kept in solitary confinement, being additionally chained up. One person was sometimes investigated for several times. Wanda Ossowska - a member of ZWZ, cooperating with foreign intelligence had 57 hearings. Professor Jan Piekałkiewicz - one of the authorities of the Polish Underground State was kept in the solitary confinement as prisoner X with a name. In 1943 in June he died of exhaustion. It didn't matter what age and sex the prisoner was, what his/hers state of health was. Gestapo beat even pregnant women. These facts were written on walls by anonymous prisoners.

Room of a Gestapo officer being on duty in the arrest in al. Szucha. Hearings had taken place here.

    During the Warsaw Uprising people from the Southern parts of Warsaw which were occupied by the Germans were separated in the building in al. Szucha. Thousands of those people were murdered in the ruins of the Main Inspectorate National Armed Forces and on squares. Their bodies were burned. The crime was proven by the fact that in June 1946 there were found 5,578.5 kg of human ashes. Some of the imprisoned people were used as live protection for the Germans who attacked the insurgents. The rest was brought to a temporary camp in Pruszków, from wee where prisoners were taken to the concentration camps or to Germany. Elder people, women and children were taken to places being part of General Government.

    Just after World War II Warsaw inhabitants, former prisoners and their families treated the city like a cemetery. They lit flames and brought flowers to keep alive the memory of the murdered. These people forced to build a mausoleum in the basement of the building - a place of national memory.

The interior of a single cell

    According to the resolution adopted by the Council of Ministers of 25 July 1946 the basement halls of the Gestapo arrest at al. Szucha 25 in Warsaw were overtaken by the State Government and recognized as a place of martyrdom, torture and braveness. These places were supposed to stay untouched. At the same time the authorities decided to open a museum. The Mausoleum of Battle and Felony was opened on 18 April 1952. During the building of the exhibition four group cell were left almost untouchable. These cells were called "trams". Corridors and 10 solitary confinements are also very similar to original ones. The Gestapo hearing office was reconstructed in accordance with descriptions from witnesses. In the 60ies over thousand inscriptions, prayers, thoughts and requests concerning informing families, thought concerning death, names, prisoners' calendars, clocks, crosses and other drawings were shown. Walls, window frames or even floor stored prisoners' words - and the last, the most famous one:


It's easy to talk about Poland
More difficult is to work for Poland
Even more difficult is to die for the country
But most difficult is to suffer.