The Mausoleum of Struggle and Martyrdom is one of the 270 institutions that will take part in the 19th edition on May 13, 2023. The facility is located in the basement of the building of the Ministry of Education and Science at Aleja Szucha in Warsaw – it was there that the Gestapo, famous for its exceptional brutality, had its headquarters during World War II. How did the interrogations of prisoners transported, among others, by the Nazis look like? from Pawiak, are to be shown to visitors by the members of the reenactment group Association of History Enthusiasts 1939-45. “This is a difficult place, preserved in the original” – curator Andrzej Kotecki admits in an interview with the capital “”.
Controversial action during the Night of Museums. Staged Gestapo interrogations
“The reconstruction group will present a staging of the interrogation at the headquarters of the Warsaw Gestapo in original, preserved rooms. It will also use original vehicles from the Second World War” – we read in i. What exactly will it look like?
In the first place, the scenario assumes that a car used to transport prisoners, preserved from the times of the war, will enter the courtyard of the ministry, and the reenactors will also use a historic motorcycle. The participants of the staging, playing the roles of the detained, are then to be led into the underground and put in their cells – so far, the building has preserved four narrow collective cells called “trams” used by the Gestapo (prisoners were seated there in rows of chairs) and 10 solitary rooms. When the participants of the stage are located in individual rooms, the part in which the Gestapo will call more people for interrogation will begin. And these have always been associated with violence and beatings – says the curator of the Mausoleum in an interview with “Wyborcza”. During the war, the Gestapo tortured at least tens of thousands of Poles there – you can still see the inscriptions left by the prisoners on the walls.
“The resolution of the government of July 25, 1946 stated that the former Gestapo detention center in Szucha was to be preserved intact, as a place of martyrdom and a testimony to the passion and heroism of Poles. These rooms were made available to visitors on September 1, 1947” – we read on the Mausoleum.
Up to 100 people a day were interrogated here, some of them even twice. “The investigation, which involves elaborate tortures, took place in the offices of the Gestapo on the upper floors of the building or sometimes in the office of the Gestapo man on duty next to the cells in the basement of the building. ‘Examinations’ in the torture chamber on Szucha Street were the greatest torment for the prisoners. the purpose of the inscriptions preserved on the walls and floors: texts of prayers, reflections on death, thoughts about Poland, requests to notify the family, as well as crosses and calendars, which testify to the bravery and patriotism of the Poles detained here, many of whom were tortured during interrogations. museum on site.
Mausoleum of Struggle and Martyrdom – inscriptions made by prisoners photo. Jacek Marczewski / Agencja Wyborcza.pl
The Gestapo interrogated them in such a way as to mentally and physically break and destroy the prisoners. The detainees were beaten, tortured – they were beaten with such objects as clubs, whips, springs, they were often suffocated with a broken gas mask, electrocuted, burned with a hot iron and drowned by pouring water up their noses. Gestapo men also used to set detainees on specially trained dogs. Many people died from their injuries.
Children under the age of 14 are not allowed to participate in the staging prepared by the Mausoleum. Curator Andrzej Kotecki emphasizes:
Similar restrictions apply in former concentration camps. This is a difficult place, preserved in the original. There is also some brutality in the staging itself. Younger children may be afraid, run away, traumatized. So that there would be no unnecessary stress later, such age restrictions have been introduced with us.
He also emphasizes that the members of the reenactment group are well trained and know perfectly well how to play the scene so that it looks believably painful, and at the same time so that no one gets hurt. What’s more, the facility has been cooperating with the Association of History Enthusiasts 1939-45 for a long time – reconstructions of the hearings are organized twice a year, during the Night of Museums and in October during the Pawiak Remembrance Days. Daniel Łaga, a member of the Association of Reenactors of the Polish Armed Forces in the West, was asked by “Wyborcza” for an opinion on the staging: – My reenactment group would definitely not be involved in such a thing. We recreate frontline fights, the effort of a soldier. Staging the beating of prisoners seems to me to be, to put it mildly, inappropriate – he comments.
Source: Gazeta
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