Mausoleum of Struggle and Martyrdom

About

Mausoleum of Struggle and Martyrdom (Polish: Mauzoleum Walki i Męczeństwa) is a museum in Warsaw, Poland. It is a branch of the Museum of Independence. The museum presents the conditions in which Polish patriots and resistance fighters were jailed by Nazi Germany during World War II.

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 World War II, the Nazis took over the building and turned it into the headquarters of the Sicherheitspolizei and Sicherheitsdienst police forces. The whole street was closed to Poles.

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. 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. 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...