Ranking right up there in powerful experiences, was a recent visit to the former Gestapo headquarters.  Currently a remaining portion is preserved as a museum to honor the memory of those who resisted and suffered, as well as a painful reminder of the human capacity for evil and ignorance.

I had meant to write about this earlier, but I haven’t been good about keeping up with my writing.  I’m resolving to fix that.

The building is now occupied by the Ministry of Education, with the museum below in the underground section.

From 1939 to 1945, this building functioned as the headquarters for the Nazi secret police: The Gestapo.  Prisoners from Pawaik Prison were driven here twice per day to be brutally interrogated. 

The museum walks you through the rooms where prisoners were held in solitairy confinement, queued for questioning, and subsequently tortured.

The first rooms we saw, after an introductory, informational video, were the solitairy confinement cells.  These small, nearly empty cells held a single prisoner, who was bound by a chain, bolted to the center of the floor.  Aside from a small window, there was a single cot.  The rooms look to be between 6 and 10 feet square.  In some rooms, there were bullet holes along the back wall from when the Nazis would fire at them through the peephole.

Some of the prisoners had etched letters to family, poems, prayers, and vengeful promises into the walls of the cells.  Many of these have been subsequently painted over during reconstruction, but were preserved in photographs and rewritten in an easier to read format.

Beyond that is the main office, where the prisoners were tortured.  There was not much there, except for a plain desk, and a display case containing the various implements used to torture the prisoners.  The music from a radio in the hall could be heard.  This music was played loudly in order to drown out the screams of the prisoners.

Next to that was a row of holding rooms, each containing rows of small wooden chairs.  Prisoners had to wait here for their turn to be tortured.  They were not allowed to move, even a little bit.  If they did, they were beaten.

Food was also, not surpisingly, insufficient.  At the end of the hall is a repeating projection of a prisoner struggling to stand.

Around the bend are a series of monitors, each displaying a lot of different information.  Some had information about the prisoners that were held and tortured there, others showed the progression of executions throughout the course of the war.  All of the information was gut-wrenching and painful, but important nonetheless.  There were stories of hope and strength.

The prisoners were all so dedicated and determined that few, if any, ever revealed any information.  Though it was very saddening, almost to the point of physical illness, it was also inspiring knowing that despite that terrible torment, the Polish people still refused to surrender.

Find more information at the Holocaust Education & Archive Research Team