Built for a country starting again
Poland reappeared on the map in 1918 after more than a century of partition, and education was among the ministries that had to create a national system from almost nothing. The army handed over a plot on the edge of the Ujazdów district in 1923; a competition in 1927 was won by the architect Zdzisław Mączeński. The foundation stone was laid that June and officials moved in during May 1930.
The exterior is deliberately austere. A huge portico of paired piers leads into a courtyard, with a carved eagle above it, and the plan opens out with a second inner courtyard and two half-open side courts, comb-like in outline. Writers on architecture call the manner a reduced classicism: the proportions and rhythm of the classical tradition remain, almost all the ornament is gone.
Inside the mood reverses. Wojciech Jastrzębowski designed the decorative scheme and his students carried out much of it, producing one of the most complete Polish Art Deco interiors in any public building. Stanisław Komaszewski made the overdoors Architecture and Zoology for the minister's room. The enfilade on the first floor is still regarded as among the best preserved decorative interiors in the country.
What happened here between 1939 and 1944
German forces took the building on 1 October 1939, first for Einsatzgruppe IV and then for the security police and security service of the Warsaw District. The grand floors became offices; the basement of the left wing became a detention block. Prisoners were brought here from Pawiak and other jails for interrogation, and torture was routine.
The layout has barely changed. Four collective cells were known as the trams: benches in two rows along the walls, prisoners facing away from the corridor, no talking allowed, about fifteen people in each waiting their turn. Ten isolation cells stood alongside them.
Those held here included Jan Piekałkiewicz, the Polish government's delegate inside occupied Poland, who died after three months in solitary confinement, as well as Maciej Rataj, Antoni Kocjan and Irena Sendlerowa. Wanda Ossowska, a resistance courier, was interrogated in this building fifty-seven times. In the last days of the Warsaw Uprising the Gestapo burned its files but left the structure standing. After the war, ashes and bone weighing around five and a half tonnes were recovered from the cellars.
The memorial today
A government resolution of July 1946 set the cellars aside as a place of remembrance, and the Mausoleum of Struggle and Martyrdom opened in April 1952. It is now a branch of the Pawiak Prison Museum, itself part of the Museum of Independence.
Visitors walk the corridor, the collective cells and the isolation cells, and see the duty officer's room reconstructed from survivors' accounts, with its desk, typewriter and portrait of Hitler. The strongest thing in the building is the writing on the walls: more than a thousand inscriptions scratched by prisoners, most of them anonymous, were uncovered and conserved after the war. Media stations were added in 2008.
A sandstone plaque designed by Karol Tchorek stands against the street façade. The building entered the heritage register in 1973 and was declared a Historic Monument in 2022, the highest Polish designation. The Ministry of National Education still works upstairs, so in normal circumstances only the basement is open.
Getting there
- Metro — line M1 to Politechnika, then about fifteen minutes on foot across Plac Zbawiciela.
- Tram and bus — to Plac Unii Lubelskiej or Plac Na Rozdrożu, the two ends of Aleja Szucha.
- On foot — twenty minutes from Łazienki Park or from the Royal Route along Aleje Ujazdowskie.
- By car — the whole government quarter is paid parking; public transport is much simpler.
Before you go in
Allow about an hour. This is a quiet place rather than a dramatic one: few objects, many empty rooms, walls to read slowly. Planning another sight immediately afterwards tends not to work; the nearby Łazienki Park is a better next stop.
It is a difficult visit for young children. Labelling is sober and factual, which is part of why it lands as hard as it does.
The memorial opens in the evening once a year for the Night of Museums in May, and takes part in European Heritage Days in September, when guided walks around the building are easier to find.
How to get there and practical info
- Location
- Warsaw, Aleja Jana Chrystiana Szucha 25, Śródmieście district
- Architect
- Zdzisław Mączeński, competition design of 1927
- Built
- 1927–1930
- Interiors
- Polish Art Deco, scheme by Wojciech Jastrzębowski
- Heritage register
- since 18 April 1973
- Historic Monument
- since 2022
- Open to visitors
- the Mausoleum of Struggle and Martyrdom in the basement of the left wing
- Time needed
- about an hour
- Current opening hours and tickets
- official site of the memorial
When to go
May brings the Night of Museums, when the memorial opens in the evening, and the old trees along Aleja Szucha are at their best.
Around the anniversary of the Warsaw Uprising at the start of August the city's memorial sites get noticeably busier. The basement stays cool in any heat.
September means European Heritage Days, with extra guided walks. After that it becomes one of the quietest places in central Warsaw.
The basement is unheated, damp and cold, so keep your coat on indoors. Short winter days suit interiors anyway.
Other sights in Warszawa
Straight-line distances from „Former Ministry of Religious Denominations and Public Education" — calculated from real coordinates. By road it is often further.
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